Once again I left Ferghana for Andijan! Ultimately at the border with Kyrgyzstan the guards seemed more interested in chatting to me than looking at my customs declaration, registration slips or in my bag. But sod's law would have had it such that if I had stayed illegally in Andijan then they would have checked and I'd have had to pay a hefty bribe to let me pass. So it was an amusing case of being safe.

I made it to Andijan again without problems and in time to have lunch with Mark Goldenbaum, the country director, who was a rather cool and chatty American. He provided an excellent overview of the events of last year and the current situation in the valley. We had lunch at an old dining hall filled with all sorts of locals and numerous police officers enjoying laghman or shashlyk dishes. Overall this was the finishing touch to a wonderfully busy and interesting few days with the Mercy Corps teams accross Uzbekistan.

From Andijan I made the short 40km trip to the border and crossed into Kyrgyzstan without hassle and in under 20 minutes. I always get nervous at borders for one reason or the other, but this one was so relaxed that I actually walked past the immigration post and only later realised I had passed it. So I trundled back and found the sleepy guard to stamp my passport.

I arrived in Osh, found a hotel, thought it was awful and so moved a few minutes further down the orad. Just as I was thinking how few tourists there were, I bumped into a couple of Brits travelling through on motorbikes. Effectively they were doing a Ewan Mcgreggor and Charley Boorman act but without the expensive backup team, cameras and in half the time! Dan and Neil were also from London and seemed pretty decent guys so we headed off and found a local cafe to grab some more shashlyk and a few local beers.

Chilling with a local hat seller. It is a hat... not a wig. Annoyingly it overshadows the beard!