Things you didn’t know about Kyrgyzstan.
The bottle shops sell 100’s of varieties of Vodka. Ranging from about $1 up to $5 for the best around. Unfortunately when you are hiking orhorse riding in the mountains & valleys you seediscarded vodka bottles everywhere. When we are given food we are rarely give a plate, & never given a knife. We are expected to eat from the communal bowls on the table, with spoon or hands, a very messy affair. Knives are never served to us & when we asked why, we were told Russians like to drink vodka & get drunk & if there is a knife around it is too dangerous. A great story but we asked the next Russians we met & they sent that story into the land of myths. 50 year old Russian jeeps are common place here. Really rough to ride in, absolutely no concept of comfort used here. They just get you from point A to B. The people are Muslim but there isn’t any radicals here & alcohol is sold freely doesn’t seem to be frowned up on, even if they don’t drink it, although most of the men will if offered. The people are more Ethnic looking & swarthier skinned probably from ancient migrations from Mongolia, in Genghis Khan era. They are traditionally Nomadic, shepherding sheep, horses & cattle in the lush mountains.
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Another city another embassy to visit – sometimes you get a surprise.
After our initial shock entering Kyrgyzstan’s time warped towns & villages, (I think I was being overzealous saying we were in the 50’s, more like the 1930’s in most cases) I think towns may have been modernized in the soviet times after the war, but that’s not much to write about, only stark grey concrete buildings. Then after 1991 when the country broke away from Russia, everything just fell in to disrepair & more or less reverted to olden times of mud brick buildings, nearly no running water, (wells or rivers) & the old Ladas orMoschvitch cars or old Russian jeeps are used. The countryside has reverted to their old nomadic ways or sheep, horse & cattle herding living in Yurts. Itsquite mind-boggling. Having said all that, the landscape is truly raw beauty, mostly untouched by the modern world & you can explore at will, (weather allowing, as its under metres of snow in the winter & minus 30 degrees at times). On arrival in Kyrgyzstan’s capital Bishkek we were on a mission to get yet another visa to another unknown country Tajikistan, & a permit to an area considered “sensitive” by its military / government, The Pamir Highway which runs along Afghanistan & Pakistan. So expecting the worst we rocked up ready for anything but after 15 minutes & $75 dollars we had visa & permit in our passport & we were leaving the embassy. We could have paid $55 & waited a week but …..no thanks! On our way there we passed the Afghanistan Embassy but weren’t game enough to take a photo next to the brass plaque outside.!!!!!! On arrival back at our hotel we even had very fastinternet & I was able to apply & receive my Turkish e-visa, (another US$60 into the visa fund). So that seems to be our 9 visas & permits all obtained. Some people are getting theirs on route & it seems to be taking awhile but at least we had a head start by getting Chinese, Iran, Uzbekistan & Kazakhstan before we left. Entering Kyrgyzstan we didn’t need a visa as they are making it simple for foreign visitors to come & visit. Kyrgyzstan mountain scenery OFF the Richter scale!!!! Wow, wow, & wow. This scenery is amazing & that’s an understatement! Well we’ve been here quite a while now, not even sure of the date or day or how many days, time seems to flow along for us. We’ve been travelling 52 days now & we can’t believe we are more than half way through our wonderful adventures. So we left Bishkek a couple of days earlier than anticipated & headed to the mountains, & we have loved every minute of it. We’ve done a fair bit of transporting across the country by mini bus or mastyruka as they are called, & of course the shared taxi. We’ve been to crystal clear lakes, snow capped mountain villages, hiked mountain valleys before we were luckily (for me) given a lift first time in the back of a big truck, & the next time in an old Russian army jeep, that was so rough along the 4wd tracks that I almost wished I was walking, (not quite but almost Ha-ha). We’ve stayed in mountain valleys, bathed in hotsprings next to freezing cold gushing rivers, ridden horses, and photographed the wild flowers blooming just now for spring. Stayed in real Yurts with some sheep, horse & cattle herders for the night. Helped to build a real Yurt when another of the Nomadic group arrived late in the afternoon. Gone for a 5-hour horse ride on horses that seem like they are one hoof short of entering