Back in Bishkek now with Pete, he's had a nightmare with visas so we're spending another 4 or so days here to sort them out. Quite relieved that the Pakistan visas are a no go as apparently the Taliban have gone off on one over there so we wouldn't have been allowed in anyway. Of course, now everyone wants to go to Kazakstan so the embassy is really busy. Overall it means our flights have been delayed by a few days and Pete will have a 3 day drive down to us in Delhi when he gets there (but we're staying in a nice hotel so it's all good!).
Nothing much else to report, we're off to an American pub again for food (bacon cheeseburgers, mmmm......), and after last time maybe another game of spin the bottle...
Yet again pictures are not easy to upload as internet here is so slow, as we've got a few days here I'll try to get a select few up if we find somewhere good.
Monday 30 June 2008
Sunday 29 June 2008
Notes from "The Campest Straight Guy" on the trip...
Another quick post as everyone is queueing up behind me on the only computer in this village. In Krgyzstan at the moment and I love it - mountains like in Georgia but with an Asian feel kind of sums it up... We've had 2 lots of 3 days bush camping in the mountains, both just stunning locations at 3000m and 2000m respectively, we're at the start of the Himalayas here. Just fantastic to chill out, play with kites, get sunburnt and enjoy the scenery. Have had a go at riding horses, amazing fun, especially the more expensive ones that actually did what I was telling them to do... The locals organised a game of goat polo for us too which was incredible to watch - they brought the goat over (christened "Dunfor" by us), chopped the poor things head and legs off and then spent the next 2 hours fighting over it on horseback! Certainly shows that I need more practice on a horse...
Had a few nights in the capital Bishkek to sort out visas, unfortunately it will take a month to issue them which screws up all of our plans, so we're going north to Borat country for a few days, then flying to Delhi in India and borrowing a truck from another company as there's just no way to get our lovely Penelope into India (China have said no to groups completely now). Still will be great fun but we loose a lot of creature comforts - charging sockets, boats, bikes, kites and a load of other stuff that we filled her with before leaving. On the plus side I can send some of my crap back and might actuallybe able to carry my bag from now on... We're also loosing 4 people who have decided to do China on their own (strangely they let individuals in, but no trucks, and Pete has looked at every way around the problem!)
To explain the title of this post, we had a fancy dress night where names were picked out of a hat and you had to buy a costume at the market for that person. Well, I ended up with a lovely stripey blue skimpy top, boxers, a rubber ring and a sign saying "For Sail". Add that to the pink toenails (don't ask) and it seems you get "The Campest Straight Guy I know", thanks Kirsten!
Think that's all for now, anyone thinking of a funky holiday destination, give Kyrgyzstan a go - I love it!
PS. I drove the truck today! New career plan is to be a truck driver - it's amazing. And before you ask (Andy!), no I didn't crash it/bend it/break it etc.
Had a few nights in the capital Bishkek to sort out visas, unfortunately it will take a month to issue them which screws up all of our plans, so we're going north to Borat country for a few days, then flying to Delhi in India and borrowing a truck from another company as there's just no way to get our lovely Penelope into India (China have said no to groups completely now). Still will be great fun but we loose a lot of creature comforts - charging sockets, boats, bikes, kites and a load of other stuff that we filled her with before leaving. On the plus side I can send some of my crap back and might actuallybe able to carry my bag from now on... We're also loosing 4 people who have decided to do China on their own (strangely they let individuals in, but no trucks, and Pete has looked at every way around the problem!)
To explain the title of this post, we had a fancy dress night where names were picked out of a hat and you had to buy a costume at the market for that person. Well, I ended up with a lovely stripey blue skimpy top, boxers, a rubber ring and a sign saying "For Sail". Add that to the pink toenails (don't ask) and it seems you get "The Campest Straight Guy I know", thanks Kirsten!
Think that's all for now, anyone thinking of a funky holiday destination, give Kyrgyzstan a go - I love it!
PS. I drove the truck today! New career plan is to be a truck driver - it's amazing. And before you ask (Andy!), no I didn't crash it/bend it/break it etc.
Sunday 15 June 2008
The last few weeks in summary...
Made it over the mountain in 6 taxis, "whitebeard" our driver came in first place despite some stiff competition from "goldteeth" behind, apparently 160km/h was seen on one speedo! Might not sound like much, but you should see the roads and how everyone else drives round here - the horn is the first thing anyone uses, and the brakes the last!
