Flashback 1: Turkmenistan (days 44 to 48 - 31.05. - 04.06.), a "special" country, or: so far the worst day of my trip

While I initially intended to leave Mashad at the latest at 9.30 and therefore got up already at 8 (!! ;-)) in order to be at the border well before noon (as advised by the lonely planet as the border sometimes is closed during lunch and sometimes even does not reopen in the afternoon), I somehow lots lots of time with stupid things. The stay started "well" as the cab drier to the collective taxi terminal ripped me off (the most expensive inner city transfer in Iran, while the distance was no that long..). The collective taxi then was only full at around 11 and took 2,5 hours to get to the border. The taxi driver threw me out in the middle of nowhere, in an industrial area, with lots of trucks, while I thought the border crossing was in the village /town of Sarakhs. It was indeed the border but mainly for freight and it was not clear how it all works and where a single tourist would actually have to go. I was pointed in one direction and walked in the heat of the midday sun  (around 45 degrees, I would say..) and found the "passenger hall", where the border was indeed closed and nobody was around. On arrival I realised that I still had to change my Iranian Rial to Turkmen Manat as you are not allowed to export larger quantities of Iranian currency (and I had changed too many Euro..) and asked at the bank in the hall, but as told that they did not sell Manat and that I should go back to the entrance of the border terminal. Fortunately, I could leave my luggage at the bank as I did not want to carry it through the heat back and forth. It took a while until I figured out that the "change offices" were actually the cars parked on a parking lot with the trunk open and their owners sitting there with huge bundles of money in the trunk. I inquired about the rate (which was one third less than the one I had found on the internet before leaving the hotel). But unlike other money exchange places so far, there was no competition at all (the others changed into / from other currencies) and so the guy "abused his dominant (market) position" (as we say in eurospeak) with a very bad rate, but I really needed to get rid of the Rials quickly and there was no way he would negotiate the rate. After struggling some time with my Swabian soul, I concluded the deal to finally cross the border. When I was back in the hall, a group of about 20 Turkmens had arrived with incredible amounts of stuff they bought in the Iranian supermarket (seems interesting to do it, especially for coca cola, toilet paper (!!!), chips and fruits and vegetables.. (For the toilet paper I understood later: the Iranian one is nice and soft and the Turkmen one horribly rough...;-) ). We waited until about 15.00 until the door opened (they alternate avery hour between opening the entry / exit to/ from Iran as the customs personnel seems to be limited...It was actually an unfriendly lady, which used her "power" against the Turkmen ladies, shouting at them and asking them to re-pack all their purchases before coming to the customs control, when she made them empty and pack everything yet again. With all the stuff I was carrying, I got worried, I also started to feel a bit dizzy and my stomach felt awkward... (Was there anything bad coming up?) When it was my turn, I smiled at her, said a friendly "hello" / "salaam" and she was actually quite friendly to me and did not insist hat I open all me 4 (!!!) bags, but only wanted to see my electronic devices and the 6 kilo souvenir bag. She had no objections and even wished me a good continuation of my trip (ineffective English) ;-). At the passport control, the officer told me "problem!" And explained with hectic gestures that the IT system indicated a problem with my duration of stay (I crossed the border from Turkey at 2am and perhaps they still put the date of the day before??), I pointed to the entry stamp (the date is however indicated in the Persian format and I therefore could not check whether it was correct. He shook his head. I noted down on a piece of pear a very pedagogic explanation: "2 May + 30 days visa = 31 May = ok ;-) " and smiled. He smiled as well, wrote something in the computer and put the exit stamp in my passport. Ouff! ;-) when the last one of the Turkmen group was through, we boarded a minibus, which took us through the 1km nomen's land, over a bridge. Before the bridge, a soldier stopped us, checked whether all passports had the exit stamp and whether the number of passports corresponded to the number of passengers on the bus. All fine, on the other side, we get off the bus, into the Turkmen terminal, where all non-Turkmens (me and two Uzbeks), were pushed into an office, which turned out to be a doctor's room for a "health check". He asked whether I was ok and i confirmed even if I was feeling increasingly dizzy, started to have sweats and stomach cramps. He wrote down some remarks in a big book and that was it. Then an officer took my passport and disappeared into an office. While all the others started to pass through the passport control and customs, they kept me waiting, not clear why ... I was feeling more and more sick and thought I would soon faint and really needed to use a toilet, but there was none and I was in the middle of the border procedure. But after a while, the stomach cramps got so bad that I asked to go to the toilet, making signs that I had stomach problems.... The officers started laughing and asked a soldier to escort me out of the building to a shack some hundred meters away. There were three "toilets"there, actually cabins with holes in the floor and full of hundreds of flies, disgustingly dirty and even more smelly and when I opened the doors, I almost had to vomit... But I had no choice, nature was stronger than disgust...

Once through this border torture and with the effect of Imodium more or less in place (I still had quite painful cramps though... ), I arrived on the Turkmen side, in the middle of nowhere... There was no village, nothing! But a lot of taxi drivers desperate to get some business.. The group of Turkmen "colleagues" went off in another direction and I was left alone with the bunch of taxi drivers wanting to rip me off... No hope of anyone else arriving to share the three to four hour drive to the city of Mary and they knew it and took advantage of it. I knew that the drive should not cost more than 30 $, but the first offer from their side was 100 (!!!!) I first thought it was a joke, but it was not.. I was not in a good negotiating position and my cramps (and another 3 to 4 hours drive ahead and no hotel booked yet, as it could not find out he correct phone numbers..), I ought I should not waste too much time... I in the end got one guy down to 55$ and concluded the "deal".. After a few km however, another guy got into the car, which usually means that your taxi is not "private" anymore and the price goes down.. I signalled this to he driver but he seemed to ignore me...  Until the arrival in Mary - after a horrible drive which plenty of pain and an extremely bad road through the desert and a super hot car... As I wanted to pay in local currency (Turkmen Manat), he tried to rip me off again with the exchange rate... (Of which I was not yet 100% sure as I fox in lonely planet and on internet are often outdated / wrong... ) This was too much and I went into he hotel to enquire. He confirmed my understanding of the exchange rate and also confirmed that I should not pay more than 40$ even for the private taxi. I went out again and tried to explain to he driver, also that he had another client and he price had to go down. He claimed this was a friend who would drive he car back when he has to sleep (??) no possibility to negotiate. I gave him the 40 $ and went inside, but he followed me and started complaining with the receptionist, who in the end got into some kind of mediating position, trying to remind the driver that earning good money is fine, but ripping someone off is not... But the driver really got upset and started to involve a number of other people around and to avoid bloodshed, I agreed to pay 50 with the correct exchange rate. The driver left, mumbling some bad words... This issue was settled, but the hotel did not have rooms. The kind receptionist called around and booked the second-best option in town, which turned out to be outside the centre, ugly, not the cleanest bathroom, the stuff not very helpful and for all that quite expensive ;-( but at least I had a toilet and a bed!!!

