Day on the Dragoman truck

This is a long day so an early start. Up at 6:30. My phone is too cold for the battery, so have to depend on others to wake me.  I do not have to cook breakfast today. Yea.   So, first the toilet, what ever it happens to be.  Sometimes there is a drop one and sometimes there is the bush. There are small garden shovels to bury the solid waste and we ladies put the paper in a plastic bag tied to the wheel in the back of the truck.  Take down the tent, it has tension poles corner to corner and clips that snap on to it.  I had an old 'fly sheet' that leaked, so had a wet one after rain. Then I got a new one that zips on the slant so that does not happen again.  I learned this time to hold the center tie and flap it on each side to make it as flat as possible, then fold it in thirds, put the fly sheet on top and roll it tight.  That way it will fit easily into the bag.  Now to haul the bags to the truck so they can be loaded into the back locker where they all go.  We take a day pack into the truck and leave the rest in the back.
     Breakfast: It can be pancakes, eggs, fruit salad, lots of bread tea and the downright awful Nescafe.  That is a travesty. I do have my own coffee.  Having some now. We wash our hands before all food in one bowl with some hand soap and then rinse with treated water.  Tuck in.  There are fold up chairs that get put out to sit on to eat or visit.  Breakfast time they are swooped up so we can get going.
   When we enter the truck we spray our hands with a solution of Detol and water to try to keep the bugs down.  We must also rotate daily so there is no squabbling and all get a chance for all the seats. Off we go.
   The windows do wind down, that is a plus.  Also a library on board, and a game box.  Also lots of BS to be had.
    About every two hours is a pee stop, women to the right, men to the left.  I still have not gotten the She Pee down pat. When it is cold and need to wear pants, it will not work.  Need a full skirt and no panties.
    Lunch:  It is usually a sandwich as it is the easiest to do on the road.
    Sometimes we stop for places to see or things to do.  If not, our destination is the place for that.
    Dinner:  This is when people get creative and we have some darn good food.  We shop locally for what we need and what we do not need. Lots of sodas and alcohol is consumed.  Oh, and foreign chips are the favorite, there are so many kinds in the world.  How about, caviar or bacon? Yummy.
   Camp again.  We do not always camp, sometimes hotels, home stays, the popular yurt.  
    Some people read all the time, some do not, some have the ear buds in, some talk, some sleep.
    Keeping clean is a new style for me.  I have discovered wet ones, ie: baby wipes.  Now, this is just fine.  I have washed my hair in glacier water in a rushing stream and done the laundry in same river.  I am a bit obsessive about laundry.  I always wanted to have all my things ready all the time, nothing has changed, except I have fewer, well, much fewer things to wash.
  On to the next hill and adventure. On the bumpy road of the hill as it turns out to be. Sometimes we get bogged down and have to dig the truck out.  It worked on previous trips, this time, not.  We were seriously in trouble.  That is another story in another blog.
   
   

Uzbekistan

The mosques, minarets, and mausoleums are the order of the day. The tiles were made in workshops, numbered and assembled at the site using the numbers. Millions of them. Also there is so much wood carving of pillars that it is mind boggling to me. Then there is the brickwork. Pattern after patterns used in one building. So clever. Samarkand is the best so far. Colossal mosques covered in turquoise tiles, inside and out. Truly a sight to behold. Not just one in the square, but matching madrasahs facing each other. Some of the tiles were cut out in a fretwork pattern, concave and convex. Not allowed to photo them without a fee, I did not get a ticket and was sorry not to photograph them. My first night in a yurt. It is deceiving how big it is inside. Feels comfy and very spacious. Will have more along the way. Peeked on the door of a wedding. The couple were sat apart from the gusts under a flashy white silk arch festooned with lights, complete with a boom camera. Found an ice cream kiosk in Registan Square.Our first ones. Tashkent a big city. Best thing going for it is the metro art. No photos allowed and there is also a curfew of 11PM. We were at a dinner/dance place and it did indeed empty out. The locals were dancing like robots on speed, very cool. And they hav lots of energy. Many of our group got drunk and sick. Oops. Noel, the oldest of us-71-did a flip on the dance floor and was very popular with the ladies. The tomb of Mohammed is in Samarkand. The little girls heads are shaved to encourage thicker hair. They do look a bit like waifs.