Got a bit of time here in the Fergana Valley to try and remember where we've been since we left Baku and crossed the Caspian Sea. This 8-10 hour crossing turned into a 68 hour, erm, stay on a boat. We reached the port without any problems but they wouldn't let us come in as there's some sort of arguement going on between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, so we spent 2 days bobbing around and getting cabin fever. If all the food ran out apparently I'm for desert as I'd be nice and sugary! Luckily the kitchen sold vodka, without it I'm not sure how we would have survived...
Finally got into Turkmenistan and met Atta our guide who'd been running around trying to extend visas for us, then headed for Ashgabat the capital - a huge marble city with loads of photos and statues of the ex-president, police and guards everywhere and no local people - I guess they spoil the view. Went to the market out of town where you could buy pretty much anything. Was tempted by a camel but settled for a fly swat. 2 days in a very nice hotel with a great pool whilst the crew tried to extend our visas (not possible, we had to get new ones for 2 days for about 40 quid), with a nightclub downstairs which seemed to be mostly filled by hookers and a strange russian guy who just danced madly in front of a mirror - it was an interesting place...
Headed out into the desert where it got really hot - 40c+ - and saw a flaming gas crater, left over from the russians trying to pipe out gas, some sort of accident happened so they left and there's no way to put it out, so it carries on burning. Got some cool photos, but again they'll have to wait as I can't plug my camera into this computer! Got to the crater in a 6wd Russian truck which was great fun - we had to sit on and around a big water tank in the back and hold on tight!
Few other bush camps, one by a river which was a relief after the heat, had a play with some of Tims kites but didn't get the big ones out just yet...
Crossed into Uzbekistan and met Jalal our guide, we had 2 days bush camping by a big lake, stopping after the track collapsed under the back of the truck and it sunk to the axle. Lots of effort was made to lift it (to be honest I was sat in the lake at the time, too many cooks etc.) but Jalal wandered to the nearest road and persuaded another truck to come and pull us out which made it a lot easier. Got the inflatable boats off the roof and spent a day chilling out and playing in the lake (and getting lightly sunburnt...), and had my first go at kite surfing, or rather getting dragged face first through every reed bed I could find in the lake, then crashing it in deep water and having to drag it back to shore! Going to need some practice at that, but it was amazing fun!
Saw little scorpions, snakes, camel spiders, lizards, and various other wildlife all around where we were camping, as well as inquisative locals who came from miles around to see the kites.
Moved onto Khiva, then Bukhara and then Samarkand, all ancient cities with big city walls, markets, mosques, minarets and all that sort of thing. Some genuinely amazing places - I was far more impressed with these than the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia in Istanbul - with beautiful blue tiles and fancy patterns, though unfortunately nearly all of them you have to pay to go into and then get hassled to buy stuff from the shops they've put inside, if only I had room for all those carpets, Koran holders and other nick-nacks. Had a few fab nights out, normally taking over most of the club as they were fairly empty - photos will show far better than I can explain these nights but they've all been wicked fun! The currency in these places is mad - 2600som is a pound so the prices for drinks look scary but most things are only a quid or two. Unfortunately the biggest note is 1000, so you end up with wads of cash and it takes hours to pay a bill as it takes so long to be counted.
Moved onto Tashkent (as a russian guy we met in Samarkand said "civilisation" compared to the ancient cities) and went to the Chelsea Arms, a pub that Roman Wholebransabitch (the guy that owns Chelsea) owns, as well as a load of hotels around there. Felt thoroughly ripped off with cocktails at over 5 quid a go (and they didn't taste alcoholic, we felt rather annoyed!), apparently last time Pete came through it was so cheap and the drinks so good that they started a water fight in the place, thinking about it that's probably why the prices have gone up and they wouldn't serve us anything nice...
-Ignore this bit Mum!
Carried onto a restaurant where we were ripped off again and then onto a place recommended by Pete, the FM bar, which as well as serving very cheap drinks (3 vodkas, 2 cokes and a sprite for less than 2 quid!) is a "seedy but classy" lap dancing club where for 2000 som you can get a 5 minute dance - absolutely hilarious, though we were disappointed that they wouldn't let us have a dance on their pole on the stage, I don't think we met their height restriction as most of the girls in there were about 7ft tall...
-Carry on mum!
