Arrival in the orient!

Sooo as we hitchhiked out of the mountains there was a transporter stopping for us (without us having he thumb out, we just walked there) who had already 2 adults and 2 children in there and a horse on the back. They made space for Hanna and the horse made space for me. No I'm not kidding.

And yes there in the front are 5 people inside. Don't ask me how, I was happy with the horse. Also got a hilarious video of it, text me if you are interested 👌

There are even transporters with two horses! As long as you take care for your feet, there is enough space.

The next driver brought us back to Osh and we saw these red mountains in front of grass-green hills, I really liked this view. There mountains reminded me a bit of Argentina..

In Osh one traffic light broke and a super brave policeman directed the traffic with a whistle. The whistle was EXTREMELY loud and I guess he got a medal for bravery afterwards, this was crazy.

We strolled through the city to get a frame and to print a picture of Mairam, her family and us for her, to thank for the great evening the other day. We also dropped our winter/mountain equipment at their place since there is no need for that in the 30°C + Usbekistan. Mairam had over ten friends there at the time and the table was full. Obviously we were invited again. She wouldn't take a no and we agreed to 1 chai. Which then became some sweets. And some soup. And more sweets.

Yeah that's just a different level of hospitality. Eventually we left and went directly to the order of Usbekistan. There was some issue with Hannas Passport at the border, they had trouble reading it or something but in the end everything was good. The border itself was a mess, half under construction. I would have loved to take fotos but when armed people stand next to "no foto" signs, I'm taking it seriously, sorry folks 😂

We couldn't exchange money at the usbek side of the border and there were no ATMs. We (completely over-)paid in USD to the next town and tried to get money there from the ATMs but it was sunday and they were all out of money.

This one actually had money but only accepted cash instead of cards and only a maximum of $5. Hanna exchanged $3 (she only had bigger bis then 5) and we got 33.000 usbek som. Yes 33 thousand. Eventually we found someone to exchange money for us (at a bazar. Rule number 1: Whatever you need, it's usually found at a bazar..) and we got over a million usbek soms for 100€. The exchange rate wasn't super good but we needed cash in order to get sim cards and a hostel. Sim cards were easy but slow, it took them over 30 minutes to copy our passports and get the data into their computers until we could finally have the cards.

There was still sunlight and we decided not to stay in that small town close to the border were we arrives but to go to the next bigger city that we wanted to visit anyway. It's called Kokand. We took a bus to a city on the way (there was no direct connection) and the gate of the bus station already showed us that we really arrived in the orient now.

Damn impressive gate for a bus station if you ask me.

This is a train station. Not a presidential palace or something just the train station and yes there are trains here, we'll try them tomorrow but I'm being way too fast. So we were on our way to Fergana in the bus which is (more or less) on the way of our destination Kokand. As we arrived there we had to take a shared taxi, it was too late for for busses.

We stopped at a bathroom which costs around 0,25€.

Take that sanifair! This is how paid toilets should look like! Since its squatting toilets you can even wash your feet on the left side at the end.

Also the streets are super colorful lit at night, I took for now just some wonky images from the car and will give you later better pictures 😌

Super tired from that stressful day we went to bed in the hotel (there are no hostels in this town, it's not a common thing in Usbekistan).

The next day we did some sightseeing. Of boy what sights we saw! 

I N S A N E

We went to three Madrassas (schools in the Islam), a graveyard and a temple of a Khan (the "King" of Mongols).

Here are just a few impressions, you HAVE TO check the foto session, this is something else. And it's only the beginning of the silk road.

Even the rain-pipes have little decorations. I was truly amazed by this beauty.

Oh and THIS is the entrance to the Khans palace. 

(More in the picture section, ENJOY!)