Edited by Rocky Grove, Saturday, 5 Oct 2013, 11:59
A pleasant Turkish airlines flight from Birmingham to Ashgabat via Istanbul. The seats in both planes seemed more comfortable than your average airlines with a good seat pitch.
We landed at Ashgabat about 10 minutes late at 3.05 am! However as Turkmenistan is 4 hours ahead of BST it only seemed like 11.05. That's when the fun started! The airport was incredibly inefficient, everyone took their time. I had to visit and wait at three windows, no hassles but we waited 5/10 minutes for anyone to even turn up at the first. Then at customs they could not get the Xray machines to work. They all stood round chatting and occasionally pushing a key for about 45 minutes before they decided to hand search bags, some very thoroughly, mine was cursory luckily. I hate to think how long the people loaded with 8 taped up boxes had to wait, people with more normal bags, rucksacks were called to the front.
I got up about 10.30, met my local travel rep to finalise things and pay my bills - everything must be in cash until I get to Tashkent so I was relieved to dispose of so many dollars. I then went for a walk. Ashgabat is very modern. It was almost completely destroyed by the earthquake of 1948 and then rebuilt again in the nineties by the then President for Life Saparmurat Niyazov, a bureaucrat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union who decided to emulate the North Korean Kims!
A friend of mine described it as the City of White Marble and my travelguide says that it keeps the marble builders of the world in jobs! The centre is all marble edifices and parks, very pleasant to walk around but populated by few people. Lonely Planet aptly describes it as "a cross between Las Vegas and Pyongyang"!
The temperature was hot - up to 39 degrees!! but quite pleasant as the humidity was very low being in a desert area so I hardly sweated at all. Under the many trees a gentle breeze made it very pleasant.
The majority of the women were dressed in ankle length dresses, most plain, bright colours but with Turkmen braiding - it was rare to see anyone with a short skirt. Some also wore a white apron. However this seems to be following local, rather than Muslim culture as far fewer wore head gear. Those that did either had a brightly coloured turban or a skull cap, it was rare to see anyone with their face or the front of the hair covered - except for the woman gardeners! I have never seen anywhere with such a large percentage of people wearing traditional clothes, Ulaan Baatar would come closest but national costume for the woman in Ashgabat was far more prevalent.
The first ever Baha'i House of Worship was built here is Ashgabat but unfortunately it was severely damaged in the 1948 earthquake and demolished by the authorities in 1963. According to one website the site was turned into a park "in which stands a statue of the eighteenth-century Turkmen poet Mahtum Quli". I took a photo of what may have been the site. The doors of the art museum are also reputed to have been the doors of the temple, I'm not so sure.
There was a heavy police/army presence on the streets but it rarely seemed oppressive. I have not yet seen a gun, there were probably some at the airport which I didn't notice, but none on the streets. I was not stopped once, mostly when I passed I received a smile or greeting. My only two encounters were when I took a photo of the presidential palace a soldier waved at me indicating I shouldn't have done that! When I wanted to walk past the defence ministry a soldier politely pointed to the other side of the street,
I spent two days walking around the city and the markets, just people watching - I hope my photos speak for themselves. One of the nicer cities I have visited.
Wednesday
I met my driver who supposedly was only Russian speaking, in fact he spoke good English and was a guide heading to the border to meet a group, very fortunate. The "taxi" was a 4WD Nissan Patrol, very useful when the roads got pretty pot holed and awful at times!
Evidence of Turkmen's oil bonanza was the cost of fuel, between 12 and 13p a litre, much cheaper than water!!
The moment we were out of Ashgabat we were into the Karakum Desert, mainly scrub rather than sand, although there were some stretches with dunes. There was little agriculture apart from flocks of sheep with biblical shepherds, a few herds of cow with cowherds on donkeys and quite a few Bactrian camels, seemingly untended.
I had been issued with copious pieces of paper for the driver to hand out at the many check points. In fact my earlier view of lazy authoritarianism was reconfirmed. There were frequent check points at which all traffic had to stop, but, apart from a single one when we entered the border region, no one came out to even look at us, they just relaxed in their cabins, which I suspect were air conditioned!. No such luck for the traffic police, they were far more numerous and many of them seemed to have been dropped in the desert with just a radar gun and a water bottle - maybe they only got picked up after a certain number of cops J (remember the temperature rose to the high 30s!). We fell foul of one, right at the start. The driver tried to argue but still ended up with a ticket.
Our first stop was at the ruined 15th Century shrine of Seyit Jamal, an interesting ruin with several other excavations nearby,
The next stop was at the remains of the ancient city of Abiwert dating from the 12th century. I had the ruin completely to myself and spent an interesting 30 minutes wondering around. Despite the 38 degrees heat there was a strong breeze which made it pleasant. It was described as "... a city with fertile lands and rich crops, famous for its magnificent market and mosque". It was reputed to be impregnable until it was visited by the eldest son of Ghengiz Khan, Tulikan, who raised it to the ground!
We had been scheduled to spend the night in Mary, a local city. However the president of Turkmenistan and the president of China were visiting to open something (and presumably chat!) so the whole town centre was out of bounds, no one was allowed to stay or pass through. About a 100 km from Mary we passed about 150 lorries parked in the desert waiting to be allowed to continue, we weren't stopped. On the outskirts of town there were another 50 or so lorries stranded waiting and eventually we came to a road block. With much help from a friend on the phone and numerous locals, our driver made a 120 km detour to the road on the other side.
