I returned on Wednesday morning and noted a greater number of waiting lorries and cars. There was no one there to give information but I sensed a ferry might be departing later that day. I returned to my hotel packed my belongings and headed back to the port. As the room at the hotel was pre-paid for Wednesday I asked them to keep it for me in case my gut feeling turned out to be a false alarm.

I arrived at the port at 3pm and the ticket clerk confirmed a ferry was sailing for Turkmenbashi that night. He examined my passport and bike documents and confirmed I could travel but would not sell me a ticket then but asked me to return at 4pm when a ticket would be issued. I duly returned paid $200 and received the ticket. I was allowed to enter the port and had my passport stamped with an exit stamp. I proceeded to the ship which was loading lorries. As it was baking in the afternoon sun they loaded me but put me at the very front of the ship.

They finished loading at about 8pm and I settled down to wait for departure. At about 9pm someone came to find me and asked me to report on the quay with my bike documents. I was met by a stern customs officer who said I should have gone to the customs office in Baku and get cleared to leave the country. I apologised and said I expected customs clearance would be dealt with at the port and hadn’t realised I should have gone to the office in town. We had a bit of a standoff for a while and I have a suspicion he was looking for a sweetener to facilitate clearance. I dislike the idea of bribery, even in a country where corruption is rife. After a while he said he would call his colleague at the office to see if I should be given clearance. After a while he said something like it’s your lucky day signed to form and told me to go.

The ferry eventually sailed at 11pm. It was very hot and humid evening. I was taken in hand by the 2 lorry drivers with whom I was allocated a cabin one of whom could speak a few words of English. We stayed on deck until about midnight and Ieft first for the cabin. There were 4 bunks, an upper and lower each side. My ‘friend’ with the little English asked me how old I was. I said I was 68. He replied he was 38 and offered me the lower bunk with him taking the upper one. That was a relief.

The mattress was plastic covered and there was a pillow. There was a porthole but virtually no air circulated in the cabin. When the other two retired we opened the door but that made little difference. The three of us tossed and turned most of the night as it was incredibly hot and airless and I sweated buckets. It is probably the most uncomfortable night of my life.

I rose at about 8am and went on deck to catch what little breeze existed. The Caspian Sea was flat calm and the ferry made its way steadily towards Turkmenistan. At 11am we suddenly stopped and anchored about 2 miles off the port of Turkmenbashi where we stayed until about 8pm.

Having docked we waited for the police to arrive to clear the passengers and at about 10pm unloading began. Unfortunately I had to wait for most of the lorries to disembark as my bike as trapped at the very front of the cargo deck. I finally managed to get ashore sometime after midnight, feeling exhausted.

I was met by the agent who accompanies me throughout my stay in Turkmenistan who had been waiting for my arrival for the last 15 hours or so. He was excellent and handled the administration which was a bureaucratic nightmare. First this office and then that – James sign this form – James pay lots of dollars for the right to use their road, for a tax on purchase of petrol, for insurance and even a $20 payment to cross the bridge from the port to the mainland. It would have been $10 but as my bike had luggage it attracted a higher fee of $20!!

Having done all the paperwork etc. I finally arrived at the hotel at 3am, dived into the shower, ordered a beer from room service costing $6 (no glass provided – well sir you didn’t ask for one responded the receptionist!!) and made a quick email to Davina to say I arrived safely as the iPhone does not connect to any signal there.
I was supposed to travel to Ashgabat the following day but I told my guide no way as I was too exhausted and needed a day to recover. Both my guide and one of the men on the boat told me the journey to Ashgabat was 350 miles with the first and last 100 miles on good roads but that in the middle there was 100 miles or so of unmade road. In view of my experience in Georgia I was not looking forward to this.

Turkmenbashi at night:

The night on board was very uncomfortable. The temperature remained in the upper 30's C. It was exceedingly hot with very little draft passing through the cabin. I was bathed in sweat all night on a plastic covered mattress and slept fitfully. The chef had a great variety. The first night it was pasta with fried chicken and the second day was fried chicken with pasta!! Still, it stopped the hunger.

Off to Ashgabat tomorrow. I am told there is 100 miles of unmade road to negotiate which will be interesting!!