their wild pack again. Had literally thousands of horses, sheep, cows & donkeys driven past us, rounded up by men & boys on horses, on their way to the lush mountain pastures to be fattened up. The Nomadic people are on the move. Yurts are being put up in Valleys, & by rivers & up the mountains. It’s a real way of life & a great time of year to be here to see all this action. The horses are unreal, all have just had foals & they are everywhere. Most are wild & will be used for meat later on in the year, some are used for riding but most are just part of the landscape. This part of The Silk Road supplied horses East & West to the rest of the world. We also enjoyed another Sunday livestock market, where I didn’t enjoy watching the horses being shoed by rather cruel blacksmiths. The horse was strapped into a coarse timber frame & two legs yanked up onto a rough timber shelf, at one time, sometimes two legs from the same side so the horse couldn’t balance at all, & the shoes hammered roughly onto the hooves. The animals are not treated particularly kindly here, often being hit needlessly, so much so it makes me cringe. 23/5/2014 1 Comment HELLO KyrgyzstanHELLO Kyrgyzstan
Homework for you today is to Google image just to see the stunning images that we really can’t describe. Arslanbob Kyrgyzstan Arkit Kyrgyzstan Lake Sary Chelek Kyrgyzstan Karakol Kyrgyzstan Welcome to the vowel challenged country of Kyrgyzstan. And what a difference a border can make. Instantly we could feel that the country was a lot poorer than the other places we have visited. It seems to be in a 50’s time warp, all except for some new (strangely enough) Mercedes, BMW & Honda cars. There’s not much in the way of new infrastructure & the people are not as friendly as the Uzbeks, probably more reserved would be more accurate, and definitely not as curious about tourists. Svend feels like a “has been” rock star!!! However the scenery here is AMAZING mountains & nature galore. A hikers paradise (unfortunately I am not one of them but Svend is) I’ve spent quite a lot of time wondering how much hiking I will actually have to do, as these mountains are BIG, & I don’t even do little hills with too much glee. So far we have visited 3 stunning mountain villages where we have stayed in community based tourism sponsored homes, & family compounds, & from there explored the lakes & surrounding villages & scenery. It’s spring here & the wild flowers are out in abundance, there’s still snow on the mountains but the rivers are in full flow. Through the mountain passes & on to the grasslands the shepherds are setting up their yurts (round felt tents), sheep are being herded by men on horses or donkeys (using mobile phones I have to add), and the weather is still fairly cold but sunny in the middle of the day 22/5/2014 0 Comments Out of luck again.Out of luck again.
Seems nothing was going right for us in Fergana (or not going as expected) Margilon also had closed its hotels to tourists, & the silk factory we had hoped to visit, no one seemed to know about. However a kind man from the vodka shop took us under his wing & escorted us on the bus to the markets, & also to try to find a hotel, then finally to the taxi station to leave town. Next town also wasn’t too successful as the hotels put a 300% tax on the bill for tourists making it ridiculously expensive. So on we moved again to Andijon where we finally found a hotel in old Russian style. Looked grandiose from the outside but pretty sparse on the inside. We were just glad to find it. We finally found the silk factory that had been producing for over hundred years & still did the manufacture in the original way, using silk worms from the nearby mulberry trees, & boiling the cocoons in vats to kill the worms & release the threads, to be spun & dyed & woven. Amazing to see especially as we are on the Silk Road trip!! One silk cocoon can have up to 1km of fine silk in it. So after 3 days we finally had to leave Uzbekistan & move onto Kyrgyzstan. So off we went in our taxi to do our first land border crossing. Our taxi was loaded up with people & off we drove to our destination of Khan Abad, that was fine but when the driver realized we were continuing to the border he screeched to a halt waving frantically that the crossing wasn’t open for some political reason. He off loaded his other passengers & organized to drive us to the other open crossing which made our trip much longer, but at least it was possible. We were dropped off at a barrier & had to walk through the various stages of checks through no mans land, until finally we were in Kyrgyzstan, the next country on our itinerary. 20/5/2014 0 Comments Where have all the hotels gone!!Where have all the hotels gone!!