The area around Mary is much more fertile and is the centre of the cotton growing industry. We passed fields full of workers hand picking the crop. They appeared to be mostly female and not Turkman, I suspect Pakistani.
We made our last stop at Merv, a place we had been due to visit the next day. In its heyday it was known as "Merv - Queen of the World" and at that time rivalled Damascus, Bagdad and Cairo. At one time it had a population of up to 2 million. It was a major centre of religious studies and was noted for its tolerance and sophistication. It was a lynch pin of the silk road until it had an argument with Ghenggis. In 1218 he demanded some tithes of grain along with the pick of the city's most beautiful women. Unwisely the Seljuq slayed the tax collectors so another of Ghenggis's son's this time Tolui the most brutal, destroyed the city and beheaded the 300,000 people living there at the time, even though they had already surrendered!
It is a World Heritage site but there were few people there, at one site which was locked up, we were just about to go when the guardian tore up on his push bike and showed me round J
We spent the night at a nice hotel about 80 km away in the middle of the desert. We had a good meal in a yurt in the grounds with lamb dumplings amongst other things - it appears they are both "typically Turkman!", very reminiscent of Mongolia. I paid for us both - total cost £10 including drinks and three courses. The only downside was the water was very sporadic and at best a trickle!
Fitting in with the president's plans actually suited me as when we set off for the Uzbek border we were about 4 hours ahead of schedule, giving more time to cross and get to Bukhara.
We used one of those hours for an extra visit, to the market in Turkmenabat, the second city. It was a massive, every day bazaar and I spent an hour exploring - no pictures, it wasn't really picturesque but it was interesting. I bought myself a skull cap, some handkerchiefs and an electrical adapter, plus several interesting drinks ranging in cost from 5 - 12p!
We then made the short run to the border arriving at midday, 3 hours earlier than the absolute earliest scheduled time! I got through the Turkman formalities quickly and just hoped I could do the same on the Uzbeck side as they supposedly closed for lunch at one. I then had to wait fifteen minutes for a bus across no-man's land - cost 12.5p - you aren't allowed to walk.
The immediate difference was the border guards, very friendly, but with machine guns on their backs - unlike the unarmed Turkmen. After showing my passport twice I was in Uzbekistan but it was about half a mile further to the border post, which I walked with luggage in 37 degree heat. Actually, it wasn't too badJ I walked past several Iranian car transporters carrying imported second hand cars from the Shajah!
I got to the border post at two minutes before one, and scraped in - they examined my passport and then locked up and went to lunch. Luckily the actual passport control and customs weren't so strict. There was a South African Couple also crossing with their Land Rover which they had driven up from home! We had to fill in forms in duplicate. They were in Russian with an English version high up on a wall, after 10 minutes straining to see, the boss came out, yelled at his assistant and gave us forms in English! The hall was not air conditioned and for some reason, humid, so I was soon dripping wet - it's not easy to fill in forms like that so the Russian version came in useful as a sweat mat.
The next hurdle was to explain to the junior what country I came from, again boss to the rescue - in Uzbek it's Anglia. Finally I was through, a quick passport stamp and out. Total time including walking, about an hour and a half. Pretty good considering the three hours plus described in the guidebook and helped by the almost total absence of traffic - maybe because of lunch!
The final hurdle of the day was to negotiate a taxi to Bukhara. The guidebook suggests $20 with heavy bargaining, but their costs are always out of date, so I was quite pleased to get it for $30 (bargained down from $65!). Things were very different on the Uzbek side, the scenery was similar, cottons fields or desert, but for half the journey the road was virtually empty, it reminded me of North Korea, in the first 30 km I saw a car, a lorry, a tractor, a donkey cart and two bikes (heading the wrong way!). After that traffic got slightly heavier. The road surface however, was better but the car was an ancient Russian Lada, none of the instruments seemed to work. The driver was very friendly and spoke no English, despite this, in a very friendly manner, he kep on trying to trying to up the agreed price - I really did not feel at all threatened, just amused. What I did agree was that he could fill the back seat. When this didn't work out I agreed to be transhipped to a more modern car as the fifth passenger - somehow I paid the new driver all that I agreed with the old when I reached journey's end!
All then went fine apart from him getting completely lost finding my hotel, the desk clerk was quite amused, he'd rung him many times for help but still didn't quite find it, I had to walk about 100 yards when he found a sign down an alley! It is a pleasant hotel in the old city. Initial impressions are that Bukhara is world's apart from Ashgabat. Far more tourists and much, much older, but still very friendly people and little evidence of hassling.
I am in Uzbekistan for a week, so thought I'd change $100, big mistake! The official rate is 2100 Soms to the dollar but the hotel offered 2600. However, as my guidebook warns, the largest note is 1000 Soms, so I ended up with a brick of notes over 3 inches thick! They gave me a mixture of 500 and 1000 totalling some 300 plus notes! I have had to be creative where to stash they as they certainly don't all fit in my wallet and waist belt J.
End of episode one - providing I can get the flaky Internet to work to post this tomorrow, Friday.