Left there and some businessmen (typical, we go to a club and pick up a load of guys, I think we're getting something wrong here...) who work around here told us the best place to go for a nightclub, then got us taxis, took us there and bought quite a few people drinks. They even offered to do a city tour the next morning - it's fantastic how nice people are around here! Got into a huge club decked out like an Egyptian palace playing a mix of euro-dance stuff and asian dance, with a bit of Celine Dion chucked in for good measure (which funnily enough almost cleared the dancefloor immediately). Fell out of there about 4 and taxi'd back to the hotel, (where Pete received the mother of all wedgies - his boxers turning into a lovely frock type thing), then tried to chuck people in the pool until the security guy told us to be quiet, quite a night!
That brings us up to about now, I've probably missed loads out but I left my diary at the hotel. China has decided not to let us do our route, what with the Tibet situation, the olympics, the earthquake etc. so we're heading over the Karakoram highway (highest road in the world apparently) into Pakistan, getting visas in Islamabad and then into India, where we'll hopefully go Elephant trekking looking for Tigers, see the Taj Mahal and maybe do a flight to see Everest as we won't be able to get to base camp (as it's in Tibet), go to Nepal and Kathmandu, then fly from Calcutta to Bangkok and use local transport to do Thailand etc. until the truck catches us up from being shipped across. Won't be a true overland route, but what can you do when the great big country in the middle says you're not coming in!
Moving onto Kyrgystan tomorrow where we're bush camping 10 days out of 12, luckily it's more mountainous there so it should be cooler and we'll be able to go trekking, horse riding, stay in yerts etc. which should be a fab experience. No idea when the next update will be so if you want a more thorough, regularly updated (and probably far more amusing) blog then have a look at Christies one: http://intrepidlittleexplorer.blogspot.com/ as she's got her laptop with her and has been far better at writing hers than I have, there's a couple more linked from hers too.
Got a bit of time here in the Fergana Valley to try and remember where we've been since we left Baku and crossed the Caspian Sea. This 8-10 hour crossing turned into a 68 hour, erm, stay on a boat. We reached the port without any problems but they wouldn't let us come in as there's some sort of arguement going on between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, so we spent 2 days bobbing around and getting cabin fever. If all the food ran out apparently I'm for desert as I'd be nice and sugary! Luckily the kitchen sold vodka, without it I'm not sure how we would have survived...
Finally got into Turkmenistan and met Atta our guide who'd been running around trying to extend visas for us, then headed for Ashgabat the capital - a huge marble city with loads of photos and statues of the ex-president, police and guards everywhere and no local people - I guess they spoil the view. Went to the market out of town where you could buy pretty much anything. Was tempted by a camel but settled for a fly swat. 2 days in a very nice hotel with a great pool whilst the crew tried to extend our visas (not possible, we had to get new ones for 2 days for about 40 quid), with a nightclub downstairs which seemed to be mostly filled by hookers and a strange russian guy who just danced madly in front of a mirror - it was an interesting place...
Headed out into the desert where it got really hot - 40c+ - and saw a flaming gas crater, left over from the russians trying to pipe out gas, some sort of accident happened so they left and there's no way to put it out, so it carries on burning. Got some cool photos, but again they'll have to wait as I can't plug my camera into this computer! Got to the crater in a 6wd Russian truck which was great fun - we had to sit on and around a big water tank in the back and hold on tight!
Few other bush camps, one by a river which was a relief after the heat, had a play with some of Tims kites but didn't get the big ones out just yet...
Crossed into Uzbekistan and met Jalal our guide, we had 2 days bush camping by a big lake, stopping after the track collapsed under the back of the truck and it sunk to the axle. Lots of effort was made to lift it (to be honest I was sat in the lake at the time, too many cooks etc.) but Jalal wandered to the nearest road and persuaded another truck to come and pull us out which made it a lot easier. Got the inflatable boats off the roof and spent a day chilling out and playing in the lake (and getting lightly sunburnt...), and had my first go at kite surfing, or rather getting dragged face first through every reed bed I could find in the lake, then crashing it in deep water and having to drag it back to shore! Going to need some practice at that, but it was amazing fun!
Saw little scorpions, snakes, camel spiders, lizards, and various other wildlife all around where we were camping, as well as inquisative locals who came from miles around to see the kites.
Moved onto Khiva, then Bukhara and then Samarkand, all ancient cities with big city walls, markets, mosques, minarets and all that sort of thing. Some genuinely amazing places - I was far more impressed with these than the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia in Istanbul - with beautiful blue tiles and fancy patterns, though unfortunately nearly all of them you have to pay to go into and then get hassled to buy stuff from the shops they've put inside, if only I had room for all those carpets, Koran holders and other nick-nacks. Had a few fab nights out, normally taking over most of the club as they were fairly empty - photos will show far better than I can explain these nights but they've all been wicked fun! The currency in these places is mad - 2600som is a pound so the prices for drinks look scary but most things are only a quid or two. Unfortunately the biggest note is 1000, so you end up with wads of cash and it takes hours to pay a bill as it takes so long to be counted.
