So after a 2 hour flight in a rickety old ex-soviet plane (with propellors!!!) we arrived in Khiva from Tashkent. All the sights, hotels and Uzbek attempts at restaurants could all be found within the walls of the old city, thus meaning you could simply wander around the place all day getting lost taking in the atmosphere. Khiva was the subject of a huge restoration job by the Soviet government in the 70s and is now an official ‘museum-town’. This obviously has its pros and cons. On the upside is the simple fact that the place looks amazing. All the Mosques, Minarets and Medressas look immaculate and incredibly impressive – the restoration was done very very well. As you wander round the city, however, the downside of the restoration project is plain to see. The place seems to have had its soul sucked out of it. The only locals you come across are the ones attempting to sell you their merchandise, and it becomes very hard to imagine the place as it used to be. A real city with bustling bazarrs and people from all walks of life (Turcomen slave traders included!) going about their daily business.
A four hour drive in a shared taxi across the stiflingly hot, arid desert in a clapped out lada took us to Bukhara, a town with a similar history to Khiva. Our driver offered us his xenophobic views on his neighbours: ‘I don’t like Tajiks… they are all terrorists. Just like the Afghans’.
Bukhara shares a similar history to Khiva, containing similar Minarets and Medressas. During the restoration, the centre was not allowed to stagnate and it is still very much a ‘lived in’ city. I met a couple of English guys here and yesterday morning we went to a traditional ‘hammom’ (a kind of central asian steam room). My words cannot do justice to how good it was once you got over the locals there who literally had everything out on display. Today I took a minibus out of town for about 35 pence to visit the birthplace and tomb of Bakhautdin, the founder of the most prominent order of Sufiism in Central Asia. Needless to say the architecture was incredible. You will have to wait for me to put up some photos here, there is little point trying to describe it.
Tomorrow we will take the 4 hour journey to Samarkand by train at the cost of about a fiver!
Monday, 29 June 2009
Friday, 26 June 2009
Taskent.
After three days in Tashkent, my sister (who met me in the capital on Wednesday) and I have taken a flight to Khiva, and ancient walled city which sits in the Kyzylkum desert in Western Uzbekistan.
Tashkent itself is a very odd place. At this time of year it is very hot, making walking long distances between its spread out ‘sights’ hard work. The best way to get around is to hail a taxi. Any car doubles up as a taxi, simply put out your arm and a car will instantly stop to offer to take you to your destination. A short journey of about 10mins costs 2000 som, or one pound.
The other way to get around the city is to use the metro system. Built in the soviet era, it is the only underground system in the whole of central asia, yet it puts the London Underground to shame. 20 pence buys you a ticket which takes you anywhere in Tashkent. The trains are very regular, at least one every 5 minutes, and, along with the stations, are very cool, even when the peak temperature reaches the mid-30s above ground. The stations are also decorated lavishly, as seems to be the habit in Soviet design of metro stations! (Travel on the metro in Moscow to get an idea!)
One of the most amusing things about Uzbekistan is the money here! As I’ve already said, a taxi journey, equivalent to one pound, costs 2000 som. The highest note they have here is 1000 som. Imagine the look on my face when I was given 80 pounds worth of som at the exchange booth! I have seen people walk around with wads of cash under their arms. Even the beggars end up with sacks of cash by the end of the day!
Anyway, Tashkent was nothing special, it was a large, hot, gritty city with few sights bar the odd bazaar or mosque and I’m glad to be out of it. Now i’m off to explore Khivas old town.
Oh, and R.I.P MJ. (Although no-one has heard of you here!)
Tashkent itself is a very odd place. At this time of year it is very hot, making walking long distances between its spread out ‘sights’ hard work. The best way to get around is to hail a taxi. Any car doubles up as a taxi, simply put out your arm and a car will instantly stop to offer to take you to your destination. A short journey of about 10mins costs 2000 som, or one pound.
The other way to get around the city is to use the metro system. Built in the soviet era, it is the only underground system in the whole of central asia, yet it puts the London Underground to shame. 20 pence buys you a ticket which takes you anywhere in Tashkent. The trains are very regular, at least one every 5 minutes, and, along with the stations, are very cool, even when the peak temperature reaches the mid-30s above ground. The stations are also decorated lavishly, as seems to be the habit in Soviet design of metro stations! (Travel on the metro in Moscow to get an idea!)