I have spent two enjoyable days exploring Bukhara, mainly the old town. It is Central Asia’s holiest city with buildings ranging over the last millennium since Genghis visited and destroyed most things again! The centre has been preserved and in parts restored. It is full of mosques, markets and a large royal fortress, known as the Arc. It started life as a simple oasis in the middle of the surrounding Kyzylkum desert but in it’s heyday it was known as the Pillar of Islam, “Central Asia’s religious and cultural heart”, Bukhara was a vast market place with dozens of bazaars and caravanserai, more than 100 medressas (with 10000 students living in fairly primitive cells) and more than 300 mosques.
The most central place, and where I dined every evening, is Lyabi-Hauz a square built round a pool (literally “around the pool” in Tjak), shaded by Mulberry trees planted in the 15th Century.
It is mainly an area for tourists now, I saw no “working” medressa, but especially during the day when it’s hot and the crowds are off in their air conditioned coaches it is a lovely places to just wonder round. Once one gets out of the central area then the streets are dusty and broken. Some buildings are falling down, some restored. It’s only a ten minute walk to the modern town which shows evidence of communism (flats and heating) but seems another pleasant place.
One thing which I found remarkable after the Middle East, Africa and Central America is that there was absolutely no hassling from traders which made things so much more pleasant. It was slightly cooler – around 36 degrees and seemed very slightly more humid, so I drank copiously. A particular favourite place was a tea house which serves variety of spicy tea – the ginger tea was wonderful - accompanied by small plates of rich local sweets. On my second visit I refused the nabat (crystal sugar) as I found it too sweet so they brought me an extra plate of halva!
A really pleasant place of which I hope you can gain some impression from my photos and the associated comments.
On Sunday I caught the train to Samarkand, for some reason the Bukhara station is closed so I had to get a taxi to the station 10km away. I then had to pass through airport style security, passport checked at the edge of the car park then bags and people had to go through scanners, though I am afraid I didn’t take it seriously. I went through with my camera, phone and wallet in my pockets – set off the alarm but was waved through! My ticket was then stamped and checked before I could get on the platform and finally an attendant checked my passport and ticket before I could finally board. It was a comfortable train with airline type seats in air conditioned apartments. The journey too four hours.
Samarkand is quite different to Bukhara. The “sights” are surrounded by parks and the old town is actually walled off to stop the view being spoilt!
There is one brand new pedestrianised street linking two of the sites, it’s more recent than my 2011 guidebook which doesn’t mention it. It’s full of new shops, a couple of cafes – which are rare in Samarkand and a brand new school. I saw the children leaving the school, walking a short way and then entering the old town to head home through an inconspicuous gate.
My hotel was also in the old town, nothing special but comfortable.
The highlight is a visit to the three madressas set on the Registan – the main street. They are magnificent buildings, set on three sides of a plaza covered in intricately carved azure mosaics topped by blue domes and are amongst the oldest preserved medressa, earlier ones have been knocked down by you know who!
Another impressive site was Gur-E-Amir Mausoleum which contains the tomb of Timur, described in my guidebook as a “tyrants tyrant” and his two sons and two grandsons. It is reputed that inscribed on his grave is something to the effect that whosever opens this tomb will be attacked by a tyrant even greater than him. The day after a Soviet anthropologist opened it, Hitler invaded Russia!
The ultimate days in Uzbekistan plus a brief visit to Khazakstan
Tuesday
I was due to catch the 17.20 train so intended to revisit some of the monuments but I am being stalked! The Chinese President was visiting again, this time with the Uzbek tyrant. I had noticed that the main street, the Registran, had been closed to traffic the previous day but as it didn’t affectd me, I didn’t enquire why. Today everything around all the main sights was blocked off with hundreds of troops, police and men in suits standing around chatting. They weren’t especially vigilant, I honestly think I could have got past them but it wasn’t worth the risk! I was able to do a little exploring but decided to set off for the station early as the straight forward way was blocked.
The hotel said they couldn’t get a taxi but I should hopefully be able to find one. An old guy took me a couple of blocks for nothing and then flagged down a battered old Lada, every time we took a sharp left something dragged on the ground, I would have stopped but they weren’t bothered. They went down dirt roads and back streets through the suburbs of Samarkand for well over 40 minutes before they managed to get back on main roads on the other side of the city. The ride took about an hour whereas it had been about 15 minutes on the way in. Technically I suppose I was stupid, getting into a dangerous car with two youths who could speak no English – but they got me to the station and I really didn’t feel threatened. President Xi has already been to Khazakstan but is off to Kyrgyzstan, I hope he’s left before I am due on Saturday!!
The train was amazingly a High Speed Spanish one, I did have thoughts about the recent crash! It was just like an airliner, although far more leg room. We even had a film and a snack and drink served from trolleys. Surprisingly it doesn’t run on welded rail but the speed varied from 40kph, over a couple of bridges, to a high of 221. Most of the time it was doing between 140 & 190. My guidebook said the 290 km journey took 3.5 hours by the “speedy Registran train”, it actually took two hours fifteen!
The next day I explored some of the sights of Tashkent, a pleasant but not exciting city. I found the heat was becoming quite tiring so I made frequent drink stops and read for a while.
I needed to change ten more dollars so I went down to the bazaar holding my $10 bill and quite quickly someone came up and offered me a good exchange rate!
