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The Bicycle box

UZBEKISTAN

Mar
2004-09-14 15:10:54

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out of 6 hours cycling to answer all the invitations. The tradition is to throw the tea back in the pot three times before you serve it.

Ferghana valley
For those who plan to go to the Fergana Valley, I hope we may advise you never to go to hotel Qoqand. In the very rare occasion that there is water in the room, it’s hot only, very hot (of course the toilet is connected to the cold water pipe…). Never mind the dozen of Cockroaches who compete with you to get in bed first, and also never mind that the room lock works only after you have tried to lock it for 5 minutes, that the hotel staff occupies the balcony where you had hoped to relax with a cold beer, and that when you leave they ask you only about 10 times for the key of the room. What on earth do we want with their key!! The cities in the valley are all the same with the bazaar as the main attraction. With the exception of Margilan. Maybe we are just spoiled by Samarkand and Buchara (but there it’s the same price).

Margilan is a small village that runs a traditional silk factory, it's quite impressive to see how the silk comes from the cocoons and how the painting and weaving process works. The factory employs around 200 persons that is partly mechanised. Along the route to Kyrgyzstan we see a lot of grapes and a lot of beautiful coloured flower gardens.

We are getting closer to the border crossing and from there it will only be 20km to Osh (Kyrgyzstan). It’s almost a straight line to the east…

Dream on, in the real world you will get stuck at the border crossing, this one is not for tourists. For the exit-stamp in our passport we need to go back, up north and then to the east again, that’s around 60 extra kilometres on the meter but it was worth a try to go straight. The customs officer looks really hopeless and he wants to help us, but can’t let us trough. Alternatively we are offered a ...