Saturday October 4th
Travelling day today. First we enjoyed the first leisurely breakfast of the trip as the mini bus didn't come to pick us up until 11 am. Some people went swimming others lazed around, very pleasant and a good start to a long day. We caught the train from Samarkand back to Tashkent, coming through a small mountain range and terrain rather like Afghanistan, Arriving in Tashkent we were driven to the border with Kazakhstan but the driver wasn't allowed to bring the minibus through so we had to cross on foot and catch another bus on the other side. Leaving Uzbekistan was surprisingly easy, once we had found our entry permits (which we had been given when we arrived) then we had to walk the 100 metres or so to the Kazakhstan border. There was a large crowd of Uzbeks and Kazakhs in the customs hall and the forms were in Russian, but a very friendly official helped us fill them in and then fast tracked us through to the other side. A tricky moment when Wendy and I were recalled but it was only because he had forgotten the second stamp in our passports. The driver met us with no problems and then we set off for the two hour journey to Shymkent. Kazakhstan is supposed to be the most prosperous of the stans, but in the fading light it didn't look like it and the very bumpy and pot holed road didn't help our first impressions. However the hotel was much more up to date than the Uzbek ones, more on this at the end. Down in the bar some of the group have got stuck into the vodka, others of us have left them to it - it's an 8.30 start to the sightseeing trip tomorrow....
Travelling day today. First we enjoyed the first leisurely breakfast of the trip as the mini bus didn't come to pick us up until 11 am. Some people went swimming others lazed around, very pleasant and a good start to a long day. We caught the train from Samarkand back to Tashkent, coming through a small mountain range and terrain rather like Afghanistan, Arriving in Tashkent we were driven to the border with Kazakhstan but the driver wasn't allowed to bring the minibus through so we had to cross on foot and catch another bus on the other side. Leaving Uzbekistan was surprisingly easy, once we had found our entry permits (which we had been given when we arrived) then we had to walk the 100 metres or so to the Kazakhstan border. There was a large crowd of Uzbeks and Kazakhs in the customs hall and the forms were in Russian, but a very friendly official helped us fill them in and then fast tracked us through to the other side. A tricky moment when Wendy and I were recalled but it was only because he had forgotten the second stamp in our passports. The driver met us with no problems and then we set off for the two hour journey to Shymkent. Kazakhstan is supposed to be the most prosperous of the stans, but in the fading light it didn't look like it and the very bumpy and pot holed road didn't help our first impressions. However the hotel was much more up to date than the Uzbek ones, more on this at the end. Down in the bar some of the group have got stuck into the vodka, others of us have left them to it - it's an 8.30 start to the sightseeing trip tomorrow....
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