So on we went to the next town where we planned to stay the night, but when we arrived early afternoon we couldn’t find any of the hotels mentioned in our guide book, & the others in town were full. We were sent off course in the beginning when the people helping us put us on a bus & we ended up in the suburbs of Russian built grey apartment blocks because the street we were looking for also happened to be a suburb, so by then we were totally lost & Svend had two Russian ladies offering us to stay in their apartment, whilst I was entertained by a Russian man who was very drunk whilst I looked after the bags. We were clearly in the wrong place so we boarded the bus again & were taken back into the city. Still looking for a place to stay the night, two small school boys escorted us to the place we had been looking for to be told the lady had gone to America. So back to the city center & by this time it was getting quite late & Svend had had enough of people trying to help us only to turn the conversation into an English practice session. He took off at speed to a promising place on a map, & I ambled along quite a distance behind him (we had been carrying all our back packs with us all this time) then I heard two young men behind me say, “please let me help you, I have a friend I will call on the phone.” So I talked to the English speaker on the phone who was only really able to say, sorry, unfortunately we don’t have too many hotels here in Fergana (I know that) so I thanked him & hung up. The two boys however were really persistent & said please wait here my friend is coming in five minutes. By this time Svend was a dot on the horizon, heading god knows where & I was doing crowd control with an over kill of friendly helpful people, when suddenly a car drew up to us & another offer of help was given. It was the boys friend & the boy I had talked to on the phone. We managed to talk Svend into accepting help & we all jumped into the car to drive to the places in our guide book to be told that each one had been closed down. Not really surprising, as they looked very dodgy in apartment blocks in not very nice parts of town. No wonder no one knew about them. So we had run out of options when our young friend Kudusik (Kevin) who is 21 like our son Aden, said I have just called my mother & you can stay at my house, & by the way I have asked her to have some food ready for you. So that’s when our luck turned. So at about 8pm we arrived at Kevin’s house & was greeted by his lovely mother, given so much delicious homemade food it was impossible to eat, & we talked & translated with his mother until late & floor beds were made in the traditional Uzbek style & we had the best experience we could have imagined. But so many bizarre things transpired from our conversations, his brother had actually been living in DENMARK in Aarhus for the last year & had his wife & two daughters there with him now, he had just picked a country, had a contact there & managed to get a visa, and his contact helped him find somewhere to live & he was also working there too, & going to language classes like our son Nathan. We hope to visit him when we go there in July. His brother had also studied an economics degree in England at of all places Leeds University where my niece Robyn is at now. His mother was amazed at all this. One question she did ask made me laugh “what on earth are you doing traveling in a country that you don’t speak either Uzbek or Russian” , good question indeed!!! Next morning after another feast for breakfast we sadly departed our new found friends & we headed off to the next town Margilon, hoping to find a hotel of some description. 18/5/2014 0 Comments Extra blog for the DanesJust to let you know there is an extra blog just for the Danes amongst you from Svend. It's on a separate page but you can find it on the tool bar. Heading off to our first land border crossing from Uzbekistan to krygystan where anything could happen. Not sure how much internet we will get in next 4 weeks but I may be surprised as I have before. Tough times. Fergana Valley Uzbekistan.
A shared taxi was found then we had the obligatory wait until another two people were found to fill up the car. No motorized vehicle goes anywhere in Uzbekistan unless it is full (we could learn a lot in the west from that) whether it is a car, minibus or big bus. So whilst we waited we had some dinner, then off we went, only to stop 20 minutes later for an hour, as the taxi driver needed his dinner!!!!!!! So finally we were on our way again after another obligatory stop to put methane gas in the car. (About 70% of cars & buses run on gas, mainly methane which is cheaper but some on propane as they say they have more oomph going up hills, & few on petrol) (Huge gas reserves in Uzbekistan) (so that’s the reason we all have go get out of the car at filling stations, probably because everyone also smokes heavily all the time & its considered a hazard). So we proceeded along finally at some speed, with the driver & the other passenger smoking most of the way, no seat belts, mobile phones going & music blaring. We finally arrived at our destination Kokand at midnight where the hotel was all closed but they gave us & room & shattered we collapsed into our clean but sovietly stark room. So finally we had arrived in the Fergana Valley, (you can’t see the mountain’s that rim the valley because it is so wide) but here they grow most of the countries vegetables & fruit & also cotton, cotton everywhere. The farming is mostly done by hand, & workers are seen constantly weeding everywhere. On that point, the parks in the towns are also weeded by hand & the grass is cut by hand with huge SCISSORS, the only lawn mowers we have seen are few & far between & powered by electric with very long cables!! Svend is amazed every time he sees it. Our morning was taken up by a visit to a famous palace of a Khan who had 43 concubines & 4 wives but was sent to exile when the Russians invaded. A man took us around & explained everything to us as he wanted to practice his English, then on leaving the palace we were approached by two school girls who asked to have their photos taken with us, & continued a conversation with us. They were literally shaking & holding each other with excitement, (something I’ve seen on TV when young girls catch sight of One Direction or Justin Bieber & can’t believe its happening) so we spent some time with them. They said they had never seen or met “a tourist” before, & so it is with so many of the population, which is so refreshing. They just want to talk, practice & find out about our lives & what we think of their country. Uzbekistani people must be amongst the most genuinely friendly & hospitable people I have ever met. 16/5/2014 0 Comments We got the visa!!Its now a week since we finally left the Turkmenistan embassy at 6pm that evening with the precious visa issued for 5 days transit. On the consulates return from lunch at 4pm the guards outside made a special request for us & we were allowed into the gates & consulting room. The consulate checked his computer, & said it has been issued but I can’t give it to you now, come back tomorrow, we then very nicely begged for him to give it us as we were leaving Tashkent that evening, & finally he agreed & all he needed to do was push a button, print it!!!!!!!! & then stick it in our passport. We sat there not daring to breathe until we had it in our hand & paid our US$55. Then away we went, never needing to sit outside those gates ever again. We could hardly believe it. So as we had out backpacks with us we decide to leave town & head towards the Fergana Valley in Uzbekistan’s east.