The next day I visited the ancient capital of Merw, of which however not much remains. In its heyday it was known as Marv-i-shah-jahan, ‘Merv – Queen of the World’, and it stood alongside Damascus, Baghdad and Cairo as one of the great cities of the Islamic world, as a major centre of religious study and trade on the Silk Road. It reached its greatest heights during the peak of the Silk Road in the 11th and 12th centuries, when the Seljuq Turks made it their capital. Legendary Merv may even have been the inspiration for the tales of Scheherazade’s "Thousand and One Nights" !! The ruins (UNESCO world heritage yet again!) only allow you to very vaguely imagine how is all looked like.... So in the end, I wondered whether it was worth the whole hassle... But well, the sacrifices I can make for the sake of increasing my knowledge are without limits, it seems... ;-) In the afternoon, shared taxi to the capital: Ashgabat! Fair price, better road and air conditioning at least for part of the trip! What a luxury! ;-)

Photos at: https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A6GfnH8tJ0Kask

Ashgabat (‘the city of love’ in Arabic, I wonder why... :-) )

The capital of 5 million inhabitants Turkmenistan has 1 million of them. No wonder, as most of the country (especially the entire central part) is actually desert. Almost entirely destroyed during an earthquake in 1948, which measured nine on the Richter scale, killing more than 110,000 people (two-thirds of the then population), it has entirely been rebuilt. With the proceeds of the country's rich oil and gas resources, the country's leader for 20 years (I should rather say: dictator) Niyazov (who named himself and asked his nation to call him "Turkmenbashi" (leader of the Turkmens), who created a real cult around his personality. And he also started a construction boom on he basis of (what else, if you are rich...?) marble and so the city presents an amazingly monumental style. And there are policemen everywhere, especially in the government area, where the buildings are most spectacular, but you are not allowed to take any photos. And even if you do not want to take photos, but simply stop in front of a building either to admire it or to figure out where to go next, a policeman makes hectic signs first and if you do not react immediately starts shouting at you, especially if you come too close to the President's palace (the One with the golden dome) almost a holy place. The weirdest thing was however the "parade square", a huge empty space next to the Presidential palace, where a huge modern screen (photo) was showing government propaganda videos. I that that this was very interesting and stopped in front of it to watch a bit, but even there, I was not supposed to be. That was really absurd: why produce such videos and show them on such a big screen if nobody is allowed to watch the thing... Anyway... Call me stupid, but I still could not resist to take a few secret shots of the president's palace (from behind a nearby construction fence, so not very good one..) and some other government buildings.... Somehow a very modest personal act of rebellion against the authoritarian leadership of this country and its excessive control policy (just could not help it, I have this rebellious instinct since my early childhood when I - successfully - went on strike in the kindergarten to acquire the right to play with the toys I liked and not those who the educator thought were appropriate toys for me. ;-) )

Photos at: https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A653qWtHJJttpk

Towards the North

Leaving Ashgabat to the historic city of Köne Ürgench, in the North of Turkmenistan (and close to the Uzbek border), which I have to cross the next day, took ages: the collective taxi needed almost 2,5 hours until we found the fourth and last person to leave and, with the lazy morning i spent at the hotel (including a refreshing swim in the outdoor pool), we left only at 16.00 and the trip is supposed to take 7 to 8 hours. I was slightly worried about driving euro the night (which is said to be dangerous, but also because I did not manage to reach the hotel in Köne Ürgench (the number was wrong - in the lonely planet that just came out one month ago (!!!) and no way to get the correct one. The guy at the reception in Ashgabat was also not really interested in helping.. So while I was driving, I still did not know whether I would find any accommodation for that night. :-(

The drive was long and boring, as there was not much to see and my fellow passengers not interested in many "conversation", so I profited from this to get up-to-date with my blog... Ina bad thing at all, actually... From time to time, I looked outside the window: Camels crossing the road, camels grazing in the steppe, workers making repairs of a pipeline along the road, but almost no traffic at all. Then steppe / sandy desert for hundreds of kilometres.

Arrival in Köne Ürgench very late (around 23.00), again without a reservation in the only "hotel" of this place (which looked quite run down and did not deserve the title of a hotel..) and indeed: they did not have a room anymore ... After long negotiations, involving also my taxi driver, they convinced a guy to share the room with me (all rooms seem to have 5 separate single beds anyway...). The room was horrible, not very clean and smelly, not least from the cigarette smoke and the amounts of alcohol consumed in it before my arrival. The guy was called Mischa, a Turkmen of Russian origin (who turned out to hate Russia though...). As I did not have any food and the hotel could not get me any either, Mischa shared everything: first he offered an instant noodle soup and then some very dry and hard bread with some canned meat in a can which did not look very trustworthy. when Mischa briefly left the room, I checked the expiry date on the can: December 2009 (!!!!) But Mischa was eating it, I was hungry (and I had said To him that I was very hungry ...), so I could not really refuse his kind offer and I ate... It tasted fine (a kind of corned beef..) and I did not experience any consequences afterwards - fortunately... ;-) We had a couple of beers, but I refused the vodka, of which Mischa had almost an entire bottle...  He snored quite a bit (meaning: a lot!!) and it was impossible to wake him up in the morning to say goodbye... (Photo below... ;-))

Photos at: https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A6GtnIORJEpTAi

Visit of Konye-Urgench

The next morning I visited the historic town, which, centuries ago, was the centre of the Islamic world, not the end of it (a sit seems nowadays...). It rose in the 12th century, under the Seljuq dynasty of the Khorezmshahs, to shape its own far-reaching empire. With its mosques, medressas, libraries and flourishing bazaars, Gurganj (the Persian name for Konye-Urgench) became a centre of the Muslim world, until Khorezmshah Mohammed II moved his capital to Samarkand after capturing that city in 1210. Most impressive among the sights are the 59m high minaret from 1320 and a domed mausoleum / throne room (??) (archeologists are still arguing about that...). But locals come here mostly to see another small mausoleum of a local Muslim teacher, who is supposed to have healing properties... They walk around the building and touching it at each side several times (photo). There were many people coming here to pray and leaving all kind of objects on / below a dead tree (hairpins, razor blades, coins, little colourful pieces of fabric..., see photo).

Photos at: https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A6GgZLKuUVdJS


Other impressions from the country:

- Cars: Toyota has a quasi monopoly on passenger cars. They are all over and several sample counts I made resulted in an impressive 70-80% market share. Most of them are relatively new and in good shape (much more so than in Iran). There is a surprising amount of SUVs and I have never heard as many squeaking wheels than here as drivers just love to take off full speed.

- cleanliness: the vast central area of Ashgabat is  amazingly clean. No wonder: literally hundreds (if not thousands) of cleaners (mostly women) are running around the city cleaning everywhere, even the traffic lights (which are made out of shiny stainless steel and each decorated with several Turkmen stars).

Technical update: photos

Dear friends,

As there were some problems with photos of previous posts (thanks Pia and Ahmed (dentist) for drawing my attention to it, I checked the links and updated them, so you can go back to the following posts just for the pictures, if you are interested... ;-)

And, Ahmed (in case you are still following), there are unfortunately more tooth stories hidden in two posts: the one "Teheran to Bam", where you will find out about the fate of the crown you glued in, and the recent "Fergana valley"  (where I forgot to mention it (!!!) in the one which I had posted first and which 2 people already have read (so you two guys have to check it again if you are interested in my teeth's wellbeing or rather "badly-being" ... ;-)

For the rest: I still have the illusion (and I will keep it until the end of this trip), that I will be able to finish editing / writing / uploading photos of the part of the trip, which has not been covered so far ... But uploading pictures sometimes takes hours with slow wifi, so I hope you show some understanding... ;-)

Best greetings / hugs / kisses (depending on what you usually get when I write to you bilaterally) !

