I forgot to mention several things about our visit to Karakalpakstan. As we were on our bus driving to Nukus our guide, Furkat, gave us an extensive history lesson about this whole area, starting in the 6th century BC, when the Persians ruled the area. His story took us through the rule of Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, arrival of the Hindus in early AD, Islam in the 8th century, Timur, the Russians in the 19-20th century until final freedom in 1991. There is a heck of a lot of history associated with this region of the world!

By the way, some time in the 12-14th century checks were invented here. Why?  Robbers knew that the extreme value of silk resulted in a lot of cash being transported by the caravans. Carry a check rather than cash and the problem goes away.

Other facts made known by our speaker:   There are 1,000,000 hectares (1 ha equals 2.47 acres) of cotton grown here which requires a lot of water. Also there are 100,000 km of irrigation canals to feed these crops and 37 % is lost simply through evaporation, which helps explain why the water issue even a larger problem for the area.

We have a busy day as we need to cross another border (Uzbekistan to Turkmenistan) and then fly to Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan. As a result we found ourselves leaving the hotel at 6AM. Our good luck at crossing the border ran out today as it took almost 4 (yes, 4 hours) to cross into Turkmenistan. Part of the reason is they require you to take a Covid test, plus pay for a visa ($106 total in cash) as part of the crossing process. The hassle with the Covid testing was a joke as far as our fellow travelers who are doctors said. Because they hardly swabbed your nose there was no way a positive test would be recorded.  Anyway you waited to get tested, you waited until the results come back all stuffed in a room with no place to sit ( I finally used my suitcase); then you had to fight a bunch of locals, who do not recognize the concept of queuing, in getting your passports stamped for entry. We even had our local tour guide trying to hasten up the process but it was darn slow.  Once that was done (about three hours later) all we had to do was cross the “no man’s land” to the other border which we had done easily in the other crossings. It was longer here (3-4 football fields) but for some reason they would not let anyone walk; you had to wait for a small, rickety old bus to make a round trip to carry people and luggage to the other border. That was another scrum as we impolitely had to push our way onto the bus, hand our luggage to those already on board and then stuff ourselves onto the bus so we could stay together as a group. It was hilarious. We started the process at 9:06 and finally arrive in Turkmenistan at 12:58PM!

We immediately had lunch and then proceeded to the Dasoguz airport for our short (about 1 hour) flight to Ashgabat. Once there we were exposed to the “unusual” way of life in Turkmenistan.

Local money was our first education. The official rate to convert USD to Turkmenistan dollars is about $3.5 TMT to $1USD. However, the street market is anywhere from 15-18TMT to the dollar. Even the hotel offered 18.5! Needless to say we all did not use the formal channels to convert money.

Next surprise. Turkmenistan is rich in oil and gas. As a result some previous rulers decided that all the major buildings in Ashgabat shall be made with white Carrara marble. No cheap marble allowed. Furthermore, all cars in Ashgabat must be white (white is the color of peace was the rationale)! You can be fined or punished if you have a wrong color. I did see a silver one and asked the local guide about that. He facetiously (?) said the person probably worked for the government. People can be fined and even have their cars confiscated if they are not white. Even the trucks I saw were white.

And that is not all. An earlier ruler liked the color green so he mandated that all the roofs on homes had to be green! Yep, everywhere you look you see bright green roofs!

Another rule: If you were not born in Ashgabat or worked for the government you could not live there. Our local guide was born in another city and said he cannot move to Ashgabat. And when he comes to the city he has to park his car on the outskirts and ride public transportation in the city. Now that is spooky.

It sure looks like our visit here will be interesting to say the least.

Steps for the day: 5,861, another easy day.