Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan

Uzbekistan: 6th June 2011 to 16th June 2011

Kazakhstan: 16th June 2011 to 18th June 2011

Total distance travelled: 10,040km

Total days travelled: 62

Uzbekistan is all about the silk road with old* mud brick and blue glazed tiled buildings scattered at the edges of the country, the centre being one massive great desert.  A semi interesting fact is that Uzbekistan is doubly landlocked ie it is surrounded by landlocked countries.  However, the country furthest from the sea is Kyrgyzstan (coming to that in the next post). It's also a very dry country, but that doesn't stop them growing vast amounts of cotton, a very thirsty crop, at the expense of the Aral Sea.

*rebuilt

Started off with a bit of a form filling day - multiple ones at the border when we put the wrong Kazakhstan as next country rather than Uzbekistan (we thought it was fairly obvious we were entering Uzbekistan!) and then more for our Kazakh visas which Jim then took off to Tashkent to get processed.

$50 in local currency.
Each note was worth about 50c and they had no larger ones
- took bloody forever to count them out to pay for stuff!

We started off in Khiva which is an amazing fairly intact walled city, but much like the rest of Uzbekistan heavily "restored" and you had to use your imagination a little as the place was stripped of people.  But it was really lovely and interesting and we were staying in a really nice medressa inside the walls.  And the food was good (always important!).

Relaxed dining

Mr Al-gorithm who wrote a book called Al-gebra

The Ark in Khiva

The Ark in Khiva

Scary dolls for sale, Khiva

Khiva

Weavers having their lunch

Khiva

City walls, Khiva

Unfinished minaret, Khiva

Our hotel in a medressa.
Would have been nice if there was a swimming pool in the middle....

Local transport

From Khiva we drove off across the Kyzylkum (red sand) desert to Bukhara, another staging post on the mighty silk road.  The town still has a lot of historical buildings, but is a lot less sterile and sanitised than Khiva.  We stayed just off the main square which featured a massive pool with a great restaurant alongside.  

The main square in Bukhara

Detail from a restored mosque

A less restored mosque/medressa

The tower here is surprisingly fairly original.
Even Ghengis Khan chose not to destroy it, but then the
Russians took a few chunks out of it at the turn of the century.

Bukhara

Mosque in Bukhara

Mosque in Bukhara

Yet another mosque in Bukhara, but this one was quite pretty with its wooden columns and paintings

The wise fool, Bukhara

Some of the girls and I visited a hammam which was an amazing old, semi underground and very hot bathhouse.  We were stripped of all our clothing and led into the hottest room where we were doused in water and left to sweat a while.  Skin scrubbing (so much dirt came off I changed colour!), honey and spice poultices, a wash, a massage and some green tea later (2 hours later) and we were reborn.  It was absolutely brilliant.

In the hammam

And from there it was on to Samarkand (with an unfortunate incident involving vomiting on the truck and the people in it (wisnae me!))  which was a much bigger, brighter, flashier city. 

We took the truck on a whistlestop tour of the sights (which were very impressive) and also got the bad news that Tibet is closed to foreigners at the moment (it being the 60th anniversary of "liberation" and it would be unfortunate if pesky foreigners were to see any demonstrations or the like) which meant that Nepal and India were also off the cards.  In place of this we would be spending longer in China and taking the truck all the way to Singapore (rather than ditching it in India and flying to SE Asia).

Registan square, Samarkand

Samarkand 

Registan square now

Registan square prior to restoration/rebuilding

Unrestored inside of Bibi Khanym mosque in Samarkand

Bibi Khanym mosque

Market in Samarkand

Largest bag of crisps ever

Feet for sale, Samarkand

Street of mausoleums, Samarkand

Street of mausoleums, Samarkand

Street of mausoleums, Samarkand

Street of mausoleums, Samarkand 

Modern cemetery with street of mausoleums in background, Samarkand

Random bird of prey just hanging out, Samarkand

To round off our trip to Uzbekistan we went off to Tashkent, possibly one of the dullest cities thus far, and, being done with culture for the moment, went to a water park for the day.

From there it was on to Kazakhstan for just three days, all driving, really just because it's just the way the old Russian road goes.  So, no time to don lime green mankinis and Borat moustaches, just a couple of nights of bushcamping (one beside a very busy railway line) and from there on to Kyrgyzstan.....

Not the most peaceful bushcamp in the world, Kazakhstan

And now for some pictures and videos of instruments for Dad.....

Khiva

(couldn't get the video to upload - check again later Dad)