16/5/2014 0 Comments Mummy and daddy!!Mummy and daddy!!
A great analogy of Central Asian countries (some to more degree than others) was from a local Uzbek business owner ( waiting at the Turkmen embassy ~ where else. ) with reference to their relationship with Russia and USA. He said it was like holding the hands of mummy -Russia and daddy - USA. ( divorced) mummy is always there nurturing and giving a little bit all of the time to gain favour from her children and keep them close. Daddy is away most of the time but appears infrequently bringing massive glitzy gifts, so of course the child also loves daddy at the time. So it is with USA bringing massive injections of money from time to time but then goes away and appears to forget his child, but Russia is always there in some capacity. Interesting point if view!! 15/5/2014 0 Comments The ladies of UzbekistanThe ladies of Uzbekistan.
Sitting for hours (especially on the train or at the Turkmen embassy) you get to watch people around you. The women especially when their men aren't around are very warm and funny people. They laugh hilariously with each other, and with/ at me when trying to explain things. They would be brilliant at charades. One lady was explaining her job with hilarious demonstrations that were both hilarious to the watching audience and eye brow raising to me. Turned out she was a gynaecologist, baby doctor, and I will leave it to your imagination how she described that!! It's the ladies faces that cause me great interest, they all have jet black hair, which I think is dyed as there is not a grey hair to be seen anywhere. Also the eyebrows appear to be painted on, but as Svend commented surely they would wipe off, but on closer investigation I actually think they sometimes are tattooed in a thick black line. Add to that a full Mouth of golden teeth. We don't think they are pure gold, maybe just gold coloured dentures, as that much gold would be more than any normal or even rich person could afford. Add gold dangly earrings, bright coloured and glitzy scarfs and sometimes a bold dark moustache that Aden and Nathan would be proud to be the owner of!!! And there you have your everyday Uzbek lady!!!!! Clothes are generally a two piece, ankle length leggings matching the tunic, mostly in velvet with sequins, or bright bold silk prints. Very flamboyant. We have noticed they are mostly in large groups and having a ball, no husband to be seen. We are told they are supposedly on some religious tourism trip but they sure look like they are having a good time!!!!! I've had several pictures taken with my new found mothers group of lovely Uzbek ladies. Just a shame I can't talk to them. 15/5/2014 0 Comments Money, money, money.Money, money, money.
I have mentioned before how changing money on the street in Uzbekistan is the only real way to get money, plus you get 30% more than the ATMs give. It's quite open and everyone does it, seems like the last country in the world to do this( except the dodgy Bali guys who always rip you off). The down side of this is that the largest note here is 5000som which is worth roughly under $2. So if you change $300 for instance you get a bag full of money, even if you are lucky to get all in the large notes. You may have seen photos of Svend with wads of notes. The money usually comes in specific counted amounts in a rubber band!! This also means that you have to count it before you swap. This can take a while especially when people are trying to chat and ask you where you are from etc etc. buying anything always takes a while to count it all out. We are happy to recall that not once have we been cheated here with the amounts. (Or ever felt unsafe) I suppose having a society where punishments of crime are severe, even deadly can put most people off. On that note apparently Uzbekistan doesn't have a good record with human rights but they just manage their own affairs, align themselves with Russia and Putin at will ( and the world sees how that proceeds) and do their own thing. It is also always in the top 8% countries where corruption is rife. (Legalised crime if done by your own government, but who's complaining, certainly not most of the Uzbek people) Meanwhile back at Turkmenistan embassy.
