Uzbekistan

We made the drive to the Uzbekistan border next morning. This involved a quick crossing on a flotilla style bridge – probably there many, many decades – to another small white hut with a barrier and some bored looking soldiers. Rule 4 of the Mongol Rally - Borders are Stupid. Officials will always appear surprised and search through draws for the stamp, as if they have never had to do this before. Everything will always take too long and periods will go by when nothing seems to be happening at all. You will always end up going back to another office for another bit of paper before you are done. But most of all, it can be fun when you realise they have not the faintest idea what you are saying.

We managed to get numerous Team America references into a conversation with one passport checking soldier – carrying a very serious looking AK-47 – with no repercussions. Wise? I’m not sure, but it was cool greeting him with ‘Harrow Hans Brix’ and confirming my friends name as ‘Matt Damon’.

Two of our group had visas for Uzbekistan, which had not yet started, and one had lost their Turkmenistan exit card. Both are cardinal sins if you believe the documentation, but both totally solved with a $10 note. These guys can teach us a lot. We were through in about 4 hours, and headed straight for Bhukarra.

Uzbekistan likes two things as far as I can see. Gold teeth and Daewoos. Both are everywhere, the latter being literally the only make of car you see. UZ Daewoo seems to be a subsidiary doing rather well as they have 90% of the market – if you have a car in Uzbekistan, it’s a Matiz or a Nubira.

Bukahra is quite a magical place. It’s was a major Persian settlement from the 6th Century but was apparently established as far back as 500BC, serving as a major hub for trade on the Silk Road. In the main it’s a small series of old market streets, a few traders, and imposing structures like the Mir-I Arab Maddrassah, now restored to it’s full glory. It’s seen Empires come and go for hundreds of years and is one of those places where you wish the walls could talk. It felt to me the way the world may have been 700 years ago.

We found an amazing restaurant by a quiet pond and had some local cuisine and a beer to cool down in the 40C heat. It was a much-needed rest and we could happily have spent the night here, but had plans to move on to Samaqand.

We stopped for a very pleasant lunch in the extreme heat and then hit the road. Uzbekistan is a relatively small country and we reached Samaqand, home to the Bib-Khhanym Mosque and the Rejistan, later that night. The town seemed to be littered with Mongol Rally teams, so most of the hostels were full. We found one willing to let us sleep on their roof terrace and slept beneath the stars.

Samaqand was founded in 700BC and is the second largest city in Uzbekistan, characterised by old soviet style apartment blocks and truly ancient historic buildings. We went for a walk about the next morning and found rehearsals for a world beauty contest at the Rejistan, the historic centre of the city and a truly stunning place. Not a bad start! A lot of municipal work seemed to be taking place here, with electrical work, sewer pipes and new pavements being laid.

Samaqand was a relaxing break but that afternoon we decided to head for the border with On Corsa 4 Mongolia.

We headed for Tashkent, the largest city in Uzbekistan and just across the border from Kazakhstan. Annoyingly the direct route there crosses into Kazkhstan and then out again. We only have single entry visas for Kazakhstan, so we can’t take this one - we need to go around. Brilliantly, once on this road it’s a dual carriage-way with a concrete kerb divider so you can’t pull a U Turn. Along with several other teams we bumped into who had made the same mistake, we formed a plan….following the Spanish Ambulance with it’s sirens on we would backtrack the 7KM or so …on the wrong side of the road. Not really a problem as nobody was coming the other way anyway, plus we are foreign, so it’s ok. Everyone lived.

Our final night in Uzbekistan we decided to camp about 30KM outside Tashkent, rather than head into the city and drive around for an hour looking for accomodation. Once again we struck gold - a little road side eatery run by an old lady and her family who served the most phenomena chai, bread and fried fish. We have no idea what the fish was - it was redish and very large - but it was to die for. She spoke no english but the little old lady served us plate after plate, charged us only $30 for 5, and let us set up camp behind the restaurant. A good day.

We reached Taskent the next morning and headed to the bank for some badly needed US dollars. On the way out of town, our first bribe of the trip - $10 for an illegal right turn. Not too bad. From here we tried to cross the border only to find it closed due to construction. We had to back track 70KM to Cinoz and cross there…by mid afternoon we we were being ushered through customs surprisingly quickly and made the Kazak border around 4pm…

On to Kazakhstan..



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