Aug 6 2014

Riding into Tashkent

Before I forget, I want you to know that we too anxiously look out for your comments and emails!! They are our connection back to you because although where we are and what we are doing might sound all very exciting or exotic, hearing from our family and friends means so much to us. So thank you!!!

As soon as we leave our friendly customs post into Uzbekistan, we instantly feel the difference between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Every one we drive past waves, give us huge smiles, thumbs up and says hello. We pretty much ride with one hand. I don’t think I’ve laughed ever as much while riding. Our pace is slower as our rush is now over. It feels wonderful. We arrive at the first little town, Uchqorghan 15kms from the border and decide to pull over and get a bite to eat, especially as we didn’t have breakfast before leaving the guest house and our dinner the night before was minimal once I realised the bits of ‘meat’ in the very fatty noodles was tripe – hmmm…

As soon as we pull over and park the bikes, we are approached by a very friendly young man who suggests we should go across the road for lunch. Why not?! So off we go. A cheerful vendor offers us either cheese or vegetable pasties cooked in his oven. What an ingenious way of cooking such pasties!! They cook and remain against the oven (metal drum) wall until they are wanted and he just scrapes off the number ordered – no need to reheat. Brilliant. So we order a couple of vegetarian ones with a couple of cool drinks. Another friendly local, Abduvohid, joins us and we chat. Luckily, he spoke great English as he’d just studied in London to get a marketing degree and had just recently returned to Uzbekistan. Soon his mates and other yound men join us. We ordered more of the delicious pastries and just enjoyed the company and banter. Abduvohid then told us he would love it if we could attend his wedding in 3 weeks’ time. What hospitality!!!!! One of the young men brings us ice cream for desert. Even though Anthony shouldn’t have it, he has some as he felt we couldn’t both decline. After an hour and a half, we decide we should move on and get ready to pay in Kyrgyz Som which our Kyrgyz vendor had agreed. One of the locals, Mohamid, would not allow us to pay, he would pay for us, it would be a priviledge for him he says. Such generosity and hospitality.

Our Uzbek friends after our amazing lunch stop in Uchqorghan – Abduvohid on my right and Mohamid on my left

Our Uzbek friends in Uchqorghan

As we head back to the bikes, a huge crowd follows us. Photos of course!! Some get on the bikes, more photos. Swap phones, more photos. Another gets onto Anthony’s bike and wants to hear the engine. Then, quick as a flash, he’s off revving like a lunatic and takes off!! Eeek. Don’t worry says Abduvohid, he’ll come back.

Little did we know what the man in white shirt opposite Anthony was going to do…

We look ahead in the direction he rode off and we see a bigger and bigger crowd gather. Hmmmm, doesn’t look good. So Anthony walks over to investigate. Luckily the guy had stalled and couldn’t start if up again or drive further, but unfortunately, he must have driven into something or fell against someting as there were marks all over one side of Storm. Nothing broken, no dammage done, just a few scratches and one rear view mirror loosened (not an easy feat) but it enabled Anthony to reposition it better anyway. Back to the original crowd, and we say our final goodbyes.

We ride off a kilometer or so and pull over as the mirror really needed fixing properly and was going to need us to get the tools out. So we pull over again. And yes, you guessed it, another crowd gathered. All the workers at a work site stopped work and came over. Such friendly people!!!! Since we’ve arrived in Uzbekistan, we are greetly differently ‘asalam malekum’. Women have colourful headscarves tied behind their heads, longer skirts, men’s heads are covered too.

Eventually, we head off again for Andijan. Waving constantly, answering questions as cars overtook us. The driving style is so different to Kyrgyzstan, thankfully. There is none of the impatience of the previous country. The hooting of cars was no longer from impatient drivers but for friendly waves and chats. The pace is slower. The cars are smaller and due to the lack of trucks in the area, the roads are in good condition. There is also a distinct lack of police on the roads. I think we forgot to mention how many police were on the side of the roads in Kyrgyzstan. And the number of times we got pulled over, just because. They were everywhere. Here in Uzbekistan so far, not a single cop.

Another friendly Uzbek, on the first motorcycle we’ve seen here

We arrive in Andijan and drive down what looks like a movie set row of houses. If feels strange. All we see are new houses and modern buildings – most of the. Empty shells.

