Samarkand
Saturday, July 5, 2014 The drive to Samarkand was along good roads and we made excellent time. We didn’t even get stopped by the Police. Although we had a little trouble getting to our hotel, as someone had constructed a…
Tashkent
Thursday, July 3, 2014 Despite setting our alarm at 7am we still only got away around 9:30am for the 320km drive to Tashkent. Not that far, but we didn’t know what road conditions to expect, and, we also wanted to…
Hello Uzbekistan and to Farg’ona
Wednesday, July 2, 2014 This day we crossed out of Kyrgyzstan and into Uzbekistan. The border crossing took a couple of hours, but everything was very correct and proper. Just a lot of paperwork to be completed. Click the links…
Osh (Ош)
Sunday, June 29, 2014 We arrived in Osh, Kyrgyzstan’s second city, around 2:30pm. The previous night we had no Internet and did not have any hotels in mind. So our plan was to head to a coffee shop, get some…
Caroline’s 50th Birthday
I figured this event merited its own entry 🙂 Never in my 50 years had I envisioned being in Kyrgyzstan on this day! Let alone in ‘Hotel Turist’ in Kara-Köl, halfway between Bishkek and Osh, on the Eve of my…
To Osh (Ош)
Saturday, June 28, 2014 We said goodbye to Nomad Hostel and Bishkek and started our drive towards Osh. Getting out of the city took some time, as it usually does, even here there was urban sprawl. Shortly after clearing most…
Uzbekistan: Border Crossing and Documentation
This post is about the government documentation we needed and obtained to bring our car and ourselves into Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan in General Getting our car into Uzbekistan was easy. Getting the visa for ourselves was not difficult, but did require…
Kygryzstan: Border Crossing and Documentation
This post is about the government documentation we needed and obtained to bring our car and ourselves into Kyrgyzstan. Kygryzstan in General Getting our car into Kygryzstan was straight forward and only required us to declare the car to customs…
Back in Bishkek (Бишкéк)
Thursday, June 26, 2014 We stayed at Nomad Hostel again, checking in just after lunch. In the afternoon we went for a long walk in search of three places, 1) A french style restaurant where we planned to have dinner,…
Around Lake Issyk Kul (Ысык-Көл)
Monday, June 23, 2014 We left Bishkek and headed east towards Issuk-Köl, the lake in the north-east of Kygryzstan. The lake is huge and we planned 4 days to drive around it, putting us back in Bishkek on Friday (June…
Bishkek (Бишкéк)
Saturday, June 21, 2014 We had pre-booked a guesthouse that is a favorite with overland travelers called Nomads and headed straight to it based on GPS coordinates kindly provided by Craig. We arrived to find they did not have our…
Across the Kazakhstan/Kyrgyzstan Border
Saturday, June 21, 2014 It is always good to start a border crossing day with a coffee. So we did. The 200-odd km drive to the border was on very good roads, but with the usual dangerous drivers, slow trucks,…
Kazakhstan: Border Crossing and Documentation
This post is about the government documentation we needed and obtained to bring our car and ourselves into Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan in General To quote our Lonely Planet guide book; “Visas and permits can be the single biggest headache associated with…
Almaty (Алматы)
Thursday, June 19, 2014 We loved Almaty. Unfortunately we would not be staying more than 2 nights here. On arrival in the city we looked for a coffee shop, with wifi, to enjoy a latte and to look for a place…
To Almaty (Алматы)
Wednesday, June 18, 2014 We decided to go with the ‘gun it to Almaty’ option which meant covering 1130km in 2 days. That way we’d arrive in Almaty on Thursday evening, have the Friday to sort the car and paper…