June 15, to Bukhara, Uzbekistan

The 500 km to Bukhara are terrible , after leaving the green by the river that floods here - this is a very harsh desert with a completely destroyed road , sand patches , and big loneliness in an over 40 Celsius atmosphere.
The bike is much faster than the cars and trucks, but I manage to go too fast and in a big hole , I damage the front rim - now I've a kind of jumping jack front wheel..I ll try to fix it- no petrol around for 400 km and at the only refueling station I meet a trucker that at the end give me the explanations about the long lane of trucks stucked on the border with Kazakstan
In fact this is the supply for the us army and the NATO in Kabul ! All supplied by a single company located in riva by the baltic, that use 20,000 trucks to do the job! And every truck crossing the Uzbekistan border pay a duty for the transit.
In fact , after Pakistan closed the border , the Baltic/Moscow/Kazakstan /Uzbekistan /Afghanistan is the only way possible
And the other way around - bringing back stuffs from Afghanistan is impossible as the neighbors country doesn't want to make Afghanistan unhappy helping us and nato to go away ..
I m 300 km away from afghanistan and don't want really to go there to see what's going on.
I m very surprised to see Uzbekistan , I expected a standard Muslims country , but definitely here is a laic country , where there are no minarets and prayer call is prohibited by law - in fact all things that encouraged religion- so no problem with pigs , alcohol and women are not covered..
Even if 70% of the population is Muslims , they are not practicing at all.
Kazakstan , kyrghistan , turmenistan, tadjikistan and in the sabe mood
Explanation is that all these countries are dictatures and their presidents see religions as potential opponents - so they keep it down.
I understand a bit better the boiling pot with Afghanistan and Pakistan just around.
I'm exhausted when arriving at Bukhara
Beautiful ancient city, I find an hotel just by the old area
Here is , with khiva and samarkand the historical hub of commerce and culture for millenniums
Cool

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