From Osh to the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek (day 67, 23.06.), or: a scenic but very long drive through the mountains - and: already half way through my 134 days trip!!! :-(

As there is neither a train nor a bus connection (and given my self-imposed "no flights between Istanbul and Beijing" rule), I again had to take a shared taxi, which takes 9 to 10 hours and costs about the same (yes!!) than a flight, which takes 1 hour.  I wanted to leave Osh at 9.30 and for once I left the guesthouse in time. When I arrived at the parking lot, I was offered a seat on a small minibus, in the last row (= no view and no photos and no space for the long drive...!) I declined the seat, explaining that I wanted to have the front seat, next to the driver, which nobody understood... Some people were angry because I was the last one needed to leave and others made remarks which made the others laugh... Fair enough ;-) they had to wait another 15 minutes for the car to fill and off they went at around 10. I was now the first in a large van-like car with 5 more passengers needed and nothing much happened, despite the eager advertising of the driver to each person walking by "Bishkek, Bishkek!" At least a hundred times I heard it... ;-)  from time to time, people indeed wanted to go to Bishkek and at some point, we were only missing two more, but then, when the two more people had showed up, I realised that some others had left to another car (that was full earlier or for which they got a better price...).. Only stupid "loyal-to-the-concluded-oral-contract" Jürgen was waiting there like an idiot... At least that is how I felt at some point, after having waited fore than an hour and at that moment, I really regretted that I did not accept that seat in the last row... But not everything was bad: in the little "tea house" of the parking, a traditional singer with his "string instrument" of which I have forgotten the name (there are so many different ones here...) was eating there and was finally convinced by the other waiting passengers to give us a concert. Really nice! While I could not understand anything, everybody was laughing quite a lot and it was quickly clear to me that he was actually inventing on the spot the lyrics and was actually singing and making fun about each one of us in that tea house. And the two times the people looked in my direction, it was also clear what that meant. I tried to make a friendly face and was laughing as well, while making signs that I do not understand... The whole thing lasted at least 20 minutes and even the grumpy older lady working at he tea house, who at the beginning did not really like the whole thing and kind of complained, started to enjoy and her facial expression turned from grumpy to friendly. The power of music at its best!!! ;-)

It was 11.30 when we finally left, which meant that I would probably only arrive in Bishkek when it is already dark, which i wanted to avoid initially... But well, what can you do? The driver still had to collect some stuff that he was supposed to transport to Bishkek (people in Central Asia actually use taxi drivers as "courier service" - a quite effective and comparatively cheap way of getting important documents or urgent pieces ended for a repair to another place within the same day...) at the pump station, we also got some further delay, as the driver had left the pump in the tank and drove off, which catapulted the pump against another driver standing nearby... There was a lot of fuzz and negotiations as the guy claimed injury, pointing to his left hand. His wife was also shouting at our driver. After about 10 minuted, everybody had calmed down and drove off... When we actually exited Osh, it was already after 12... It was at that moment, when the driver started his first (in my view) daring (but for locals probably very normal and "safe") overtaking manoeuvres, that I realised that my front-row seat was actually on the wrong (=dangerous) side. A lot of cars here in Kyrgyzstan are second-hand and imported from Japan, where they drive on the left side and the steer is therefore on the right, which does not really increase road safety..  I was actually half of our drive directly facing the cars coming towards us until - at the very last moment - the driver pulled back on our own lane... It took quite a while to get used to that... and more than once I just closed my eyes and started kind of praying... ;-)  (imagine, me!!!). We also saw three quite bad accidents during our drive, no surprise...

After a bit more than 1 hour driving, we stopped at a roadside restaurant - for lunch!!!! Not only a quick bite (which was also welcome to me as I only had my "emergency cookies" ...) but until the car was ready to leave, it took in total more than an hour ... After 5 hours, we only had made a bit more than one third of the 650km, despite the driver's excessive speeding (the tyres were constantly squeaking in the many curves of the mountain road. Now when I write this (I have survived!!!! ;-)), I have to say that despite all the stress, the front seat was still worth while having as it was the only was to take some pictures of the fabulous mountain panorama, that got more and more spectacular as we moved along. Unfortunately, when it was most spectacular, it was already quite dark and the light conditions did not allow to take any photos anymore... To get to Bishkek, you have to cross two passes, the highest at almost 3.700m, and an almost 3km long - quite old and scary - tunnel, in which there was a major carbon monoxide accident some years back, in which several people got killed... Between the two passes, the landscape was he most beautiful... It is kind of a high plateau, with shepherds / nomads and their animals (mainly sheep but also horses and cows) everywhere., which from the distance looked like if the mountains and the green grass had lots of white, brown and black little dots on them. There were Yurts (traditional round nomad tents) everywhere, most of them with smoking chimneys (as it was quite cold with about 8 degrees). And along the road, little tables with nomad products, mainly cheese and fresh sheep milk.  We stopped several times more as the driver was tired and needed coffee and close to the many yurts again as everyone except myself wanted to drink the fresh sheep milk and buy some milk and cheese. Until all that business was concluded, that took another half an hour.... While the others were busy drinking and shopping, I played with the family's (maybe 2 year old) little kid, that was running around outside. While he enjoyed it a lot at first, he then fell and started crying and could not be calmed down and from then on, he avoided me as if I had done anything bad to him... The parents did not care much about it and I guess the kids up here are left pretty much alone the entire day when the rest of the family is working...  The final part of the drive was in complete darkness, but there was no panorama anymore anyway..  I finally arrived at my guesthouse at 23.00 only, thanks to Begaiym, a foreign language student who was one of the passengers in the car and spoke very good English, and took me there by taxi (as the guesthouse was quite difficult to find). She actually stayed "loyal" to our car even if her parents went to another one, just to be able to practice her English. During the drive that was however difficult, as I was in the front and she was in the third row only. But we talked quite extensively during our lunch break. She wants to work in tourism once she finishes her studies.

The photos (most taken through the front car window / windshield) are supposed to give you an impression of the changing landscapes:

https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A6GqkRUiukvi3

Osh (day 65 to 67, 21.06. - 23.06.) or: another UNESCO world heritage site you do NOT have to visit

Kyrgyzstan's second biggest city Osh (300.000 inhabitants) was a major stop on the Silk Road and does have a UNESCO world heritage site: "Suleiman's throne", which is up on a rock dominating the city. But as I have mentioned before, this is not always a quality, which in itself merits a visit and that is pretty much the case here. One of the legends is that King Solomon (or Suleyman) was actually the founder of the city. His "throne" has been a Muslim place of pilgrimage for centuries, supposedly because the Prophet Mohammed himself once prayed here. Its slopes have many small caves, each reputed to have different curative or spiritual properties, one of them being a fertility mini-cave, the rocks of which are worn smooth by young ladies getting in to aid their motherly aspirations. I actually saw one in there (photo), or I should better say her shoes outside and her feet... The climb up of he hundreds of stairs to the throne was a sweaty affair, even in the late afternoon, but also necessary to get at least a little bit of practice for my quite ambitious trekking tours later on... (Well, we will see about that.. ;-) )

One of the nice things here was the "TES-guesthouse", a bit out of the centre, but with a nice garden and very quiet and the people I met here: Jacob - an English chef, David - an Australian government official dealing with immigration issues and on the road with his motorbike and - sorry for that - [name forgotten, so NN.] - a German IT specialist from Darmstadt travelling in his adjusted 4WD car for up to 2 years, depending on when the money will run out (which might actually already be after 6 months...). All of them were on the road already for quite a while - each of them on their own - and each of us had plenty of stories to tell, which was really nice. Partly, we had been to the same places or one had already been to a place where another one still wanted to go, so we talked for hours in the guesthouse's garden to exchange travel experiences, went for dinners together and - yes! ;-) - watched football matches (notably the Germany - Ghana, which took place at local time between 1 and 3 am...  ) So, while Osh had nothing particular in terms of sights, it was still a pleasant experience to stay here for 2 nights.

