To our surprise when we woke up in the morning the hotel was still a hotel and we didn't wake up in an abandoned building like it had all been a dream. We went downstairs to have breakfast in the huge empty dining room. The breakfast was actually one of the best we have had so far, even if it was slightly awkward being the only people there with one member of staff watching.

 

As the man/ghost at reception had said the border crossing was open we decided to give it a go for poops and giggles. We drove west out of the city towards Tajikistan, and after an hour or so we were turned around by a man with a gun. He didn't really explain why we couldn't use the border, but he did helpfully suggest the using one of the other borders instead. We made a U-turn on his doorstep and headed back the way we came to our Plan B border.

 

The Plan B border was actually our Plan A border anyway had we not trusted local knowledge over google - which had suggested the closer border might be closed. The long drive to the southern border was made even longer by every single police checkpoint along the road stopping us for ten minutes. Each officer wanted to write down the car details and our passport information in a paper booklet before they waved us on. I was pretty sure no one was ever going to look at these books ever again, so around the fifth stop I just started agreeing with whatever they said. "German?", "Yeah I sure am". "Matiz?", "of course". "Andrew Bercraft", "Yep that's me". Luckily none ever seemed to want a bribe, I assume filling in their books must be all they really want out of life. At one checkpoint we panicked as we watched our passports get handed to a random teenager. Of course we followed him to keep track of our passports as they went into a building. We needn't have worried, the young guy was the only one around who spoke English so was translating. Once the officer was suitably satisfied with his completed booklet, he suggested taking a shorter route than we were planning to get to the border. The roads were apparently terrible though, so we decided not to risk it and head to Afghanistan instead.

 

What I can tell you with absolute certainty from our evening in Termiz is that there is naff all in Termiz. When we arrived in the city we checked into one of the three hotels available in the city. The hotel was pretty basic and a strong soviet design choice. Since there was nothing to see in the city we decided a few pints was a suitable plan instead. We asked the man at reception who spoke English where was a good place, he answered "We have Malacca Gold" like it was the obvious place to be in Termiz. We had a fair few pints over a nice meal before going to investigate Termiz ourselves. All the cool kids hang out at the park these days so we headed there, it also took up a big part of the map so must be good. They don't seem to understand the concept of a park in Termiz, instead of nice open space it was just a dense dark forrest. On the way out the park there was a collection of old but still functioning fairground rides. Despite my desire to ride a caterpillar rollercoaster, we walked back to the hotel and went to bed before 9pm like true adventurers.