Morning comes and again relieves me from the agony of unsuccesful sleep. I am very much glad to pack my gear and move on, even though I know that our next night will be spent somewhere in the desert. We have a simple breakfast consisting of (you guessed it) tea, bread and noodles. Rustam arrives with the UAZ jeep and we pack our belongings and remaining water back into the trunk. We also bring along two matresses and some bedsheets from the hotel. It is a beautiful sunny morning, and already it is starting to get hot. We begin the day by inspecting the sights in and around Moynaq, starting with the nearby fish canning factory. It used to employ several hundred, running three shifts around the clock, canning and distributing various kinds of locally caught ... read more

I wake up with a terrible cold and a running nose. Today's plan is to reach Nukus by air, but the plane does not leave until late in the afternoon. I decide to go sightseeing somewhere and inspect my new map, which has some nice colour photos of interesting places, and point the finger towards Kukeldosch Medressah near the Chor-Su bazar and metro station. The first step is actually reaching the metro, and I decide to give it a try on foot. Sure enough it doesn't take that long, but in doing so the heat has my skin soaked with water. Since I practised riding the metro with Shoista yesterday it turns out very easy for me to find the proper transfer point at Pachtakor and switch to the Uzbekistan line. However, my plan is foiled ... read more

I am happy to check out of the Pradiphat hotel and transfer to the Comfort Suites Airport hotel; it may be a small step for one man, but it is a giant step towards my encounter with the Aral Sea. Even though I have a printed map with directions of how to find the hotel, the taxi driver has a really hard time finding it. We end up driving all the way to the airport and then turn back towards town again until finding the correct exit. The weather continues to be mildly boring, and it starts raining as we finally get there. Although I am at first disappointed to get a room that is not facing the airport I discover that instead I get the views of the departing airliners climbing into the sky, which ... read more

Well, the horrible flight finally came to an end and I was jumping out of the plane like a man pardoned from a long prison sentence. I immediately set course for the various information booths to try to pick up a Bangkok Airport time table, which proved a fruitless attempt. All counters showed me their copy and sent me in the direction of the bookshop on the 2nd floor, which naturally had never heard of the item in question. I decide to be a bit proactive, skip about the timetable and head directly to the Thai office to make a reservation for Denpasar on August 4. I imagine a line of 500 people in front of me, but there is no one waiting, so this will be a smooth affair. I ask for a ticket to ... read more

T-23 Hours. Doing the last chores at the office was a mildly unenthusiastic affair. I left early to return to the bank and retry my Uzbek payment. Upon arrival the clerk said "oh, it is that one, we've been looking a bit at it already". As in the daily office joke or what I wonder. I also made final preparations for paying up for my September bout to Bhutan, my bank account feels rather blasted right now, fortunately payday isn't too far away. I then headed to the regional hospital for an appointment with a doctor to go through any vaccinations required. The waiting room was chock full and loads of young people were sitting around exchanging their anticipations of tropical beaches, long stays abroad and of course the dismay at having to take four shots ... read more