Potpouri to finish

We are sitting in Seoul (Incheon) Airport waiting for the connection home. We took a transit hotel room as we had a 12hr stopover. This was a great idea as it allowed for two naps and a shower. We strolled around town (see photo) amidst a profusion of of live seafood and BBQ restaurants, and coffee shops.

Back to central asia

We spent the last day in Tashkent and visited a local market. This was several permanent building covering several acres open 7 days. It was all fresh food.

We visited the on site bakery where they cook thevloaves of flat bread by plastering thevdough on the sides of the dome shaped oven.

Before heading to the airport we visited a beautiful park where brides (and their parties) promenade for photos.

Iconic images

How people live

The country reminds me of Turkey and ethnically a majority of central asian people are "Turkic".

The capital and city centres are shining clean and stately. The country side is mud brick and mud and straw houses. Everyone grows vegetables. There are people of all ages walking and public transport is frequent  Old men ride bikes and some people travel by horse and cart.

The state still owns all land and leases back to residents who can own the buildings. New estates like the one pictured are common.

We see young and old, men and women on the streets and many women dress in very colourful clothes. The your are slim and look healthy with less obvious smoking than many countries.

Mountain fortress and yurt camp

We have left Khiva and travelled overland to Nukus where we will visit a museum and access an airport tobfly back to Tashkent. We have been travelling very close and parallel with the border with Turkmenistan. I have asked our guide about that country and it seems that it is not a preferred topic of conversation.

The route was arid scrub with some desert and some irrigated farmland. The country averages 4mm of rain per year.

On the way we stopped at an ancient fortress and had lunch in the nearby yurt camp.

Khiva

We have left Samarkand via the fast train to Tashkent and we then took an internal flight and bus to Khiva.

We are staying inside the walls of the old city which started in about the second century BC . This is the most intact ancient city as you will see from the photos. The main reason is that it has been raised to the ground several times and what we saw was mostly built in the 18th and 19th Century AD.  The city has had many rulers including Alexander, Genghis Khan and Timur. What we see was largely built by Uzbek Shaybanids as a slave trading town.

In the 18th and 19th century Tsarist Russia showed interest in the town and in 1873 finally sent a conquering army.

Khiva

We have left Samarkand via the fast train to Tashkent and we then took an internal flight and bus to Khiva.

We are staying inside the walls of the old city which started in about the second century BC . This is the most intact ancient city as you will see from the photos. The main reason is that it has been raised to the ground several times and what we saw was mostly built in the 18th and 19th Century AD.  The city has had many rulers including Alexander, Genghis Khan and Timur. What we see was largely built by Uzbek Shaybanids as a slave trading town.

In the 18th and 19th century Tsarist Russia showed interest in the town and in 1873 finally sent a conquering army.

Translation

Samarkand

We have left Bukhara by train for Samarkand. The landscape for the 200kms was a mixture of flat arid scrub land and irrigated corn and cotton. Small towns re dotted along the way, builtf rom mud bricks. Everyone has electricity.

Samarkand has amazing mosques and madrassas.

Tashkent - money wood pomp and peril

In Tashkent, capital of Uzbekistan itvis dtrange to think but we are only about 300 kilometres from Kabul. This is a landlocked country surrounded by 5 stans. We have seen many grand public buildings, visited several mosques and seen the oldest remaining Koran. Some of the mosques are are built of wood with highly ornate carvings and massive wooden supporting beams.

The currency is about 5000 to the US$.

We had an inexpensive meal of shashlik beer, wine and bread. See what it cost.

We had expected a more overtly muslim society but it is not. We do not hear the call to prayer, headdresses are not prevalent and alcohol is freely available.

We visited a circus and had great fun with the clowns,acrobats (a family affair with a skillful 6 year old) and an act with two tigers and a lion.

Tashkent - grand buildings and dancing

We have flown to Tashkent capital of Uzbekistan. This was a forty five minute flight and a three hour passport control.

Tashkent is a large modern city (about 5million) with very large grand public buildings. Almost everything is on a hectare of land and made of marble. We have been blessed by dancers. We went to a local cafe for dinner and aftervee started our meal a hundred Indian?workers arrived. We believe they had booked a belly dance show. The girls gave several performances in different costumes.

The next morning we went to Tashkent museum and as we were leaving we joined the filming of a video clip advertising a fabric company. The girls and their costumes were beautiful. They asked us to join the dancing.

The monument is to the brave people who helped in the recovery from Tashkents last 7.3 eartquake.

What people do

We have really enjoyed seeing different cultures and ways of doing things. These photos give you some examples

We met Ceric on the street in Almaty when he said something to us. We replied "sorry, English from Australia"

His reaction was instant. His smile was huge and he fumbled for his phone which was turned off. He wanted our photo and then photos with him. We left after firm handshakes big smiles and lots of thankyou's.

Parents walk their children to school. School is in two shifts with younger children usually doing morning shift. Uniforms are very smart. We have seen ten year olds in three piece suits. Many young girls where a small white lacy head dress.

We came across the Friday food market

In Almaty. You could buy anything here.

Almaty parklands

Clare meets the iconic snow leopard and pats a swan.

Almaty - jewell of Asia?

This is an amazing city.

Like Dubai it is an oasis in a desert.

Unlike Dubai it has been done by capturing local water (glacial melt rivers) and planting trees.

The mountains are the Tian Shan (Celestial) Mountains that start in China, make up much of Kyrgyzstan and spill over into the south east corner of the enormous Kazakhstan ( think size of Europe).

The photo is Clare in the foothills above Almaty after a lovely longgggg chairlift.

The city is very new due to level 8 earthquates 100 and 40 years ago and so it is not like Rome or Paris. It does not feel Asian due to the trees and parklands. Also it is relatively low (5 stories) due to the eartquakes and so I would equate it to a Geneva.

This is a lovely city!

The capital through most of last century it is still the largest city by far at about two million. There is a very large component of international students swelling this number.

The streets are wide and well made in the centre particularly but it is very busy.

A single line subway traverses the city about 50 metres underground. The second photo is beautiful artwork decorating this spotless efficient subway.

Border crossing and beautiful sunset

We have crossed back into Kazakhstan, the northernmost and largest of the Central Asian Republics. Crossing the border has been interesting. There are several crossings from Krygyzstan and our local guide Veronica has taken us to the quietest. We know we are approaching due to the line of trucks (about a kilometer long). The silk road is reestablished due to Chinese built roads allowing trucks from Western China to go west through Central Asia and beyond. The border is a ramshackle series of buildings and barriers. We have two tiny forms to complete.The smallest oneis the size of a train ticket and only needs our name. We are given this by one guard and hand it in to another 30 minutes later. Everyone looks bored. People are wandering about seemingly uncontrolled. The bus was checked underneath and in the luggage area, for illegals or possibly bombs and we were photographed. The process took about an hour but seemed verrry routine.

The sunset was from a truck stop on the long flat drive to Almaty from the border.

Burana Tower and Lake Issyk-Kol from the south

The photos show the reconstructed remains of an 8-11th century settlement in the Kegeti Valley. This is the ancient (Sogdian) citadel of Balasagun. Named as the good town by Gengis Khan because it openned its gates to him. The tower was originally twice the height.

The lake scene is from the south and is a dry stony shore somewhat like the Red Sea