Despite all the travelling of two days ago followed by two
hour’s sleep I had a terrible night. When the cats weren’t screeching the drunks
were shouting. I didn’t think Muslim countries had drunks?
Despite two full-on days, we had another in store today.
The alarm went off at four am, and as we packed I could hear other alarms going
off. Most noticeably the one in the room next door which was continuous for
over an hour. Bearing in mind we were probably the youngest people on this trip
I couldn’t help but wonder if the person in the room next door had dropped dead.
We assembled in the hotel foyer with all our luggage two
hours before breakfast would be served where we met our new guide Fax. The previous
bloke had been a stand-in as our proper guide had been unable to get to Tashkent
– all train seats had been booked for some huge football event.
We piled onto the coach and were given our promised
breakfast boxes. I say “boxes”; a carrier bag containing two apples, a
banana and a yogurt of dubious flavour. Have you ever tried eating a yogurt on
a coach? It takes some doing.
We drove to the airport and did the entire “airport
performance” again and soon were on the plane to Urgench. A four-hundred
mile distance to cover would have taken thirteen hours on the coach so we were
flying. I nodded off and snored myself awake three times on the flight.
It wasn’t long before we were on another coach and setting
off to heaven-only-knows-where. We piled off the coach and had a look around an
old hill fort. It was claimed that this place was thousands of years old, but
made of sand and straw it didn’t look very substantial. I was rather intrigued
by why anyone would build a hill fort in the arse end of nowhere. With nothing
to defend why would anyone be there, let alone want to attack it?
We piled on the coach and went to the next attraction. The
washroom. I say “washroom” – in many ways Uzbekistan is far more modernized
than I had been expecting, but so far the toilets are at best feral. But if you
like pissing in a hole in the ground the place can’t be bettered.
We did see a lizard outside the washroom so the stop here
wasn’t entirely wasted.
I had a look at the geo-map. There was one geocache in the vicinity
– twelve miles away. As we drove on to our next stop we were getting closer and
closer to it, and when we pulled up by some yurts it was only half a mile away.
We then traipsed across some sand dunes to another hill
fort supposedly defending some scrap of desert from anyone who would be mad
enough to want to attack it. I set off at a pace as it was clear that the
geocache I’d seen on the map was in that direction. There’s no denying that “er
indoors TM” was wilting on the march across the dunes.
But we got there. Our guide (Fax) told us all about the history of the
place and gave us fifteen minutes to go exploring. By this time we were a
couple of hundred yards from the geocache I’d spotted on the map. It didn’t
take long to find. I was glad that we found it – the next closest one was
fifty-six miles away.
We traipsed back across the dunes to some yurts where
dinner was waiting for us. A traditional Uzbek meal as the locals would have
scoffed years ago. Whilst the yurts were elaborately decorated inside, no one
had thought through the logistics of traditionally eating by traditionally all
sitting on the ground. We were the youngest on the trip, and getting everyone
down to the tables which were only six inches off the ground took some doing.
And getting up afterwards was problematical for me, if not anyone else.
The food was plentiful… if you like raw whole tomatoes and
cucumbers followed by a bowl of boiled potatoes, carrots and onions then you
would have been in seventh heaven.
Pausing only briefly to take a photograph of a camel we piled
back on the coach and set off on the fifty-six miles to our hotel. I knew it
was fifty-six miles as there was a geocache just outside the place. As always the
geo-map was rather useful.
We got to our second hotel which was rather good. After a
quick wash and brush-up we assembled and had dinner in the hotel’s restaurant.
We had one of the best meals we’ve had so far on our trip, but sadly that wasn’t
up against much competition. After chatting with some of our fellow travellers
I found that our guide was able to change dollars into the local money. Before
we set off we’d read (in so many places) that the Uzbek people would rather
have dollars than their own.
It turns out they don’t.
I changed a hundred dollars into soms, and with one
thousand Uzbek soms being worth a shade under six pence, I’m now a millionaire.
As I do, I
took a few photos today.
I wonder what’s on the cards for tomorrow. I’m worn out – a
more restful day would be nice.
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