From Berlin to Bukhara...

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Trip Start Aug 27, 2007 Trip End Ongoing Next
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  Bukhara, Uzbekistan
Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Hello and welcome to my little online travelblog of our Central Asia trip. I have finally decided to move with the times and embrace the blog culture - wish me luck. Please also do let me know by email (natclare@yahoo.com) if you don't want to be on this mailing list, no offence taken I promise!
 
The 2006 trip is now continuing for me. After a year traveling with Robin through North-West Africa, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, using Thailand as our transport hub so I got a little holiday in Cambodia too, I was pretty tired. So, I took a "break" to gather my thoughts. Yet of course, typical me, my break panned out to include working part-time with UK civil engineering company Clancy Docwra in London whilst slogging my guts out studying full-time for my CIM Marketing Diploma with London School of Marketing... At this juncture, a big hello to all my good old and new friends at Clancys and LSM J Well, CIM taught me an enormous amount in four months, although I am still reeling from the onslaught of work and seven-day weeks. Thankfully, I can report it was worth the blood, sweat and tears as I just found out that I passed with (almost) straight As - okay then three As and a B, which is quite astounding, and was celebrated with vigour and vodka outside Tashkent's Opera House.
 
But, I am getting ahead of myself. Finally, our Central Asia trip is being realized, having been in the pipeline (it seems) since the year dot. Visas for these countries are a bit of a pain in the backside. It took a good five weeks (and here, I am being generous) plus a trip to Berlin to get all the visas for Uzbekistan, Krgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, but worth all the effort in the end I hope.
 
Our first stop was Berlin to get the Tajik visa (there is no embassy in London) and to visit our friend Chris. I was highly amused by the fact that now all British Airways passengers check in online before they fly, they have removed the word "fast" from the formerly "Fast Bag Drop" desks - now it is a just a (slow) "Bag Drop" with a twenty minute queue... what progress! In any case in Berlin for 80 euros each I got the visas on the spot from the friendly Tajikistan embassy, leaving the rest of the time for sightseeing around Berlin - fabulous. I love German efficiency! We walked the length and breadth of the German capital with our highlight being the Reichstag with amazing views over the city from the new glass dome. Chris introduced us to a number of good restaurants and bars... I especially liked the one where you help yourself to drinks and then at the end of the night, instead of getting a bill, you estimate your own bill (assuming, of course, that you can remember how many glasses of wine you had...) and put your assortment of euros in payment into a communal glass bowl. All too soon, we were off to Latvia for 24 hours in Riga. Okay, so not exactly tons of time but we managed to have a good stab at seeing the Old Town and some amazing architecture, rounded off with a delicious traditional Latvian meal.
 
On 31st August we bade Europe farewell and embarked our Uzbekistan Airways flight to Tashkent. In Tashkent, the first interesting thing was changing money. Finally, having managed to battle my way into Departures to get to the exchange booth, I changed my 100 US dollars to 127,200 Uzbekistan Sum with the biggest note being 500 Sum (about 40 pence) so I had literally wads of cash, so big they have to be stashed in a bag rather than the money belt..... Tashkent itself is a very modern city with wide, tree-lined avenues, spectacular fountain and statue-adorned squares everywhere, and a 24-hour market at Chorsu Bazaar. We are having just tons of fun not speaking either Russian or Uzbek (not speaking Russian just seems to baffle everyone... but why??!) but have now learnt the numbers at least to save getting ripped off.
 
Finally in Tashkent, we weighed up taking a 22 hour train to Nukus compared to a flight for 51 dollars and the flight won. Easy decision really I thought, at least until I saw the plane. There again, it arrived in one piece so it did the job. Nukus is just one great big Soviet city and makes Uxbridge look like Las Vegas but it did have the greatest art museum in Central Asia, a collection by Savitsky who hid 90,000 pieces of 1920s and 1930s art away in this total former Soviet backwater rather like Schindler of the art world... And, with a couple of local medical students, via a collection of minibuses and taxis, we discovered ancient tombs and mausoleums, and a 4th Century fortress at Mizdakhan, Hojeli. Back in Nukus, we got picked up by a young local couple who spoke English and took us to 'the' big hangout in Nukus... You got it - the ice cream parlour, to devour ice cream, drink Uzbek beer, and pretend that, no honestly, we really didn't find "Borat" funny in the slightest...
 
From Nukus, we headed north into no mans land, by mashruthka (minibus) to Kungrad and then taxi to Moynaq, the former fishing town on the Aral Sea. Now this place is really worth seeing because there is literally nothing there following the Aral Sea disaster for what used to be a thriving fishing town, is now a desert. If you squint hard enough in the midday sun you can see the one horse and tumbleweed down the high street. We checked into the one 'hotel' in town and went hiking out over the former bed of the Aral Sea to discover the ship graveyard in the desert. Whilst I am trying, unsuccessfully, to get my pictures up onto Facebook, it is also possible to see good pictures of the boats on Google Earth too - just North of Moynaq town in the desert.
 
From Moynaq we went onto the 'city-museum' of Khiva. With numerous restored mosques, medressas, palaces, a stunning mausoleum and a climb up Uzbekistan's highest minaret at 57m - it was beautiful and a photographers dream! We stayed a few days before taking the bus to Bukhara, where we found a cool little hotel beside the central pool and square 'Lyabi-Hauz'. Where Khiva is rather perfect, Bukhara is a living city and all its tiny imperfections heighten its beauty. We have been inside Central Asia's oldest-surviving mosque (9th Century) and climbed the most amazing 47m Kalon minaret (so incredible it was saved by Jenghiz Khan, who used it as a watchtower) overlooking the stunning, still operational, Mir-i-Arab Medressa.
 
So for now we continue East along the Silk Road, with Samarkand our next stop... My best wishes to everyone wherever this finds you!

PS You can find my photos on Facebook. For those of you who are not members the public links are:

Berlin August 2007 photos
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=21661&l=a54db&id=522045394
 
Riga August 2007 photos
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=22364&l=1793d&id=522045394
 
Tashkent, Uzbekistan September 2007 photos
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=22365&l=58845&id=522045394
 
Nukus, Uzbekistan September 2007 photos
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=22368&l=0936b&id=522045394
 
Moynaq, Uzbekistan September 2007 photos
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=22370&l=ca09e&id=522045394
 
Khiva, Uzbekistan September 2007 photos
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=22371&l=cfa74&id=522045394
 
Bukhara, Uzbekistan September 2007 photos
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=22373&l=abd75&id=522045394
 

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