Hi Richard
Great photo to bring back a few memories. After that first night there i had to have another just to see if it could be as good and it was even better next time round. Have you been to alamaty in the centre? Had a great night in there with the boss starting off in the marco polo hotel then a few of the sites round about 
Any photos you have of the area richard would always be more than welcome by many on here who travelled there without a camera!! 
Never been in Kazakhstan - full stop…seemed to have escaped the place.
I will post up some more pics a bit later on, although some are in the “Truck Photos from Central Asia” thread…
will see what else I can find…
Richardjw1:
Never been in Kazakhstan - full stop…seemed to have escaped the place.I will post up some more pics a bit later on, although some are in the “Truck Photos from Central Asia” thread…
will see what else I can find…
Richard, if you have driven from Samarkand to Tashkent, you would have passed through a small part of Kazahkstan, the bit where the market stalls & fuel tankers line the roadside.
Dave.
Richardjw1:
davemackie:
Yeah.
Dave.in all its glory…Feb '08
My memory aint so good richard as i thought it was 17 stories and you had to pass the horizontal entertainment on the 16th floor!! Anyway i remember getting stopped by the police in the centre of town while being watched by two policemen across the road only to be stopped by them aswell after we crossed the road! Im sure it must be a hundred percent more open now than it was but no doubt the authorities still rule by fear 
davemackie:
Richardjw1:
Never been in Kazakhstan - full stop…seemed to have escaped the place.I will post up some more pics a bit later on, although some are in the “Truck Photos from Central Asia” thread…
will see what else I can find…
Richard, if you have driven from Samarkand to Tashkent, you would have passed through a small part of Kazahkstan, the bit where the market stalls & fuel tankers line the roadside.
Dave.
Hi Dave,
The ‘bitonka’ road diverts around Kazakhstan now, has done for 5 or 6 yrs…but I have transited through it in '96 > '98, bought the cheap diesel at the big tanks and then had grief off the customs who on occassions decided to turn the car out.
The road now literally dead-ends after the river bridge and you get diverted down through Sirdariye region on a new stretch then comes out on the other side just on the northern part of Djizzak region where you can continue the trip onwards to Samarkand & beyond…coming back up the main road the sign post shows ‘Alma-Aty’ straight ahead and then left is ‘Sirdariye’ (and the new by-pass)…but no mention of Tashkent, mind it is right on a polis check point and it purposely diverts people to the right.
RjW
colin.f.whitetrans:
My memory aint so good richard as i thought it was 17 stories and you had to pass the horizontal entertainment on the 16th floor!! Anyway i remember getting stopped by the police in the centre of town while being watched by two policemen across the road only to be stopped by them aswell after we crossed the road! Im sure it must be a hundred percent more open now than it was but no doubt the authorities still rule by fear
If I’m honest I can’t remember if its 15, 16, 17 or how many…my excuse is it was in the last century 
But yes, Tashkent is a WHOLE lot more open right now, I certainly never had any impressions of being followed - there is an outside chance that if you are canned up and out on the streets very late at night then you will get picked up and chucked in their slammer until you sober up in the morning. There’s a lot of foreigners there now and I have to say lots of tourists so they have adapted to this. No doubt for some local people or those who live it close to the line have a diff. view of it…but hey it’s like it in a lot of places in the world.
Hi Richard
Maybe i gave the wrong impression about tashkent. I didnt mean that we were being followed i just meant that in the main centre they checked our documents more than they needed to and only to try and get a quick buck if you were daft enough to give in to them. Mind you maybe we had a few sherberts to many after our horizontal experience!!
Seem to remember that experience could be obtained in the Truck Park on the ring road, at a far lesser cost.
, only what I was told. 
Dave.
davemackie:
Seem to remember that experience could be obtained in the Truck Park on the ring road, at a far lesser cost.
, only what I was told.
Dave.
Really■■? I never noticed, i must have been very inexperienced not to 
colin.f.whitetrans:
davemackie:
Seem to remember that experience could be obtained in the Truck Park on the ring road, at a far lesser cost.
, only what I was told.
Dave.Really■■? I never noticed, i must have been very inexperienced not to
reckon it’s not only “experience” you’d obtain from dropping in to one of them 
I’m in Georgia right now (not the USA) anyway we been out on machine visits and coming back in to to Tbilisi I was sort of concentrating on the road (passenger) and you know what I saw? a bloody Greendale’s from Exeter Scania - at least I am sure it was a Scania, it wasn’t until I saw the door and Exeter 01392 >>>>> that it registered!!! and it defo was greendales coz it was the roof spoiler that caught my eye first of all…o.k. so we see a lot of Euro left hookers making their way out here on the s/h market, but a rhd from 50 miles from home■■?..after this I noticed some 8 wheeler tippers also rhd…one from Abacus, 0117 number, still on the door?
Small world getting smaller!!!..Baku is only 580kms from Tbilisi
Hi Richard
How is it in georgia at the moment? Did you take the ferry from krasnovodsk? Apart from dagestan georgia IMO was the most dodgy place i ever drove to. I had a bad experience with the customs at kutasi on the way to tblisi then nearly got into fight in customs terminal tblisi waiting to clear. The homeward journey was easy enough though and much more pleasureable
colin.f.whitetrans:
Hi RichardHow is it in georgia at the moment? Did you take the ferry from krasnovodsk? Apart from dagestan georgia IMO was the most dodgy place i ever drove to. I had a bad experience with the customs at kutasi on the way to tblisi then nearly got into fight in customs terminal tblisi waiting to clear. The homeward journey was easy enough though and much more pleasureable
well most of the time i was in Tbilisi, but we had a trip 100kms out west to a town called Gori, its where it all kicked off last year, we travelled through the town and it seemed normal enough (from the passenger seat) but there are hardly any cops on the street compared to other countries so it crossed my mind what would happen if there was bother.
The boys I went with reckoned 7kms away from this place as a no-go - for them and as for S. Ossetia & Abkaziye they reckon they wouldn’t even entertain going there!..but the countryside is amazing.
I didn’t come on the ferry, thought the better of it so was a flight fom Ashgabad to Istanbul then back to Tbilisi…around the capital itself seems very relaxed, fantastic food!!! I felt as if I was in some kind of old eastern bloc/new extended european country…no evidence of Russia and everyone (well, who I met) has a good grasp of English…nice place
soon be winter in kazak so heres a few of my mates photos that have been posted on another thread
They had it hard that trip and it is good to look back at the photos and see how difficult the trip could be
there coming up to small will have them up at some point today 
dreva:
there coming up to small will have them up at some point today
Hi dreva i was just going to post i cant see them!
colin.f.whitetrans:
dreva:
there coming up to small will have them up at some point todayHi dreva i was just going to post i cant see them!
i forgot my password for photobucket still waiting for the password email how stupid am i
think thats done it mate
interesting account of their trip and pretty ■■■■ accurate!
jj72:
toby1234abc:
Ralph Davies.Peter Gilder and sons,(Russanglia).or from the 3 who went first, gordon macmillan and cyril gardiner off croome’s and danny mcauliffe subbing for kepstowe’s, while RD and co were still doing oranges from spain
Hi jj
Did danny mcauliffe go on to do zarafshan? the name rings a bell. I was with frank when we met a guy named danny who had a low loader or flat step frame and we passed into poland with him in 96!
