The Uzbeck border checks were the most tedious of the trip. The bags were x-rayed and then I had to unpack them all for inspection. They seemed to be particularly on the lookout for undeclared money. I had to count out all the currency that I was carrying.
The road on the Tajik side of the border is great. Possibly one of the best in the country and very few cars. When you leave the border post you find yourself on a country lane in the arse end of nowhere. There are just a few huts. One sells local phone sim cards and is the official bureau de change. The rate offered by the official booth was rubbish. There were a few taxi drivers and others hanging around just outside the border post. They disappeared behind the bushes and were waving. The rate they offered was significantly better. Hiding behind the bushes, exactly where I expect to undertake financial transactions! Initially I just changed the Tajik Somoni that I had remaining. My day wallet was not equipped for the amount of notes required. Officially, inflation in Uzbekistan is not a problem and therefore there is no need to print large denomination notes; it’s just that you need a carrier bag for a few days worth of cash.
As I headed westwards and downwards it got hotter and dryer. By day 2 I was cycling across proper desert. I found in Asia that it was quite common for better than average café/restaurant to be marked on the online maps as Hotels. Between Qarshi and Bukhara I was suspicious that the one hotel shown on the map was just a restaurant. This turned out to be the case. I had set off fairly early in anticipation. I popped into a roadside café for a quick bowl of soup for lunch. There was a group of guys out to lunch from one of the local gas installations. They invited me over and gave me several lots of fish and salad followed up with fresh melon. By the time I had left more than two hours had passed but it was very nice. I eventually arrived into Bukhara about 8:00pm in the evening. Of course I could have camped. DHL had delivered a brand new set of pedals to the hotel which was a relief.
Whilst travelling up the west side of Uzbeckistan I met several teams undertaking the Mongal rally. This involves driving a “small-shit-car” (quote from Mongal Rally rules) from Europe to Mongolia. There is no fixed route. Four-Wheel-Drives are banned. A number of teams were stuck in Iran waiting on Turkmen transit visas. One team had even arranged guides so they could use a proper tourist visa and they were still stuck. So, it was not just my Turkmen visa that was taking a very long time to process. Bureaucracy in these former Soviet states seems to move at a glacial pace and no sense of urgency. All visa applications are sent by the Embassies to Ashgabat. If the Mongal rally caused a greater than usual number of applications, the inbox probably built up.
By Bukhara my Turkmen transit visa reference number had still not been emailed through by the Turkmen Embassy in Dushanbe. My Uzbeck visa had less than a week to run as they had not granted the full duration of stay I had requested. You don’t over stay your welcome in Uzbeckistan unless you want to be arrested. It had to put in a few long cycling days to get to Tashkent airport to transfer to western Iran by air. The alternative would have been to wait around more time and get visas for Kazakhstan (owing to the length of stay) and Azerbaijan in order to take the route across the Caspian Sea. I got to see the city of Samarkand on my way across which was quite impressive. Jizah to Tashkent was quite a stretch, and it is necessary to detour around the bulge in Kazakhstan as the road no longer runs straight through. By doing this very long final day I had a free day to look around Tashkent and pack my bike for flying. Whilst looking around the city I was able to pick up a cycle box from a cycle hire shop.
The departures at Tashkent airport was absolutely bonkers. In the first instance the drop-off roads have been completely closed so the only place taxis can drop is at the back of the car park where there was no luggage trolleys. It was quite a long stagger with a large box and a couple of panniers hung off my shoulders. I arrived more than three hours before my flight thinking that this would be plenty of time and ended up only just making the flight. You first of all have to go through what appears to be security with X-ray scanners but is in-fact customs on the hunt for undeclared money. There is then passport control which was the principal culprit. The passport inspectors where on a real go-slow taking a minimum of 4 minutes per passport. The preceding flight to Moscow was significantly delayed by the people stuck in the melee that passed as a queue despite the ground staff hording the Moscow passengers to the front. There was then security, another x-ray scan that was actually quick and efficient. The only way to Mashhad was to fly 5 hours east to Istanbul and then 4 hours back!