May 23, 2014
Entering Tajikistan: The good roads, the bad roads, and the ugly roads
My last night in Uzbekistan was spent in a bed. I stumbled on a building that was empty except for two beds and a man who was picking mulberries nearby said I could sleep there. I'm not sure if he really had the authority to allow me to do so but I couldn't resist the bed. The only problem was I couldn't close the door and I was expecting someone to come and disturb me in the night, possiby the three bears. And at half past four in the morning my premonition came true and I was attacked. Being attacked at half past four in the morning is scary, especially when you're sleeping in someone else's bed in Uzbekistan. My attacker landed a blow direct to my chest with their full bodyweight. Waking up with a start I panicked and lunged for the intruder, sending them flying across the room. I saw my opponent land in the light of the doorway and I prepared for the next battle. But it was just a cat and it walked off.
Crossing the border was fairly easy, although it involved a two hour wait at the Uzbek side for someone to work out how to start the computer. At customs I had to feed the bags through an x-ray machine. The man who looked at the images then asked if I had any firearms, via an elaborate series of charades that included shooting me with an imaginary pistol and an imaginary machine gun. I told him that I used to have an imaginary bazooka but I threw that in the imaginary bin and now I had no imaginary firearms at all. On the Tajik side the arrivals building was empty and I had to go looking for someone. I ended up receiving my entry stamp in the departures building. Customs were friendly and had no interest in my guns.
As I cycled off into Tajikistan I really hoped I was going to find something a bit different from Uzbekistan, but the first thing that I saw was a field dotted with women working the land by hand.
I stopped at a bus stop to take a break on a quiet section of road where I thought no one would find me. Within a minute a man poked his head around and said "Aktuda?" No, nothing had changed. He stood there and watched me eat my food like I was a zoo animal. He shouted out to a woman working hard in the field opposite and she smiled at me before continuing her work. The man continued to stand and stare. 'Maybe you could, I don't know, go and help her and do some work?' I thought.
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The road to Dushanbe was in the process of being upgraded. Sections of it were perfectly smooth ashpalt and very wide, but every so often it would suddenly turn to, and remain for a long time, the worst road surface imaginable with large stones and potholes everywhere making it very slow going. And this was the main highway, I could only imagine what might lie ahead in the mountains. But, I realised with some immense joy, none of the cars were beeping at me. It was incredible. This simple thing made me feel a hundred times better. It was a joyous moment of realisation! Then the next car came by: "BEEEEEEEP!!!!!"
23/05/14 - 82km (75km in Tajikistan)
Today's ride: 75 km (47 miles)
Total: 20,024 km (12,435 miles)
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