Through the heart of central Asia
Trip Start
Mar 23, 2007
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9
11
Trip End
Apr 24, 2007
Khiva, Uzbekistan
Monday, April 16, 2007
And on to Bukhara, an oasis town in the desert of central Uzbekistan, a few hours west of Samarkand by train. Now we are truly in the heart of central Asia. Bukhara is the holy city of central Asia and has existed for at least a couple of thousand years. The oldest buildings date back around a thousand years, but as in Samarkand, much has been damaged or destroyed over the centuries, including by the Soviets. Some restoration is now underway though. The city used to have a thriving Jewish community although there are a fewer than a thousand remaining. We did find the synagogue, but it was closed when we got there. A few tourists make it here, but again facilities are fairly basic - our accommodation, the best in town, was an old Soviet-era Intourist hotel. The hot water was switched off during the day (although somewhat compensated for by the pink, Mickey Mouse embroidered towels!) and the beds were a hard wooden platform with a thin mattress. Still, at least we didn't have bed bugs as some others in our tour group did. All of this was more than compensated for by the incredible sites, not least of which the old bazaar. This time we did succumb and bought a classical Bukhara wool carpet - made from wool from the neck of a camel so we were told!
Our final stop in central Asia was at the spectacular ancient walled city of Khiva. The city dates back more than 2500 years, but most of what's left is just a few hundred years old. There's been some renovation, but the last Khan was kicked out by the Soviets only in 1925, so much of what's standing is in reasonably good shape. Many of us thought that this was the highlight of the silk route that we'd seen in central Asia - it certainly felt the most remote and "exotic".
Soon after we left Khiva on the train, we crossed the border into Turkmenistan. Tourist visas are next to impossible to obtain (although the egomaniac who ran the country died a few weeks ago, so that could change now) so we are not allowed off the train and can only see the country through the window. Even that limited view showed us how poor and decrepit it is in comparison to Uzbekistan, itself not one of the world's most affluent nations.
Then across the Kazakgstan steppe. We crossed from Turkmenistan back into Uzbekistan and then finally again into Kazakhstan. This part of Kazakhstan is close to the Caspian Sea, but completely flat and treeless. A few camels (both sorts), sheep and cattle and occasionally in the far distance, we can see oil and gas wells. From time to time, a small settlement - post-Soviet wasteland at its worst. But mostly just a vast expanse of nothing...
Central Asia has been incredible and we feel really fortunate to have seen so much before the big tourist wave hits as it inevitably will. Next stop - Volgograd in Russia after nearly two days on the train. Plenty of time to party, which seems to be one of the main objectives of many of the group. A lot of them claim to belong to the "Ski Club". Didn't realize what this meant and most of our group doesn't exactly look like they spend much time on the piste - then we found out that it's a well-known term in Australia "Spending Kids' Inheritance"!! Time for another drink!!