After a night of frivolity on the train and 22 hours we arrived all too soon back in Tashkent. Unfortunately I had a terrible headache, not sure why, and I'm certain the 1/2 bottle vodka and 11% bottle beer had absolutely nothing to do with it. On arrival (after a quick stop by the police and passport check that we somehow had got out of the habit of) we high tailed it to the Turkmen embassy, some how delusional that we would be able to pick up our visa. Our usual mates were not there from all the times before so we had to mingle with a new crowd. Unfortunately at 1pm the guard as usual said come back tomorrow. What a surprise!!!! However as we were about to leave a guard said stay stay, until 4pm and we'll try to ask the consulate for you when he comes back from Lunch. So that's exactly where we are now .... Waiting and wondering how this is going to play out ..... Yes I think we are definitely delusional again but it's always worth a try. If not, back here again in the morning. Svends just at this moment decided to practise his yoga/ Pilates walking squats up and down the street so I'm not sure if that will help our case or not!! It's definitely entertaining at the very least!! Khiva land of the great sultans and khanates.
After 3 days in Khiva where obviously Ivan Milats Uzbek cousin didn't live up to his Aussie cousins infamy ( thank god). We finally left on a 22 hr train journey back to Tashkent to see if our Turkmenistan visa has been issued. After our golden driver Oscar fulfilled all our dreams even driving 35 km out of his way to the train station, we bought a train ticket, saving our sanity and psychological angst for the future. All he wanted was the money for his propane gas to be covered and we were all happy. We settled into our inner ancient city B&B and chilled out. Enjoying early morning and evening strolls around the mud brick ancient city and sleeping in the heat of the day and avoiding the French tour groups. The last two days hasn't been too hot, there's been a wind blowing which on the one hand has been great, but unfortunately blows sand and dust everywhere so our beautifully moisturised faces end up with a fine coating of dirt all over!! And our nose fills with god knows what. We also finally got Internet again along with running water at random. Seems services are cut off at certain times of the day and put back on at the owners whim. So we wake up to hear running water at 6am!!!!! Khiva was small quaint and charming, now we head back east about 1100km hopefully to collect the evasive visa or not. Anyway we are now on the train and given star treatment with visitors to our carriage every few minutes. Svends now convinced he's Brad Pitt and I can't tell him otherwise, stardom and celebrity status has really gone to his head. We are now lying down to sleep in a 4 berth cabin, (sheets were thrown at us and we had to make our own beds unlike china where it was all ready for us) foods been shared, we've had 1/2 bottle of vodka and an 11% beer , we're trundling along at a safe 60 km hr without the worry of our maniac driver, oncoming maniac drivers, police check points or gigantic holes in the road. Maybe 1/2 bottle of vodka would solve all our problems before we embarked on such journeys. We share our carriage with a mum & 7 yr old, who although only speaks Uzbek is a great authority to all our visitors about who we are, how's many kids etc she's seen the photo slide show and knows all about us!! We are definitely scrutinised as she tells everyone about our muesli and yogurt mix. When she offered us her meat and found out we were vegetarian she rallied round and found us some tomatoes and cucumbers !! Of the tales we hear, is the arranged marriage!! Parents find their kids someone generally to check put but they can say no after they meet unlike in olden times!! One man in our carriage said no 26 times. Now he is married with 2 kids. Not sure what he was looking for. Our B& B girl was 23yrs old. Well educated. Didn't want a loser, he had to work, be smart but didn't have to be rich. She had refused a few. One had had too many girlfriends she found out after she had rung around to check. Another offer was coming up in oct, so she was hopeful. She ran the B&B for her parents, had a souvenir stall at the weekend then today Monday after she had served us breakfast she was off to work as an english teacher at school. I'm not sure she will ever find the man of her dreams. 12/5/2014 2 Comments Sometimes you just get lucky!Sometimes you just get lucky!
During our usual pre breakfast walk around town, we were approached by the usual taxi drivers offering their services. When they found our where we were going most dropped away but one was really keen to take us. He even took us around town then back to our hotel and waited for us to pack. The price agreed was way lower than we expected to pay ( incessant bargaining) he also wasn't too worried about filling up the car to capacity for the 450km drive. We couldn't really understand and felt uneasy that there would be a fall out at the end despite us showing the hard cash. But it transpired he had to go to khiva anyway to pick up a client to drive him around Uzbekistan for the next week and wasn't too worried about the money. So we are strapped into our flash black car, the driver too. He's just bought us bottles of water. The air com is going, we've had a fish lunch at a way side place and I'm Just praying that we are not being driven by Ivan milats (Aussie back packer serial murderer )Uzbekistan cousin. Things you didn't know about Uzbekistan.
