Uzbekistan II

Now I can look back on Uzbekistan and I can say it is a really lovely place. People are openly curious, very hospitable and friendly. I felt safe everywhere, definitely more than in Iran, as I never had the impression people were suspicious about me. Although there is quite a lot of police and checkpoints, all of them have been friendly, no faint sign of asking for a bribe or anything else. Even at the border when exiting the country, young , well-educated customs officers with quite good English were very professional about their job. Searching was long and detailed but I think to a certain degree driven by curiosity and to extend the time for conversation. Although there was an initial doubt whether I had to pay a road fee for the truck (as a heavy vehicle; this seems to be certainly true for commercial vehicles) the issue was dropped silently as I was politely insisting to be a tourist…and I did not pay anything in the end. Nobody asked about the hotel registrations either. This remains a hot topic in the traveller community as nobody knows for sure whether the law to have a registration somewhere every 3 days, actually has changed or not. In the past heavy fines were imposed on travelers not being able to produce them.

Khiva, Bukhara, and Samarkand are really places one has to see, despite being touristic, they all have their own character and are beautiful to explore. Again, I leave the history to be told by the books but one can definitely start putting oneself back into the past by strolling around the old monuments… Whereas Khiva and Bukhara have still large parts of the old cities inhabited and the past and present are fluidly intertwining, Samarkand is a modern city with more scattered but spectacular monuments.

In all the country I was amazed about the scarcity of traffic, even in cities I never encountered a traffic jam (I don’t know about the capital, though). Private cars are pretty rare and or old tattered Russian limousines, as cars must be prohibitively expensive. Mostly throngs of the local minivans and sedans that act as taxis populate the roads. Of course there is the odd modern (Japanese car) but that remains an exception overall. Most trucks are even older and more battered than in Iran for the most part to my surprise. The speed of all the traffic is very reasonable but most likely due to the fact that road conditions overall are appauling. There is always a stretch with reasonable tarmac for a few kilometers on which more than 70 km/h would be reckless as you need to be able to brake or swerve around the omnipresent potholes, but then there is endless stretches where the tarmac looks like it suffered a bombing raid and formed all sorts of landscape through scorching heat and heavy loads… Average speeds there is 10 to 25 km/h max. Way better than speed bumps to control speed…. There is an effort to build new and repair old roads, but it seems in vain as roads deteriorate at a faster rate.

Once in Samrkand I had to decide how to proceed to Tajikistan. I learned that the most direct route via the border at Panjakent was not possible (only 3 border posts are open to traffic it seems) I either had to go about 280 km to the North to Oybek or about 500 km to the South towards Termez and Boysun.

I decided for the South, for the following reasons..being fast in Dushanbe to get a Kazak visa, nicer landscapes, and avoiding high passes of 3500+ m in Tajikistan on the way to Dushanbe, where I had no possibility to know the condition of the road due to spring waters… It looks like there is still a lot of snow at 2000m and above. I took it relatively leisurely, 500 km in 2.5 days, but the hours I was driving were pretty exhausting due to road conditions… Landscapes in the foothills of the Pamirs were amazing though and I had a few very nice night spots.