Tajikistan-24th July (officially)-5th August, 2009

Been a while since last blog, predominantly due to fact that Tajikistan proved fairly short on internet cafes. Parents have been reassured of our safety and relative comfort so here comes a lengthy update...

Our entry to the country marked a fitting begining to a series of unsettling experiences. In fact, now that we have safely left, we can divulge we spent much of the time with sweaty palms and racing hearts.

I (benny) must begin with a confession-I messed up in a big, stupid way. We travelled from Samarkand to the tajik border, said to be the worst of a bad bunch in terms of arbitrary closures and tempermental guards in a region famed for bureaucratic obstacles, believing our Tajik visas to commence on the 23rd of the month. It was only after receving our exit stamps on our single entry Uzbek visas and crossing the 100m stretch of no-man's land to the Tajik controls that we were informed that our visas actually began on the following day. We about-turned and humiliated and disgusted with ourselves (ok, disgusted with Ben alone) headed back to Uzbekistan. There we were greeted with laughter and sneers and told we would have to spend the night on the 100 metre stretch. They kindly pointed out that we had better not stray too far from the road, as the area had all been landmined. Adding to our woes was our lack of water or food, a tent or any shelter from the hot sun, ferocious mosquitoes, and tens of armed soldiers on either side of the strip.

In attempting to remedy the nutritional aspects of our predicament, the uzbek guards kindly allowed us to be fleeced by their canteen lady, who relieved us of our remaining uzbek som to purchase some bottles of water and some stale bread. We then sat back on the road, with ben approaching passing tourists - (Victoria felt too humiliated and angry with ben and sulked instead) - to ask if they had any spare food, water, or even a tent they could loan us for the night. Reinforcing our faith in humanity and the goodness of people, we gladly received some bananas, bread, chocolate spread and water. But still, chocolate spread notwithstanding, our prospects did not look too good.

However, whilst we contemplated spending a night in no-man's land, a saviour appeared (who shall remain nameless for his own safety), a local man, who believed there could be some scope for negotiation. Inconceivably to us, within one hour we were sitting in a minibus on the tajik side of the border on our way to the comfort of a guesthouse in penjikent, safe and relieved, albeit shaken and with slightly lighter wallets.

I (Ben) spent most of the time contemplating how I would explain myself to Victoria's parents. I don't know how to. Nick and Jennie, sorry, sorry, sorry. Victoria is now in charge of all passport and visa matters.

There are more horror stories to come, but we both feel drained at the mere recall of this episode, and will return to the blog later...