That something called Uzbekistan actually exists and it is an independent county. Is a land locked country bordering other previously unknown 'Stan' countries. Has a population of 28million people An area of 447,000 sq km Famous for pomegranates Has existed since 6th century bc Was central to the silk route Was a major slave trading hub The Russians took over in the 1870's Uzbekistan was under soviet USSR umbrella until independence in 1991. After independence Uzbekistan formed an alliance with Russia (the CIS with 8 states from the original 15. including Ukraine and we can see how that is going) With all these independent countries now finding rich oil and gas resources there will be much more interest by the west and Russia in the area. So maybe Yeltsin is making his move first whilst the west is recovering from the financial and emotional outcomes from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Their first and only president karimov (communist) gets 90% of the vote. His rival was driven into exile and others are forbidden to take part. But the people are content and just want a peaceful life The Russians forced Uzbekistan to grow only cotton for it's increasing textile industry. But there's not much water here so they built 1000's km of concrete water channels running from The Aral inland Sea, using 90% more water each year than drained into it , so it is now drying up and is a massive environmental issue. BUT still they continue with the cotton, with also the associated problems of pesticides used on the land. There are reports that huge regions have massive amounts of DDT on their soil, so also in water, food, animals......., Russia used to use Uzbekistan for nuclear testing, plus ...... Anthrax and other chemical warfare testing. The sites only closed in 1992!!!!!!! Most popular car is the Russian built Lada seen everywhere but slowly being replaced by Uzbek built cars in partnership with US General Motors a Chevrolet brand which most of our taxi tides have been in. Gas is a popular car fuel. Petrol Is $1 a litre. So that's your international studies lesson for today!!!!!! If my facts are far off...... Don't worry I'm just making it up as I go along!!!!! 12/5/2014 0 Comments The day has come!The day has come!!
I tried to drag it out, and ignore it, but the day has come where my fringe needed a trim. So I have to succumb to the inevitable, a do it yourself haircut with the Swiss Army knife scissors. And the results were sensational. The alternative was letting Svend lose on my hair and risk getting a 4 season lasting do!!! I still have some dignity left. At least the heat here has 0% humidity so I don't look like Wurzel Gummidge (a UK story book scarecrow famous in the 70's) all day long. So far my clothes have been adequate, the locals definitely don't dress as restrictively as I expected. And I haven't had to use a scarf. In fact any westerner who does don a scarf looks absolutely ridiculous, comical even and stands out even more. I do expect it to be different in Iran though. As any traveller will know, days on the road means the inevitable undies wash in the shower every night and making sure they are dried. (I do have lots of spare in cause you wondered) and a major clothes wash, means handing your counted items over to the ladies of the guest house who will weigh them and return them washed dried and folded for very little money!! That's a real gem!! 12/5/2014 0 Comments BukharaBukhara. Still loving Bukhara. It's like living in an ancient museum. With dazzling mosques round every corner in mammoth. proportions. They are spectacular and gigantic, epic and glorious. Particularly enjoyable in the early hours of the day before it gets too hot, then you don't really care if you see another tiled medrassa ever again in your life. I can't believe the heat. It keeps getting warmer until 7pm at night from About mid day, I suppose that's why the plaza is full of people at 10pm families and kids included enjoying the cooler temperatures. I can only suppose school kids sleep late afternoon because they are certainly around till very late in the evening. Music is playing everywhere and the once annoying (when at home) middle eastern / Bollywood type of tunes seem enchanting and mesmerising in the environment. The Uzbek people are amazingly friendly and really want to talk to you. And always "where you from" is incessantly called out. Gets a bit wearing all day long but they are genuinely being nice and you daren't gob them off as they will get really offended. Tourism is in its early days do you don't get the jaded receptionists yet that you see on Thailand or other countries where the western guest is often embarrassingly rude. Unfortunately i have to report that the rest of the world sees Aussies as the ones who are always drunk. We are always told, "yes we met some Australian guys at some place far off the beaten track, and they were so drunk"!! Cringe-able really. On that point it's really refreshing to be in countries that have high morals, strong family values and respect for other people, and are not marauding around the streets in packs drunk and dishevelled and a perceived threat to other people. We lose sight of what is actually normal in our perhaps over liberalised western societies. It has nothing to do with religiously beliefs but back to basic common values!! So west we travel tomorrow to Khiva, more of the same but smaller and more preserved and less touristy. Unfortunately it seems our only option is another 5 hour manic car ride, that we have to psych ourselves up for or a 10hour train journey. I think It will be the private taxi but we are told by other travellers that these car drivers are nothing compared to what's ahead of us in other countries. Help!!!!! 8/5/2014 1 Comment The Silk RoadFor those not familiar with the silk road (not including brother in law Aidan) I will attempt to explain it in a nutshell.
