Kunya Urgench

A brisk session of yoga started our day followed by breakfast in bright sunshine and a slight recollection of last night's affairs. We buried the bones of the sacrificed birds we had for dinner.

Ten miles into town we visited the ruins of Kunya Urgench. This city was built in the 1100's, pillaged countless times by Persians, Timor, and Ganges Khan.

When Islam was introduced the leaders believed it was not necessary to visit Mecca and created the 200 ft tower as their Hag. From that point it was the place for pilgrims from Central Asia to visit. It still is today.

Afterward we went to Sagkat's home to visit his mother and family. While their we filled the truck's water tank from the well and were treated to tea and jelly sandwiches.

We reached the Uzbek border at 3:00 pm to begin the process. We were checked out of Turkmenistan by 5:30 and on our way to the Uzbek station. And ... surprise, surprise! Less than thirty minutes to get in...yippee!

We waited for our truck to clear and met our guide, Illya. Nice guy! Great English skills. There was a problem with some of the paperwork so we had to wait. We're getting good at that by now. Once the truck was cleared we headed to Khiva and our hotel. By now it was 7pm. To help pass the time between the border and the hotel Illya offered to do a liittle black market rate money exchange so we would have some "pocket" money. The rate is 2200 soms to the dollar. It was a hoot getting wads and wads of local currency for a few US Dollars. Dinner and a bottle of local wine was 42,000 ($14.85). It ended up being a very long day again!

More desert

We broke camp following an AMAZING breakfast featuring scrambled omelets and homemade fruit granola! Yep, I was on the cook staff this morning.

It was a long, hot day over really rough road. Today was a travel day having to cover roughly 250 miles of desert with nothing to look at except sand and scrub brush.

At a large canal we stopped to watch locals fishing for small mouth bass and trout. There were a couple of kids that stole our hearts and a couple of alaska stuffed moose found a new home. We found a campsite after 6pm- ten hours of driving. Tonight was chicken and finishing the rest of the liquor before our border crossing tomorrow. We enjoyed a lovely campfire with lots of laughs and some great tunes

Dar Wasa

We packed up Sura, the back locker full to the latch now with all the extra bags. My new job is to manage the back locker. All those years of driving the comedy your bus will come in handy.

Before leaving town we visited the Russian market and shopped for two days. It's crazy how much we can buy with so little. Our budget is $1 for breakfast, $1.50 for lunch , and $2.50 for dinner...per person...and we eat really well as you are learning.

We headed north out of Ashgabat, saying goodbye to the city of love. A wide two lane paved road greeted us. Farmland was quickly replaced by scrub and sand.

We stopped by an irrigation canal for lunch and enjoyed a wonderful spread prepared by cook team one.

Back on the road it was more sand and scrub, dotted by the occasional camel. Late afternoon we stopped at a sink hole appropriately named "water crater." It was formed about 50 years ago and was full of ground water.

Next was another crater (sinkhole) only this time it had bubbling mud at the bottom and several gas flares. It's getting hot in the desert! Sorry no photo. Getting close to the edge was more than I could handle.

We set up camp in a hollow behind a small ridge and enjoyed our official first night in camp dinner of spaghetti with meat sauce.

After dark our jeep driver showed up and took us to the fire crater. The crater was about eight km from the camp. As we approached we could see the light from the fire. The crater was awesome with flames coming up the sides. The heat was intense and we were just able to get close enough to get photos. Too close and our hair and eyebrows would get singed. The last photo is me jumping up into the air just a few feet from the edge...well, it was a dare from one of the younger family members...what else could I do!

Khiva

We toured the small historic town of Khiva in Uzbekistan, once the capital of a central asian state that existed from the 1500's right through until 1924, when it was fully incorporated into the Soviet Union. The city's long history is fascinating and fortunately much of the magnificent architecture has been incredibly well preserved. The ancient walls that used to provide sanctuary for the travelers on the Silk Route are intact, as is the old town that the walls were built to protect. Many of the buildings are beautifully decorated in classic turquoise tiles.

We spent the entire day wandering. The heat was intense. Can't imagine what it will be like for folks here on July! We split up our tour into two parts to avoid the high noon heat. Enjoying lunch in the shade AND with wifi was great. Rejoining around 3pm we contained our visits to palaces, mosques, medrazas, and other cool buildings and monuments. At the end of the day, after hours and hours of sightseeing, and more exquisite tile than possibly in all of Turkey and Jordan combined...we climbed to the top of a an awesome lookout tower and took more photos...followed by COLD BEER and lots of it.

We were on our own for dinner and once again enjoyed the hospitality of these really lovely people.