Day 21 - Uzbekistan

Turkmenistan, in case my enthusiasm hasn't already come through, was excellent. Plenty to see, friendly country and well looked after by the good people at Owadan Tourism. There are more policemen that you can shake a stick at and the only other jobs going are army, border guards, secret police and street cleaning for the ladies as far as I could tell. They seem to be a pretty cheerful lot though. I did ask my guide about politics at one point but he was clearly reluctant to give anything away. Fair enough. If he doesn't like it there then he could leave. Well maybe he can't actually. Anyway, it's none of my business either way. 

Ok, today has been a day that I've been dreading a bit. We're back to Gerald and I surviving on our own again but this time, my research notes have run a bit thin. I couldn't find much about the border crossing excepting that it can be a bit of a mare. I did know that once across the border one has to make ones way to Bukhara, a town 100km into Uzbekistan for a place to stay.

I've also been out of touch with the outside world for five days and I've been looking forward to letting folks back home know I'm still alive. 

I really can't be bothered to talk too much about the border crossing. It was the now usual pain the backside of paperwork and customs declarations, all in foreign tongue, that took me several times longer to complete than anyone else - given I don't know what the bloody form was asking for. Anyway, I got it all sorted and got out the other side. The promised taxi rank didn't exist, or there were no taxis at least, nor for that matter did the bus or mini-bus to Bukhara. All there was, was three guys in a beat up old Nissan grinning and asking if I wanted to go to Bukhara with them for ten dollars. Given my available options, I shrugged and hopped in. 

So this was my second sweaty moment of the holiday. They could have been going anywhere with any intention. I started to get a bit anxious and made every effort to hold a conversation, smile a lot and at the same time stay alert. I cursed myself for asking to sit in the front seat - with two strange Uzbeks sat behind me. Doh!!! Should have been in the back behind the driver where I could see what everyone was up to and execute a suicide crash if things got desperate.  

Anyway, it was all fine in the end. The place I wanted to go was, of course, the other side of town so the fare changed (that happens a lot in Central Asia). So I gave them fifteen dollars and still thought I'd got a bargain. It was 100km after all. 

Found a local bar in the evening. Simply called, 'The Pub' with the tag line ,'it's mostly cheaper than you think'. It was too good to pass up. 

Changed sixty dollars into Som. This is what I got. I think he said it was 192,000. I reckon I could insulate my loft with the stuff if I changed a couple of hundred bucks.