Day 19 19. May 2000, Turkmenabat (Chardzhou) to Samarkand An easy
section today as the only aim is to get away from the Chardzhou Sanatoriy
to reach Samarkand, a city which can be described as the cultural climax
of our tour in Central Asia. Leaving Turkmenistan is relatively little
hassle: A Turkmen borderman wants to make a pseudo-search of our car but
another official who we talked to tells him in Turkmen: "These are
friends from Turkey, let them go". Entering Uzbekistan is even less
hassle, but we have to receive the sad news that Russian President Putin
decided to visit the cultural sites of Uzbekistan today. So the city of
Bokhara is blocked off by the police and we are not allowed in. We will
therefore not be able to visit Bokhara, but the dissappointment about
these news are eased by the outlook of seeing Samarkand today and tomorrow.
Overall 37 minutes penalty The official results can be looked up on this website
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