On Thursday I headed for the border by metro and taxi. Getting out of Uzbekistan was chaotic! The bureaucracy was just as bad but there were hundreds of locals pushing a shoving. I kept my back pack on which was a little tiring but gave me some space. It was hot and humid and took well over an hour through the myriad checks.
Kazakhstan was so much more relaxed, just three checks, two very brief, and all in an air-conditioned hall. There was still a queue but it was dealt with so much better. I then caught a mashrutka to Shymkent which took about 90 minutes along a pretty fair dual carriageway. The countryside changing from desert to steppe. I saw quite a few herds of wild horses.
You can’t imagine how wonderful it was to be dropped in Shymkent and immediately see an ATM! They are unheard of in Turkmenistan and only for locals in Uzbekistan, travellers cheques are also difficult to change so I had had to carry a large amount of greenbacks!!!
I walked and bussed to the Shymkent train station, the bus was interesting, all the windows were covered in velvet curtains so I had to use the SatNav on my phone to check where to get off! For the last bit of the walk it rained slightly, the first of the trip.
I caught the overnight sleeper to Almaty, 11 hours for the 700km trip so slow, but comfortable. Strangely I shared a compartment with a dolly bird and her child! She used the shower to store her massive case and the pushchair, but I don’t think I would have felt comfortable having a shower anyway.
It was much cooler in Almaty, high of mid twenties and a breeze. I hadn’t packed any warm clothes so decided to head off to the market where I got a really nice Wrangler shirt – probably counterfeit!
It is the most westernised city I have been to this trip, but was a nice change. The weather also reinvigorated me, I walked for about 8 hours with only short breaks for drinks, I could never have managed that in the high temperatures. To finish the day I caught a bus back to the hotel, i was so crowded you couldn’t move. To pay, you gave the person next to you some money and a few minutes later the ticket and change was returned, such refreshing honesty.
Off to Bishkek tomorrow for the final leg.
As beforeI hope that you will gain some appreciation of this interesting, Silk Road city, from my photos and accompanying comments.
The final leg
I was confused, my guidebook said the bus station was next to the train station, so I was amazed at how much taxis were quoting. After hard bargaining, I got it down to what I felt was a fair price only to discover the station has moved to way out of town J
I found a shared taxi easily with little bargaining needed. It was a Mercedes 300 series station wagon, in good condition (windscreen crack apart) including air conditioning. I felt £8 for a three hour, 250k journey in the front seat was pretty reasonable.
The initial part of the journey was horrendous due to the traffic, apart from one minor accident it seemed to be caused by cars parking where they wanted on the motorway. To avoid this cars, including our taxi, used the dirt track hard shoulder, petrol station forecourts and even a mall car park to gain a bit of time, most of the first 50 km though was at a crawl.
Once we’d got past that, the road was pretty clear and well surfaced. The only minor alarms being when the driver took regular phone calls, once he let the wheels hit the central reservation whilst dialling!
Initially the road was fairly flat as we crossed the steppe, past more herds of horses. It then started to climb into the mountains as we approached the Kyrgyz Border. The border was by far the simplest yet, a short queue but only one check to get out of Kazakhstan. Two checks, but no queue and no visa needed to enter Kyrgyzstan. I then easily got a taxi straight to my comfortable hotel.
The hotel provided several unusual extras, like a Galaxy Tab in every room and bikes which you could borrow for free. What I found very strange was the bikes were stored on a second floor bridge between two parts of the hotel, you took one if one was there, no booking or checks, put it in the lift and wheeled it out through the front lobby!
The first day, Sunday, was not too pleasant, temperature no higher than 20 degrees and raining all morning (preparing me for British weather!), I was very glad of my new shirt! I still had a good explore of Bishkek and bought some sun glasses to replace the ones I had lost (they were on a chain which I think broke). They seem to work well and are polarized, I bargained them down to £3.75!
I had a meal at a Chinese restaurant. As I had hoped, with China being the next country East, the food was excellent. I had sweet and sour beef, nothing like the sickly sweet stuff you get in the UK.
On my final day I spent all morning cycling round the city, including visiting the largest bazaar. I was impressed by the colour of the clothes on display, by far the most vibrant of the whole trip.
As a finale I went to see the night time light show on the Ala-Too (Bishtek Central Square) fountains. My guidebook warned against going there at night stating that Bishkek was very safe by day but not quite so at night, but I decided on a bike I would be OK. I was but it was tricky without lights, I rode back to the hotel mainly on the pavement – no one seemed bothered and I didn’t notice anything which might have threatened me even if I had been on footJ
Today will be a long day, I awoke at 4am (11pm UK time) to be at the airport at 5 – I am due to land in Brum at around 3pm UK time 8pm Bishkek time. I was pleased however, to be upgraded to business class. Turkish airlines had broken a clock in my baggage on the way out, when I complained they pointed out that the small print said it should have been in my hand baggage but as a gesture of good will, offered to upgrade me on the Istanbul leg – subject to space.
As we took off I was surprised to see the mountain peaks completely covered in snow - beautiful, I had not realised they were that high.
I’m signing off in Istanbul airport before slumming it back to Birmingham in economy J
Sauntering around the Stans
A pleasant Turkish airlines flight from Birmingham to Ashgabat via Istanbul. The seats in both planes seemed more comfortable than your average airlines with a good seat pitch.
