Tashkent

We crossed the border!!!!!!!!!!!! After 3 checks at the Kazakh border, 2 declarations in Russian and 4 pass controls and a customs control at the Uzbek side, we were allowed to walk in Uzbekistan. After a couple of hundred meters, we found an old couple who was willing to drive us into the city, to the hotel we found in our lonely planet but which - unfortunately - didn't exist anymore. Thank God (or Allah) that it was just 35 degrees and we carried our backpacks, normal bags and some souvenirs along with us. Puuuhhh! Several people warned us about policemen and their will to approach foreigners for whatever reasons in order to ultimately increase their low monthly wage. Maybe we look too angry, but we haven't been approached yet.

Anyway, we found a cheap place in this 2,5 Mio inhabitant city and went to "Broadway", the central street where tourists usually pay too much for a decent shashlik. So did we.

We clearly entered a more oriental country, a conclusion we drew even more when travelling to Samarkand and Bukhara in the days to come.

The streets are really crowded with officials and policemen. However, we avoid them by changing lanes and not staring at them without reason. Still, it is quite common to see cars being stopped at the side od the road. These controls - so we are told - often end with a small fee and no further inquiries ;0)

Hopefully we can avoid them for the next 6 days as well. We'll let you know!

At the time of writing, an Uzbek officer it sitting opposite of me in the Internetcafe. Since another officer warned us not to take pictures of cars, a guess he won't like this photo on the site either. Let me quickly finish this post and leave the cafe. For some reason, a certain kind of "danger" is attached to these officials, even for me......