One of the most amusing things about Uzbekistan is the money here! As I’ve already said, a taxi journey, equivalent to one pound, costs 2000 som. The highest note they have here is 1000 som. Imagine the look on my face when I was given 80 pounds worth of som at the exchange booth! I have seen people walk around with wads of cash under their arms. Even the beggars end up with sacks of cash by the end of the day!
Anyway, Tashkent was nothing special, it was a large, hot, gritty city with few sights bar the odd bazaar or mosque and I’m glad to be out of it. Now i’m off to explore Khivas old town.
Oh, and R.I.P MJ. (Although no-one has heard of you here!)
Welcome To Uzbekistan
DO NOT OBSTRUCT MONITOR
MONITOR ALARM SOUND YOU WILL BE SEARCHED
SEARCH MAY TAKE MORE THAN ONE HOUR!
This was the sign that greeted my arrival in Tashkent airport, capital city of the police state that is Uzbekistan, and the first stop in my three country trip.
Once the border guard had checked my documents, I uttered the only word I knew in Uzbek: ‘Rakhmad’ which means thank-you. In return the border guard ominously offered his only English phrase: ‘good luck’.
Am I to need it? Who knows.
MONITOR ALARM SOUND YOU WILL BE SEARCHED
SEARCH MAY TAKE MORE THAN ONE HOUR!
This was the sign that greeted my arrival in Tashkent airport, capital city of the police state that is Uzbekistan, and the first stop in my three country trip.
Once the border guard had checked my documents, I uttered the only word I knew in Uzbek: ‘Rakhmad’ which means thank-you. In return the border guard ominously offered his only English phrase: ‘good luck’.
Am I to need it? Who knows.
Sunday, 7 June 2009
An introduction.
Hello,
So I thought I'd write a blog about my travels this summer. I'm flying out on the 22rd June, and will be arriving in Tashkent, capital city of Uzbekistan - one of only two countries in the world which is doubly landlocked - at 3am on the 23th June. Bonus points if you can name the other country in the world where you need to cross two borders before reaching coastline.
Hopefully my sister, who is currently working for an NGO in Kyrgyzstan (maybe the hardest country in the world to spell?) will pick me up from the airport, otherwise I will have a somewhat interesting first experience of Central Asia.
My plan is a week in Uzbekistan, followed by a week and a bit in Kyrgyzstan, both with my sister. Following that I intend on crossing the Kyrgyz/Chinese border via the Tougart pass into Kashgar. From then on I'll travel along the ancient silk route all the way to Beijing where my girlfriend Rosa will be flying out to meet me. We'll then have a month together kicking about China checking out the pandas and suchlike before flying home communist style on Aeroflots finest airbus on 23rd August.
Keep an eye on this blog to check up on whether I'm still alive or whether I have finally succumbed to death at the hands of a gang of islamic militants/one armed bandits/shepherds.
So I thought I'd write a blog about my travels this summer. I'm flying out on the 22rd June, and will be arriving in Tashkent, capital city of Uzbekistan - one of only two countries in the world which is doubly landlocked - at 3am on the 23th June. Bonus points if you can name the other country in the world where you need to cross two borders before reaching coastline.
Hopefully my sister, who is currently working for an NGO in Kyrgyzstan (maybe the hardest country in the world to spell?) will pick me up from the airport, otherwise I will have a somewhat interesting first experience of Central Asia.
My plan is a week in Uzbekistan, followed by a week and a bit in Kyrgyzstan, both with my sister. Following that I intend on crossing the Kyrgyz/Chinese border via the Tougart pass into Kashgar. From then on I'll travel along the ancient silk route all the way to Beijing where my girlfriend Rosa will be flying out to meet me. We'll then have a month together kicking about China checking out the pandas and suchlike before flying home communist style on Aeroflots finest airbus on 23rd August.
Keep an eye on this blog to check up on whether I'm still alive or whether I have finally succumbed to death at the hands of a gang of islamic militants/one armed bandits/shepherds.
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