Out of that noisy city that is Tashkent and back to the niceness that is Samarkand. I do not plan on being here for long however. Tomorrow I head for east of Samarkand. About 200km east is a national park…I will get back to you on  the name of it, but I will head there and then head to Tashkent again by bike from there.

The reason for all this galavanting is because it takes 10 days for my Turkmenistan visa to be issued. Therefore, I have to wait until the 24th of November before I can pick it up from Tashkent. I will make my way to Tashkent slowly, taking in the sights, and then catch a train back to Samarkand once I have picked up my visa. From Samarkand it is off to Bukhara, another ancient Silk Road city, about 300km from Samarkand.

Oh, and here is a photo of my current look. I call it the ‘Mujahed Mop’.

Eatery at a bazaar in Samarkand.

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Quick update from Tashkent.

• Applied for my Azerbaijan visa today. Arrived at the embassy at 10am, filled out the forms, and was told to come back on next Monday.
• Luckily, the Azerbaijan Embassy did not need to keep my passport. That means that I can apply for my Turkmenistan visa tomorrow. The absolute longest I think I can expect is a 10 day transit visa. However, from most people’s reports, it’s more likely that I’ll be given a 5 day transit visa. Therefore, unfortunately I will most probably need to hitch a ride across much of Turkmenistan, or catch a train.
• Anyone know how to hack the password on a Buffalo Pocket Station compact external hard disk (product number HD-DPM20U2/CR)? Can you believe this story:
  - Today I went to an internet cafe. I attached the hard disk (that contains all my photos I have taken so far (20GB worth)) to the computer, and all was well. Later today, I went to another internet cafe to back up the whole hard disk, thinking it would be too bad if the hard disk failed and I lost all my photos. Well, it just so happened, that the second time I went to the internet cafe, the device all of a sudden started to ask for a password every time I went to connect it. Madness. There is no way therefore to access my photos or videos. I have emailed Buffalo in Japan asking them about the problem. The only way I can see at present to get access to all my four months of precious photos is to go through all the possible password combinations until I get the right one (four digit number).
• Took the train here to Tashkent. Bike is still in Samarkand. Hopefully this visa thing will only take a week or so, and then it’s back on my way towards England on my bikecicle.
• Got a haircut today. Left the beard untouched though. I now look like a extreme Islamist mujahed. Getting even more looks from the natives now. Will upload photos when my hard drive sorts itself out.

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After a quick 2 hour ride, I am now in Samarkand, the famous ancient Silk Road city. It certainly does not disappoint with the architecture.

I am staying at Bahodir’s Bed and Breakfast, a nice youth hostel in Samarkand that gets many foreign travellers. At present however it is almost empty. I am here at a good time of year – cool days and not too many tourists clogging the streets.

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