The bureaucracy on arrival was unimaginable. Thankfully my guide was there to meet me and did all the leg work. We went to the bazaar this morning which was very interesting. Will upload some photos soon.

My iPhone does not work here but am told it will do so when we are near the Iranian border, provided I don't mind it being noted I have used their service which may lead people to think I am in Iran !!.

Hope to add more in about a week when I am in Uzbekistan where I know one of the hotels has free wifi

We had an early breakfast and departed the hotel at 8am to get a head start before the heat of the day. It was 28C when we left and the first part of the journey was on good roads allowing us to travel at 70+mph. It then deteriorated into a very poor tarmac surface with lots of lumps, bumps and potholes but to my pleasant surprise never got any worse and certainly did not become unmade. The roads reminded me of Russia which I suppose is not surprising as it will have been Russian engineers who constructed them during Soviet times. In some ways it is easier to pick your way through on 2 wheels as with 4 wheels you are almost bound to find a pothole for one set of wheels. The worst aspect for me is that heavy lorries sometimes create deep ruts, sometimes 3-4 inches deep, running for a hundred yards or more and it’s a nightmare if you have to get out of a rut and drop into another to avoid on-coming traffic. Some of the bumps are so severe that I was literally thrown up and out of the saddle several times. One brought tears to my eyes as I landed awkwardly as only a man can!!

We had 4 – 5 water stops as by the middle of the day the temperature rose to 42C (108F) and pulled into a roadside café for a quick bite of lunch where we had a couple of samosas. In Turkmen they are called samsas which is obviously very similar to the India word. At one stop my guide said I looked like a tomato!! Although it was hot it was not humid and despite the temperature I was not bathed in sweat as I have been on other days.

The worst aspect was trying to keep the crown of my head cool. I deliberately purchased a silver helmet for its reflective quality and the helmet is designed with a vent allowing air to pass into the top but I think it is designed for sport bike riders as you have to tip your head forward to feel the benefit of airflow.

The scenery was rather barren as we left the Caspian Sea and travelled south east. It then became desert with sand dunes on either side of the road. I finally discovered what bidets are for. They are great for washing your boots and getting rid of the sand. As we got closer to Ashgabat there was quite a lot of land devoted to horticulture.

Unlike Georgia where wandering cows are a natural driving hazard, here the hazard comes in larger form of herds of Bactrian (one hump) camels. They stroll leisurely over the road when it suits them and they have no intention of giving way.

Some distance out of Turkmenbashi the mountains start forming a natural boundary between Turkmenistan and Iran. They are outstandingly beautiful and are one of the sights I wanted to witness first hand. I recall when Davina and I flew back from the Maldives in 2010 we flew over them and they looked magnificent from the air. They certainly did not disappoint.

I was given a drive around tour of Ashgabat by my guide Dimitri, an ethnic Russian. Although the architecture is different it reminded me of Dubai and as Dimitri says you can ‘smell’ the oil and gas money lavished on the place. The country is fabulously rich and despite being a dictatorship much of the wealth has been returned to the people. All Turkmen receive almost free gas, electricity and water together with a monthly petrol allowance sufficient to run a modest car. Dimitri pays $5 per year towards his gas!! There is free medical care, but perhaps like in the UK many people prefer to attend the international hospital, where all doctors are western trained, the standard of care higher, but at a cost. There is free education but the standard is not high. Dimitri chose to send his son to Moscow where standards are higher. Wages are low compared with Western standards.

Apart from 2 buildings (one a church) Ashgabat was razed to the ground in 1948 by an enormous earthquake when many thousands lost their lives. Following independence from the Soviets in 1991, Turkmenistan gained control of its oil and gas revenues. The first president built grand schemes of hotels, mausoleums and great public buildings all of which are constructed in white marble imported mainly from Turkey and Italy. There is a carpet ministry and a ministry of the horse as well as all the usual ones. He travelled to Europe and saw that London, Paris and Rome each had rivers and fountains and on return decreed that a river (canal) be built running through the middle of the city and there are fountains everywhere. He built the largest 4 minaret mosque in Central Asia inscribed with some of his ‘wisdom’ on walls and pillars with only 1 Arabic reference. Unfortunately the mullahs decided it was a building dedicated to glorification of the president and not Allah with the result the mosque remains unused. When we went in, apart from Dimitri and me, there were 2 guards making sure no one stole the handmade carpets covering the entire floor, the gold embellishments and wonderfully ornate carved doors made in Morocco.