Moved onto Tashkent (as a russian guy we met in Samarkand said "civilisation" compared to the ancient cities) and went to the Chelsea Arms, a pub that Roman Wholebransabitch (the guy that owns Chelsea) owns, as well as a load of hotels around there. Felt thoroughly ripped off with cocktails at over 5 quid a go (and they didn't taste alcoholic, we felt rather annoyed!), apparently last time Pete came through it was so cheap and the drinks so good that they started a water fight in the place, thinking about it that's probably why the prices have gone up and they wouldn't serve us anything nice...
Carried onto a restaurant where we were ripped off again and then onto a place recommended by Pete, the FM bar, which as well as serving very cheap drinks (3 vodkas, 2 cokes and a sprite for less than 2 quid!) is a "seedy but classy" lap dancing club where for 2000 som you can get a 5 minute dance - absolutely hilarious, though we were disappointed that they wouldn't let us have a dance on their pole on the stage, I don't think we met their height restriction as most of the girls in there were about 7ft tall...
Left there and some businessmen (typical, we go to a club and pick up a load of guys, I think we're getting something wrong here...) who work around here told us the best place to go for a nightclub, then got us taxis, took us there and bought quite a few people drinks. They even offered to do a city tour the next morning - it's fantastic how nice people are around here! Got into a huge club decked out like an Egyptian palace playing a mix of euro-dance stuff and asian dance, with a bit of Celine Dion chucked in for good measure (which funnily enough almost cleared the dancefloor immediately). Fell out of there about 4 and taxi'd back to the hotel, (where Pete received the mother of all wedgies - his boxers turning into a lovely frock type thing), then tried to chuck people in the pool until the security guy told us to be quiet, quite a night!
That brings us up to about now, I've probably missed loads out but I left my diary at the hotel. China has decided not to let us do our route, what with the Tibet situation, the olympics, the earthquake etc. so we're heading over the Karakoram highway (highest road in the world apparently) into Pakistan, getting visas in Islamabad and then into India, where we'll hopefully go Elephant trekking looking for Tigers, see the Taj Mahal and maybe do a flight to see Everest as we won't be able to get to base camp (as it's in Tibet), go to Nepal and Kathmandu, then fly from Calcutta to Bangkok and use local transport to do Thailand etc. until the truck catches us up from being shipped across. Won't be a true overland route, but what can you do when the great big country in the middle says you're not coming in!
Moving onto Kyrgystan tomorrow where we're bush camping 10 days out of 12, luckily it's more mountainous there so it should be cooler and we'll be able to go trekking, horse riding, stay in yerts etc. which should be a fab experience. No idea when the next update will be so if you want a more thorough, regularly updated (and probably far more amusing) blog then have a look at Christies one: http://intrepidlittleexplorer.blogspot.com/ as she's got her laptop with her and has been far better at writing hers than I have, there's a couple more linked from hers too.
Saturday 14 June 2008
Just a quickie...
Still alive, but internet access is so rare and slow (and Turkmenistan seemed to block Blogger) beyond the Caspian sea I haven't really had a chance to update this.
Currently on our last 2 days of 12 in Uzbekistan - great place with a great guide who's shown us all the sights - ancient cities, mosques, mausoleums etc. as well as a nightclub or two, still recovering from last nights one.
The truck has to transit through Tajikistan tomorrow whilst we go up over a mountain pass in taxis as apparently it's safer that way... wish me luck!
Bush camping quite a bit in Kygydfgjdshgjkshgksjhdg-stan so proably won't be able to update this for another week or so, Bishkek apparently has fast internet (but then here was supposed to as well) so might get some photos on then, taken about 3500 so far so there's a couple of good ones to show.
Currently on our last 2 days of 12 in Uzbekistan - great place with a great guide who's shown us all the sights - ancient cities, mosques, mausoleums etc. as well as a nightclub or two, still recovering from last nights one.
The truck has to transit through Tajikistan tomorrow whilst we go up over a mountain pass in taxis as apparently it's safer that way... wish me luck!
Bush camping quite a bit in Kygydfgjdshgjkshgksjhdg-stan so proably won't be able to update this for another week or so, Bishkek apparently has fast internet (but then here was supposed to as well) so might get some photos on then, taken about 3500 so far so there's a couple of good ones to show.
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