Day 43_to_45

As soon as the sun rises we start riding, we want to reach Khiva soon so we can visit it! The road is fine at first, but then the potholes are back. Maybe my ankle is not broken but, I can see today that I am. I’m afraid of riding! We are crossing again the desert and I’m not even looking to the landscape, I’m just fixed on the road, thinking the worst will happen at any time. Also, the knee and the ankle are hurting, so that’s not really helping.

We stop on a gas station and I’m not feeling well, I feel dizzy and nervous, I just want to go to the toilet and get some water on my face. I start walking searching for it, when a dog starts barking and growl to me. Perfect! now that’s exactly what I need… a dog attacking me!

My “lovely” new fried resting at the ghost gas station:

After what it seemed never ending hours to me, we reach Khiva. It’s quite an impressive city. After resting at the hotel, we head out ready to explore its wonders.

While we are talking to a Italian lady which we met before in Nukus something extraordinary happens. Elias (an Austrian guy which we know from the ferry!) is waving to us. Unbelievable! What a coincidence!!! We have dinner together and it seems that he has the perfect solution for my riding problems, at least for one day. Tomorrow he’ll take a train to Bukhara, so if I’m going with him I can skip the last long riding day through the desert. After talking a bit with Tià we decide that, that’s the best option for me and my ankle.

Next day is the first time on the whole trip that we are going to travel separately. We pack everything as usual in the morning and we head to Urganch’s train station to buy the ticket. Lucky us! We find a young lady that speaks English and she helps us to do it… because it’s a complet chaos. I want to seat near Elias, so I show them his ticket that just make the things worst! now they think that I already have a ticket … It takes a while, but we get the ticket that I want.

Now it’s time to find a hotel for tonight for Tià here in Urganch, he takes one near the road. Tomorrow it’ll be faster to take the road to Bukhara. Once he is accommodated, one of the workers from the hotel drive us to the train station.

During the day we speak with Paul and Clémence (our friends with the “little” car “@allyoucaneast), what another nice coincidence! They will arrive today to Bukhara! We’ll sleep at the same hotel and they offer to give me a drive tomorrow to Samarcand!!!! I can rest the leg one more day! Those are great news!

The train should depart at 15:50, so we met one hour earlier. Elias shows up with a new friend, Martin another Austrian! It seems that I’m going to practice my German after a while! I’m a bit nervous because I don’t want to leave Tià alone behind, but this is going to be an adventure!

The train is better than expected, it’s a second class ticket so we have our own bed. Elias is super nice with me, he doesn’t allow me to carry my bag, or even prepare my bed! The problem is that at the end we cannot seat together, but at least we are on the same wagon.

I spend the 7 hours trip on relaxing, looking the landscape, reading, hearing music and sweating, specially sweating. There is no air conditioning and I think we are over 40 degrees! The locals are also really kind with me, now and then a child shows up with some bread, fruits, sweets or “somsas” for me. Everybody knows my name!

The views from the train:

and my accommodation:

We reach Bukhara at 23:00, we fight a bit with the taxi drivers and we head to the hotel where Paul is waiting for us. We take a short walk to see Bukhara and we go to sleep. We are really tired!

Our next plans are:

-Tià is leaving Urganch early next day in the morning to arrive to Bukhara around midday and avoid the heat in the middle of the desert.

-I’m going to Samarkand with Paul and Clémence on their car.

-Tomorrow morning Tià drives to Samarkand to meet with me and we stay there to visit the city.

As planned Tià wakes up before sunrises and starts riding from Urganch to Bukhara, he arrives at our hotel before our departure!

Here, you have Tià having fun alone in the desert:

He is tired, but he decides to ride with us to Samarkand. A bit crazy because that means to ride 740 Km and almost 11 hours in one day along Uzbeck’s roads (not the bests in the world as you already have seen). All of us feel a bit lazy today, so we have a relaxed lunch, and then we start going to Samarkand a bit late.

The road is fine almost all the time, but it’s hot and Tià starts to feel tired after some hours riding under the sun. The problem is that we cannot stop a lot, the sunset is coming and no one want to be on the road during the night. At some point we stop for fuel on a gas station, as usual we get 90… The Bonnie is not happy at all with it. There, we met some young guys with their mongol rally cars. They are also going to Samarkand, so we start driving as a convoy. Paul is the first, then Tià with the motorbike, and then the two mongol rally cars.

The sunset starts at the same time than the potholes. Those are really bad news for Tià, he cannot see properly with poor light and the road starts being worse and worse. We stop when the sun is already gone right after an off road portion of the road; he almost fell there. We have to find a solution, it’s way too dangerous to keep riding even going between our friends cars. First of all our friends try to put more lights on the motorbike, but that’s not the problem. Tià cannot continue with this conditions. Then, Paul says that he can ride the Bonnie until the next village. For the first time ever, Tià gives the Bonnie keys to another person!

We arrive at the little village, and there we have another problem… We need to find a place for Tià to stay. We try in one residence, but they say that is not allowed for them to host foreigners (Uzbeck politics about tourism are a bit estrange, as a tourist you can just sleep in approved hotels, you are not allowed to sleep in private houses or camp). We start asking around, it’s late and there is not a lot of people in the streets, until we find a man that says that he can help us. The problem is that he is not speaking English at all. Finally we find a translator, it seems that this man is the director of a residence of students, and he is offering a free room for Tià!!! He is our saviour!

Tià in his improvised hotel:

After leaving Tià with this man, we keep going to Samarkand. We arrive really late at night.