sorry for the rather lax efforts here. We are currently in Uzbekistan having motored through Turkmenistan- internet is rather sketchy so we have been blissfully unaware of the world, hope everyone is ok.
we got our money's worth on the boat to Turkmenistan as we got stuck on it for 2 days and ended up having to beg for food along with the rest of the passengers as our supplies; 2 snickers bars got eaten at the port
Turkmenistan was a weird weird place thanks to the ex president who called himself Turkmenbashi (Father of the Turkmen) and plastered the country with his slogans, the most popular being "people,nation, me".
He turned the capital into a vision of white marble, resplendant with fountains and golden staues of himself. the centre piece was the 70 meter "arch of neutrality" topped with a gold statue of the president in a busienss suit and a flowing suoperman style cape. the statue rotated so it was always facing the sun.
after a few days of pottering we headed up north, camping in the dessert next to a burning gas crater formed when some soviet oil prospectors stopped for a cigarette. The resulting explosion left a 10 metre deep, 30 m across pit that has been burning for 30 years.
Uzbekistan is more conventional in it's attractions although just as hot; summer has come early and its already 30 degrees at 9 am. We're in the silk road proper now loads of gently crumbling dessert towns resplendant with blue tiled mosques. They have a fairly relaxed attitude to Islam here though, taking elements from zoastronism, buddism and mixing it up with liberal quantities of alcohol.
Given they refuses to revalue the currency in the face of rampant inflation the highest value bank note in circulation is worth less than 30p and changing money means bringing along a carrier bag. Even paying for dinner becomes a bit of a palava and with the huge wad of notes that you have to carry around in your pocket it looks as if you're very pleased to see everyone.
Roz and I also seem to rank as popular attrations as at most of the sights we have had to pose for photos with huge families of Uzbeks. we're learning to scowl as photos are a serious business here and my jazz hands don't go down too well.
Just got back from a few days in the sticks where we went donkey trekking. we wern't that good as Roz's one kept running off with her and my geriatric one just wanted to eat things. Anyway off to get our evening kebab and beer. we cant put photos on here as the only internet is dial up- will endevour to do so in Kazakstan
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