Heading into Andijan, Uzbekistan

We eventually spot a hotel, pull over and check if they have a room for us. The guy only speaks Russian or … German. So now we chat for ages in German!! And he shows us to our enormous room. Anthony feels better than last night! We shower, do some washing and get ready to find a restaurant. Thought we’d check out the roof top terrace first. Wow, what a view!!! And again, a surreal surrounding. After dinner, we decide to go for a walk to the mosque. We now see what’s behind the new facades: the real Andijan of tiny homes, tin roofs, twisty lanes.

The clean, new facades in front of the real Andijan behind

It seems that the older and smaller the car, the more it can carry – in Andijan, Uzbekistan

Enjoying some fresh food for the first time in days in Andijan, Uzbekistan

Andijan has an interesting history. It is one of the oldest cities in the Fergana Valley, archeologists having found items dating back to the 7th century and was an important city on the Silk Road. It was the capital of the region until the 18th century when it moved to Qo’qon (Qoqand or Kokand). Then in 1876, the Russians conquered the Khanate of Qoqond and the city of Andijan along with it.

Divided into three subdivisions by the former Soviet Union, the Ferghana Valley is ethnically diverse, and while the borders did not make much difference during the Soviet period as the entire region was developed to grow crops, it has been the scene of ethnic conflict since the early 21st century. After independence in 1991, Andijan became part of the Uzbek SSR. A large triangular valley in what is an often dry part of Central Asia, the Fergana owes its fertility to two rivers, the (stunningly blue) Naryn and the Kara Darya and the many dams constucted along them, many of which are now in Kyrgyzstan. There are still many enclaves along the Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan borders, and the problems these create don’t look like they will be resolved soon. See the little circles on the map below and red dotted arrows.

Map of Fergana Valley, Uzbekistan, showing some of the enclaves whose access is disputed -see the red arrows

Andijan is home to the area’s only car assembly plant, previously Daewoo and now Chevrolet. We had never seen small Chevrolets before, and they are everywhere here. Obviously, a lot of recent money has been poured into Andijan. We wonder whether any money will be invested into maintenance down the track and fear that it might be like what we saw in Kyrgyzstan where money had been spent some time ago, but things had got into disrepair due to lack of maintenance funds.

We had to chose our route carefully as some roads pass through some of these enclaves and we only had single entry visas into Uzbekistan.

As we ride through the fertile Fergana Valley to Qo’qon, the air smells sweet with melons. The Fergana Valley is the most densely populated area in central asia. Roadside vendors sell different products as we ride along the valley: from watermelons to pale yellow honey dew (ultra sweet), pumpkins, then apples. We saw crops of corn, rice, wheat, cotton, various vegetables and fruit trees. As we leave the valley and are about to head up the mountains towards Tashkent, the last stands sell just bread, beautiful golden flat round loaves with different pattens in the centre.

In Qo’qon, our hotel kindly get us to park our bikes inside the back of the hotel. Our room is a bit querky: we have our own bathroom, the wash-hand basin
/shower/bath are all in one and a massive cow hide covers the floor and threatens to trip us up with its curled corners. We cool down before visiting the stunning Qo’qonPalace.

Kudhayar Khan Palace in Kokand (Qo’qon), Uzbekistan

Qo’qon Palace, Uzbekistan

Kudhayar Khan Palace in Kokand (Qo’qon), Uzbekistan

Anne at Kudhayar Khan Palace, Uzbekistan

Kudhayar Khan Palace in Uzbekistan

The next morning, we get up early to admire the Palace in more gentle light then get to the bank for it’s opening at 9am. It is a slow process because of all the forms that they need to complete and get signed and stamped along the way. It is not because we are foreigners, it is the same for anyone wanting to change even the smallest amount. It took us and hour and a quarter. We changed £200 and got half a kilo of notes!!! All in 1000 cym notes.

791,000 cym or just £200!! All in 1,000 notes.

Behind the new facades of Qo’qon steeet, Uzbekistan, where the real life happens

We are ready to head to Tashkent. I feel a sense of excitement at the thought of getting there. As we head towards the Kamchi Pass, there is suddenly a police and massive queue. When we get to the front of the queue, we are told to park our bikes and go over to a little hut. We show our passports, they make note of them, and we’re on our way. Another similar but, this time, quicker queue a few kilometers down the road. Why? Because this stretch of road is along the border of one of Tajikistan’s exclaves.

The ride up and down Kamchi Pass is stunning. We stop at the top for a mandatory photo opportunity, a drink and some local dried apricots and almonds.

