Saturday 25 August 2012

Uzbekistan (border till Urgench)

24.08.
we arrived at the border at 0:30. A
immigration officer noticed us and we had a personal service. so friendly !! they checked the passports and showed us a form that we had to fill out. well we heard some bad stories about this procedure but no problems at all. they wanted to know something about weapons, medicines, electrical devices, books and plants, we filled it out, a well English speaking immigration officer checked and stamped it. no x-rays for our bags. another officer pressed a little bit our bags, but nothing more! was a very friendly atmosphere and we were wellcome. at 1:30 we slepted behind the border on a big parking area, knowing that Ivan is still behind the border.
at 7am he arrived and we put
our stuff in the boxes below the truck. Usbekistan we are coming !
after 300km and a very bad road we arrived Qonghirat (Kungrat) at a truck stop. this city was totaly different to the last towns: green plants, trees and friendly people. we had a delicious meal and washed us in the bathroom. good to be clean after the sand, wind and sweat. we drove over Nukus to another small truck stop. Ivan slepted in his truck and we in our tent. 500 km on this day.

25.08.
we got up at 7 am head a small breakfast with Ivan and started to our last section with him. he let us of close to Beruni. we were really sad that we had to say Goodbye ! Ivan was so friendly and we had so much fun with him, we miss him !! all the best to you and we keep in touch !!!
after 55 km (3h 8, avs 17,5, total 4853, truck 560) and many friendly people in a green landscape we arrived in Urgench. on our trip we noticed many fields with cotton plants, the water comes from the lake Aral, a total desaster for this lake ( which is also in KAZ). a sin from the former USSR government. water is life and it is necessary that you have to seen the desert to understand it. the lake Aral is an enviromental desaster for the people there and for the climate. Urgench is a quite beautiful city with many banks,much better than expected. we searched the hotel Khorzem Palace, which has Wifi ;-). tomorrow we will cycle to Khiva.

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