We landed at Ashgabat about 10 minutes late at 3.05 am! However as Turkmenistan is 4 hours ahead of BST it only seemed like 11.05. That's when the fun started! The airport was incredibly inefficient, everyone took their time. I had to visit and wait at three windows, no hassles but we waited 5/10 minutes for anyone to even turn up at the first. Then at customs they could not get the Xray machines to work. They all stood round chatting and occasionally pushing a key for about 45 minutes before they decided to hand search bags, some very thoroughly, mine was cursory luckily. I hate to think how long the people loaded with 8 taped up boxes had to wait, people with more normal bags, rucksacks were called to the front.
I got up about 10.30, met my local travel rep to finalise things and pay my bills - everything must be in cash until I get to Tashkent so I was relieved to dispose of so many dollars. I then went for a walk. Ashgabat is very modern. It was almost completely destroyed by the earthquake of 1948 and then rebuilt again in the nineties by the then President for Life Saparmurat Niyazov, a bureaucrat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union who decided to emulate the North Korean Kims!
A friend of mine described it as the City of White Marble and my travelguide says that it keeps the marble builders of the world in jobs! The centre is all marble edifices and parks, very pleasant to walk around but populated by few people. Lonely Planet aptly describes it as "a cross between Las Vegas and Pyongyang"!
The temperature was hot - up to 39 degrees!! but quite pleasant as the humidity was very low being in a desert area so I hardly sweated at all. Under the many trees a gentle breeze made it very pleasant.
The majority of the women were dressed in ankle length dresses, most plain, bright colours but with Turkmen braiding - it was rare to see anyone with a short skirt. Some also wore a white apron. However this seems to be following local, rather than Muslim culture as far fewer wore head gear. Those that did either had a brightly coloured turban or a skull cap, it was rare to see anyone with their face or the front of the hair covered - except for the woman gardeners! I have never seen anywhere with such a large percentage of people wearing traditional clothes, Ulaan Baatar would come closest but national costume for the woman in Ashgabat was far more prevalent.
The first ever Baha'i House of Worship was built here is Ashgabat but unfortunately it was severely damaged in the 1948 earthquake and demolished by the authorities in 1963. According to one website the site was turned into a park "in which stands a statue of the eighteenth-century Turkmen poet Mahtum Quli". I took a photo of what may have been the site. The doors of the art museum are also reputed to have been the doors of the temple, I'm not so sure.
There was a heavy police/army presence on the streets but it rarely seemed oppressive. I have not yet seen a gun, there were probably some at the airport which I didn't notice, but none on the streets. I was not stopped once, mostly when I passed I received a smile or greeting. My only two encounters were when I took a photo of the presidential palace a soldier waved at me indicating I shouldn't have done that! When I wanted to walk past the defence ministry a soldier politely pointed to the other side of the street,
I spent two days walking around the city and the markets, just people watching - I hope my photos speak for themselves. One of the nicer cities I have visited.
Wednesday
I met my driver who supposedly was only Russian speaking, in fact he spoke good English and was a guide heading to the border to meet a group, very fortunate. The "taxi" was a 4WD Nissan Patrol, very useful when the roads got pretty pot holed and awful at times!
Evidence of Turkmen's oil bonanza was the cost of fuel, between 12 and 13p a litre, much cheaper than water!!
The moment we were out of Ashgabat we were into the Karakum Desert, mainly scrub rather than sand, although there were some stretches with dunes. There was little agriculture apart from flocks of sheep with biblical shepherds, a few herds of cow with cowherds on donkeys and quite a few Bactrian camels, seemingly untended.
I had been issued with copious pieces of paper for the driver to hand out at the many check points. In fact my earlier view of lazy authoritarianism was reconfirmed. There were frequent check points at which all traffic had to stop, but, apart from a single one when we entered the border region, no one came out to even look at us, they just relaxed in their cabins, which I suspect were air conditioned!. No such luck for the traffic police, they were far more numerous and many of them seemed to have been dropped in the desert with just a radar gun and a water bottle - maybe they only got picked up after a certain number of cops J (remember the temperature rose to the high 30s!). We fell foul of one, right at the start. The driver tried to argue but still ended up with a ticket.
Our first stop was at the ruined 15th Century shrine of Seyit Jamal, an interesting ruin with several other excavations nearby,
The next stop was at the remains of the ancient city of Abiwert dating from the 12th century. I had the ruin completely to myself and spent an interesting 30 minutes wondering around. Despite the 38 degrees heat there was a strong breeze which made it pleasant. It was described as "... a city with fertile lands and rich crops, famous for its magnificent market and mosque". It was reputed to be impregnable until it was visited by the eldest son of Ghengiz Khan, Tulikan, who raised it to the ground!
We had been scheduled to spend the night in Mary, a local city. However the president of Turkmenistan and the president of China were visiting to open something (and presumably chat!) so the whole town centre was out of bounds, no one was allowed to stay or pass through. About a 100 km from Mary we passed about 150 lorries parked in the desert waiting to be allowed to continue, we weren't stopped. On the outskirts of town there were another 50 or so lorries stranded waiting and eventually we came to a road block. With much help from a friend on the phone and numerous locals, our driver made a 120 km detour to the road on the other side.