The other nice place was the local "amusement park", something that any city in a central Asian country seems to have and which is - next to the bazaars - THE place where to experience everyday life of and observe local people. I spent the whole Sunday in that park and on the market (which was largely made up of old transport containers, see photos) and took photos (yes, the motivation to take photos came back, fortunately....;-) ). The best were the chess / backgammon players, mostly old men wearing almost all the traditional (and quite funny-looking) felt hats, which I observed quite a while. Many other men were standing around, watching the games and commenting the moves, sometimes with admiration, sometimes with laughter, which in itself was worth observing.

Photos at: https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A6J0DiRHGfrQJG

From Uzbekistan to Kyrgyzstan (day 65, 21.06.), or: the fifth border crossing with my "drugs"

Again, I intended to leave relatively early to cross the border before lunchtime, but again, I snoozed far too many times (no surprise, many of you might say.. ;-)), took too much time for breakfast (well, that's new as I usually do not have breakfast at all..) and I left the hotel just after 11... Found a shared taxi immediately as this time I was the last of the 4 passengers. The 1h15 drive from Fergana to Andijon was quite pleasant as the driver put on some great music. After weeks of all kind of traditional music or ethno-pop (which I enjoyed, don't get me wrong...), this 70ies and 80ies revival was very welcome. I had to control myself really hard not to sing along... ;-) I just love to sing while driving in a car, but mainly if it is my own car... Starting with Boney M.'s "Rasputin", then Toto Cotugno's "Italiano vero" (lasciatemi cantare...), Desireless' "voyage voyage", Boney M. again with "daddy cool", several songs of Modern Talking (which I enjoyed less, I hated them already then...) etc... While I very much enjoyed this, my co-passengers did not seem to be too impressed about this and quickly started to either sleep or grab their smart phones (almost everyone has one and many do have iPhones as well...) and started playing or phoning through their address book ;-) The music was in sharp contrast to the rural landscapes passing by: the spectacular still snow-covered high mountains of the Pamir in close-by Tajikistan, the wheat harvest and the people works in the fields, fruit plantations (with mainly apricots, cherries and small apples, all already ready to be harvested...), mountains of melons on the side of the road, waiting to be bought by the people in the many passing cars, stands with fresh bread (which - as you might have seen on previous pictures - is not only bread but also local art, a little different in each region....).

In Andijon, I asked the driver to drop me off where the collective taxis leave to the border village of Dustlyk, but he just dropped me off the city's main taxi hub, where nobody else would hire a taxi and everyone pretended that it was right here that the shared taxis would leave but that due to the midday heat, nobody was leaving right now... But I knew that they leave somewhere from more north of the centre, but nobody wanted to take me there.. :-( and in combination wanted too high prices for a private taxi. I eventually managed to negotiate the price down to half and we left, but the driver afterwards accepted other passengers, which usually is not the case for a private taxi. But later on, he did not agree to reduce the price accordingly, but smiled when I drew his attention to this inconsistency... Anyway... It did not make me bankrupt and he was actually quite nice, especially when we arrived at a first checkpoint some kilometres from the border where I had to have my luggage already screened in order to actually drive on to the border. He helped carrying my stuff to the little shed with the screening machine. The policeman saw something "suspicious" on his screen and asked for an explanation, which I could not give as I did. I did not recognise the suspicious object myself, but - of course - it was right in the middle of my backpack, which opens from the top and bottom. I pulled out a lot of things, explained, we screened the backpack again and the "thing" was still there... He then insisted hat I unpack everything... Quite a hassle and it was incredibly hot in that shed!!! He did not find anything suspicious and it was finally not clear what that "thing" was... When i packed my stuff again, of course, not everything fitted in as I was trying to pack quickly so I had to start again. By the time I finished, I was literally soaked! We drove off to the actual border, where a long queue of lorries (or "trucks" as my American friends would say ;-), the person in question who always teases me about this will recognise himself.. ;-) , was waiting and the taxi driver could not drive past, so he dropped me off and I had to walk about half a kilometre to the border post. No waiting time there, for once, but my stupid indication on the customs declaration of "drugs for personal use" arose some suspicion here (how stupid can you be to put "drugs" and not "medicine" or something alike...!!!) I started explaining, but nothing to do. I had to pull the stuff out, yet again (oups... I realise I have not yet posted that chapter of when I entered Uzbekistan... It's getting complicated and confused.. Sorry for that ..;-)) I explained that "drugs" does not mean "heroine or cocaine" but is a word for "medicine". The guy looked at all the stuff very carefully, but what attracted his attention most was a small pocket-mirror, which was in my emergency kit. He pulled it out and started looking, very calmly, at his face, from all angles, started plucking some of his eyebrows, inspected some "skin-irregularities", and this in front of about 5 other people who were waiting for his stamp on their customs declaration. Unfortunately, taking pictures at the border is not allowed... ;-)

The only other thing they wanted to check was my photos... Again, they went through all my photos on the iPad (and there are many now after two months of travelling) and when I asked what he was actually looking for, it was all about "pornographic material" (which is prohibited) and not about any political stuff or government buildings (of ahi chinned some pics on here and I was getting a bit nervous therefore..) as I had no pornographic material, he let me go! ;-)

The Kyrgyz entry was very quick: no customs form, no visa, no questions. A quick look at the passport, at the picture, at me, an entry stamp and off I went. In total not even 2 minutes!! From the border, again no shared taxis... Nobody wanted to go to in the same direction, even if my destination, the city of Osh, is only a few km away. Again, the wrong price info in the Lonely Planet provoked some excitement in the price negotiation, but we settled after a while.. ;-) I will become a negotiation professional during this trip! Perhaps I could get part of my trip recognised as post as professional training, instead of here endless negotiation courses? What do you think, Bodil (our training specialist at work... Hi there!! ;-))

No photos from this day :-(

Fergana valley (day 62 to 65, 18.06. - 21.06.), or: "where is the valley?" plus another tooth story

Leaving the Uzbek capital behind after relaxing a lot, I continued my adventure along the Silk Road to the Fergana valley, where a lot of silk is produced and processed. A shared taxi ride of 5 hours brings me to Kokand. The road goes over a pass and presents some quite nice mountain panoramas, somehow a preparation for what I will see in Kyrgyzstan soon. But once you come down from the pass, you enter not really a valley but some kind of plateau ... You never see the mountain ranges on both sides at the same time, so it is not really a valley I would say...

Kokand is quite nice little town, with one major sight "Khan's Palace" (again a UNESCO site... I actually have stopped counting how many I have seen on this trip ...) The palace was nice and also contained a quite cute regional museum, but compared to what I had seen before, it could not really compete... But well, this is not about a competition after all... And the rest of the modern city was also nice and quite dynamic. There were some kind of celebrations going on, with concerts and acrobatic performances in the streets. From the posters, I thought to have understood that it was related to the Uzbek independence, but I asked several people and they could not say what it was, not even the quite clever teenager, who had chatted me up when I walked around in the (quite boring "old town") and walked with me, together with his two friends (who did not say a word..) through the entire town to practice his English. And it was not the national Independence Day (from the Soviet Union in 1991), which is on 1st September. Anyway, the festive atmosphere was nice.

