Uzbekistan - The Fergana Valley
After leaving Parkent, we’d hoped to reach Kokand in the Fergana Valley before dark, but realising this was going to be a push we tried parking up by a river in a town before it. However some military looking guys turned us away and we couldn’t see anywhere else suitable and as darkness fell we ended up retracing our steps to see if we could find a truck stop on the busy main road. Eventually desperation led us to ask if we could park up in the yard of a LPG station - the ri
30 minutes ago6 min read
Uzbekistan - Escape to the country
We always feel a sense of joy as we hit the road again after a few days of being parked in one place. We passed the fancy new sports stadiums on the edge of the city and soon found ourselves heading north towards the mountains where we hoped it would be cooler. We reached the Chorvaq Reservoir which looked a lovely emerald colour from high above. We struggled to find a nice park up spot by the reservoir, as there are a lot of new developments going on. The reservoir is a po
22 hours ago5 min read
Uzbekistan - Samarkand & Tashkent -from the old to the new
It was time to move on to our third Silk Road city, Samarkand, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world (why do I feel like I've said this several times already on this trip?), and for centuries was a key stop on the Silk Road linking China, Persia, India and Europe. We'd been in touch with Rik and Kris, the Dutch couple, and found we'd be crossing paths as they were heading from Samarkand to Bukhara, so we pinned our locations on Whats App. On the way we
6 days ago9 min read
Uzbekistan - Silk Road Gems
We had a fairly smooth crossing into Uzbekistan. The customs officials were pretty helpful and our inspection wasn't too thorough. The thing they are most concerned with here is having a drone which are totally banned in Uzbekistan. We assured them we are too old for that sort of stuff.- they didn't disagree. One customs guy told me 'be careful - as a tourist you will be ripped off'. I replied 'at least the people here do it with a nice smile'. Some facts about Uzbekistan
Jun 78 min read
Turkmenistan - Where’s Lolly ?
Turkmenbasy was founded by the Russians in 1869 who were looking for a port to set up on the Caspian Sea. The city was originally called Krasnovodsk or Kyzyl-Su, which means red water. Following independence, in 1993 the city was renamed after the first president of Turkmenistan, Turkmenbashi Saparmurat Niyazov who established a highly authoritarian state until his death in 2006. Turkmenbashi means 'Leader of the Turkmen' and his portraits and statues once appeared everywh
Jun 215 min read
