'Hello. I am Thank You.'

Our first post was about getting going, which took a tad more time than originally envisaged.

                                                       

The truth of the matter is that we still haven't really got going - on the bike - even now.

But things are getting closer now. We have spent the week in Uzbekistan and the Eagle, or Electraglide, has now landed in Almaty.

So the week in a few nutshells...

Uzbekistan has been brilliant. You should definitely explore it. We arranged it at very short notice and are very glad we did. Everybody has been so friendly and there is absolutely no hassle here whatsoever.

We had issues on the way: 20kg each for baggage allowance we knew about, but we were unaware of the one bag rule per person. Hasty repacking on the floor of Terminal 4 and they let us take our helmets as hand luggage. Thank you Azerbaijan Airlines!

Nothing much to say about our flight to Baku. Seats still had ash trays that smelled of cigarettes. Once in Azebardjan airport we had our passports firmly 'held' by men with badges for four hours, as there are no transfer facilities in the old Terminal. We hope whoever designed the ready to open new Terminal sorted that glitch out.

Forget all the jokes. Uzbekistan Airlines flight from Baku to Tashkent was brand spanking new and modern - including the air hostesses and none of this hassle about mobile devices - they were cool with them. We even landed half an hour early. Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan for those who didn't know, but the airport there is small. VERY small indeed. The luggage carousels, both of them, would have fitted in our front room.  The Customs officials despite the complicated forms were very glad to see Tourists and whisked us to the front of the queue. No problems.

                                

We wandered around our bit of Tashkent that afternoon listening to Uzbek rap in the local park. We managed some Uzbek lager, smoked cheese stringy things and a couple of lamb testicle kebabs with a Tashkent bread all for under a fiver and felt we were doing ourselves justice. We managed to translate the recommended restaurant name into cyrillic. Rubia wasn't what it said it was, but Py6na. We found it just behind the statue to Yuri Gagarin. Seasoned travellers.

                                
                              
Next morning we took the fast train - again brand new with a maximum speed of 160km/h to Samarkand. Mosques, Mausolea and Madrassas. Simply stunning - see the pictures. Not all is original as much was destroyed in an earthquake just over a century ago, but the Russians did an awful lot of the rebuilding, which was carried on by the Uzbeks post independence in 1991.



Then onto Bukhara. More Mosques and Madrassas. Lots more, well over 100 but perhaps not so huge and the rebuilding has been less blingy. Do we or do we not buy a Persian carpet or two? We were very excited to cross paths with the Motorbike Group we should have been travelling with - new rendez-vous in a weeks time in Almaty.



And then Khiva by overnight train. Not a very popular option, the train that is. You can drive it apparently in about eight or nine hours. Khiva was equally worth the visit. In fact the whole of Uzbekistan is. We had incredible guides everywhere we visited; lots of smiley, friendly people and all the children want to practice their Hello's; they just don't understand much else but quickly break into giggles. On our last day three girls started taking photos of us! For those who have experienced Morocco, this is at the other end of the spectrum.



One wonders how a country like Uzbekistan can afford to maintain and keep such a vast array of monuments. Mud brick walls weren't designed to last millennia. Neither were the bricks and ceramics. They need the influx of tourist money to protect the monuments from the tourists. See them whilst you can.



Some dignitaries were flying into Tashkent on our last day, so our flight was put back three hours which meant that our tour of Tashkent was curtailed -a shame really. However we did have our share of excitement when the security staff at the airport took Francoise (and her passport) away to the basement warehouse where all baggage is x-rayed.  Our bags were checked-in under her name and they had found a small metal box with white pills in one of them. Mints!

It didn't stop there, as we were held back from boarding and taken down on to the tarmac where we had to open another bag and explain 50 Union Jack pin badges, Warr's Harley-Davidson poker chips, Paul's heart medication, a screwdriver, tyre pressure gauge and the mini-compressor. Luckily they held back the plane for us and believe it or not... all bags made it to Almaty.

Now onwards to Kazakhstan for the release of the bike!

Paul & Françoise