The next day, I continued to the city of Fergana, only a one hour and a half shared taxi drive away. As the local buses left from very close to the guesthouse, I took a bus to the shared taxi terminal. Which was next to the market, where I would have to perform my last black market money exchange. When I arrived there with all my luggage, I was however walking around for almost 20 minutes without finding any and I gave up because it was just too hot and I had still just enough to pay the transport and some food and drinks... In Fergana, I again chose a hotel with a pool, where I decided to stay two nights, to relax a bit more and to discover also the little villages around. The city of Fergana was rather uninspiring, I finally did not go for the excursions to the surrounding villages (notably the silk producing Margilan), but rather enjoyed relaxing at the hotel pool. ;-) What I however did NOT enjoy was a local samosa, which I bought on the market and which contained a little bone... And, what had to happen actually happened: I broke another tooth when I bit on that stupid bone!! This time, the tooth had not been treated with a canal root treatment and therefore started to hurt immediately as soon as something touched it... But dentists have a very bad reputation all over Central Asia (at least that is what I read and a proof is probably the thousands of people running around with a mouth  of gold, even in the front ... So I did not dare going to a dentist here, but more than a week later I can say: I have no pain and hope it will stay that way and as long as it does, I will not do anything ...;-)

Photos at: https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A65ON9t3G81kIH 

Tashkent (day 58 to 62 - 14.06. - 18.06.): Uzbekistan's capital, or: how to deal with traveller's fatigue / a mini depression

The train ride was fine. I shared my compartment with some young guys, who most of the time played cards. They invited me to join them, but even after having observed for quite a while I could not figure out the rules. As their English was inexistent as my Uzbek and my Russian far too basic, I unfortunately had to pass. They seemed to have great fun... We also tried to find a game that we all know, but this attempt failed as well... So, most of the time, I was actually dozing... Once arrived in Tashkent, I intended to use the great metro system to get to the hotel, but when getting out I could not find the entry which was supposed to be right in front of the train station. As always when you arrive somewhere (by train, bus, or walking), all the taxi drivers jump on you at the same time, some even grabbing your arm and trying to pull you towards their car. When I told them "njet taxi, metro!" (You see how sophisticated my Russian is.. ;-)) they wanted to make me believe that there was no metro and for a moment I started to have doubts whether I had arrived at a different train station, where the metro did not go, but just walking past them and following other people was again the right strategy ... (Something I usually try not to do in life, but when you are lost, you have nothing to lose, so: why not ;-)) After a few hundred meters I saw a big "M" sign and instead of the 10.000 sum the taxi drivers advertised, I got to the hotel with just 1.000 .. (0,25€). Apart from this real "Schnäppchen" (as we say in German), I also got to experience already from the start one of the sights of Tashkent. The metro system is very efficient and the stations are all very interestingly decorated. Unfortunately, it is not allowed to take photos inside as it is considered as strategic infrastructure and I could of course be a terrorist trying to prepare a bomb attack or something...  Well, never mind... As a strategic infrastructure, it is also well guarded: at each entry, there is a policeman who sometimes already uses one of these electronic devices to check your luggage / bags. Inside the station, before you actually go down to the platform, there is a real baggage check and inside the station, there is at least one other policeman (on top of the several officials from then metro company..) I was very lucky that at the luggage check, they did not insist to inspect my 4 bags (as they did with some ladies in front of me who had to empty all their plastic bags and show the result of their day's shopping). The guy was happy when I told him that I am from Germaniya, that I am a "turist" and after showing my passport. ;-) on another day, when I had just been to the bazaar to exchange 300$ on the black market and I not only got stacks of 1000 bills but also some of 500 (meaning I had my little bag stuffed with money for which I had no exchange receipt ...), when he asked to control my bag, I first pulled out my passport and told him that imam from Germany and willingly opened my plastic bag with the two bottled of ice tea I had just bought and then fortunately he got distracted by football, pointing out the 4:0 victory against Portugal and I said "otschen charascho" (very good!) with a big grin on my face and he was just laughing and in the end - fortunately!! - forgot about my bag... My heart really had started to beat very quickly and I started already to figure out some cheap excuse why I was running around with 900.000 sum in bills of 1000 and 500... (When you exchange at the bank you usually get bills of 5000) and without any receipt... Fortunately, that excuse was not needed... But I now get distracted as well... I was actually still on my way from the train station to the hotel.. ;-) but that was anyway boring stuff..

The three star Sharq hotel, which I offered myself for a change, is actually quite central, modern and well equipped, but the main reason why I chose it was the swimming pool in its garden (and almost better: it turned out that breakfast was served until 11!!!! :-) ) I intended to relax a bit here in Tashkent as I started to feel a certain level of travel fatigue, something well-experienced long-time travellers had waned me about... Here it was, after two months of travelling... I just wanted to sleep, sleep and sleep (my friends know at that is nothing new for me, but usually that applies at the maximum until 2pm, or to be perfectly honest until 3 :-)) and watch television (mostly zdf-neo, where they had an almost 24 hours German detective shows special (I just loooove them, for my German friends, Bella Block, Rosa Roth, Zwei Brüder, but also Inspector Barneby! Pia: the real one, not Barany!  ;-) but I even watched stupid house decoration shows on Russian TV (those where they "surprise" a family by completely redecorating / refurbishing their house...) but i also watched some games of the football World Cup... Apart from that, even when I went out, I did not really want to do the classical sightseeing and even did not want to take photos (imagine !!!) so, there are almost no photos of Tashkent (sorry, Zach... I know you had asked to take many, but...) I would say this travellers fatigue is somehow comparable to a small depression... But no worries: only a small one ;-) but is is also almost natural as the kid of things you see here in Uzbekistan, but also in other countries I have visited before, are rare similar. And after having seen 20 Medressas already in Uzbekistan (including the most spectacular ones), do you really need to visit another three (less spectacular ones)? I don't think so! ;-) in any case, due to the visit of the South Korean president, many streets were blocked and some of the sights closed (as the official delegation was visiting stuff as well...) conditions were not really favourable.. I for my Brussels friends: it was somehow comparable to the Obama visits in Brussels ... (Imagine, for he South Korean President! ;-) )

So the only sights i saw was thanks to my new friend Georgiy, a young tour guide whom I had met in Bukhara (he was with a German tour group there while I visited one of the museums and I "adopted" the group to get some more information than the rather poor indications next to the displays... It also turned out hat we were staying at the same hotel and so we started talking... ) He offered me a free tour around and so I saw the main sights at least from the outside (he thought and me as well at that moment that I would come back the next days to visit the inside, but that never happened....  Also thanks to Georgiy and his friend Lena, who is a "Wolga-German" (one of the few who did not leave after the collapse of the Soviet Union), I saw or at least heard the match Germany against Portugal in a public viewing in a huge outdoor restaurant (the only table left was actually behind the screen..), but as all the Uzbeks supported Germany, it was easy to figure out when Germany scored... It was quite an atmosphere there... ;-) And thanks to Barno, a friend of Zach (who had met her when he worked in Tashkent some 25 (??) years ago and who until recently worked as a cultural director for the Swiss development programme, also got to see some culture. We went to a play (in Russian!!) about the Russian poet Yesenin at the famous Ilkhom theatre, described by the Lonely Planet as "Tashkent’s main cultural highlight", which is a progressive / alternative theatre, which stages productions on critical political / societal issues. Its director, Mark Weil, who founded the theatre in 1976, was stabbed to death in 2007, allegedly by Islamists for blaspheming the Prophet Mohammed in one of his plays. While I did not get much of the play (mainly consisting of recitals of his poems..), the actor was amazing and the production quite original. And the whole point was to experience the atmosphere and the spectators of the theatre, which was great!