The area around Mary is much more fertile and is the centre of the cotton growing industry. We passed fields full of workers hand picking the crop. They appeared to be mostly female and not Turkman, I suspect Pakistani.
We made our last stop at Merv, a place we had been due to visit the next day. In its heyday it was known as "Merv - Queen of the World" and at that time rivalled Damascus, Bagdad and Cairo. At one time it had a population of up to 2 million. It was a major centre of religious studies and was noted for its tolerance and sophistication. It was a lynch pin of the silk road until it had an argument with Ghenggis. In 1218 he demanded some tithes of grain along with the pick of the city's most beautiful women. Unwisely the Seljuq slayed the tax collectors so another of Ghenggis's son's this time Tolui the most brutal, destroyed the city and beheaded the 300,000 people living there at the time, even though they had already surrendered!
It is a World Heritage site but there were few people there, at one site which was locked up, we were just about to go when the guardian tore up on his push bike and showed me round J
We spent the night at a nice hotel about 80 km away in the middle of the desert. We had a good meal in a yurt in the grounds with lamb dumplings amongst other things - it appears they are both "typically Turkman!", very reminiscent of Mongolia. I paid for us both - total cost £10 including drinks and three courses. The only downside was the water was very sporadic and at best a trickle!
Fitting in with the president's plans actually suited me as when we set off for the Uzbek border we were about 4 hours ahead of schedule, giving more time to cross and get to Bukhara.
We used one of those hours for an extra visit, to the market in Turkmenabat, the second city. It was a massive, every day bazaar and I spent an hour exploring - no pictures, it wasn't really picturesque but it was interesting. I bought myself a skull cap, some handkerchiefs and an electrical adapter, plus several interesting drinks ranging in cost from 5 - 12p!
We then made the short run to the border arriving at midday, 3 hours earlier than the absolute earliest scheduled time! I got through the Turkman formalities quickly and just hoped I could do the same on the Uzbeck side as they supposedly closed for lunch at one. I then had to wait fifteen minutes for a bus across no-man's land - cost 12.5p - you aren't allowed to walk.
The immediate difference was the border guards, very friendly, but with machine guns on their backs - unlike the unarmed Turkmen. After showing my passport twice I was in Uzbekistan but it was about half a mile further to the border post, which I walked with luggage in 37 degree heat. Actually, it wasn't too badJ I walked past several Iranian car transporters carrying imported second hand cars from the Shajah!
I got to the border post at two minutes before one, and scraped in - they examined my passport and then locked up and went to lunch. Luckily the actual passport control and customs weren't so strict. There was a South African Couple also crossing with their Land Rover which they had driven up from home! We had to fill in forms in duplicate. They were in Russian with an English version high up on a wall, after 10 minutes straining to see, the boss came out, yelled at his assistant and gave us forms in English! The hall was not air conditioned and for some reason, humid, so I was soon dripping wet - it's not easy to fill in forms like that so the Russian version came in useful as a sweat mat.
The next hurdle was to explain to the junior what country I came from, again boss to the rescue - in Uzbek it's Anglia. Finally I was through, a quick passport stamp and out. Total time including walking, about an hour and a half. Pretty good considering the three hours plus described in the guidebook and helped by the almost total absence of traffic - maybe because of lunch!
The final hurdle of the day was to negotiate a taxi to Bukhara. The guidebook suggests $20 with heavy bargaining, but their costs are always out of date, so I was quite pleased to get it for $30 (bargained down from $65!). Things were very different on the Uzbek side, the scenery was similar, cottons fields or desert, but for half the journey the road was virtually empty, it reminded me of North Korea, in the first 30 km I saw a car, a lorry, a tractor, a donkey cart and two bikes (heading the wrong way!). After that traffic got slightly heavier. The road surface however, was better but the car was an ancient Russian Lada, none of the instruments seemed to work. The driver was very friendly and spoke no English, despite this, in a very friendly manner, he kep on trying to trying to up the agreed price - I really did not feel at all threatened, just amused. What I did agree was that he could fill the back seat. When this didn't work out I agreed to be transhipped to a more modern car as the fifth passenger - somehow I paid the new driver all that I agreed with the old when I reached journey's end!
All then went fine apart from him getting completely lost finding my hotel, the desk clerk was quite amused, he'd rung him many times for help but still didn't quite find it, I had to walk about 100 yards when he found a sign down an alley! It is a pleasant hotel in the old city. Initial impressions are that Bukhara is world's apart from Ashgabat. Far more tourists and much, much older, but still very friendly people and little evidence of hassling.
I am in Uzbekistan for a week, so thought I'd change $100, big mistake! The official rate is 2100 Soms to the dollar but the hotel offered 2600. However, as my guidebook warns, the largest note is 1000 Soms, so I ended up with a brick of notes over 3 inches thick! They gave me a mixture of 500 and 1000 totalling some 300 plus notes! I have had to be creative where to stash they as they certainly don't all fit in my wallet and waist belt J.
End of episode one - providing I can get the flaky Internet to work to post this tomorrow, Friday.
