Uzbekistan

The land of the Silk Road I was told. also the most touristy I have come across so far on this trip. bus loads of tourist drive this country from city to city, chinees tour operator style. i came to know it as bloody hot and reminders of Disney land.

Samarkand is the city I go first, its home of the mighty Registan, an square with a major faced with 3 big madrases. (an school for Muslim teaching) the Registan square is the biggest attraction of Central Asia for some. I only heard about it when was in Kazachstan, and was supposed to be jaw dropping. it is beautiful from the outside, but the inside let me down a bit. it is basally more an overpriced tourist market as all corners are filled with overpriced souvenir shops. asking 5-8 times as much as the prices I saw in Dushambe.

Before I crossed the border from Tajikistan to Uzbekistan changed my 2000 Somoni I had left into Uzbekistan som.resulting in a pack of 2.000.000. The smallest bit being an 100.000, but also had a pack of 5000 and even 1000, around 10.000 tho 1 euro.

After Samarkand I visited Bukhara and Khiva. both with there own tourist site. like Samarkand all made look good en reconstructed for the tourist that come here. the tourist site are usually fenced of as behind its a big mess. with dirt/construction materials, and decomposing building. nothing like the plastered walls you see in the tourist part. the Locals much like there part of the city as mostly keep out of the plastered side of the wall. so natural I wondered off to discover the wrong site off the wall.

next is the Aral sea. its on the route, natural hade to make a visit. on the way there I was 'driven of the road' as apparently you can't drive here if the President is passing by. who new. There are some rusting ships played out for tourist in the (ex) port city off Moynaq. good enough for a camp site for me. there was also an British motorbike there and we split up in the morning as I wanted to take a shortcut thru the desert and sea lake. and he tracked back to the main road. decided to meet at the border. the seabed was very rough sinkholes very where and 50cm deep mud tracks from when heavy trucks passed in the wet.

This combined with the sand desert that followed on the other side ones I climbed a cliff made for a interesting day. also big heard of camels roam this area, I wis I could store the same amount of water as them as I sweat a lot in this heat. it is 45c, its like having an hairdryer in your face when you open the window. My last camp in Uzbekistan was 4 km from the border, but no biker tho. I was wondering if he was okay.

my camera is still struggling with the heat, so trying to make photos with my phone. But also my phone is now giving troubles and wanings!