Posts from — August 2008

daily distance: 112km
total distance: 9109km
riding time: 6h

The wind was against me again. Not strongly, but clearly perceptible. I could feel it during the early hours before getting out of bed. Turning to the east meant putting my face into the wind.

Not sure how long the trip would be I set out. Yesterday I had been given various distances, ranging from 118km to only 60km only 10km later. What to make of this I don’t know. The ride was bit grueling, turned out to be 50km from where I was (meaning the 60km sign was on the mark) and found me arriving in Quarshi at 11am - exhausted and not feeling well. The previous day had taken its toll.

I knew that a former student in my hometown had arranged for me to stay with a friend of his. Given my early arrival, I wanted to move on to Samarkand. I called Islam and soon enough his friend tracked me down in a place that let me use their fast (1 MB/s - which is lightning speed to me right now) internet connection for a couple of hours. It was a place to pay the mobile bills and the owner and I tagged off for a few hours on the billing site and my website.

Food and sightseeing done, I headed out uphill from Quarshi. It was dry country, some oil wells here and there and it was slightly warm at 4pm. I cycled until 7pm when I tried to find a place to pitch.

The first farm turned me away rather rudely (no expectation on my side to be allowed to pitch, but the way this went was a bit on the different side), another taking me into their place in a rather friendly manner. One of the kids even seemed to take a liking to my bike I think.

daily distance: 118km
total distance: 8997km
riding time: 5-6h

I woke up in Feruz’s family home and felt at ease. I had slept sort unpeacefully though. I had dreamed about being in Germany and leaving for the trip. Everything had been a mess, the bike functioned only so-so and I remember the lens of my camera being completely smeared.

Waking up, the world was different. I continued sleeping in the fresh morning air outside of the house, being one of the first risers. At some point, Feruz’s father put a blanket on me, brought tea out and I fell back asleep with the smell of fresh green tea and a warm blanket around me.

We set out after a wonderful family breakfast and it of course took much longer than anticipated. But thanks to Feruz, we managed pretty much everything and he even went to Buchara with me despite him going into a different direction to be back with his wife and children in Tashkent. Thanks so much for everything Feruz, you made the days in Buchara so much more memorable than they would have been otherwise. Having been in Feruz’s hands also meant that I was loaded down with a lot of extra food weight, about 4kg of it plus a lot of water. Fresh and dried grapes, nuts, apricot seeds and tons of other goodies. This one - that’s a negative.

Leaving at just after noon I was smack in the middle of the hot period of the day. Buchara also happens to be a bit of an oasis, meaning I was in desert climate pretty soon and the temperatures reached 50C in the shade pretty quickly. I moved on making use of the tailwind that I finally caught on my road to Quarshi. I am choosing this detour deliberately, had hoped to not battle the wind for a day or so and that’s exactly what happened. The ride is longer and goes over some mountains, but I was dreading riding into the wind again and gave the longer way a shot.

The terrain was uneventful, I was able to cover miles and miles through calm-inducing areas (safe for the power plant and other not so pretty habitations). When it was time to find a place to sleep I found a shepherd who was more than happy to have me over. Together with some other farm workers we slept under the stars after a very light dinner. I was simply too spent to eat a lot and it would have been somewhat inappropriate to do so given the food that the others had available (dry bread soaked in water to make it eatable and water melon). This isn’t the right diet and it was too long a day to begin with, so we’ll see what happens.

I would like to say that I am roughing it on such days, but given that people like today’s hosts are doing this every day “roughing it” seems a bit out of place.

Note: my apologies for the number of posts that you are receiving all at once if you are subscribed to the newsletter. I am trying to catch up as I am finding myself 800km further up the road in Tashkent.

It was a good thing to start slowly. I was up early though and tried to work on some things on the web before finally meeting up with Feruz who had only arrived just after midnight. Given that his family lives half an hour away from Buchara we hadn’t had the chance to meet up anymore. It was a strange night … here I am, sleeping in a bed in a comfy hotel room and when I woke up it was the first time when I couldn’t outright say where I was. This usually doesn’t happen - but it seems like the whole biking-on-end-thing has taken its toll.

We did a bit of the tourist thing … given that I had seen part of Buchara before we took it easty which suited me just fine and after getting money from a bank (one which I couldn’t have even entered I am told) and some sightseeing we had lunch and after some more sightseeing actually drove out to Feruz’s home. Here are some of the pics …

Being invited to his home was - for me - the highlight of my time in Buchara. It was great to see where and how Feruz had grown up. Coming from a small village in a place like this, it is all the more challenging to head into the academic world as he has done.

We visited his family’s farm and I got an introduction to the cotton industry and especially the farming part of it. The Uzbek state is heavily involved - taking half of the production at a set price. Farmers are only allowed to sell the other 50% at market prices. Sounds like a sweet deal for the Uzbek state to me.

The local market … the only one in the village, which consists largely of two families.

It was then back to the house and for some traditional food - plov. Rice and a whole lot of other goodness. It was greatness and the welcome warm and comforting. To my surprise we ended up staying in his house for the night. This was not a bad thing at all, just a surprise. A good one at that. Here is Feruz with his niece …

Funny thing, those rest days … there are more pictures over at the flickr site.

daily distance: 82m
total distance: 8879km
riding time: 5h

I set out from Olot … the riding was uneventful. Safe for the wind. It was … I will spare you what I thought. It was just bad. Just take a look at these pictures instead.