Photos

Samarqand (day 55 to 58 - 11.06. - 14.06.), another star on the Silk Road, or: renewed blog enthusiasm?

Dear friends, the delay is now so important and I start getting frustrated with this whole Blog exercise... So I took an "important" decision: I will give up on the principle of chronology and will from now on post up-to-date information so that you can actually follow what I am currently doing (the whole idea of he blog in the first place, right?). I will the try still (but do not promise anything!) to include "flash-back chapters" with info from the last weeks... (Let's see where this will work...) ;-)

While I write this, I am sitting in a Russian restaurant in the Russian quarter of Samarqand as the only guest. A bit strange, but the restaurant scene here in Samarqand is not THAT vibrant and I already once had to eat a "Gamburger" (sic! With the G pronounced as "ch") in a fast food restaurant as I went out too late and all the restaurants were closing...the Gamburger was quite a greasy affair, so an experience not to be repeated, so I did not want to challenge  my destiny tonight and decided to stay here despite being the only guest... Thinking that I would now have the full attention of the about 4 or 5 waiters was however a mistake. While they were friendly, they were sitting outside and chatting and I had the feeling I was rather a nuisance.. Everything took ages... But well, the food was kind of ok... (That is what counts, right?) and the decoration of the plate was marvellous ;-) (see photo). I even got, at end of the meal, a "welcome to Old City Restaurant" drink: "Cognac Samarqand" (they have not heard about protected products here... Or more likely: they do not care.. ;-) )

This is my last out of three nights here in Samarqand. Tomorrow, I will leave by train to Uzbekistan's capital: Tashkent. As I did my planning too late, I unfortunately did not get a ticket anymore for the Uzbek high-speed train "Afrosiyab", the pride of the country, which covers the distance in 2,5 hours...it was actually quite a challenge to get a train ticket at all, as the Lonely Planet gave wrong information (yet again!!) as did people I asked, or they did not know (the train station is far out of town and there are usually ticket offices or travel agencies somewhere in the centre...), but in the end I found it and I got a ticket for a "Sharq" train, which is still faster as the normal train they had first advised me as an alternative (taking 9 hours and arriving in Tashkent in the middle of the night..) and takes a bit less than 4 hours.

The other challenge today was to finally change money. I had asked around during the last days, but the rates offered were just too bad, so I kept postponing, but now it was urgent as I had to pay the hotel room. In the end, I changed from a taxi driver, who had loads of cash in his trunk... I negotiated well and he complained about the "bad business", but it was still good enough for him to conclude.. ( ;-) ) and not the best rate I had so far, so I did not feel any pity... But I should explain here that all this is exchange on the "black market" as the official rates prescribed by the government considerably over-rates the national currency in order to hide the weakness of the currency due to flagrant inflation. So if you change on the black market, you get about one third more... And everyone is involved in this exchange business: hotels, taxi drivers, money changers, shops ... As they all want to change their Som very quickly into a more stable currency and it is not easy for them to change it officially.. But that also means that you need to negotiate hard the rate... :-)

Samarqand was the highlight so far in Uzbekistan. While I liked a lot Khiva and Bukhara and lot of it is similar / the same in terms of style of the monuments than in those two other big Silk Road cities, Samarqand features the biggest and most significant monuments. And despite these similarities, I continue to be impressed each time I see a dome, a minaret or a Medressa covered in blue (and other coloured) tiles. So you will continue to see lots of photos of those... Sorry for this.. I hope you bear with me.. :-)

The Registan, a huge square with 3 Medressas, is probably the most famous site here, but Bibi Hanim mosque, the mausoleum of the great Ruler Timur and the "burial city" of Shah-e Sinda are almost equally impressive. Have I mentioned already that this is another UNESCO world heritage site? ;-) and this time, really well-deserved! The city has been extremely restored / rehabilited in recent years, which makes it very nice and pleasant for tourists to walk around. However, the local population paid a high price for this: they destroyed a number of houses and the remaining parts of the old city have been "closed off" by a wall around it, with only few gates so that Tourists would not "by accident" walk into this chaotic / "dirty" part of town... And the one-day excursion to Shahri-Sabz, the city where the great Timur comes from, which according to the Lonely Planet, was still "authentic" and not "cleaned" like Samarqand, that was rather disappointing concerning the sights (despite being a UNESCO site as well... But I can of course not grasp the historic relevance of the place...), but interesting in as far as the "cleaning up" was in full swing and it was just amazing to see how the government actually destroys the entire area of the ancient city / Palace of Timur. The "modern" city had been built within the ancient walls and right next to the ruins of the palace and a number of mausolea, but is this really a reason to destroy people's livelihoods?? You really cannot imagine the dimension of the destruction... You really could think you are in a city that has just had an earthquake or a war. And the taxi driver told us that this was required by UNESCO (which I do not think it was, at least I hope it), but probably it is very convenient for the local government to blame it on them.

Another thing to mention here is my very cute Bed & Breakfast, in the middle of the chaotic and "dirty" old city, behind one of the gates, but in a very nice courtyard house, with a garden looking like paradise: flowers and fruit trees all over... :-) I can only recommend the "Antica"... The owner welcomed me in a perfect German (she studied German at University..) and offered me a nice welcome tea with local fresh bread and homemade jam.. Yummy! ;-)

Photos

Night in a caravanserai, or: a night like in a fairytale

Between Kashan and Kerman, we spent one night in the 400 year old Caravanserai Zein-o-Din, which is one of the few still existing caravanserais in a round shape, beautifully restored and now turned in a very small guesthouse. It is situated in the middle of the (semi-) desert with beautiful mountains behind. The caravanserai does not have rooms, but wooden podiums surrounded by curtains, with nice carpets and (rather thin) mattresses the floor, which was a bit hard for my taste, but in the end I slept quite ok. The caravanserai was beautifully decorated and the entire place was just magic... I think the photos speak for themselves and since I took so many, I thought I would dedicate a specific post on this one... Its door also shows a typical feature of old doors here in the region: two different door-knockers, one for men (long) and one for women (round) (interestingly, quite a sexual reference...) so that those inside would know even before opening who is outside to know whether a woman or a man would open. Normally, the huge roof terrace of the caravanserai is an amazing place to observe stars, but as we had full moon, the stars were actually not that spectacular, but still, the place had a really nice atmosphere. We enjoyed the nice breeze, the view of the full moon while having an evening tea and biscuits (and later got invited by the driver of the other group to a glass of home-made Shirazi wine, mixed with some local grape liquor - quite a brew...(!!!).  The taste was not spectacular, but I would still describe it as interesting.... This leads me to the issue of alcohol here in Iran, which is strictly forbidden by law, but still seems to be quite wide-spread in private / protected environments. In Teheran, at a small dinner party in the apartment of a lady which is part of what I would call the cosmopolitan Persian elite (with artists, businessmen and some spontaneous foreign guests such as myself present), but also in a small village where I was invited to a home and where they not only pulled out some home-made 80% strong liquor but also bought a (Danish!!!) beer in my honour in some secret shop in the village. It seems that there is quite some alcohol consumption by Iranians, made possible by major smuggling, inter alia via Dubai...

