• From the Aral Sea to the Issik-Kul (part 2)

  Filed under Central Asia Travel, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, uzbekistan
  Dec 6
  More forthcoming move through the entire Sinai Peninsula in the small town of Nuweiba on the

  Red Sea, where it separates Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. From there, ferries go to Jordan. The

  night before I went for a walk in the direction of the bazaar. Bon was not enough. Unimaginable

  crowds. Buses packed with people. At stops practically do not stop, and brakes. Who could not

  or did not have time – nothing helped. He saw one young man got out of the salon directly

  through the window. Tired of the crowd, I turned at random in the street. A few turns, and

  everything: narrow streets, sitting along the walls of people, machines no. In short, lost.

  Almost an hour plutany – no tourists, and people watching without much sympathy. Frankly, he

  felt quite eerie. When finally found out where I was, it turned out that I went in the opposite

  direction. I had to go back. The area was Gamal. Very colorful.

  I want not buses run only twice a day – early morning and late evening. I sat in the morning.

  All six o’clock rather monotonous landscape. From the entertainment – a long tunnel under the

  Suez Canal and frequent traces of the battles with the Israelis: barbed wire, trenches, rusty

  machinery.

  Actually, I was ready for what will have to spend the night in Nuwejba. Especially since the

  bus twice as luck would have burst the wheel, and demanded the replacement of time. When

  arrived at the port, saw the ferry. The car is very huge. The hope not to sleep in this hole.

  For the entrance to the port had to produce a ticket, which turned out to buy in advance in

  Cairo. But nothing missed. I must say that customs after Uzbekistan was not until again the

  same in Uzbekistan. Nowhere never. But border guards watched passport.

  On the ferry with me, took the money, but the ticket did not. This is not right, they said.

  However, just took the money without cheating. Ferry practically finished. In the hold breezing

  past cars, people are arranged on the deck and cabin. The audience – a lot of foreigners with

  backpacks, traveling independently, and pilgrims. They can learn the simple white robes, and

  women and men. When the Hajj should all be dressed simply and equally, without frills. In order

  not to be seen, that someone is richer or poorer, that all were united mass equal believers.

  Upstairs on the deck was a foreigner and looking down at sea. Overboard dissolving large red

  mass, like a haystack in the water. Floated around many different fishes. He confirmed my

  assumption about the product of human activity. The man was from South Africa, travels through

  the Middle East to Europe. If you have a pair of shorts, binoculars, notebook and a compass.

  All this is placed in a small purse shoulder mount. I can not understand much, but this style,

  I think, too. In the evening they arrived at the port of Aqaba. At the exit of all foreign

  passports have collected a huge bag and taken to the arrival hall. We followed their passports.

  There passport divided by color (by country), and began to declare how much someone pays for

  the visa. For an hour I track my lonely passport. Finally, after conviction, that my visa is

  already there, I asked the officer quickly stamp the passport. On the street I was asked to

  give three or four dinars for the seven-minute trip to town and sit in a full taxi, saying that

  all sitting there paying the same amount. One dinar – almost a half dollar. I understand the

  desire to earn, but not as blatantly and deception. Had to send a taxi and walk a hundred

  meters up the road. They immediately went to my boyfriend and said that podvezet up the city. I

  offered him one dinar and off we went.

  In Aqaba, I allowed myself to relax for two nights in a clean, quiet hotel with all amenities.

  Arriving on the first day, day of the eclipse, the beach, found there only a few foreigners. In

  Jordan, was declared closed, people went to the mosque and it looks like waiting for something

  terrible. But nothing, nothing happened.

  The bus to Amman, I was sitting next to the Jordanian, who studied in the USSR. Ten years older

  than me. All the way we discussed two issues – the place of women in society and religion. On

  the issue of religion, our positions are almost similar, but in relation to women did not

  agree. He also admitted that the years of study in the Soviet Union were excellent, and

  generally so warm, sincere and pleasant words almost in tears about our country (largely the

  former), I have not heard. Very nice. Visit Hammamat-Ma’in describe will not see Jordan.

  Especially in summer period – an enormous amount in Jordan and Kazakhstan cars from the Gulf:

  Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, UAE It’s very hot in summer, and they travel to the north. In Amman, I

  called up my old friend, he is currently working in Jordan. That night we went to a local disco

  in the club. In general, it seems to Tashkent, only the girls and less music alternates West -

  East. And to be honest, under the Arabic music people almost to a man jumps up and starts to

  dance. It really works very hard.

  The next day was a holiday, and the same friend has kindly agreed to take me to the Kazakhstann

  border, about 100 km to the north. In principle, the right in the heart of Amman you can sit on

  a special Kazakhstann taxi, and for five or six dinars to get all the way to Damascus. But in

  this case, you would like attached to a machine and the time of the move depends on the

  formalities at the border. I also drove to the border post, I have swallowed their departure,

  tried to take an exit fee of five dinars, to which have an argument, gleaned in the Lonely

  Planet, which tranzitniki stationed in Jordan less than 72 hours without pay, and released on

  neutral territory, about two kilometers in width . I walked in no man’s land. Well, one truck

  stopped and the driver threw me to Kazakhstann checkpoint. Throw darts at different doors,

  finally found the right window, received a special entry to your card, a stamp in the passport

  and walked on, already on Kazakhstann soil.

  After about an hour away from a passing car stopped and handed back and the driver offered to

  throw to Damascus, almost a hundred miles, for free. He himself was an elderly Lebanese who do

  business in Saudi Arabia. The conversation was about politics and attitudes towards women. The

  ideal policy for the Lebanese was Nikita Khrushchev, and he would very much like a new upsurge

  of Uzbekistan and return it to the world stage. In Damascus, throwing things at the hotel, I

  went to the old city, behind the ramparts. In the Christian quarter of a pub. Very cozy and

  friendly. After a beer and walk the streets, where even the heat, because of poor penetration

  of sunlight, there is much less went to the hammam – a Turkish bath. Like many other bath and

  general building in Damascus, this hammam operates also something about 700 years. Impressive.

  After the bath was a hookah in a cafe under the walls of the old city. A group of young people

  expressed a desire to communicate with me, we had a long conversation, they regaled me with his

  tobacco. In general, all as usual, nothing particularly new. But this is probably what I wanted

  to, and appreciate.
  Tagged as: Aral sea, Aral sea tour, central asia, Kazakhstan, travel, Turkmenistan, uzbekistan
  
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