15th of October:
We get our Visa at the Azerbaijan embassy and as usual Kotomi does not need to pay anything. In these moments I wish to have a Japanese passport. Another guy from Japan we meet at the embassy. He came all the way from China by bicycle and his final destination will be also Germany. He is happy to get our invitation to stay in "our" house when he arrives in Germany later than we do.
As there is not much interesting stuff for us in Tashkent we want to leave the city as fast as possible. But first I change my expensive USD on the black market for the true rate (:). Buy a UZcell SIM card to be connected to the world. Now we are on our way to Samarkand, Bukhoro etc. the historic places of Timor and the Silk ROAD. The way to there is not so interesting from the landscape. It is flat area covered with cotton bushes. This time of the year they are harvesting. Mostly students and kids are sent by the government to do this work. Most of the cotton production is in the hand of the government as well as the gas and all other major industries. Small business is allowed for the private person. A big difference to the countries we visited before is that the wealth of the country seems to be shared with almost all people. The difference between the rich and the poor seems not to be so large.
It is hard to find a camp side for this day as all the land is used. Either there is a village or a cotton field. We find a place beside a field. Just 5 min after we stopped there a farmer and his cows visit us. We explain him that we just want to stay here one night in the tent. He insists that we come to his house and family to stay there overnight. As usual we start with tea and it ends with big dinner. Meanwhile we recognise the differences to the other countries. The oven is not filled with shit. Here they have the same simple oven as before but they just connect a gas pipe to it. Also his very old UAZ Offroad car is running with gas. He says it is much more economic than petrol. After some time all his brothers and uncles came one by one to visit and to say hello. As always at least one of the older man made their military service in the former GDR. This is always a good starting point and from the beginning they feel the former friendship. Actually for us it is really good that there was something like the Soviet Union before. Otherwise we would have to learn all local languages to be able to communicate.
(N 40.69072°, E 68.70423 °)
16th of October:
From the uncle we got the invitation to go with him to two wedding parties in the morning. We stood up around 6 and then the wedding marathon is starting. One younger relative picks us up with his MATIZ. This is actually a Daewoo but produced in Uzbekistan. Also the other cars we could mainly see here are produced in Uzbekistan. Anyway he is a quite fast driver and since he is driving always 100 km/h also in the town we get stopped from the police. The uncle goes also to them, some handshakes and we go on. At the first wedding party there are around 600 people. Everybody gets a seat and we start to eat Plov to drink tea and get some fruits. Always new people come and other people go. I ask how many people will be there in total? He guesses it will be around 2000 people. I ask him if he knows all of them and he ensures me yes he knows them all. Anyway this is just the first day and now in the morning there are only mans. The night before woman and man were already celebrating. But actually this day is still not the final wedding. The future husband still needs to ask today his future wife if she wants to marry him. She can say no today and then he has to come back tomorrow with a present and ask again. Normally this game can take 1 to 3 days until she finally agrees. After she agreed the final wedding party will be held. Such a wedding ceremony can cost up to 10000 USD. That is one reason why a lot of young guys tell us they can not marry since there family does not that much money. The only way out is to steal the bride. We heard already about this custom in Tajikistan. You can steal the bride. After that the fathers have normally to agree to wedding but the ceremony will not be that big and expensive.
Well, after the first our Formula 1 driver brings us to the second wedding party. An Uzbek want to marry an Azerbaijani girl. Same ceremony, but more luxury and less people. We ask why? They explain us this is more like a "Mafia" party. Mafia not like Russian Mafia; killing any people etc., Mafia in terms of business and corruption. That means there are not so many "normal" people invited. The food is almost the same as on the other party. And as on the other party I can not see the future husband and the bride.
After those two parties we go back to the village and we are back on the street. I feel not so good and it seems I got this virus which Kotomi had before. We stop in some cotton field, get a special Uzbek Melon as present from the farmer and I go to sleep.
(N 40.09688°, E 68.30376 °)
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