Top of Kamchi Pass before the extremely long descent towards Angren, Uzbekistan

The road is being upgraded, and once again, we fail to understand the logic in how they build and open the different sections to traffic. We constantly swap from good to old, single lane to double, and swap from sharing our side of the road to driving on the other side. All in all, a good road and mostly good drivers. And much waving!!

We finally arrive into Tashkent. Our hotel is very well situated and it should be easy to find. Suddenly, Anthony tells me he has been pulled over by a cop. What have we done wrong? We knew we weren’t speeding so it couldn’t be that and it didn’t seem like the sort of place to pull us over just for a chat. Had we gone through a red light we’d missed? Traffic lights were awfully difficult to see here and they didn’t all work but maybe we’d missed one. We both stop and get off our bikes. The cop tells us that motorcycles are not allowed on this road! What?! He shows us a road rule book. Where is the sign we ask?? He looks frustrated and calls someone on his walkie-talkie. Eventually, he waves us off in disgust. Very strange. Once we’d checked in, Anthony did a search on the internet: motorcycles are indeed banned in Tashkent because there had been a attempt against the president by someone on a motorbike a couple of years back. No wonder we hadn’t seen a single motorbike!!! Oops…

Eventually, we arrive at our hotel – an old Soviet era montser of a building in a fabulous location.

– Anne

Aug 4 2014

Through the mountains of Kyrgyzstan

Aug 7th, 2014 – Now with photos and video!!

Two days on the road, on the way to Uzbekistan and what wonderful scenery and people have filled our days. Leaving Bishkek was a good feeling, with both the Iran and Uzbek visas safely in our passports. We are off to Uzbekistan with a chance to ride some of the mountain passes that seem to dot the Kyrgyzstan map. We head west, which will be our general direction for the next three weeks, back along the route we entered the country from. We need to keep our eyes open, because here, unlike Russia and Kazakhstan, route directions are almost non existent. We find it and are now heading towards the snow capped peaks that have beckoned us since we arrived. Higher and higher we ride, hairpin bends, cooler air and breathtaking views towards the top of the Tuz-Ashu pass at over 3,500m.

Photo stop looking back at our road up the mountain towards Tuz-Achu pass

A photo stop sees us meet a couple from Moscow, a local guy who now lives in Putney in London, and Patrick a swiss guy here for a few weeks who seems to have ridden just about everywhere.

Patrick from Switzerland

J from Putney with his soon-to-be bride

The bikes seem to have to work harder as we climb up to 3,150 meters, as more throttle is required: our first thoughts had been dirty fuel, but no altitude was the culprit. How do the cyclists we see from time to time manage?

Near the top of the Tuz-Ashu pass is a tunnel of some 4km, not the nice well lit tunnels we are used to, but a Soviet era model, poor lights, rough walls and floors. Single tunnel for both directions that requires whatever illumination you bring, and in some cases for the locals, not much.

The scenery on the other side of the tunnel is so different: a vast green valley stretching some 30km+ to the next mountain range in the south. The Suusamyr valley is home to thousands of horses that are kept for the mare’s milk, natural and fermented and the cheese that locals produce. The roadside as we descend is dotted with yurts selling all three products.

Scnenery on the other side of the tunnel at Tuz-Achu Pass, Kyrgyzstan

Yurts with mare’s cheese and milk products for sale, Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyz herder

Yurts and herds, Kyrgyzstan

We descended to the valley floor and turned west again following the river that bisects the valley. If you are a horse lover or rider, this 150km by 24km long green flat Suusamyr valley surrounded by high mountains with a fast flowing river bisecting it has to be a must visit place if you have not done so. Watching the horse herds grazing and being herded as they must have done for centuries leads you to imagine a simpler way of life from our complex world.

Storm brewing along the Suusamyr valley

Another photo of Kyrgyz locals who each had to take a photo of us

Suusamyr Valley, Kyrgyzstan

We had decided we wanted to camp, not stay in a yurt, which a number of the camps close to the road were offering. While a great experience for many, not for us this time. As we climbed up to the Ala-Bel Pass the temperature dropped down to 11 degrees celsius at 3,184 meters. Wish the ventilation zips were easier to close while riding.

A winding decent brought the temperature up and yet a third change of scenery as we descended towards Toktogul.

Still looking for a spot for the night and the sun is starting to set, down from Ala-Bel Pass, Kyrgyzstan

The scenery keeps changing on our way down from Ala-Bel Pass, Kyrgyzstan

At the side of the road we observed buckets filled with red fruit for sale. A quick stop revealed buckets of raspberries, Anne’s favorite fruit, but where do you put a bucket of raspberries on a motorcycle, so sadly no purchase possible (our top box was full of vital drinking water).

