In Tashkent

I've now spent a whole 3 days in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. To be honest, it's not that interesting a city, especially having been to the historical sites of Khiva, Bukhara, and Samakand. It's extremely Soviet and has any parks and wide tree-lined avenues but it's also got more than it's fair share of blocks of flats. I've mainly been on missions to do various errands, such as changing my travellers cheques (that took about 6 hours yesterday) and stocking up on snacks for the next few weeks.

Tashkent is also a end/start of trip leg so we've had to say goodbye to Anthony, and 8 new people are joining us. I cant believe it we're going to have to share the truck with 15 people. I'm so used to spreading out and going to sleep on 5 seatsbut ... no more, it's going to be crowded!

We are now heading into Kyrgystan, and yet again a very different varient on overlanding. This will be the toughest of the legs yet, as we are mainly bushcamping in desolate mountains- miles from anywhere. I cant wait, there are many options for some serious treks around the Issul-Kul Lake and upto Glaciers etc, that I will be taking full advantage of. As a consequence, I wont be updating the blog for a while cos I cant imagine I'll see too many net cafes whilst I'm trekking and horse-riding with the mountain nomads! Bishkek (capital) will be my next contact in two weeks time most likely.(although every time i say i wont be blogging soon, i seem to find a cafe the next day unexpectingly)