Photos at: https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A6GI9HKKP883v

From Tehran to Bam - towards the desert, or: how camera and toothproblems reappear

The guide (a sixty year old man the name of which I have never understood) and the driver (his son) came to the residence. It took us quite a while to get out of Tehran, as the driver took a wrong turn with considerable consequences as we ended up in the middle of Tehran's traffic chaos and it took ages to get back on the right track (especially because the two were from Shiraz and did nit really know the city..), but there the first trouble with the guide started: he told us (probably thinking we were stupid...) that we did a detour to buy water for the trip... (Right... ;-) ) While not understanding anything of what they were saying  we realised that they were arguing about where to go... But eventually, we got on the right highway towards The holy city of Ghom, passing the mausoleum for Ayatollah Khomeini (which is still being built and is just huge!). While Ghom is the second most important religious place in Iran (after Mashad) and the centre of religious studies, I was quite disappointed about this visit as we were not allowed to enter the (allegedly very beautiful) shrine of ???, which was the very reason why we came here. It was also not very clear why, as our guide had been here with a group the week before and entered without any trouble. At the entrance to the vast complex, we were asked to join an Italian tour group to make it easier for our "guards" to "control" us (i.e. telling us what to do or not and where to go - or rather NOT in this case ..). So we could only enter two of the courtyards and were not even allowed to approach the entrance to the mausoleum, which meant it was not even possible to take a decent photo... At least, I told to myself, I got here very easily with a private car and guide because I would have been really angry if I had come here as originally imagined, by interrupting my train ride back from Kashan to Tehran with all my luggage and by taxi back and forth from / to the train station... 

After this first disappointment, we continued towards Kashan, quite a nice place, but of which - after more than three weeks - I finally do not have any particular memory of anymore, so no need to say anything more here... (How quickly one forgets... Especially once over 40... ;-) )

On the way from Kashan to Kerman, we visited the city of Na'in, with a nice little and very old mosque, another traditional house and a very interesting ancient water mill, about 30m under the ground and using the water of the canal-system used to bring water from the mountains to the desert cities (See below). We also visited a traditional underground (since cooler...) weaving workshop (where I was "forced" into a traditional costume and the guide forced himself into the photo (no joke, this guy really had a crush on me...., which at some point later in the week really started to be annoying...) These workshops, which produced traditional and very heavy camel hair coats that nobody wants to wear anymore, so they partly now produce carpets, but mostly it is a dying profession, which the local who showed us around said was not a consequence of modernisation as such, but because the modernisation was rather "Westernisation" (as everyone in Iran now wants to wear the same clothes as we do in the West). And - more or less simultaneously - I experienced (yet another time!!!) the limits of our western civilisation: after having repaired the lense of my camera before leaving, after it broke again in Turkey, then buying a new one, in Na'in, the camera itself gave up and showed "error 99" on the screen, while giving the advice to switch off the camera and on again and/or taking the battery out in order to fix it. But unfortunately, nothing of this worked and also an extensive search for troubleshooting on google did not help: while there were many discussions about the error (including videos on YouTube), there was no real indication how to fix it. I continued taking photos with my iPhone... And hope that the camera can be repaired in Shiraz in about 3 or 4 days ("I will keep you posted ..." Is what I originally wrote here, but by the time of finalising this post, I can take out the suspense of this story and just tell you that they fixed it in Shiraz (for the relatively modest cost of 50$). And - at least so far (touch wood!!!) - everything is working fine.

The city of Yazd, according to UNESCO one of the oldest cities of the world and an important centre along the Silk Road, is an oasis in the desert and is one of the centres of the Zoroastrian religion (named after their prophet Zarathustra), the oldest of the mono-theist religions (believing in the god Ahura Mazda and the holy book of the Avesta), but Judaism and Christianity have actually taken over important concepts from Zoroastrianism, notably the contrast between good and evil (God versus Satan), paradise and hell, existence of angels and life after death. Zoroastrians are officially recognised by the Iranian state since 1906, a status which continues even after the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and the existence of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The about 91000 officially declared Zoroastrians even have one seat reserved in the Iranian Parliament (as by the way the other officially recognised religious minorities like Jews, Christians and Sunnites). Of course, this alone does not mean a lot in terms of protection of minorities, but still...  We visited the temple of the eternal fire, where it is said that a fire has been burning all the time since the year 470 AD as well as two "towers of silence", round fortresses, where they performed their burial ceremonies: they put the dead bodies in this open structure and let the vultures eat the meat off the bones. From time to time they would then collect the bones, clean and treat them and then properly bury them. It was quite a special atmosphere to climb up these towers and to imagine what had happened there.. While their fellow Zoroastrians in India are still allowed to perform this ceremony, in Iran this is prohibited for hygienic reasons.

In Yazd (but also in Kashan), there are beautiful Persian gardens, which are also part of the UNESCO world heritage. They have a very sophisticated irrigation system with small water canals running everywhere, even through the houses for cooling purposes, all of them getting their water from the Khanehs. As one can imagine, life in the desert is a lot about access to water and about cooling and it was amazing to see all the technologies, which were invented thousands of years ago to collect, store and distribute the water and to keep places cool. And the are all based on the Khanehs, which are underground canals bringing water from the mountains to lower areas, usually there are up to 30km long, but in desert areas , like in Yazd, can measure up to 60km. They are usually 1,80 high so that a man can stand upright in it. In total, in Iran, there are more than 130 000 km of these Khanehs!!! The cooling system is enhanced through the Badgir, a wind tower, which captures the wind on the top through large openings, cools the air down and cooler air is released on the lower end, which is in the house. Even when there is not much wind outside, it is amazing how efficient the system is. but the badgirs are not only put on houses but as well on the water storages as natural cooling systems. In the houses, you often have a fountain just underneath to increase the cooling effect, but e towers also serve to cool the water in the cisterns. One of the cisterns we visited had 6 of these towers!  And, of course, they are "climate-friendly", I would even say "climate-smart" solutions... (Sorry for yet another job-related reference, but I cannot help it ;-). A nice encounter here was with a guy carrying heavy sacks of flour into a bakery where we bought delicious fresh bread. He was quite white from the flour and suffered quite a bit from carrying the heavy sacks in the midday heat. We started talking to him and it turned out that it was actually an Arabic teacher, who just helped out his father who sells flour. He spoke some English and we shared some of our bread with him and had a very nice chat (photo).

In the village Faradja, close to Kashan, we visited one of the oldest mosques of the country, entirely made out out of traditional mud and brick and, right in front, on the local "playground", we joined the kids playing and admired the retro-style of the father of some of them (see photo!) on a motorbike. ;-)

We then continued to the actually very nice city of Kerman, with it's very nice bazaar, will stay in my memory for a not so nice reason. While eating another "Dizi" (the attentive reader will remember from the Tabriz-post (if not go back and refresh your memory... ;-) ) that this is a traditional Iranian dish, which contains pieces of meat), I chewed on a tiny little bone and a piece of my tooth-crown broke off!!!! Nooooooooo!!!! This cannot be true!!!! To my Turkish dentist-friend Ahmed I can only say: I know this is not your fault (there was already a small crack in the crown which he glued back in, I had realised this...). On the contrary: I would say it is thanks to the strong glue he used that the remaining (major) part stayed in!! So: thank you very much... And to also cut this story short (as I am three weeks behind he schedule with this blog): I went to a very nice dentist in Shiraz (a Jew living here in Iran... !!! Yes, they do exist..see info on religions in next paragraph...) who spoke English and even a bit of French! After having looked at it he told me that it was not possible to fix it, that I would have to stay for at least a week to make a new crown (which I could not..) and that actually I would not have any pain (as they had done a canal root treatment on it...), so I should just wait until I am back in a Brussels in September... He also said that I was quite lucky, because only the inside part broke off, while the outside and the surface where you bite on were without any damage...so: no worries! Thanks you! ;-) (no further damages three weeks down the road... also touch wood... ;-) ). The other memorable story from Kerman is our visit of the modern art museum, where they have several quite high profile exhibits from famous artists like Kandinsky, Ernst, Moore, but also had a photo exhibit, which was the result of a local photo competition and which they sold for the benefit of a local organisation taking care of orphans. I actually bought one of the photos (see photo of it), which I found very impressive, and fortunately Gabriele offered to take it to Brussels. The youngsters in charge were really happy that two foreigners bought photos and took photos of us with the photos we bought and said they would publish them on their Facebook site, but so far I have not seen anything... ;-). In the museum, there was also one work (photo) of the "Heech" (meaning "nothingness") series  by the famous Iranian sculptor Tanavoli, which I have met twice at social occasions during my stay in Teheran. He produced this "heech" in all kind of materials and variations. And finally, we also visited a former hammam-bath, turned into a museum, with very beautiful tile work ..

