Hi Peeps, so much has
happened since we last got together, and where to begin?
OK, first my apologies, the
piccies are not in order, I'm relying on my memory and to be honest folks its crap (but hey, you new that already right)? So, lets begin shall we. I'm sat in an Internet cafe in Uzbekistan, having already traveled through Turkmenistan and
Azabaijan. Jeez what a journey that was but I'll right about that a little lower down. Man its suddenly gotten very hot, dry and we have traveled through a couple of scary deserts (not the sort you eat
Unky, ha). And we even camped out in one which was kinda cool and starry too.
As we traveled through Turkmenistan
CJ our ever chipper guide led us to a really cool spot in the middle of nowhere, but when we arrived there was these really neat mud volcanoes burping and farting mud. So I'm sat on one that has dried up but I still managed to get a pretty dirty backside ha ha.
So now we get confused, this is a real live crater, about 60 meters across and maybe 40 deep and its in Turkmenistan where we camped in the
Karakam desert (I think that's how its spelt). We arrived well after dark, probably nearer 10 pm or 6pm
Blighty time in a big Russian beast of an overland people carrier, so we didn't fall through any potential holes in the earths crust. Well this beast of a crater opened up after the
Ruskies were drilling for natural gas......
oooops! And its been the living breathing depths of hell now for over forty years, pretty
cool huh?
OK, now it gets even more confusing. We crossed the Caspian in a train carrying boat, well the giant oil
carriages do, and I think there were about a dozen or so of them. Now the big red
chuffers have to pull the oil tanks off in tandem to prevent the boat from tipping over. To watch these big guys pull them off and go back and re-hitch was pretty neat. The trip across the Caspian was an adventure itself as we left about lunch time and actually arrived about 04:30 in the morning after a pancake flat sea. I chose to sleep on deck, yep that's under the stars folks and what a sight that was too.
This is an outside
piccy (duh) of a large mosque in Turkmenistan (how ya doing Dad, keeping up so far)? It can hold 18,000 people and we all got the chance to see inside thanks to our new best friend and guide Max. To say I was moved by the sheer
beauty of the inside is an understatement.
Unfortunately no
piccies folks
cus its not allowed so you will have to use your imagination.
So this
piccy is of our very nice hotel in Uzbekistan, the entire town is a living museum and UNESCO world heritage site. Tourism is just in its infancy here, but you can still get chips and beer a plenty
mmmmmm
So back to Turkmenistan and
Ashkabat (my
Steavy, haven't you grown ha ha). The entire city was pretty much destroyed by an earthquake last Wednesday (
erm......or maybe it was a bit longer than that) and the industrious Turkeys have built from the ground up an amazing new one. Giant fountains, huge monuments and gardens abound in this surreal capital city.
A typical monument to remember a couple of old poets by, can you imagine the same for Pam Ayers he
hee.
So this is the mud stuff again, burping n stuff.
This is another cool hotel now that we have hit the silk road proper, used by the old caravans. That's camels n donkeys n stuff. They slept downstairs
cus they can't climb them too good
haha. Providing warmth n stuff for the owners upstairs in very nice single beds. Oh this is where, the gang and I shared what we thought was a chicken between three. In fact what turned up was a sparrow (or a close cousin) so then we had chips n shish n more beer to make up for it mm mmm
Jeez, even the gang can't go too far without having a nice cup of tea. And very nice it was too...slurp, two sugars in mine please.
If you haven't seen the big old truck yet, this is me sitting on the steps, while the gang look at yet another bloody old church. This was our last day in Georgia I think. Blimey how many countries was that? Four by my total. So now we are truly in Asia proper, things are very different now and really neat too. Hugs to you all, write soon xx
Hi Peeps, so much has happened since we last got together, and where to begin? OK, first my apologies, the piccies are not in order, I'm relying on my memory and to be honest folks its crap (but hey, you new that already right)? So, lets begin shall we. I'm sat in an Internet cafe in Uzbekistan, having already traveled through Turkmenistan and Azabaijan. Jeez what a journey that was but I'll right about that a little lower down. Man its suddenly gotten very hot, dry and we have traveled through a couple of scary deserts (not the sort you eat Unky, ha). And we even camped out in one which was kinda cool and starry too.
As we traveled through Turkmenistan CJ our ever chipper guide led us to a really cool spot in the middle of nowhere, but when we arrived there was these really neat mud volcanoes burping and farting mud. So I'm sat on one that has dried up but I still managed to get a pretty dirty backside ha ha.
So now we get confused, this is a real live crater, about 60 meters across and maybe 40 deep and its in Turkmenistan where we camped in the Karakam desert (I think that's how its spelt). We arrived well after dark, probably nearer 10 pm or 6pm Blighty time in a big Russian beast of an overland people carrier, so we didn't fall through any potential holes in the earths crust. Well this beast of a crater opened up after the Ruskies were drilling for natural gas......oooops! And its been the living breathing depths of hell now for over forty years, pretty cool huh? 
OK, now it gets even more confusing. We crossed the Caspian in a train carrying boat, well the giant oil carriages do, and I think there were about a dozen or so of them. Now the big red chuffers have to pull the oil tanks off in tandem to prevent the boat from tipping over. To watch these big guys pull them off and go back and re-hitch was pretty neat. The trip across the Caspian was an adventure itself as we left about lunch time and actually arrived about 04:30 in the morning after a pancake flat sea. I chose to sleep on deck, yep that's under the stars folks and what a sight that was too.
This is an outside piccy (duh) of a large mosque in Turkmenistan (how ya doing Dad, keeping up so far)? It can hold 18,000 people and we all got the chance to see inside thanks to our new best friend and guide Max. To say I was moved by the sheer beauty of the inside is an understatement. Unfortunately no piccies folks cus its not allowed so you will have to use your imagination.
So this piccy is of our very nice hotel in Uzbekistan, the entire town is a living museum and UNESCO world heritage site. Tourism is just in its infancy here, but you can still get chips and beer a plenty mmmmmm
So back to Turkmenistan and Ashkabat (my Steavy, haven't you grown ha ha). The entire city was pretty much destroyed by an earthquake last Wednesday (erm......or maybe it was a bit longer than that) and the industrious Turkeys have built from the ground up an amazing new one. Giant fountains, huge monuments and gardens abound in this surreal capital city. 
A typical monument to remember a couple of old poets by, can you imagine the same for Pam Ayers he hee.
So this is the mud stuff again, burping n stuff.
This is another cool hotel now that we have hit the silk road proper, used by the old caravans. That's camels n donkeys n stuff. They slept downstairs cus they can't climb them too good haha. Providing warmth n stuff for the owners upstairs in very nice single beds. Oh this is where, the gang and I shared what we thought was a chicken between three. In fact what turned up was a sparrow (or a close cousin) so then we had chips n shish n more beer to make up for it mm mmm
Jeez, even the gang can't go too far without having a nice cup of tea. And very nice it was too...slurp, two sugars in mine please.
If you haven't seen the big old truck yet, this is me sitting on the steps, while the gang look at yet another bloody old church. This was our last day in Georgia I think. Blimey how many countries was that? Four by my total. So now we are truly in Asia proper, things are very different now and really neat too. Hugs to you all, write soon xx
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