Day 12 Mary Turkmenistan, to Bukhara, Uzbekistan

Up early to drive to the border. A quick breakfast of bread, cheese & hardboiled eggs & paying extra to have milk in the coffee. We thought that if we experienced the same bad roads as yesterday, we’d better get a head start as we have a group visa and have to go through as a group.

Well, the roads were much better today but still bumpy & the occasional rut. The landscape was bleak: desert dunes & little habitation. We saw our first camels today, just on the outskirts of Mary. Towards the border there is a Desert Research Station & it seems they are trying to control the movement of sand by placing straw stalks in a boxed formation all along the road. We even saw 2 policemen hiding in the dunes with their radar guns & batons with not a car in sight. I have no idea how they would catch an offending motorist without a vehicle.

Leaving Turkmenabat, we had to pay a bridge levy of $12 plus 20 menat. With such a large fee I guess I was expecting to cross a very fine, newly constructed bridge. It was more like a pontoon!

We arrived at the Turkmenistan border at 12.45 only to find that it was closed for lunch until 2pm. No shelter from the blazing sun & we went through our whole supply of water while we waited. It was quite a colourful wait. Lots of Uzbeks had been across to the very large market to stock up on goods. The Uzbek women dress in brightly coloured clothes and some wear bright headscarves but more for fashion than covering their heads as in Iran. A large group of ladies were sitting next to us in the shade provided by a large truck. They were quite talkative & indicated we could come to their house to drink tea. One enterprising woman had a couple of huge pots of pilaf in her boot which she was selling to the locals.

The gold teeth in both men & women are a sight to see. Once again the cars attracted lots of attention.

At 2pm the gates opened & a rush to get through. The guide couldn’t persuade the authorities to allow us through without a search of the luggage so we took off all our luggage & dragged them through the customs hall & no one inspected them!

An hour later we were in Uzbekistan and this took another 2.5 hours in the searing heat.  Black market exchange rate seems to be 2,500 soms for a dollar. Officially, 1700 Som.

What a contrast to the desert we passed through earlier. Here there are trees & bushes along the roads & lots of people travelling around in donkey carts. We passed a very unusual cemetery which had headstones on a large mound of earth.

Arriving at the designated hotel we found that we had been moved to another, closer to the old town.  For dinner we had a short walk to the Lyabi-Hauz, a plaza built around a pool dating back to 1600’s. Mulberry trees provide shade & one dating back to 1477, is State protected. There is a statue here of a mythical figure, a “wise fool”

Welding of front guard bracket is priority for first thing tomorrow.