The streets are clinically clean and everything is immaculate. There is an ordinance that all cars have to be clean with fines for dirty cars and if caught for a traffic infringement the fine is increased 5 fold if the vehicle is dirty.

We attended the main Sunday bazaar. The present bazaar is just 1 year old extending over many acres with permanent buildings housing different products as well as outside covered areas. Today marked the end of Ramadan resulting in feasts being prepared tonight. The livestock market was bustling with hundreds of sheep, goats, cows and camels most of which would be ritually slaughtered tonight for the feasting. One half of the meat is given to the poor (although I didn’t see many of them) and the other half used by the family. The handling of livestock would cause a hue and cry from animal welfare protagonists in the UK. Sheep and goats had their feet tied and were just thrown onto trolleys for transporting to purchasers’ vehicles. Others just lay panting on the ground in 40C heat and I saw no evidence of water or food.

My overwhelming impression of Ashgabat was a highly sterile city made to impress. There was little sign of community life and a marked absence of cafes or tea shops. It is the first real police state I have visited and there were policemen dotted around everywhere, mainly singularly standing in the shade and apparently just watching everyone and everything.

A wedding palace:

And a wedding party

The 250 mile ride from Ashgabat to Mary (rhymes with sari not dairy) was the worst ride so far. The surface was tarmac but pitted with pot holes and corrugations making it both tiring and unpleasant. I am told it was built to carry 10 ton lorries but has been decimated during the past 10 years by 40 ton lorries. If only the ex-president had foregone his mosque which no-one uses and spent the money everyone would have benefited.

As I checked in to the hotel I was greeted by one of the drivers from the ferry. He was about to leave to drive back to Ashgabat.

My iPhone does not pick up any signal in Turkmenistan. I was told the previous international mobile telephone provider fell out with the administration packed his bags and left since when they have had only an internal system. There is a small window on the way to Mary which comes within a couple of miles of the border with Iran where you can pick up the Iranian telephone system which enabled me to ring Davina to confirm I was safe and sound.

After arriving at Mary I had a short break to freshen up (and have a quick snooze) and was then taken on a tour of the ancient city of Merv. It was visited by both Alexander the Great and later by Genghis Khan who wanted a grain tithe and pick of the young women for his harem. The Seljuk ruler murdered the 2 Khan emissaries. Three years later Tolui, the most brutal of Genghis Khan’s sons arrived and accepted the surrender of the city whereupon he slayed every last one of the estimated 300,000 population.

I returned to my hotel where Dimitri suggested I visit the restaurant which he said would be an experience. It was darkly lit with pounding music, several lorry drivers and at least a dozen ‘working girls’ hoping to ply their trade. It took me less than a second to elect to have my meal delivered to my room.

Now that I am no longer in Azerbaijan I feel I can describe my brush with the traffic police. I had ridden less than 2 miles into the country when I was pulled over by a white police BMW. I was invited to sit in his car – please take your helmet off first sir otherwise you won’t get in!! Having done so he showed me a nice photograph of myself on his camera with 73 kph beside it. He said the limit was 40kph. I asked how that could be as there were no speed restriction signs and I understood the general limit was 90kph. He replied if there is a house in sight the limit was 40kph and pointed to a house. I apologised and said I didn’t know that. This didn’t impress him and he asked for my driver’s licence and passport and told me I could have them back on payment of 200 Manat. I said I didn’t have any Manat and he replied he would take 200 Euros instead. He was unwilling to negotiate leaving me feeling he had me by where it hurts (my wallet) and I had no choice but to go along with it. I asked for a receipt and he told me that was not necessary. The deal was still the same 200€ if I wanted my passport and licence back. I was left feeling this was an involuntary contribution to his personal retirement fund and was the equivalent of what an old plumber friend (not DK) used to call ‘my Saturday morning money’. During my ride that day there must have been at least 20 incidents of police cars pulling over drivers where similar conversations may have taken place.Day 33 - Spent the morning being given a guided tour of Bukhara by Ali a student working at the hotel in his vacation. Bukhara is the holiest city in Central Asia with many mosques and madrassas.

