Uzbekistan - Qongirat Moynad

(pictures are in reversed order...)
We arrived a Qongirat Uzbekistan to pick up our local guide and we stayed a night in the road-side rest houses where local truck drivers stop to have rest. After picking up some supplies the next morning from the town, we headed to Moynad.

Pictures taken at Qongirat market. Town was full of Russian cars to yester years.

Moynad was not on our original schedule to visit. The visit was possible because we by-passed Turkmenistan. There is a very sad story associated with Moynad and one had to see it to believe the story.

Moynad was once a fishing town with a very large fish cannery which employed several thousands of employees. The Aral Sea has now retreated some 150km away and left fishing boats high and dry (see pictures). The Soviet authority some years ago decided to drain the sea to irrigate cotton fields. Once the irrigation project started, no present day government is going to reverse the process. The disaster is man made and there is always two sides to a story.

There is only a small river/stream a couple of kms out from the township where we camped for the night. By the sound of it, it wouldn't be long before this river dries up too. Hopefully, for the environment and for humanity, this does not happen.

Kazakstan - Aktau Beneu Camel track

This is probably not a fair assessment of what Kazakstan is really like as we were only just driving through from Aktau to Beneu and onto the camel track to Uzbekistan.

There was not much in Aktau apart from the ferry terminal and the town centre which was once a thriving holiday destination for the Russians during the Soviet era. Aktau does have a beach on the Caspian Sea coast with an unusual jetty (see picture). Its purpose was not obviouse to me.

On arrival at Aktau, it was early hours in the morning and the Authority was not in full motion. Anyway, after a couple of hours of processing we were through and officially in Kazakstan. But, we still had to wait for them to process Calypso. So, to catch up with some sleep, we slept anywhere/anyway we could.

An attached picture shows I was trying a cool drink by the side of the road. The mini-tanker says "KBAC". I still don't know what it was, but it's cool refreshment on a hot day.

The main highway between Aktau and Beneu was nothing but a slossy dirt road where many trucks were seen bogged.

Beneu is a railway town. Like the highway we just arrived from, most of the roads in the town were not sealed (see picture) making "a night out in town" very difficult.

The next day we took the camel track (most maps don't show this "road" to Uzbekistan). I guess it was originally travelled by caravans and camels, it is called the camel track. Just to add justification to the label, we did see wild camels along the road.

Calypso developed a problem. We had picked up some dirty fuel in Aktau and the fuel system was clogged and Tim had had a frustrating time trying to drain the fuel tank and replace filters in the middle of nowhere - something thing we don't need on such a trip.

Basically, Kazakstan did not give us a very positive impression for a place to visit. As said, it's probably is not a unfair assessment of a very large country where we had only travelled a very small corner of it.

Azerbaijan - Baku and Caspian Sea

(pictures are in reversed order....)
Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan is a very expensive city. Internet in the hotel was US$15 per day and there were 22 of us. A handful of us were desparate to be on line.

The city is modern - too modern for me, anyway. The shops are mainly designer-labelled; similar to mid-town Manhattan.

There is an old city (Icheri Sheher) within the modern city. The old castle wall has been fully restored (see picture). There are several karavansarais in within and most have been restored to be restaurants/hotels (see picture - the one with a dining table in the alcove). The other picture shows an old karavansaria being excavated. There is also a round watch tower in the old city - in perfect condition.

Unfortunate for Tim and Cheryl though. It was a tough time for them; very stressful really. All because there was no set time for ferry sailing to Kazakstan (remember we had to make a detour to Kaz becuase Turmenistan closed its border due to Swine Flu?). Tim was camping at the ferry teminal trying to keep his ears to the ground -literary - to hear the rail wagons being loaded onto the roll-on-roll-off ferry. Ferry company seemed to be cagey about when the ferry might sail and when it would arrive at Aktau (Kazakstan).

We eventually boarded late afternoon and the ferry set sail 8:30pm for the expected 19hr sailing across the Caspian Sea. Picture of sun-setting over the Caspian Sea. There were not that many passengers on board and none of the service areas were opened, except the kitchen where they only served tea and beer. Only one toilet to be shared by all and no lights in it for most of the time.

We got to Kazakstan waters in good time but we "parked" it in the bay until dark (I guess it is cheaper for the ferry owner to dock in early hours than daylight hours). We got kicked out of our cabins shortly after midnight and waited again. All the old Soviet countries we visited still have a long way to learn about customer service.

Azerbaijan - Sheki, En-route to Baku

(pictures are in reverse order)
We did not stay in Azerbaijan for all that long but long enough to have an appreciation of the country. First stop was at Sheki - on old town from the Silk Route days. We stayed in a refurbished Karavansarai - see picture. It was one of the better kept karavansarai. Also, visited the old palace up on top of the hill.

After Sheki, we travelled on the main trunk road eastward en-route to Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. Surprisingly, for an oil rich country, the road was unsealed and very dusty. See picture attached.

Next stop, a bush camp in the middle of a mud volcano field - a bit like NZ's Rotorua except the mud is not boiling like Rotorua's.

The next day, we continued to drive toward Baku, passing several oil fields. Nodding Donkeys were everywhere and it would appear that there was not much planning put into the oil-fields. Cables and nodding donkeys were all over the place - rather haphazardly.

Next post - Baku, the expensive oil capital city.

Georgia - Tbilsi, Telavi

(Hello from Laos, our first day. Sorry about the delay in up dating the blog. Getting onto the blog site has been a big problem. Blogging in China is illegal - you simply can't get access.)

We stayed in a hotel across from the river from the old part of town. Tbilisi, like most cities in the West (incidentally, Georgia aligns itself with Europe, although strictly in within Europe), has some beautiful statues and sculptures dotted within the city.

We took a walk up the Narikala Route in the hills behind the city and visited the old St Nicholas church. Didn't sent Santa a request though. The old castle has a very steep wall - straigth down to the old town below. Free wi-fi in Cuppochino cafes and pubs along the old town.

City bath (reconstructed from the old site) is to one side of the old town. See picture attached.

Bad news came, Turkmenistan has closed its borders due to swine flu. We ended up staying another night in Tbilisi to plan an alternative route - through Kazakstan.

Visited Telavi, in Kakheti province, where they have been making wine for 6000 years. they called Georgia the Mother of Wine-makers. Naturally, we visited one of the small family vineyard and tasted their wines. The group purchased some 150 litres of various wines ranging from 4 GL to 8 GL per litre (very inexpensive). The family still use the old "bucket" and underground vets technology.

LH in front of an 800-yr old Plane tree in Telavi.

Georgia - Kutaisi B/C, Kazbegi, Gori (Hotel Intourist),

Sorry about the long delay as we are going through Central Asia and getting online for blogging is really a monumentous task. We are currently at Bishkek and possibly the last chance to catch up with emails and blogs before we get into the bush again. Going into China via XinJiang in about 7 days.

Anyway, see what I can do with this short post which gives some photos from Kutaisi, Kazbegi and Gori. Also, to let everyone know we are still alive and doing well.

Photo of me sitting in Stalin's seat in his personalised bullet-proof Rail wagon. This is a Stalin Museum in Gori (Georgia) where he was borned.

The monastary/church ground where David the Builder (a legent in Georgia) is buried. the spring water is said to have healing effect.

Bush camp outside Kutaisi at the national park. not far for this park is a cave and remains of dinasours footprints.

Sorry about this short blog as time is pressing on. Will catch up when we get to China - hopefully wi-fi is more common over there. This is just to say everything is running well and we are enjoying the trip very much and loving every minute of it.

until next time.......