Since driving east from Bukhara, there is nothing really to write about. It is mainly to get back to Almaty, driving on badly cracked roads with not so good traffic and drivers who have a lot of ego or driving with a lot of fear. I made it from Bukhara to Samarkand, walked to another monument I had not visited earlier and had a good sleep in the same hotel. Next day back on the road towards Tashkent where I planned a rest day. The road was again badly cracked, only with more traffic, more cars and trucks and with a mix of hilly yellow straw fields or flat brown steppe left and right. Tashkent, as expected is the more modern capital of Uzbekistan and I had a good hotel where I was mainly chilling out in the room as it was simply too hot outside and with very few touristic highlights except the markets. As I had no intention to buy anything I skipped them and simply relaxed at the hotel and managed to wash the bike and did the routine maintenance for the chain and checked all the bolts and nuts. Again, a hail to the mechanics back in Chiang Mai, not a single bolt or screw was loose.
Yesterday was another B-day to exit Uzbekistan and to enter Kazakhstan again. Took together four hours, which was not the big problem, but standing most of the time under the burning sun with all the others to get the passport stamped and the custom paper cleared for the bike, plus putting everything through the x-ray scanner and sniffed by dogs. I finally made it through the last gate and went off to leave that part behind with all the hustlers and money changers and street kids who want to sell you insurance and drinks. Made to a bigger junction where at least I could buy some cold drinks to top up my liquid levels again. I finally made it to Shymkent, found the hotel, walked in the evening along some bigger boulevard and settled finally for a pizza joint for a not so bad pizza and salad. Quite good in fact.
Today I made it to Taraz, another surprisingly interesting town somewhere along this part of the silk road. I didn’t expect too much, but was surprised about the parks and overall green areas including some cozy looking apartment blocks from the soviet times. Similar to Bishkek, it looks like, Taraz was also designed with some good ideas behind and it worked out quite well. Found the hotel, had a nap and went for a walk to find some dinner. I ended up following a suggestion from a café and had an interesting dinner with some creative french and Italian food completed with a lot of questions from the waiters about Germany and the idea to go to the USA for four months to work there. I was not sure how to answer all the questions, especially flying to the US for a four month work stay. Not even sure there is something like this. I know it is possible now in Germany and around, especially during vacation time, not sure if this is the same for the US.
Back to the hotel and preparing for tomorrow’s drive to Merke.
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