For centuries the east and west great civilisations were connected by trade routes roughly from. Xian in china to Istanbul in Turkey, crossing Asia's highest mountains and bleakest deserts. Not one single route but lots of networks. Nor did much trade go from one end to the very end but delivering and picking up goods at all stops on the way. China received the bulk of goods (as it is today) gold silver cotton wool nuts etc and the west received silk, tea, spices, paper. In the middle was Central Asia which supplied horses and camels and trading houses and cities grew up along the route. The Silk Road also was also an information super highway exchanging ideas, religious beliefs and technology. China taught the east how to make paper and forge iron. Culturally paper being the most important secret passed along the silk route. 8/5/2014 0 Comments Samarkand glorious Samarkand!!Samarkand glorious Samarkand! So we finally got through the gates to the Turkmenistan embassy after 5 1/2 hours. Put in our application and we have to return in one week or two weeks!!!! To see if we got it. So...... We took another scary taxi ride from Tashkent to Samarkand. I kept my eyes closed most of the way only opening them when we screeched to a halt and I knew we hadn't hit anything. The driver put on his seat belt just long enough to pass through each check point, then took it off again. One of the beauties of share taxi rides is trying to avoid to much body contact with the other passenger in the back with you. The other quirk is that when the taxi has to put petrol on, at huge petrol stations like bus stations, all the passengers have to get out, and walk a block to where the taxi turns up again. Apparently it's too dangerous for passengers to be in the station. (But ok for us to be in the scary car trip). So now we are in Samarkand which is one of the highlights of the trip. The jewel of travellers. It's a city of epic Islamic architecture on cocaine. Minarets and turquoise tiles everywhere. A real wow moment when you see the buildings. However the main square of The Registan is ALL under construction, a mammoth task but we are told it WILL be finished in 4 days, as the president is coming next week!! So there are workers & volunteers and students with buckets and brooms slaving 24hours a day to finish. This means we may come back in a week to see everything finished. We are stating in a lovely B&B with carpets hanging from walls and we sit on carpets and eat from low tables cross legged. I'm still vegetarian, so it's still hard to find food in a predominantly mutton eating nation. But i must be looking good as complete strangers keep asking to have their photos taken with me, whole families & groups creep up next to me &start clicking. So tomorrow we're off to Bukhara hopefully by train, if not yet another scary trip by road. Another day, another 6hour wait outside the gates of the Turkmenistan embassy!!
OMG we are getting a little tired of this. After our return from the hills we arrived bright and early at the gates of the mausoleum styled, marble coveted Turkmenistan embassy again. A mob had already gathered and we noticed a list bring waved around. We duly went on the list as no 21, and waited and waited on 35degrees under a corrugated iron lean too. The mob controlled by whistle blowing baton waving police. I write blogs read etc and Svend struck up a conversation with the only english speaking guy, no 8 on the list. He explained that you need to arrive at the gates at 6am get on an informal list written by the waiting mob, then at 9am the consulate staff come out get that it's and write their own. Then after 10am they start calling people individually through the gates. No more than 4 at a time. No 8 managed to get in at 12.30. Then at 1pm it's all over as the staff have lunch and don't come back till next day then it all starts again. Problem is the ones that turn up not on the list and are Turkmenistan people and let slip in ahead of all us in the mob. So now we are back again waiting again and at 6.20am we arrived to be no 13 & 14 on the list. So it's touch and go whether we get seen today again. In fact we are only getting a 5 day transit visa if we succeed and have spent at least 4 days at the baddy so far. But we still have to be nice otherwise we don't get it at all. We are now in Uzbekistan after leaving Kazakhstan early this morning. we had a few near heart stopping moments when we checked in when the lady didn't like the look of our Letter of invitation for Uzebekistan, however she kept labelling our bags as she complained that she couldn't read our paperwork & anyone could make a copy!!!