Photos at https://plus.google.com/photos/106027128611804476034/albums/5919408774022331361?authkey=CLLQq-vXrNPOzgE
Bukhara
I have spent two enjoyable days exploring Bukhara, mainly the old town. It is Central Asia’s holiest city with buildings ranging over the last millennium since Genghis visited and destroyed most things again! The centre has been preserved and in parts restored. It is full of mosques, markets and a large royal fortress, known as the Arc. It started life as a simple oasis in the middle of the surrounding Kyzylkum desert but in it’s heyday it was known as the Pillar of Islam, “Central Asia’s religious and cultural heart”, Bukhara was a vast market place with dozens of bazaars and caravanserai, more than 100 medressas (with 10000 students living in fairly primitive cells) and more than 300 mosques.
The most central place, and where I dined every evening, is Lyabi-Hauz a square built round a pool (literally “around the pool” in Tjak), shaded by Mulberry trees planted in the 15th Century.
It is mainly an area for tourists now, I saw no “working” medressa, but especially during the day when it’s hot and the crowds are off in their air conditioned coaches it is a lovely places to just wonder round. Once one gets out of the central area then the streets are dusty and broken. Some buildings are falling down, some restored. It’s only a ten minute walk to the modern town which shows evidence of communism (flats and heating) but seems another pleasant place.
One thing which I found remarkable after the Middle East, Africa and Central America is that there was absolutely no hassling from traders which made things so much more pleasant. It was slightly cooler – around 36 degrees and seemed very slightly more humid, so I drank copiously. A particular favourite place was a tea house which serves variety of spicy tea – the ginger tea was wonderful - accompanied by small plates of rich local sweets. On my second visit I refused the nabat (crystal sugar) as I found it too sweet so they brought me an extra plate of halva!
A really pleasant place of which I hope you can gain some impression from my photos and the associated comments.
On Sunday I caught the train to Samarkand, for some reason the Bukhara station is closed so I had to get a taxi to the station 10km away. I then had to pass through airport style security, passport checked at the edge of the car park then bags and people had to go through scanners, though I am afraid I didn’t take it seriously. I went through with my camera, phone and wallet in my pockets – set off the alarm but was waved through! My ticket was then stamped and checked before I could get on the platform and finally an attendant checked my passport and ticket before I could finally board. It was a comfortable train with airline type seats in air conditioned apartments. The journey too four hours.
Samarkand is quite different to Bukhara. The “sights” are surrounded by parks and the old town is actually walled off to stop the view being spoilt!
There is one brand new pedestrianised street linking two of the sites, it’s more recent than my 2011 guidebook which doesn’t mention it. It’s full of new shops, a couple of cafes – which are rare in Samarkand and a brand new school. I saw the children leaving the school, walking a short way and then entering the old town to head home through an inconspicuous gate.
My hotel was also in the old town, nothing special but comfortable.
The highlight is a visit to the three madressas set on the Registan – the main street. They are magnificent buildings, set on three sides of a plaza covered in intricately carved azure mosaics topped by blue domes and are amongst the oldest preserved medressa, earlier ones have been knocked down by you know who!
Another impressive site was Gur-E-Amir Mausoleum which contains the tomb of Timur, described in my guidebook as a “tyrants tyrant” and his two sons and two grandsons. It is reputed that inscribed on his grave is something to the effect that whosever opens this tomb will be attacked by a tyrant even greater than him. The day after a Soviet anthropologist opened it, Hitler invaded Russia!
The ultimate days in Uzbekistan plus a brief visit to Khazakstan
Tuesday
I was due to catch the 17.20 train so intended to revisit some of the monuments but I am being stalked! The Chinese President was visiting again, this time with the Uzbek tyrant. I had noticed that the main street, the Registran, had been closed to traffic the previous day but as it didn’t affectd me, I didn’t enquire why. Today everything around all the main sights was blocked off with hundreds of troops, police and men in suits standing around chatting. They weren’t especially vigilant, I honestly think I could have got past them but it wasn’t worth the risk! I was able to do a little exploring but decided to set off for the station early as the straight forward way was blocked.
The hotel said they couldn’t get a taxi but I should hopefully be able to find one. An old guy took me a couple of blocks for nothing and then flagged down a battered old Lada, every time we took a sharp left something dragged on the ground, I would have stopped but they weren’t bothered. They went down dirt roads and back streets through the suburbs of Samarkand for well over 40 minutes before they managed to get back on main roads on the other side of the city. The ride took about an hour whereas it had been about 15 minutes on the way in. Technically I suppose I was stupid, getting into a dangerous car with two youths who could speak no English – but they got me to the station and I really didn’t feel threatened. President Xi has already been to Khazakstan but is off to Kyrgyzstan, I hope he’s left before I am due on Saturday!!
The train was amazingly a High Speed Spanish one, I did have thoughts about the recent crash! It was just like an airliner, although far more leg room. We even had a film and a snack and drink served from trolleys. Surprisingly it doesn’t run on welded rail but the speed varied from 40kph, over a couple of bridges, to a high of 221. Most of the time it was doing between 140 & 190. My guidebook said the 290 km journey took 3.5 hours by the “speedy Registran train”, it actually took two hours fifteen!
The next day I explored some of the sights of Tashkent, a pleasant but not exciting city. I found the heat was becoming quite tiring so I made frequent drink stops and read for a while.
I needed to change ten more dollars so I went down to the bazaar holding my $10 bill and quite quickly someone came up and offered me a good exchange rate!
