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Through the "-stans"
Once through the Iranian exit and the slightly complicated Turkmen entry customs, the big deserty 500km of Turkmenistan start straight off. Unfortunately we only experience this from the cockpit of an Iranian truck as Christian is bothered by a fever and is not able to cycle. The transit visa of 5 days doens't allow us to wait it out, we have to move. So we hope it to get better after a stop in Mary which lies halfway towards Uzbekistan. Mary, a relatively large city introduces us to Central Asia and its contrast to Iran: Soviet architecture, huge roads, clean! There were some urban planners at work here, unlike in Iran where most cities just seem to grow at random. Also, satellite dishes that were invisible in Iran due to strict laws are everywhere again, covering the facades of most residential buildings.
The fever doesn't get much better even after a day in a hotelbed here which is why we are forced to catch another truck - this time an Uzbek car transporter - to Turkmenabad, a few kilometers before the border to Uzbekistan. A beautiful camp on the shore of the Amu Darya river then brings the strength back and we can continue the next day over the ridiculously provisional bridge towards the border.
At first, Uzbekistan is still more or less desert or at least a steppe, however, the soil is all of a sudden very salty and thus white. It looks like riding through a snow covered landscape at times, with some sheep trying to find the little grass that grows. At last there are villages again, and, a treat for the eye, the colorfully dressed women of Central Asia! As black as the dresscode was in Iran, as rich it is here. Also the attitude towards the camera has changed completely. Everyone wants to be on a picture, smiling and in thus unveiling yet another contrast to Iran: the golden teeth! They shine in between almost everyones lips, also of rather young people. We learn that they can - besides a necessary medical substitue - be a noble wedding gift in some families... We prefer to keep on brushing our teeths every night anyhow.
Then we are in Bukhara and three days after in Samarqand, these two legendary cities of the Silk Road where we spend some days for sightseeing and discovering the culinarical specialities of this region: Samsa (oven baked dumplings), Lagman (noodles), the bread, shashlik and much more. A true treat for the non-vegetarians and non-weight-fetishists. An interesting discovery for us: fat is more expensive than lean meat!
Communication is not really a problem as Tajik, the language of Tadjikistan, is ever present and very similar to Farsi.
From Samarqand to Tashkent, we cycle together with Flo and Thom, a french couple on their way back home through Kazakhstan and Russia. We are treated rather badly by the weather, lots of rain, but there is no reason not enjoy it anyway. Central Asia's Teahouses (Choykhane) are so hospitable that they let us sleep several times under their roofs, once even their kitchen.
From Tashkent on, the landscape of Uzbekistan becomes more eventful. We climb over the Kamchik Pass and 'race' (the Central Asian roads hardly allow for high speeds) down into the Fergana Basin, a green, finally warm and sunny valley. We take the chance to see the traditional production of silk in Margilon before we continue towards Andijon and the Kyrgyz border.
Kyrgyzstan is covered well by snow this year, so our plan to go on a horse trek cannot be realised. We enjoy some days in Arslanbob, a Kyrgyz mountain village inhabited by Uzbeks only, relaxing and eating, and naturally we take a closer look at the ATIK Project in Osh.

Then the most spectacular part of our way through this country starts: the climb over several passes to China, the northern part of the Pamir Highway! Again, we have quite some rain with us, but nevertheless we have hardly ever enjoyed our cycling as much. The Chyrchik Pass is a mouth watering starter, passing by many green meadows (jailoos), peaceful villages and hundreds of horses, donkeys and sheep. After this pass, the long valley towards the highest pass of our trip, the Taldyk (3615 m.a.s.l.), starts. By now we are only travelling on dirt roads, but our bikes are holding out without any complaints. However, it's arguable whether the Central Asian dirtroads or the Central Asian pavement is of higher quality...
The climb is long and hard, interrupted only by a one-day break in a Kyrgyz farmer's house who invites us to stay for the night in Gagarin: after the first night he knows that the weather on the pass is bad and that we should stay another day at his house. Afterwards, we don't think that he actually knew anything about the weather but that he wanted to keep his guests another day and show them a bit of the Kyrgyz life up here on 2000 meters. It was brilliant!
Coming down - after batteling the mud - from the Taldyk Pass to Sary Tash is spectacular. The view onto the Pamir range with Pik Lenin (7143 m.a.s.l.), covered with fresh, shiningly white snow but also the cold on over 3000 meters, take our breath away. We find an unheated guesthouse for the night just before the snowfall starts. The next morning, in perfect weather, is therefore even brighter.
The last pass towards China is again tough, but worth every drop of sweat. We reach Nura, just at the Chinese border, before the dark and are invited immediately to someones house.
This is the most moving hospitality on the trip so far since Nura was destroyed completely by an earthquake in October 2008: we are not invited to a house for once, but to a Red Crescent Aid tent of an elderly lady and an elderly man that apparently have both lost their spouse in the quake. With them are a boy and a girl whose parents have also been burried in the tragedy. Nevertheless, they are eager to give all they have to us complete strangers without any expectations... We are happy that they accept after all some of our last Kyrgyz money to rebuild their house!
In a way, this last invitation is characteristic for the "-stan" countries (even though this last one was uncomparibly more touching): the people of these countries have very little, but they give it away with both hands to guests. Coming from a country where people have too much to know what decadencies to spend their money on, we surely intend this as a lesson to learn from.
 
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