I opened my eyes and it finally hit me: we were done. There were no more routes to plan, no more distances to estimate and no car to worry about. It felt liberating, though I will not deny the sense of melancholy that clung to me for not making it to Mongolia. I was determined…
Tag: Central Asia
Day 23: Bishkek in a breeze
Over breakfast, we contacted the German embassies in the region to investigate how it would be possible to get rid of our car. We’ve run out of time to fix it, and now were exploring options to dispose of it legally. Neither the one in Kyrgyzstan nor the one in Kazakhstan proved to be very…
Day 22: Crossing over to Kyrgyzstan
I was cold all night. My knees & feet felt frozen. I went to bed feeling quite itchy – I wasn’t sure if something had invaded my sleeping bag. The cold and itch were compounded by worrying about needing to pee in the middle of the night. In the end, I didn’t need to, but…
Day 21: A new lease on life
The first order of business this morning was to go in search of a mechanic, after spending the night in a home stay sharing a large room with a Dutch couple. We had a simple breakfast of milk rice, even though delicious smelling fried fish was on the menu too. I wasn’t sure how my…
Day 16: The dodgy drive to Dushanbe
It had been quite a day! We finally managed to withdraw USD 500 from a National Bank of Uzbekistan branch near the Registan that does cash advance against Visa cards. If you’re ever planning to travel through Central Asia but not carry thousands of dollars/euros in cash, take note of this location. While we were in the vicinity,…
Day 8: Barreling towards Baku, Azerbaijan
It’s safe to say that Azerbaijan and I have gotten off on the wrong foot. After getting ‘fined’ 100 USD the night before for ‘speeding’, we had checked into a hotel room that stank of stale cigarette smoke and crashed into bed.
shehrinakamal 