bAfter Tashkent we travelled to Samarkand . The actual countryside in Uzbekstan is quite boring - lots of cotton fields and not much else. The irrigation of the cotton is putting pressure on the water supply in rural Uzbekistan and they are also going through a long drought. The extra problem for the Uzbekis is that it is a country rich in natural gas but the source of the major waterways is in the neighbouring countries. Back to the journey - we had a 6hr drive from Tashken to Samarkand. We arrived in Samarkand late in the afternoon and got our first glimpse of the amazing Registan. It turned out that the famous landmark of Central Asia was only about 5 minutes from our B+B - fantastic location. I was very excited to be in Samarkand ... read more

With the visit to Song-Kul Lake changed due to the snow we had an extra day in Kyrgyzstan. Claire and Dave decided that with a name like Arslanbob we needed to go there ..... Reading the Lonely Planet it sounded like a beautiful place ...walnut forests all around.... a little Uzbek village that is trying to generate more tourism. This year they had 1300 foreign visitors to the village. Once again we headed west. This time we came out of the flat country and back into the hills. We were heading through the Fergana Valley. Arslanbob turned out to be an absolute gem of a place. We had homestays in groups of 4 all around the town. Our homestay was lovely - basic accomodation but really warm and friendly. We all met up in town ... read more

We were wet through from two days of rain. On the morning that we were due to leave Djety-Oghuz it actually snowed on us. When we looked up we realised that the snowline was now on the pastures that we had visited yesterday. We were due to head for Song-Kul Lake. The lake was another 1000m higher so we didn't think that we would be able to get in and out due to the snow. We decided to head back to Karakol and the warmth of Hotel Amir. We were able to dry out the tents and sleeping gear and have some more time in the town before the next couple of nights of bushcamping on the way to Osh.... read more

We headed back into Bishkek to sort out Uzbek visas. My Letter of Invitation still had not arrived however my photo had gone missing. My spare photos were in the back of the truck so I couldn't get to them so I went shopping for more passport photos. I was very impressed - the little man wiped away all the wrinkles on my forehead and got rid of my sunburnt nose! We got back underway and headed to the biggest lake in Kyrgyzstan - Lake Isy-kul. It was a bit of a slow day of driving and we set up camp at the lake quite late. We found a really good spot. I camped under the stars on the sands of the lake .... aaah it so tough! I didn't realise it buyt Isy-kul is the ... read more

It was a public holiday for the Kyrgyzstan Independence Day. We left Bishkek for the Ala Archa National Park. It was strange not having the Brits on the truck but we collected 10 new people and the truck was full. Dave (driver) had trouble with his Turkistan Visa. My Uzbek Letter of Invitation had not arrived (I offered to write one!) but I couldn't do anything by staying. Dave stayed and the rest of us headed out camping. Ala Archa is a beautiful spot not far from Bishkek. A lot of locals were there due to the holidays. We set up camp and then headed up onto the glacier for some walking. We were over 3000m so walking was hard work - but it was a beautiful place (photos will be coming). We did a 6hr ... read more

We drove for around 3hrs from Kochkor to Bishkek. It was strange coming into Bishkek as it was quite a built up town with a whole range of faces and body types. Far away from the Uighurs and the Han Chinese. We had lunch down at the German Beer House. The power was off (they turn it off for 6hrs every day) so we had a choice of different types of sausages and that was all. Sausage it was! The hotel had a pool and it was really warm out so the rest of the afternoon was me teaching Lucy and Caroline Synchronised swimming and laughing a lot! That was pretty much how we spent time in Bishkek. We visited the Zum store - wandered around a bit. It was their National Day on the 31st ... read more