We spent some time trying to cash my travellers cheques. The Lonely Planet guide says this can be done at the National Bank of Uzbekistan which proved correct. The young woman at the bank offered to save me waiting and hour in the queue on payment of $20 but I rejected this when I discovered I could exchange my cheques for only the local currency Sum and not dollars, which is the universal currency. $1 = 2,000ish Sum and $20 worth of Sum is more than you can get in a wallet. I am unable to get my head around such an exchange rate. A taxi ride costing 4,000 Sum sounds a lot but is about $2!! I was able to draw cash against my Visa card which solved the problem.

This is what $20 (£13) gives you:

As I rode into Bukhara yesterday I decided to adopt my usual tactic of asking a taxi to drive to the hotel with me following. Suddenly on my left I saw the hotel which was simply good fortune. It looks nothing from the outside but is excellent inside with a pool and the staff cannot do enough to please.

I spent a little time tightening nuts and bolts on my bike and was surprised how many had been shaken loose by the rough roads. This led to my first major mishap. I removed the saddle to get a spanner on the nuts which secure the top of the rear sub-frame and put one of the spanners down, as I have done many times before, but this time it short circuited something and blue smoke bellowed up from under the front tank. I thought it was catching fire. You can imagine my feelings as I thought my trip had come to a tragic end. I was immensely relieved when the engine fired into life and the computer said I had a bulb failure. Sadly that turned out to be the dipped headlight. I changed the bulb but as I thought it is the wiring which is damaged and not just the filament.

I wondered how it would react today but I did 170 miles without incident and so the damage appears restricted to the wiring loom. I thought about riding on main beam but decided that as I ride only in the day that my luminous H belt should be sufficient to make me visible and I can flash the headlight if I wish which will probably be more effective than leaving it on all the time.

Day 35 – When coming through the border there was nowhere to purchase insurance which I believe is obligatory in Uzbekistan. The customs officer said you have a form giving permission to be in Uzbekistan now go. As I had already had a difficult time I did as he said and left as quickly as possible.

It was only a short ride (50 miles) to Bukhara and 170 to Samarkand. Yesterday I rode very cautiously so as not to bring myself to the attention of the police. Whilst searching for a restaurant last evening I spotted a motor insurance office and went there this morning to enquire about insurance for my bike.

After about an hour of form filling I came away with a 3rd party certificate covering me for a whole year at the princely price of $11. Now I feel much more secure and will have no fear of police checks on the way to Tashkent tomorrow.

On entering Uzbekistan I had to complete 2 customs forms, one to be left with them and one taken with me to be handed in when I exit. The forms are only in Russian but there are example forms in various languages so you can see what the questions are. I had heard horror stories that Uzbekistan was very hard on drugs and a BritCit in 2010 was jailed for having more than the permitted amount of medication. The form asks whether you have any drugs and includes the word medication. I ticked the ‘yes’ box and said I had medication for 6 weeks.

The ticked box caused some excitement with customs and I was asked what narcotics I had. I replied it was not narcotics only medication. I had to tip it all out and the customs officer went through each packet checking with his computer whether it was proscribed. After about 30 minutes he said the form refers to narcotics and not medication – now go and fill in 2 more forms ticking the ‘no’ box to drugs. Hence when he told me to go I didn’t stop to argue.

Today I went to the centre of Samarkand and looked at the 3 madrassas built next to each other which are supposed to be the oldest in Central Asia. There was an older one but that was demolished by Genghis Khan when he ruled the city.

4800 miles in the saddle has produced a sore spot in a delicate part of the anatomy. I have visited several pharmacies and looked in to see if there was a male pharmacist but eventually today I had to give in and decided to speak to the young female assistant as the shop was empty. It reminded me of the stories of my youth of young men going into the chemist ‘for something for the week-end’ and when confronted with a female assistant bought aspirins and beat a hasty retreat. She didn’t speak any English and so in my faltering Russian I explained 8000 kms on motorcycle – soreness – and pointed to the general area. Fortunately she didn’t bat an eyelid, was very professional, brought 4 different preparations and gave her recommendation. I came away feeling that wasn’t as bad as I feared it might be. If its healing quality is connected to its stinging effect it should prove good!! As they say – no pain; no gain.

