Karakalpakstan

Up today for a 4 hour drive south to Nukus. Amazing there were a few spits of rain as we left Khiva but it was still a balmy 33degrees.
My driver was a teacher of Russian who also drives for tourists, he is the second person I have spoken to recently who said they preferred life under the soviets , I think it is a product of his generation as all the younger people I have spoken to say they would not want to live under the Soviet regime.
I got dropped off at the ruins of the 1st century capital of the region Toprak Kala which was interesting, further down the highway we turned off and I was dropped at the ruins of an ancient Zoroastrian temple of the wind. I got there at the same time as another car which was a coincidence as we were in the middle of nowhere, the two girls in it were Germans, we climbed to the top together, they were interesting to talk to. I then met up with them at the museum in Nukus and let them share my guide .
This evening I walked to the bazaar which was heaving with people out after the worst of the heat of the day had gone.
Nukus is the 6th largest city in Uzbekistan, but seems to lack real soul.
Tomorrow I’m off to Turkmenistan to camp by the Darvaza gas crater, so guess I won’t be doing anything on the Internet then, it will be interesting to see what the internet is like in Turkmenistan as it’s a pretty closed country and I’m told by others I’ve spoken to it’s quite like North Korea in that you have to have a guide watching over you whenever you are outside the hotel.Les mer