On Thursday I headed for the border by metro and taxi. Getting out of Uzbekistan was chaotic! The bureaucracy was just as bad but there were hundreds of locals pushing a shoving. I kept my back pack on which was a little tiring but gave me some space. It was hot and humid and took well over an hour through the myriad checks.
Kazakhstan was so much more relaxed, just three checks, two very brief, and all in an air-conditioned hall. There was still a queue but it was dealt with so much better. I then caught a mashrutka to Shymkent which took about 90 minutes along a pretty fair dual carriageway. The countryside changing from desert to steppe. I saw quite a few herds of wild horses.
You can’t imagine how wonderful it was to be dropped in Shymkent and immediately see an ATM! They are unheard of in Turkmenistan and only for locals in Uzbekistan, travellers cheques are also difficult to change so I had had to carry a large amount of greenbacks!!!
I walked and bussed to the Shymkent train station, the bus was interesting, all the windows were covered in velvet curtains so I had to use the SatNav on my phone to check where to get off! For the last bit of the walk it rained slightly, the first of the trip.
I caught the overnight sleeper to Almaty, 11 hours for the 700km trip so slow, but comfortable. Strangely I shared a compartment with a dolly bird and her child! She used the shower to store her massive case and the pushchair, but I don’t think I would have felt comfortable having a shower anyway.
It was much cooler in Almaty, high of mid twenties and a breeze. I hadn’t packed any warm clothes so decided to head off to the market where I got a really nice Wrangler shirt – probably counterfeit!
It is the most westernised city I have been to this trip, but was a nice change. The weather also reinvigorated me, I walked for about 8 hours with only short breaks for drinks, I could never have managed that in the high temperatures. To finish the day I caught a bus back to the hotel, i was so crowded you couldn’t move. To pay, you gave the person next to you some money and a few minutes later the ticket and change was returned, such refreshing honesty.
Off to Bishkek tomorrow for the final leg.
As beforeI hope that you will gain some appreciation of this interesting, Silk Road city, from my photos and accompanying comments.
The final leg
I was confused, my guidebook said the bus station was next to the train station, so I was amazed at how much taxis were quoting. After hard bargaining, I got it down to what I felt was a fair price only to discover the station has moved to way out of town J
I found a shared taxi easily with little bargaining needed. It was a Mercedes 300 series station wagon, in good condition (windscreen crack apart) including air conditioning. I felt £8 for a three hour, 250k journey in the front seat was pretty reasonable.
The initial part of the journey was horrendous due to the traffic, apart from one minor accident it seemed to be caused by cars parking where they wanted on the motorway. To avoid this cars, including our taxi, used the dirt track hard shoulder, petrol station forecourts and even a mall car park to gain a bit of time, most of the first 50 km though was at a crawl.
Once we’d got past that, the road was pretty clear and well surfaced. The only minor alarms being when the driver took regular phone calls, once he let the wheels hit the central reservation whilst dialling!
Initially the road was fairly flat as we crossed the steppe, past more herds of horses. It then started to climb into the mountains as we approached the Kyrgyz Border. The border was by far the simplest yet, a short queue but only one check to get out of Kazakhstan. Two checks, but no queue and no visa needed to enter Kyrgyzstan. I then easily got a taxi straight to my comfortable hotel.
The hotel provided several unusual extras, like a Galaxy Tab in every room and bikes which you could borrow for free. What I found very strange was the bikes were stored on a second floor bridge between two parts of the hotel, you took one if one was there, no booking or checks, put it in the lift and wheeled it out through the front lobby!
The first day, Sunday, was not too pleasant, temperature no higher than 20 degrees and raining all morning (preparing me for British weather!), I was very glad of my new shirt! I still had a good explore of Bishkek and bought some sun glasses to replace the ones I had lost (they were on a chain which I think broke). They seem to work well and are polarized, I bargained them down to £3.75!
I had a meal at a Chinese restaurant. As I had hoped, with China being the next country East, the food was excellent. I had sweet and sour beef, nothing like the sickly sweet stuff you get in the UK.
On my final day I spent all morning cycling round the city, including visiting the largest bazaar. I was impressed by the colour of the clothes on display, by far the most vibrant of the whole trip.
As a finale I went to see the night time light show on the Ala-Too (Bishtek Central Square) fountains. My guidebook warned against going there at night stating that Bishkek was very safe by day but not quite so at night, but I decided on a bike I would be OK. I was but it was tricky without lights, I rode back to the hotel mainly on the pavement – no one seemed bothered and I didn’t notice anything which might have threatened me even if I had been on footJ
Today will be a long day, I awoke at 4am (11pm UK time) to be at the airport at 5 – I am due to land in Brum at around 3pm UK time 8pm Bishkek time. I was pleased however, to be upgraded to business class. Turkish airlines had broken a clock in my baggage on the way out, when I complained they pointed out that the small print said it should have been in my hand baggage but as a gesture of good will, offered to upgrade me on the Istanbul leg – subject to space.
As we took off I was surprised to see the mountain peaks completely covered in snow - beautiful, I had not realised they were that high.
I’m signing off in Istanbul airport before slumming it back to Birmingham in economy J
Photos and accompanying comments. photos and accompanying comments.