Day 36 - Just on 200 miles from Samarkand to Tashkent on relatively good roads in a pleasant temperature of 26C. I arrived in the city at about 2.30 and then spent over 3 hours trying to find my hotel!! One taxi driver took me to a similar sounding name hotel which was 5 miles away. Another brought me to the general area and left me to locate the hotel. I got within 200 yards of it and enquired of what I thought was a local. He sent me on a wild goose chase. I thought he was wrong but as he seemed so sure I decided to give it a try. I then headed back to the area where I thought it should be and searched the surrounding streets. Eventually I found it less than 200 yards further on from where I spoke to the 'local' !!

Well Dave and Jane I brought the lucky ram mascot you sent me with instructions to return him to Tashkent which I have now done. He has brought me good luck so far which I hope continues on the way back.

My hotel is about 2 miles out of the centre of the city and is the equivalent of Bitterne to Southampton or Cosham to Portsmouth. I went out tonight to a local good standard restaurant and ordered soup, bread, tomato and onion salad, 1 skewer of lamb kebab and a pot of tea. The bill came to 11,800 Sum which depending on the exchange rate is less than $6 (£4).

I bought 10 litres of petrol today for 16,800 Sum, say $8 being 80c (50p) per litre. That's the good news, the bad news is they have only 80 octane fuel. That's why I limited my purchase to 10 litres in the hope it will mix with the remaining 10-12 litres of 95 octane I purchased in Turkmenistan. I called into half a dozen filling stations which advertise 80, 91, 95 and 98 octane fuel but all the pumps are empty except for the 80 octane. That's OK for a Lada but I'm not sure my BMW will be very happy with it. I hope there is more choice in Kazakhstan.

What a difference from Turkmenistan which is awash with good quality petrol. In Uzbekistan many filling stations are closed and those open frequently have long queues reminiscent of when the tankers drivers threaten to strike at home. Lots of cars appear to run on LPG and there are special filling stations selling only LPG.

It strikes me it's a funny old world. For 55 years after 1945 these old former satellite republics of the USSR were at daggers drawn with the USA and decried all the US stood for. Yet, the preferred currency in these countries is the US dollar and almost everyone will ask whether you want to pay in dollars or the local currency with preference accorded to the dollar. That strikes me as having more than a whiff of hyprocracy about it.

The exchange rate of Sum to the dollar is very variable. The official rate is about 1,200 Sum but no-one changes at the banks and uses money changers instead. My hotel in Bukhara exchanged at 2,000 to $; my hotel in Samarkand at 2,700 and yesterday a local policeman/security guard was running a little business on the side at 2,100. Free enterprise is king now.

I went down to the old city of Tashkent which has a maze of streets forming a large bazaar. I cursed myself when I got there as I left my camera battery in the charger and had to go back to the hotel to get it as I could not return home without photos of Tashkent.

They sell everything in the bazaar from live birds (feathered variety), clothes, shoes, hardware and together with a dedicated farmers' market for fruit, vegetables and spices.

I sampled something different for lunch today; noodles with horse meat and salad. The meat was in tiny piece looking and tasting like lamb.

They have an odd arrangement here in that every car is a taxi. There are some registered taxis many of which are yellow and have a taxi sign on the roof but ordinary cars cruise around and stop for you if they think they can make a buck. No-one seems to mind and it is an accepted practice. You negotiate a fare before getting in rather than it being charged by a meter.

Have encountered my second significant problem today. I set aside part of this afternoon to check over the bike and tighten any nuts/bolts which had vibrated loose from the pounding on these rough roads. I discovered that one of the four bolts securing the rear sub-frame (two each side) has not only become loose but has vanished. It doesn't affect the main integrity of the bike as the engine, front wheel, forks, rear wheel and suspension are in effect an integral unit. The main function of the rear sub-frame is to support the weight of the panniers.

Amongst my spare parts I have a bolt which almost fits, but not quite. I have therefore decided to abandon all clothing or other things I can do without to reduce weight in the panniers and hope this temporary solution holds until I get to Kiev in the Ukraine where there is a BMW dealer. It's a bit of a tall order as Kiev is 2,500 miles away. If that fails I shall have to enlist the help of a local motor mechanic to find a more permanent solution. Fingers crossed, we'll see what tomorrow brings as I cross into Kazakhstan.