Smooth 3 hours flight south to Samarkand. Nice view on the mountains, bit lake and the wide landscape below us.
Unfortunately he Internet access here is not the fastest again. Therefore no upload possible. Sorry folks!!
But today is another rest day for the crew anyway.
Therefore...read more...

Short but bumpy flight to Almaty. There we park our smart little plane right next to a big, elderly lady: an Ilyushin TD76. They are working on it and we ask whether we can go inside and see the cockpit. Again people here are very friendly and we visit the 20 year old plane. What a difference to our PC12...read more...

When we look out the window in the morning, we see that the near-by mountains are covered further down with snow. What a beautiful sight. After breakfast, our guide Aizada (born 1985) picks us up in the lobby. Together with a driver we follow the road from the white house (president’s office) to the president’s palace (home). Fairly nice road with quite some traffic.
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Two hour flight to Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyz Republic. Easy immigration and no customs at this huge airport (built by the Americans for the Afghanistan war).
Hyatt hotel is fantastic with super fast Internet.
And today is an official rest day for the crew. Therefore...read more...

Smooth going through security (3 different x-ray machines) but no immigration. Departure at 09.15h and flying for 1 1/2 hours over Turkmenistan desert. Just unbelievable that in the old days they traveled through here with the caravans.
Internet in Bukhara is extremely slow - so next full update will be in Bishkek, our next stop. Sorry folks!read more...

Leaving Iran was again no problem as coming in: everybody is very helpful and friendly. What a wrong image we have in the west of these people. Of course there are some issues (no free access to information, etc.) but hopefully this will change.
Ashgabat is different!, very different.read more...

The attraction of today is a visit to Persepolis which embodies the greatest successes of the ancient Achaemenid Empire...and also the final demise of it! There is no doubt how grand this empire was, just as the broken and fallen columns attest that its end was both emphatic and merciless.read more...