Getting out of Turkmenistan

Today is primarily a travel day as we say goodbye to Mary and head to the border to cross back over into Uzbekistan.

It's another long drive but on better roads and before we hit the highway we have a couple of short stops.

First is the Orthodox church of St Mary. Constructed in 1900 it was turned into a nightclub type venue in the Stalin period. In 1947 permission was granted to revert to it's intended use.

Next we stop at a cotton factory outlet as one of our travel companions, Ian, wanted a couple of shirts. We didn't buy anything (!) but Ian wasn't the only purchaser 😁

Then just before the nice smooth, toll road that takes us most of the way, we stop at a field of cotton. We walk into the bushes and find most seed heads have bloomed and the cotton is ready to pick. It's really easy to ease off the cotton wool. It still has seeds mixed in and these have to be separated, and used to make oil, before the cotton can be processed into textiles.

On the way our driver got stopped for speeding and, we assume, had to pay a big bribe 😂😂 especially as he grumpily had to come back to the car for more before the police were satisfied!

We stopped for lunch at Turkmenabad although Timur and Shelby didn't seem to have organised a venue beforehand. The driver of a separate car with our luggage in basically kidnapped a passerby to show us to a good restaurant 🤣🤣🤣

Eventually we got to the border and it took another monotonous 2 hours of waiting, shuttle buses and passport checks before we were through and on to Bukhara.

Felt like another long day and we were certainly ready for the beers after all that!Read more