Hello from Tashkent Uzbekiston

These are greetings from the red tape capital of the world! I am being expelled from this country for the crime of traveling on a Russian visa. It is more complicated than that, of course. But, the bottom line is that I entered the country without a prearranged tourist visa for Uzbekistan.

Since my last postcard in Turkey I have been in Georgia and Armenia. This has been a hectic week where I have spent the night in a different hotel every day since I left Ankara Turkey. What an adventure: bumpy roads, greedy everybody, confused communications in god knows how many languages, no food or candy bars at best... all the wonderful adventures I love.

I'm unlikely to make it to Iran or Pakistan this time around, but with any luck I will one day be old and feeble and forced to buy some of those prepackaged tours that go just about everywhere these days.

I better sign off now so I don't miss my 8pm flight back to Istanbul. That is the only choice I had to avoid the firing squad or whatever they do to illegal aliens around here.

Peacefully,

Fred Bellomy