I am sitting on the border between Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. Killing time and waiting curiously, if I can stay inside the gates in Uzbekistan side or do I have to roll my wheels to scary and sunny nomans land. The people in Uzbekistan embassy were super friendly, they didn't check any of my stuff nor my pictures and didn't count my money, as they did for the most of the people crossing the border. Mr very nice sir passport controller said that I could try to stay overnight in Uzbek side because they have guards the whole night long so it will be safer, because I am a woman. The whole process in Uzbek side took me maybe 10 minutes :) when I entered to Uzbekistan side, the process was rather smooth as well and I never needed to face the reality of real Uzbek border control!
Let's go back to this moment, I am sitting on the shade under a tree being stamped out from Uzbekistan but not being able to go to Turkemistan, and the army men keep coming to tell me to leave Uzbekistan. Luckily after I told them that the mr. Very nice guy said I can be here they have gone into his office and no-one has returned yet. One of the older army men ( with very emphatic eyes) invited me to sit on one of the air conditioned rooms to cool down and to eat surprise surprise watermelon and bread. Now, it sounds like thunder is arriving, no wonder the the air has been way too hot and I have a headache. Let's see what the afternoon and evening will bring.
How did I end up to be stuck in between the borders? Well, when I applied Turkmenistan visa, I'm hundred prosent sure I gave the right dates, because I checked them several times. Yet, when the Turkmenistan visa was on my passport, I didn't check that the dates were right, so I have one day gap In between my departure from Uzbekistan and entry to Turkmenistan. My mistake, I should have been more careful. Turkmenistan visa is hard to get and many people get rejected ( only 20% of the applicants gets it), therefore I just felt like a lottery winner to get the Turkmenistan visa and wanted to leave the embassy before they would change their mind and take the visa away from me. So here I am, sitting on the border and thinking that next time I will be more careful.
I got very lucky that on the same day as I was leaving from Dushanbe (Tajikistan) to have a 7 day 750km bicycle rally through Uzbekistan, Josh from Ireland was driving with his car to Uzbekistan. It wasn't hard decision to make (actually it was hard to give up the crazy challenge, but after several people told me to leave the stubborn idea I gave up ) to decided to jump into his car and see a bit of Uzbekistan instead of just cycling like crazy straight from border to border without being able to stop and talk to locals or see any places. Josh is having long overland journey with his car from Australia back to Ireland and Felix and Bob are backpacking little bit here and there. This was our road trip gang and How lucky I was once again to have the best possible company to Samarkand and Bukhara.
Sitting as passenger in a car is very different experience than cycling. The kilometers passes by fast without my own effort to be made. I was just able to enjoy the views, listen to a music and think how hot it would feel to cycle through this deserted land. Altough, I missed cycling, because the movement is slower and therefore it's easier to see more, yet with such a good company I did enjoy the car ride as well. I was happy to see Samarkand and Bukhara and realized that Uzbekistan's beauty is in its historical cities, which I would have missed while racing through the country.
Today, I did cycle 110km from Bukhara to the border. It's already hot and I am heading down south to Iran. My bicycle computer says its +42 degrees and I have been drinking already 7l of water and it's only 2pm. It's hard to describe the feeling how the sweat is just pooring down from everywhere and it does not stop. The breaks from cycling are the worse, I find it hard to communicate with people when I cannot keep my eyes open, because the sweat is burning them too badly. People are so friendly and at the same time I am smiling and being on edge of over-heating/exhaustion. I am already coming to a conclusion, that I come from a Nordic country and I am born during the coldest month in Finland, I am just not made for this. At the moment my mantra to myself is "just keep breathing and try to adapt" 42 degrees is less than 55 as it is currently in Teheran, Iran. Sometimes it's hard to push the panic of the heat away, because the heat is just so overwhelming and while being outside it's impossible to escape it (expect shades). Well, five days through Turkmenistan and Karakom desert is ahead of me and I believe that then I know a lot more about the heat (without shades). At least I don't need to sleep in a plastic bicycle bag freezing my tits off as I did on the mountains!
I overslept today in Bukhara and got stressed in the morning because of that. Luckily my panniers were already on a bike, so it took only 45minutes after I woke up that I was already on the road. I was wondering, if I will ever make it to the border, but 110km went fast and I had to slow down my speed that I would not be there before 12 am. It feels easy to cycle flat road after Pamir mountains, even with a headwind. People kept waving, honking their horns and asking me for a chai and I felt sorry, that I was in such a rush that I thought I would not have time to sit around with local people. Uzbekistan people have such a kind eyes and I wish I would have more time to spend with them. To this country I would like to return to understand more about its people and culture. One chai invitation I had to accept, because an old lady and young man kept scootering next to me and the old lady had the most shining goldtooth smile. Who could resist that kind of a babushka? They bought me an ice cream and chai and bread for the road and we had marvelous conversation, I spoke Finnish and they spoke Uzbek. Njet problem.
Eventually, I got kicked out of the Uzbekistan side. Now I am sitting under a tree on no-mans land. The army men said I could stay in a hotel for free, but I prefer to stay in my tent. It seems that if they give me a free room the deal is including something else as well from my side. They made me scared with their words, "I will come into the room in the evening, do you understand". He repeated it several times and I got scared. Now, it's again the moment that I wish I was a man and I didn't need to be scared that they will touch me. Well, I hope I am worried for nothing. It still makes me sad that I have to be scared of men. I might be a strong woman, but this army-man just lifted my heavy bike by himself over the stairs. I could never do it and I was watching it quite horrified and heard his voice in my head saying, " I will come in the evening, do you understand". No, I don't understand he does not have any rights to come anywhere near me, if I don't want it. It's a men's world. Not all the men are assholes, the Iranian truck drivers are my absolute favorites at the moment. When they pass by, they always bring me something, now I have tuna, bread, coke (cold!) and fruits. Life could be worse, not all the trust to the manhood is gone yet.
I used to be very open for people and believing that almost everybody is good. These days, I am having hard times realizing that I am concern about men. I am judging them in my head even before they have said a word to me. I am making conclusions in my head without knowing the people I am judging. I had to face my own thoughts when the army man came in the evening to say hello to my tent. He asked me if I like dogs and I said yes, he left without saying a word and came back with two huge border dogs. I was petting them for one hour. The army man was showing me some pictures of his family, he is also 27 years and he has two children. Since he has been serving army quite long, he is getting retired in 5 years. He was looking forward to the time he was able to spend with his wife and children. After wonderful melon that he brought for me, I decided to start trusting again. How much energy I'm wasting while cycling with this heavy fear and negative thoughts on my shoulders?
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