We woke up this morning to the wonders of Merv, an ancient city ruined by Ghengis Khan, on our doorstep. Merv is spread over a huge area and we managed to burn up nearly 20km by the time we were done looking around and back on the main road towards Uzbekistan. Of course we couldn’t leave the site without bumping into a few Turkmen tour groups and two women in particular very kindly insisted on pushing money into our hands; the third time in less than a week this has happened to us! Once again we tried to protest but we were fighting a losing battle. We gave our thanks and left wondering, with all these people giving us money lately, if we’d started to look more down and out than usual?

As we headed out on the road, at first we thought the wind had changed direction in our favour (the breeze has been blowing against us ever since we left Mashhad) but soon it turned to gusts, whipping across the road, creating large clouds of sand and dust. It wasn’t really ideal cycling weather so when we saw a cafe just outside the town of Zahmet we decided to call it quits for the day. One of the great surprises of Turkmenistan has been the roadside cafes where you can eat and drink cheaply and often the owner will invite you to stay for the night. We weren’t even halfway through our first beer and bowl of mutton soup when we were offered a room.

Just as we were settling in a great surprise rolled up: a Chinese cyclist who’s been on the road constantly for the past 11 years! Lee saw our bikes as he was going by and came over to say hello, telling us stories of the incredible 91 countries he’s travelled through. His panniers looked as though they’d seen half the world, with most of the zippers splitting open. He’d just come from Afghanistan, where he was hassled by the police, and now he’s on to Iran, Europe and hopefully Canada over the next year so give him a warm welcome from us if you see him on the road.

Here you can see a video of our sandstorm in Turkmenistan:

No river came to wash us away last night but we did have another exciting evening, this time with entertainment from some locals. We’d just settled into our sleeping bags and started to relax when we heard voices approaching with the inevitable call of “Hello Mister” coming towards us at top volume. Groan. At the risk of sounding seriously grumpy, socialising is the last thing we want to do once we’ve crawled into our tent, particularly when we know the person heading our way speaks next to no English and really just wants to gawk at the tourists. In theory, you can avoid this situation by sneaking off to camp when no one is looking but in Iran people seem to pop up everywhere and it’s a rare night indeed when someone doesn’t notice us rolling off into a corner. We’d just spent the afternoon teaching the local English student his lessons, followed by six people who watched us set up camp and one who supervised our evening meal. Now we were ready for some quiet time to ourselves but it wasn’t to be.

As Andrew stuck his head out to fend off our unwanted guests he was greeted by a large video camera and a startlingly bright light. “Hello Mister!” our two visitors cried again in unison, in case we hadn’t heard them the first time. That must have been the hundredth time we’d heard that phrase in the past eight hours or so. They then stuck the camera in our tent, trying to get a good look around while Friedel was struggling to pull on her hijab, surprised by the unexpected visit. Much laughter followed from the two men but we were on the other end of the scale, feeling like caged animals that people come to poke a stick at every so often for their own amusement. A few choice words from us seemed to get the message across and they backed off quickly, laughing all the way back home no doubt. We had a chuckle ourselves afterwards at these crazy Iranians who are so desperate to get a look at some foreigners but at the time we were more than a little annoyed. (more…)

When we were in Turkey we noticed juice bars everywhere serving up a purple mix, which we assumed was beetroot juice. Well, it turns out this was actually ‘fermented carrot juice’ made from a purple type of carrot and other tempting ingredients like bulgur wheat and hot pepper. When we saw a bottle in a supermarket we couldn’t resist trying it out, although after this taste test we’re not sure we’ll rush to buy another bottle!

We’re experiencing a very restful few days here in Aleppo and have developed a bit of a routine as we settle in for Christmas. Scrambled eggs and cappuccino for breakfast. Internet cafe to check email. Lazy afternoon watching trashy U.S. television and an evening of cooking and wine with friends in the hotel. It’s not a bad life and a nice diversion from the rigours of the road, which we will be returning to very soon as we head to Iran for the New Year.

Our quiet days though have recently been punctuated by the chaos of Eid on the streets of Aleppo. Thousands of Turks have come to the city during the Muslim holiday for a spot of cut-price shopping (the shopping phenomenon isn’t unique to Christmas!) and, while the streets are devoid of the usual number of cars and taxis, the sidewalks are full to bursting with people bargaining for huge quantities of rice and sugar. Here’s a video from the streets of Aleppo during Eid.

Here are a couple videos we shot during our desert trek from Damascus to Palmyra. One is just a simple view from our bikes as we pedal through the landscape and another is short but funny: Cliff the camel finishing off a can of cola! We weren’t quick enough to film the whole thing!