Blazing sun and +35° C. We really didn’t fell like strolling around town. Instead we took the double dekker tourist bus and could see the town without getting a eat stroke.

Tashkent seems like a nice town, quiet, calm and no pollution. There are a lot of grandiose monuments and buildings, mosques and statues and the streets are wide, 6 to 8 lanes but not much traffic. And there are a lot of parks all over town, well maintained with flowers, fountains and immaculate lawns.

Strolled around Chorsu Bazar today. The meat market was gigantic, clean and absolutely free from flies. The bazaars are nice but they are little like same, same everywhere and we have seen a few by now.

In the afternoon we bought beer for 1 Euro per liter at the local beer shop and got it in a used but cleaned Pepsi bottles. Tasty beer it was. Then we read up and made some plans for going to the Aral Sea – the huge inland sea that soon is no more. We think that maybe we can make it in our Saab.

In the afternoon we arrived in Samarkand 300 kilomters from Tashkent. We checked in at a guest house just a stone throw away from the biggest tourist attraction in town, The Registan that is the former Silk Road commercial center. In the square between the tiles sprinkled beautiful buildings there used to be a big bazaar.

After that we visited Gur-E-Amir mausoleum. The inside of the dome with the golden decor looked very nice. It is great here in Samarkand. All the interesting sights are within walking distance.

Today we continued to check out the sights here in Samarkand. This morning we started with the Bibi-Khanym Mosque and then Shah-i-Zinda, that is a Muslim burial site with an entrance of several big and beautiful mausoleums on both sides.

In the afternoon we had to take care of our Saab. The silencer attachment was broken - again. We fixed it quick and easy in a workshop for 4 Euro. Then we needed to fill up our car. Not a big problem you would think. But in Uzbekistan it is not that easy. The only way to get petrol here is in the black market. We drove around town asking people about it for one hour, and they pointed us in all directions. Finally an English speaking tour guide took us under his wing and took us to a garage 3 kilometers away. We bought five 10 liter bottles of petrol - 80 octan. We will see what the Saab thinks about this diet...

We got told about a very nice lake for swimming along the road to Bukhara. We planned to make a stop there and maybe even spend the night there. But we could not go under the railway since the crossing was too low. Instead we continued to Bukhara, a nive little town and well preserved. In the bazaar they were filming a music video. Guess we will be in it.

Back at the guest house Anna & Henry rolled in. Yesterday they run in to Josefin & David in Khiva, where we are going tomorrow, and Matihias and Rahim happened to run in to each other in Russia the other day. It is a small world...

Today we have 450 kilometers to cover. Rumors have it that it is 70 kilometers of really shitty road and then the rest is smooth as silk. Ant they were right. The Surroundings were completely flat, hot and desert like as far as we could see all day.

But before we hit the road we had to fill up our car. Still not an easy task here. The man at the guest house phoned a bunch of his black market contacts. After a couple of hours a very well dressed woman showed up in a nice car, delivering two 20 liter canisters. We paid 0,5 Euro per liter. Still only 80 octan.

But we could not fit all the petrol in the tank, and had to fill 4 liter of it in an empty water bottle. Already we had 10 liter spare petrol. Now Catharina is traveling with two big bottles of petrol in the front seat between her legs. We guess is has to be like this until we leave the country.

Again we are staying close enough to throw rocks at the most important tourist site in town. The old town is surrounded by a 2 kilometer long wall, inside it is like a huge outdoor museum of mud brick and tile decorated buildings in a state of art shape. Today it was a lot of people here since it was a holyday here in Uzbekistan.

We were lucky today. One of the 75 petrol stations we passed today actually had petrol for sale, on top of that high quality petrol – 91 octane. The signal was a petrol canister by in sight by the road and on top of the pump. The reason they had petrol at this station was that they didn’t allow the customers to fill up canisters and bottles. A great idea, why don’t all of the petrol stations do the same?

We continued to Moynaq and the Aral Sea today. The Aral Sea used to be the 4th biggest inland sea in the world, before the Soviet regime decided to be self sufficient in cotton and rice and started to take water from there. Now all the fishing boats are stranded in the sand that used to be the bottom of the sea. The small part of the Aral Sea still left is 100 kilometers away from here.

The hunt for petrol continued today. Now we needed a full tank to get across the border to Kazakhstan. At the border waiting was already a long line of trucks and cars. But the Uzbek border guards waved us through and took us first in line.

The border guards were friendly and correct. They searched our car just as thorough leaving as when we arrived in Uzbekistan. But this time only one person did it and he told us to come with him all the time to check what he was doing. One of the border guards found Catharina very attractive and said repeatedly; I love you, I love you and sent kisses when we were leaving Uzbekistan.

To enter Kazakhstan was quick and easy. No visa was needed. The man at the customs just opened the door and took a quick look and told us we could go. Wow, this was nice for a change.