Today we went to a place called Mary where the ancient city of the unrestored remains of Merv still lay. Once an important stopping point on the Silk Road, it claims to have briefly been the largest city in the world during the 12th century.

1794 saw the demise of Merv, after the Emir of Bukhara destroyed the dam which the population depended on for its water.

Sadly it was raining so majority of the remains we viewed by the car, but my was it impressive. Imagining how they lived back then, so many hundreds of years ago. How they would have had to probably walk half a mile to their dam to collect water, farm fruits, vegetables and kill animals for food. I bet it wouldn’t have been easy! Having access to tap water, or being able to open a fridge full of food to eat when I feel hungry.. Thinking how lucky we are having real roofs over our heads and the amazing power to heat up rooms from the magic of electricity. To think how they lived, makes me so grateful for what I have today.

Seeing these ruins we drove back 40 minutes to our train and enjoyed some tasty food. Really appreciating every mouthful now, I finished with a satisfied smile on my face. Shortly after we came to the passport control station of Turkmenistan and where they had to change over bogies (the wheels for our train) we waited and waited and waited. Almost 8 hours went by while the engineers changed the required bogies. Being the first train coming from Russia into Iran they were unsure of how long it would take. Apparently all the tracks in Iran are completely different to the ones in central Asia, Russia and Europe.

Mrs G and I sat reading, nibbling on snacks, being entertained from the three Turkmenistan guides I couldn’t help but want to just get back on the train and sleep. Finally Mr Littler the owner of Golden Eagle came in and apologised profusely about the massive delay. He told us it was a success and finally we are up and running again.

By this time it was late being almost midnight but there was no sleeping allowed as the Iranian boarders were under 2km away. Little did we know what a kerfuffle that was. The passport control officers, finger print machine men and ladies with questions we had to answer.. What a long day. I have to admit though, I really enjoyed covering myself with the long dress and head scarf. I couldn’t stop thinking about the times Julien has said to me in the past that I should be in a burkr, so other men wont ever look at me! Im sure he will be reassured knowing in this country its mandatory.

Looking out my window there was an unexpected row of media waiting to greet us. Unfortunately being so late and behind schedule we couldn’t disembark and had to keep making our way to the first stop in Iran being Mashhad. Oh how I am looking forward to waking up in the morning an embracing a new country.