A tough week

The past eight days have been a bit tough. Four countries, three international border crossings, three nights in hotels, five on trains and 7500 km crossed.
We began in Pyongyang, took the train to Beijing, spent a night there before continuing to Urumqi, 40 hours and 3500 kilometres away. After a night there we took the train to Alma Ata, rested a night, continued to Shymkent by night train, took a car to the border, walked over and hitched a ride to Tashkent, to take a train to Samarkand, where we are now, recuperating. The border crossing between N-Korea and China was easy, the one between China and Kazakhstan was OK, but a bit tiresome, but the border post between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan was a real challenge, a pure Soviet era experience.
Tomorrow we leave for Bukhara.