Uzbekistan

From Beyneu, Jan the Cranially Endowed and I headed for Uzbekistan - but first we had to gas up. Whereas fuel is clean, cheap, and plentiful in Kazakhstan, it is anything but on the other side of the border. In fact, we would not find gas for another 275 miles, and at no point over the next thousand were we confident in its quality. At many stations one only finds octane 80, aka tractor juice. You might as well drink a red bull and yell into the gas tank.

The Uzbek border is infamously agonizing, so Jan went first. After declaring his head at customs, the officers proceeded to turn his luggage inside out. I followed suit, sweating bullets, because reasons. They were looking specifically for drugs and drones, the possession of which is a one way ticket to pound-me-in-the-ass Uzbek prison. After four harrowing hours, we made it.

Immediately we were accosted by women offering to exchange cash, as there would be no ATM for several hundred miles. For a humble $100 we were made millionaires. In the insurance office, the "broker" was a surly teenager who haggled with us contemptuously. After agreeing upon some nugatory amount, we handed over our documents. A Dutch passport, boring. But upon seeing mine he lit up and repeatedly shouted "I'm a good boy!" while searching my face for approbation.

We were in Karakalpakstan, an autonomous region which occupies 40% of the country. It is, in my facile opinion, a wasteland. There is literally only one road, with a surface like the moon. We rode til dusk then pulled into a truck stop. In the morning we found a comatose Belgian named Jean Francois. He was walking around the world, rescuing stray dogs en route. He presently had three in tow. Strangely, he was an anxious, unprepared mess. We gave him what cash we could spare and warned him that there would be no food, water, nor shade for the next two hundred miles - but he insisted on walking. We thought him mad, but we learned that he made it and found homes for all three dogs along the way. 

What are the odds that any two travelers should cross paths on the surface of an entire planet? I wonder how many fascinating people I just missed.