Uzbekistan
Our time in Uzbekistan commenced with our most stressful border crossing yet. We watched a British couple in front of us have their drone and Gopro confiscated and then get dragged off to behind closed doors for further questioning. We were asked to present all of our medication for checking. We were carrying nothing out of the ordinary, but we'd transferred a few pills to smaller lightweight containers so we were pretty nervous about how they would handle these unmarked packets. After having our entire collection of belongings turned inside out, including every one of our photos and videos viewed, we were on our way.
As we had decided to exit Tukmenistan a day earlier than planned, it was pretty late in the day by the time we cleared the border. We had about 80 k's to Bukhara and we needed fuel pretty desperately. We found out that barely anyone in Uzbekistan drives a petrol powered car, as gas is far cheaper. All of the fuel stations that sold unleaded were closed and we somehow managed to limp our way on fumes into Bukhara well after dark. We spent a day exploring the city, and two nights at a great little guesthouse with a bunch of other travellers.
As we had decided to exit Tukmenistan a day earlier than planned, it was pretty late in the day by the time we cleared the border. We had about 80 k's to Bukhara and we needed fuel pretty desperately. We found out that barely anyone in Uzbekistan drives a petrol powered car, as gas is far cheaper. All of the fuel stations that sold unleaded were closed and we somehow managed to limp our way on fumes into Bukhara well after dark. We spent a day exploring the city, and two nights at a great little guesthouse with a bunch of other travellers.
Departing Bukhara, we were still faced with the fuel problem. The closest fuel station was apparently 5 k's away and Tez had already well exceeded what I thought to be his maximum range. We eased our way out there to find a queue of over a hundred cars. We weaved our way to the front only to find that the fuel supplies had just dried up. A local guy spotted our looks of distress and desperation and using only arm waving, we worked out the he wanted us to flow him in his car. We followed him to an auto workshop down the road where he put his car up on ramps. We watched as he syphoned fuel from his filler cap and the fuel line under the car simultaneously into water bottles, whilst his mate sparked up cigarettes a metre away. We bought 20 litres of his finest at a special rate of 1.5 times the bowser price and we were on our way to Samarkand.
Queuing to get a share of the minimal low grade fuel in Uzbekistan
After a night in Samarkand checking out Registan, a massive mosque, we made our way to the small town of Jizzax. We found a little beer garden and got drinking some local brews with a bunch of local guys. After a couple, they invited us through more hand waving to join them for a meal down the road. We got in a car out the front, and whilst the driver was distracted one of the young wait staff discretely grabbed our attention and mutters the words "bad man - hotel". Needless to say, we got out of the car pretty quick and made an excuse about needing sleep. We escaped on civil terms and despite this scary warning and the fact that they may have been shady characters, we still don't believe that they meant us any harm. We're very excited to be heading into Kyrgyzstan and the mountains - looking forward to some cool weather!
They looked like nice guys!
