Another strange night, as the room became full. In the morning, I chatted briefly with a Canadian cyclist who was planning to circumnavigate Taiwan. Then I spent a while busy with my booking and planning tasks before heading to a vegetarian restaurant that Fangfang had recommended.
Then it was time to book. It was stressful because I couldn’t book the Almaty-Bukhara train. So, I had to book Almaty-Arys-Tashkent-Bukhara and coordinate the schedules closely, as not all trains run daily. There was only one seat left on one train (14 days before the scheduled departure!), but first I had to check the connection’s availability, and of course, paying was difficult, so I was nervous about whether I would get all the tickets.
Yes, I have them. Maybe they all work and are they valid? (e.g. I received a message that a booking was not paid (on time?) and I would receive a refund – the main problem is a bad automatic translation)
The strangest part: I must change trains in Arys. I arrive at the “Arys 2” stop at 3:59 a.m. (dark, cold?!) and have to change to the “Arys 1” stop, which is a 3-kilometer walk away. From there, however, I’ll depart for Tashkent in the evening.
After this booking thriller, I left the hostel, took my luggage to the train station, and met Fangfang at a vegan/vegetarian weekend market. I almost lost track of time as we browsed around, in the last minute only buying a few of the things that had attracted me and finishing with a fantastic vegan ice cream. It was a quick goodbye, and I hurried to the train station.
On board, I found myself in the exact same cabin like 2 weeks before (Nangan – Keelung) and immediately shivered under the crazy air conditioning, which was immune to my tampering. This time, I shared the cabin with two men from the very beginning. The crossing was overnight, so it was easier to escape the air conditioning under the blanket but even fully clothed I often woke up because of feeling cold.
