The Persian proverb "Esfahan is half of the world" (which if Google translate has worked is what the title of this blog says in Farsi) is hyperbole but it is a spectacular place with a huge square, many mosques, palaces, bridges, and a fantastic bazaar. Where it definitely isn't half the world is in restaurants – perhaps the biggest challenge we faced during our days there was finding something local to eat, one night we even resorted to pizza and a Subway style sandwich ffs !!! True to form the people were friendly, chatty and hospitable, inviting us for tea even when they weren't trying to sell us something or when we told them we weren't going to buy anything – despite Esfahani's being known for their selling skills and fondness for money. We did though ... read more

Shiraz feels more liberal when compared with Yazd or especially Mashad. The people have kept at least some of the spirit and attitude that in pre-revolution days made the city the entertainment capital of Persia. The women dress more colourfully and push at the limits of acceptability with scarves worn far back on their heads. Many people enjoy socialising and eating out. Shirazi wine is still illicitly produced and drunk. That said this is still Iran and everybody, at least in public, is respectful of their religion. Our first day started with a visit to the beautiful Nasir al Molk Mosque where the morning sunlight streaming through the stained glass windows creates a kaleidoscope of colour. As another demonstration of the schizophrenia sometimes found here it has an official Instagram account even though Facebook is banned ... read more

Our last impression of Uzbekistan was, like our first, pretty good. The border guards gave us no hassle, were friendly, and reasonably quick. Perhaps we were just lucky. It was pretty much the same on the Turkmen side although they did the most thorough search of our bags so far. From getting out of the taxi in Uzbekistan to getting into the car in Turkmenistan took about an hour and a half – not too bad by local standards. First stop in Stan 4 was Kunye Urgench for some (more) mausoleums. The Turkmens take a different approach to the Uzbeks, rather than restoring historic buildings they just stop them falling down, although perhaps not as spectacular we thought it worked better. Then we were off on another long desert crossing, this time the Karakum, to our ... read more

The drive west to Khiva let us see the development taking place here in Uzbekistan, but also highlighted some of the challenges. Although it's not finished yet there are now a few hundred km of smooth concrete road through the desert which makes a massive difference to the journey (concrete is used because it doesn't melt in the heat). Our driver told us that for one section of ~100km the journey time has been reduced from a bit under 4 hours to about 1 hour, but then when we needed to fill up with gas - most cars, minibuses and vans run on methane or propane as Uzbekistan has it's own gas fields – the only station for kilometres was closed. We were lucky as he had some petrol but we saw others who'd run out. ... read more

The dreaded border crossing turned out to not be at all dreadful - it was fast and easy, the border guards were friendly, and the personal inspection didn't involve anything more than a quick frisk. It once again showed us that every experience is individual and unique. The road to Samarkand took us past field after field of cotton, one of Uzbekistan's main agricultural crops but also one of the main causes of the shrinking of the Aral Sea. It's mind blowing to know that most of the billions of cubic metres of water we day after day saw roaring down the Panj River between Tajikistan and Afghanistan don't make it as far as the Aral Sea. Finding solutions that balance the various needs is difficult and it's a sensitive subject here, supposedly one of the ... read more