When I drew closer to Buchara I had to think back about the city when I first visited. What I do remember most is the tower that stands in the center of town. Sure enough, you come to the city and it was the first thing I saw. It put a big gloat on my face. Not just a smirk, but a big, big smile. For some reason, this view made me happy and part of it had to do with overcoming the last few days, including today. Here is what I saw … tower in the center, way in the back …

Just as I arrived in the city, a car stops next to me. Two men inside. I wasn’t in the mood for much chatting, but it turns out that they had seen me trying to buy some water, with the owner overcharging quite a bit. I left. They said: “We saw what happened, it was not fair. But we thought that you need some water.” I was floored. “You came all the way?” “We are from Afghanistan, that’s what we do.” They drove off before I could say much more.

I then met up with Feruz’s brother. Feruz is a student of a former professor of mine, who likes bikes himself (the professor that is) and who thought that he would pass on my being here to his post-doc student. Feruz himself was not there yet, just made his way from Tashkent (an 8-hour drive) and as I found out, did this just so that he knew I was doing well and in good hands. I was pretty speechless. Furkat and I met up and with the help of a translator (who was also pulled in for this), they got me to a hotel (a nice one, really) and after some food we toured the city a bit.

It was marvellous and so much more than I could have expected. Such as the big stack of food and drinks that was placed in the hotel room while I was out. Fresh grapes, bread, melon and the like. Thank you so very much … it is now time to take some rest in Buchara.

daily distance: 124km
total distance: 8797km
riding time: 10h

When I set out from the construction crew trailer the wind was blowing as fiercely as it had the night before. This was just before 6am and it was not a pretty sign. I had hoped for some dying down, but that was not to be. It also meant another day of fighting wind, sand and traffic blowing the latter my way. Just as the night before the wind was blowing the sand towards me.

I had 25km to go to the next Kafe and so I tried to compartmentalize the distance, knowing that it would be the only way for me to make it manageable. This is of course all a head thing … The road was in decent shape, so that helped. But it also headed directly into the wind. The result was not pretty and made for slow progress throughout the day.

I was ready to bag it and get into a car several times. “You can somehow get through this” was something that a little voice kept telling me in the back of my head. And I am glad it won the day. Once at the Kafe I did some vile breakfast, fought off the screwing over that was about to happen and moved on (the usual triple the price and the like). Different predictions for how long it was to take didn’t help the mental game and it turned out to be longer than either prediction. But there was always something to keep things moving, I saw a landmark and went for that, did other mindgames, just to get my mind off of that damn wind.

Behind me …

and in front of me …

Turkmenabad greeted me with a giant factory which was visible very early on. Good thing that chimney. The road in was atrocious (full of holes one could say or the chicken finds a bit of asphalt would be another) and also fully into the wind. There wasn’t a whole lot to appeal to the senses and so I moved on after trying out some “cocktail” and the local version of soft drinks. Essentially some syrup over which the vendor pours sparkling water. A bit on the dangerous side for me, but I wanted to try what people had here. Good flavors once you get past the radioactive colors.

Here is how a construction worker explained the way out of Turkmenabad to me …

On my way to the border I met two motorcyclists from Iran on their way to Shanghai …

More wind fun was in the offing. The road zig-zagged like crazy, changed directions often and drove me nuts. Once going north, it went south and then all over the map. The final 10km were again fully into the wind. I decided that at this point I had paid my dues to the gods of wind. I can only hope things improve from here.

The border crossing was relatively easy. No one harassed me - apart from some searching on the Uzbek side. It is a bit more high-tech than the Turkmen one. They wanted to search all my bags. Go ahead, be my guest. They chose the clothes pannier and I happily showed all the worn biking shorts and the like. After a few items I was told to close the bag and they moved everything into an x-ray machine. Some pointing here and there (tent poles) and then it was over. Lots of paperwork to follow and I was out. Or so I thought. More checking of papers again - making little sense to except to keep some officials happy. Here is the nomansland between the two border posts.

Nothing had changed. Of course nothing would. The wind was still the same. The road slightly better though. And why should it. I left one country, heading for another. The man-made fences may be one thing, but nature has a different way of dealing with things.

After leaving the border post, I was checked again after only 1km - and someone asked for money. I refused. It was a bit of back and forth. You are military, fine. Then check my papers, but leave me alone. I was a bit angry and wasn’t too happy about the next unofficial checking coming up soon enough. Just said hello and moved on.

The wind still in my face, I covered another 20km on the Uzbek side becoming a stoic and after being refused to pitch (essentially they asked for $20), I found a wonderful place. The family is great, I am sleeping outside and feel privileged yet again.

Some may wonder why I didn’t use my five days on my Turkmen visa. I sort of ran through the country. I would have rather spent more time. The little glimpse I had was not enough, but the hospitality was wonderful and I was treated just as good if not better than in other places. They just need to get rid of this stupid rule of 5-days transit visas. Essentially, it came down to not wanting to be late. The wind could have really pinned me down in some place. I just didn’t want that to happen. And so it went. Had Turkmenabad been a bit more inviting, I would have stayed. But it wasn’t.

On the way out, I also was witness to how corruption works in this country. Very openly. At a checkpoint, people just give money to the police, are then free to move on and the money was split right before my eyes. Kind of interesting.

To end on a lighter note, here is some evening serenity …