Photos at: https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A65n8hH4GT56u7

In the bazaar, or how to enjoy perpetually getting lost

Some are more beautiful than others - I have already spoken about the one in Tabriz -, but all are really fascinating to me. I have visited some in the morning (when they are usually most busy), some around lunchtime when many (in some Bazaars even most of the) shops start closing for a siesta (and only reopen around 4 or 5 pm) or - if the shops do not close - the shop-owner often nevertheless takes a nap in the shop (which is though had a special charm, but I mostly did not dare to take photos...) and some in the evening (when people come back shopping at the end of their work day) and when in my view most bazaar were the most atmospheric. To some bazaars (such as in Shiraz), I came back several times at different moments of the day. In Kermanshah, I also finally got an answer to one of the questions I had from the very first day in Tabriz: what happens in the Bazaar when it is raining, as they all have small open holes in their vaulted ceilings to let the light in. A huge (and dramatic) thunderstorm went over the city and a torrential rain broke loose and not only did the rain come in through those holes and the shopkeepers - some very relaxed others with a certain sense of panic) took away all their merchandise affected, but the water also came in through another source: the drain of the roofs actually was diverted through pipes into the alleys of the bazaar, which provoked quite a considerable stream. Again, reactions were very different: those happy about it (the kids, who started to walk in it or even jump in it quite to the frustration of their mothers) or at least pragmatic (many shopkeepers used the water to clean the dusty alley in from of their shop or even the shutters of the shop), and then the others who were annoyed (notably the Iranian ladies , whose often very fancy shores got completely wet as at some places the stream covered the full alley) or in panic to protect their merchandise laid out on the floor of the alley (with one very inventive older guy who used some full rubbish bags to divert the water flow around his merchandise and being very proud of that, showing off his system to others with a huge smile on his face). The Bazaar in Tehran is less beautiful, but nevertheless fascinating as it is the biggest of the country and when I say BIG I really mean it. It is probably also he busiest one as many shopkeepers from around the country come here to buy in great quantities. This is why there is also an incredible amount of merchandise transported back and forth on two-wheel carriages pushed by sweaty men (often quite old...), some of them completely overloaded. This is where - despite the warning of the Lonely Planet - I got twice hit by a some of those carriages. No major damage however - fortunately... But as a non-Farsi speaking tourist, often I did not hear the warnings shouted by the guys pushing them as I could not distinguish them from the other noises. Despite the prohibition, it is also not unusual that motorbikes drive through the bazaar even at the busiest moments, which also causes (however astonishingly few) accidents with people and those carriages. A permanent feature in the bazaars are of course the carpet shops and sellers, some of which really push hard to make you buy one... (I actually did in the end in Shiraz, but only a very small one...). In he courtyards or some side-alleys of the bazaars, you often have workshops still producing the goods which are sold nearby so gnat transport costs and efforts are rather minimal. ;-) However, one of the nicest bazaar impressions for me are always the spice shops, which you can smell already from far and I just love the colours of the spices and flowers / tea they are selling... In total, I took hundreds of pictures in bazaars and many of them are great (in my humble and non-partisan opinion), but I had to select just a few.. Here they are... (And perhaps more to come as there will be more bazaars along the Silk Road (trading was after all the main purpose of the whole thing ;-) )

Photos

Teheran, or: spoilt like a prince (or shall I say princess? See harem reference below :-) )

Apologies, I am now three weeks behind.. Will try to catch up, by being shorter and more selective (and thus probably less boring...) When this is posted, I am actually already in Turkmenistan.. (Oups...)

After my spontaneous arrival in the capital, I stayed in the end longer than I initially wanted, but not because I found this city particularly beautiful. It is true that the city hosts some of the greatest museums of the country, but I thought the city as such was not that nice. But my host and the environment in which I lived here more than made up for this. Right on the first night when i arrived, Luca took me to a dinner party of a rich Iranian lady and her sister (for which I was not properly dressed as I had not foreseen any such social events during my trip and looked like the standard tourist (however - at least as far as I think - way more classy than the standard German tourist... Just for the records :-) ). It was a group of less than 20 people: businessmen, two famous Iranian artists (one sculptor and one theatre director), gallerists, a diplomat and myself. The soirée took place in a luxurious apartment in the North of Tehran, where the wealthy people live (it is higher up and close to Mount Damavand, with 5671m the highest mountain in the Middle East). This world was quite a contrast to the Iran I had seen so far. All of them had travelled the world extensively, many of them having lived abroad for a long time and / or have secondary / third residences there. I had some really interesting conversations about the Iran of before the Islamic revolution, today's Iran and perspectives for the future. Judgments here were more informed than in my previous conversations as the level of education and exposure to other forms of society were much higher. The next day I did not do anything. I just felt like relaxing, which was easy as I was staying in probably the nicest "house" of Tehran. It was a former summer residence of a rich family, which Italy bought as an Ambassador's residence in the 1920ies if my memory serves me correctly.. Sorry Luca, I have already forgotten everything you told me...). It has a main building, which was the place guests had been received, a "harem", the private part where women and children lived (and where I was hosted .. ) and, most importantly I would say: a huge Persian garden, with water basin, water channels, etc. In this paradise, the birds were singing and you could hardly hear the hectic life and traffic outside. The next day, Gabriele, a friend of Luca, also from Brussels and which I know from sight only, arrived. He planned to start a round-trip with a driver and a guide two days later. As his tour partly covered what I had programmed as well, I decided to join him for a week, which made my logistics just so much easier (to have a private driver for a longer period is sheer luxury for my travel standards ;-) ). As we are all three convinced Europeans, we of course watched the Eurovision Song Contest, as Luca receives RAI1 via satellite and saw Conchita "sausage" Wurst winning (as I learned later, she also became an icon for the Iranian gay community very quickly, who seems to follow the Eurovision with great interest). Luca also took us out to a very stylish and trendy restaurant and organised a dinner at the residence in Gabriele's honour (i had not been foreseen that early...), where I partly met again the same people from the soirée three days before. I really had extremely enjoyable evenings!!! Thanks, Luca!!! ;-)

During the days, I wandered around the city, tried the very modern and efficient metro and visited some of the many sights: Golestan palace (another UNESCO world heritage site), some of the parks, the bazaar (see separate chapter on bazaars), the very nice glass and ceramics museum in a beautiful building and the fantastic jewellery museum, with an amazing collection (inter alia the world's biggest diamond, several crowns (including the one Farah Diba has worn at the crowning ceremony), several thrones fully covered by precious stones and literally thousands of pieces of jewellery and kilos of loose precious stones. No wonder is hidden in the fortified basement of the national bank! ;-)
Photos