The mountain passes take their toll on the trucks – often we see trucks at the side the road undergoing repairs. It is not unusual to see other trucks stopped to help and the repairs are quite major judging from the parts being removed. No recovery service here. Occasionally a truck will be parked where it broke down, marked by a couple of warning rocks with a rear axle at 90 degrees to normal. It had taken us a little while to realise that European companies are not transporting goods in Kyrgyzstan, but that second hand trucks from Europe are not repainted.

Finally, at 8pm, we chose a campsite, next to the road, with a great view across our valley to the Toktogul reservoir. Once the sun goes down the traffic will stop and we could sleep. Wrong! Second hand cars break down more in the heat of the day going up the passes, so they travel at night. Only a couple of hours sleep for us, then our morning truck horn wake up at 7am.

Our camping spot for the night outside Toktogul, Kyrgyzstan

The largest wasp we’ve ever seen, 3cm long : it dug this hole in no time when we couldn’t even get our tent pegs into the ground

Our wonderful home, outside Toktogul, Kyrgyzstan

We both agreed as we travelled along the south side of the Toktogul reservoir, that we would do this road again, the variety of views, scenery, mountain passes, lakes and the condition of the road make this a great route to travel. We will come back to this region one day to ride again to explore all we have not seen.

Along the Toktogul reservoir, Kyrgyzstan

We meet a young french couple from Bordeaux, who have spent 400 Euros in Bishkek on a 1979 Ural motorcycle with sidecar. The only problem is that it breaks down daily and they are spending more time sleeping at garages than hotels. Today’s problem is an oil leak from the rear wheel drive assembly. Luckily our BMW toolkit has an adjustable spanner than fixes, for now, the problem. I am glad it was not the broken piston suffered a couple of days ago. What a great way to travel and a different set of fantastic experiences. Each to their own, but not for us (although Anne has said that traveling with a single bike and side car could be a fun way to travel one day, but on a more reliable model than this French couple’s). Good luck to them as they set off up the mountain pass.

Couple from Bordeaux needed some of our tools to fix yet another problem with their 1979 Ural

The amazingly blue Naryn River, Kyrgyzstan

We decide that a good night’s sleep before we cross the border is in order. With the help of some locals in Tash-Kömür we find a guest house. It seems to hold about four generations of the family and assorted other. We get a small room without the promised bathroom, which we seem to have got used to over time and especially the last month’s travel. Am I getting soft in my middle age? We had much rougher in Africa, Asia and the Americas in the past and I just accepted the conditions, now I think that if I am not camping, at the end of the day, an en-suite bathroom and good fans or air conditioning, especially in these temperatures, is very desirable. Maybe really roughing it in one star or less is going to become a thing of the past for me, time will tell.

Our Guest house at Tash-Kömür, Kyrgyzstan

Our guest house host at Tash-Kömür really wanted Anthony to join him for a drink

– Anthony

Jul 29 2014

Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

Just a quick update from Bishkek – we were going to write a full update on our time in Kyrgyzstan today so far but we were otherwise busy, taking turns in the toilet – ‘nough said…

We spent days in Bishkek to lodge and collect our Iranian visa, then on Friday, we had to make an appointment for our Uzbekistan visa for today Tuesday 10am. Each visa process is different and precise and it is in your interest to do all the research and have all the right documentation, photocopies of passports and other visas in either black and white or colour as they want, the right size photos, the right number of visa applications, “letter of invitation” (which we used Stan Tours for in a couple of instances), an idea of itinerary and hotels we’ll ‘use’. It’s like each border crossing – there are so many pieces of paper to get, complete and get stamped by various people along the way, going from one little window to another and then they are all taken away and you’re waved through and welcomed to their country!! We’ve updated a couple of travel forums online with the latest border procedures. It is amazing how long each visa takes!!! I have spent 3 hours on our India visas today and the application isn’t quite finished – the joys of poor internet and crashing sites…

While here we also organised motorcycle insurance, which wasn’t easy to find out where to go. The reason is that very few people here have car insurance. What happens here when you have an accident is that you negotiate on the spot and work who is at fault and how much will be paid. It might take 1, 2 or 3 hours and once an agreement is reached, money is handed over and you continue on your merry way. I’ll spare you the details here but have updated a travel forum with detailed address and contact details.