On arrival our visas were waiting for us as we hoped, in a little folder at the immigration desk. we then had to fill in a form with all our money, & electronic gear, watches rings declared, & we had to show it & my cash dollars & we will have to show it when we leave. A bus trip into the town & we were at our hotel, & quickly out again using their metro (each station looks like some fancy ballroom entrance, all different) to organise our visas into Turkmenistan however when we got there they told us they had just closed & come back tomorrow. We've just heard they are very temperamental & we need to treat them with kid gloves as an australian girl with her boy friend complained (in language only Aussies use) about how difficult they made it, & when she came back for it, they said visa ok to the boyfriend & you no visa, so now she may have to fly over & meet him god knows where. so lesson for me, not to use bad language at the embassy tomorrow. As warned we have already been stopped by the security police twice in only two hours to be asked for our papers & passport & bags checked. the police or army are everywhere, however they seem very relaxed about the money changing on the black market which is the only way to change money here, from US dollars to local money, giving 30% more than the official rate. The cars also don't try to run you down here even on pedestrian crossings, we have to try it out every where we go, at our peril. Toilets are back to the squat style but toilet paper seems to be available. english is spoken much more than anywhere we have been to so far. People seem very nice. 6/5/2014 0 Comments New photos posted along the menu bar. Also you can click on them for a bigger view and arrow along. Just in case you didn't know!!!!5/5/2014 0 Comments Every day spouts surprisesAfter a positive start to Uzbekistan a nice B&B quite a lot of foreign travellers. (Most around our age, culture bound, whilst obviously the young hip people are partying in the rest if the world. ) we headed off to the Turkmenistan embassy, suitably conservatively dressed, dodged through the bazaar, the money changers, onto the metro, checked by he bored police, yet again. To be told the embassy was closed, come back tomorrow at 10am.
Which we did, to be told it's closed come back on Monday (3 days) away. This cAused a slight blip on our plans as we expect the visa to take at least 14 days to be issued and those 3 days were crucial. Nothing could be done so we made a quick decision to leave the city and head for the hills. So back to the hotel, checked out, police checked our passports again ( nice chat about where we are from, huge surprise when they realise this hip young woman is actually 50 Then a hasty handing back of passport) a few metro stops and we were on the bus headed to the hills. Yes we were on the bus but it didn't go anywhere in 40degrees until EVERY seat (50) was taken, which took 1hr and 20 minutes. A few obligatory toilet stops( squat style and you pay, but at least this gives you walls and doors 1.2m high. This means that as you stand up to redress all the lovely ladies can have a face to face chat, all in Uzbek!! Bus dropped us in a country town and we were at the mercy of the dodgy taxi drivers. We were dropped and changed 3 times before we ended up at our homestay family compound in the Nuratou mountains. This is a UN backed Eco tourism based initiative started by a local business man. Whereby local families open their home to travellers and become self sustaining. We had a lovely time mingling with the Tajik minority family of 27 members all living in the farm compound. Served local food ( no meat) hiked with the young 10yr old brother, played with multitudes of the little kids, two of which I nick named Coby and Logan, because of their, lets say mischievous similarities to my young nephews!!!!!!!!!! in Australia. 3 young women lived there and worked tirelessly, they were the daughter in laws and had completely different personalities when their husbands were not around. One had been married just 7 weeks and showed me her white wedding photos, even though they are Muslim and dress in ethnic style clothing normally. Her husband didn't seem too rapt with her, so obviously an arranged marriage. A lovely time was spent there for two nights then it was back on the road, this time by shared taxi and we arrived back in Tashkent 3 hours quicker than it took us to go. However the driver was a maniac who wouldn't let us put seat belts on and drove 3 abreast on 2 lane highways, on his mobile, changing manual gears and having a face to face conversation with the other passenger, (who only agreed to go with us if he could sit on the front seat!!!!). I could only imagine what a mess we would be if we crashed. ( note to myself stop getting these terrible imaginations and just enjoy the thrill!!!) it was totally reckless but what can you do! Ah….. Kangaroos, good, good!
Beautiful country. Clean place. NO corruption… If only they knew!!!! NO losers!!! Their reasoning… That the government / immigration handpick everyone they take in. Again If only they knew.!!!! Even the bus drivers & taxi drivers aren’t losers they say!!! They know things to tell people. What Uzbek’s don’t realize is that NO ONE even knows that Uzbekistan even exists… I will correct myself, on that point … I think I only know about 5 people who actually know about these countries that we are traveling in, that is Kevin, Jenny & Martin & my brother in law Aidan, (who seems to know a massive amount of information about EVERYTHING that no one else seems to know) & the last person I won’t name because it may actually be you!!! 2/5/2014 0 Comments Oh dear Man flu coming on!Help, i think Svend is getting sick, going from hot to cold weather & now very hot again he doesn't seem to be well. I'll try to give him all my attention & nurse-ly skills, (i know that's not a word but we are trying out the local vodka as i write)
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August 2014
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