Talking about car insurance, the driving here is the worst we’ve seen so far!!! Oh my goodness…. Basically, if they can’t see anything coming, there’s nothing and they overtake, or even double overtake and, miraculously, it works most times… And if there’s a bit of room between us and the vehicle in front, they overtake, forcing us to brake and back off some more. That’s ok most of the time, except when they then suddenly stop (yes, literally, and it’s happened many times), and when they do that on bad roads to avoid damaging their car on pot holes – it is so much easier to maneuver at a certain speed on a motorbike on bad (potholed or gravel) roads than at stop/start speed. What we had thought could did happen yesterday: they have a weird way of upgrading roads here too, with perfectly good sections suddenly stopping, either for both lanes or one way only. And on double laned sections, you suddenly share those two lanes, one for each direction. But the road signs are tiny. And yesterday, a truck obviously missed his blue arrow to return to his side and was coming straight towards us!!

Their way of dealing with traffic lights is interesting too!! The lights have the number of seconds clocking down. As soon as the red light gets to below 7, traffic starts to nudge forward, and often actually take off well before it’s turned green. The trick is not to get to the front of the line or you get hooted at for not taking off on red!!! On the other hand, as soon as the green starts to flash, you stop!!

As we had a few days before our Uzbekistan visa appointment, we decided to head to Issy-Kul lake and hills the next day. We first found an old, closed Russian resort called Ulan on the edge of the lake. We were invited to leave our bikes outside, slip through the torn down fence and head for the beach. It would have been quite a lovely place in its time but it was obviously still perfect for families to enjoy today, even though all the buildings were derelict and empty and weeds everywhere there had been paths. There was nowhere suitable for us to camp and no hotel. So we carried on. So far the area didn’t appeal to us much and we were wondering where we were going to end up for the night. We eventually found a local ‘resort’ which had one room left. It was an absolute oasis, full of flowers, trees, well maintained gardens. The room rate included 3 set meals. So set that at the designated times for each meal. All the tables were laid out with the starter on the plate. It felt like a canteen but it was a good deal and the food (mostly) good.

The next day, we were going to head for the hills and camp, but we both had bad necks, I had a bad headache and we decided it wasn’t worth camping in that state if we could stay another night. We could and did!! We liked the fact that we were the only foreigners there. Unfortunately, we have found our interactions with Kyrgyz folk very limited – they are a lot more reserved, timid, scared or baffled, we’re not sure.

We set off Monday for Bishkek, via an unknown loop so that we could get more off road experience. Looking a Google earth looked a little daunting but I was up for the challenge. The scenery was stunning. But the winds!! Oh my goodness, I got blown right across the road at one point. No wonder I’m getting arm and stomach muscles!! We came across the most beautiful stream and I stopped. Big mistake. I just managed to stay up, but couldn’t take off again as taking my left foot off the ground to put the bike in gear would have had me blown over. All Anthony could do was wait patiently until I was ready to take off again. So I am afraid I have very few photographs, except when it wasn’t gusting and I could take them on the move like many I have taken so far (my years of traveling out bush in a 4 wheel drive and taking lots of photos while driving to show Anthony when I got home have come in handy on this trip!!).

The drive was stunning, through the mountains, very little traffic, few power lines. And the road? Well…..it was all tar and perfect!!! It also meant we missed the 30 kms of road works we’d had on the way over. Lucky once again. Although we didn’t get the practice we were after.

Back in Bishkek for 2 nights and a day to collect the Uzbekistan visa. That all worked perfectly. But the rest of the time was not much fun as I alluded to in the opening paragraph – must have been the minced meat we had in various forms at the resort… We’re pretty much back to normal and should be on our slow way to Tashkent tomorrow, heading south and then west, arriving there in a week or so. Can’t wait for more camping!!!!!!!

– Anne

16 year old Kyrgyz girls

Issyk-Kul lake, Kyrgyzstan, with the snow capped mountains in the background

Issyk-Kul lake, Kyrgyzstan

Typical road side fruit stands in Kyrgyzstan

Our home for the night on Issyk-Kul lake, Kyrgyzstan

Ocean Beach resort garden on Issyk-Kul lake

On our back road loop from Balykchy, Kyrgyzstan

Mountains south of Balykchy, Kyrgyzstan as we headed for our back road loop – the wind gusts there were some of the stongest we’ve ever experienced

We bought one of those smoked yellowfish from this road side stand as we left Issyk-Kul lake

Enjoying our yellow fish on our way back to Bishkek. It was so delicious – thank goodness for wet wipes to clean our hands before heading off again!

Jul 27 2014

Our Blog and related technical information

Not your usual blog entry, but those of you with more technical interest may have wondered what software and hardware we are using to provide video and photos for the blog and how we get it all together. We are using wordpress.com for the blog, which Anne developed. We are still learning, and from time to time if you are bombarded with emails, it is probably me, Anthony, who forgot to turn something off while making changes to existing content for testing.

Anne has a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT5 camera, which is providing the beautiful photos. I am using a GoPro 3+ black for the bike video and we have iMovie on the iPad for video editing and Panasonic image app for photo editing. All blog updates are loaded from the iPads. All connectivity between products is via bluetooth using apps on the iPads, which reduces the need for additional cables for connection. Now if only that was the case for the power cables! We use dropbox to provide backup storage. It takes on average about three hours to develop and upload each blog entry with written content, photos and video.

To all of those who follow our blog, we enjoy receiving your comments and questions and Anne has been diligent in responding. They are a great addition to the blog, so keep them coming.

We love to know who is following us, and appreciate your signing up, even if you don’t post comments. We are aware that a couple of you may have not responded to the original confirmation email from our blog, and as a result we do not know you are a regular follower. If you think this might be you, check the original email for the confirmation button.

– Anthony

Jul 24 2014

Wonderful Kazakhstan hospitality

The road from Kyzylorda to Turkistan was mostly incredibly good. Luckily, we’d been warned by the Irish couple we’d met the day before that the speed limit was not what one would expect on a double highway and the cops issued speeding fines (they got 2 in a row) so we were very careful (of course, as always!!). The reduced speed limit was because there were “road works”, although we didn’t see many, except for the fact that the crash barriers in the middle were not finished. Great way to make easy revenue!!

Although the road conditions were exceptionally good, it was a tough day as it got up to 39 degrees, the only distraction being the sign posts indicating the kilometers from Samara.

2014 kms from Samara

We kept having to stop and take regular breaks. We got to know the trucks on the road: they nearly all hooted at us to say hello as we overtook them, then, as they went past us while we were stopped, they’d wave and hoot again. And so this continued a number of times with the same vehicles. The Kazaks are incredibly friendly. Sometimes, as we were pulled over, some would stop and chat, ask if they could take photos and then move on. Several cars would also drive up slowly beside us, and wave while another passenger took photos!!! Responding to all the hellos was fine on the tar but not always easy to respond to while tackling the tricky potholed and twisty dirt sections!!

Yet another friendly Kazakh who wanted his photo taken with one of our bikes

Once again, we strike it lucky. When we arrived into Turkistan at around 7pm, we couldn’t find the first 2 hotels on our gps – the first one disappeared after the bypass was constructed, the 2nd one, who knows?!… During our hour of riding around Turkistan, I kept my eye out for a mausoleum I wanted to see. Anyway, we were stopped outside the 2nd address when a group of Kazaks called us and came over, wanted photos and generally wanted to find out about where we were from, where we were going etc. So we asked if they knew of a hotel. Yes, go to the Yacci, left then right then straight down – not sure if it was on the left or right. So off we went and we found it. As we stopped outside the Yacci hotel, Anthony asked me if it was close enough to the Mausoleum for me. It was right there!!!! Incredible. And we got a room with a view towards it!!

View from our hotel room towards the Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi

Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi in Turkistan

The Mausoleum of Khawaja Ahmed Yasawi, Turkic poet and Sufi mystic Khoja Ahmed Yasawi (1093–1166), is an unfinished mausoleum commissioned in 1389 by Timur, who ruled the area as part of the expansive Timurid Empire and died in 1405. Its creation marked the beginning of the Timurid architectural style. The experimental spatial arrangements, innovative architectural solutions for vault and dome constructions, and ornamentations using glazed tiles made the structure the prototype for this distinctive art, which spread across the empire and beyond, such as renowned Samarkand. The religious structure continues to draw pilgrims from across Central Asia. UNESCO declared it a world heritage site in 2003.

Inside the Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi, Turkistan

We left Turkistan just after noon and headed for Taraz. The road was mostly good. There were a couple of short detours while the bridges were being built and sections where one minute everyone shares the new lanes on the left, then we switch over to the other half. We never fathomed the logic of how they build roads as there are lots of perfect sections, with unfinished bits in between. This is where we arrived shortly after a head on crash involving 3 cars: our double lanes suddenly had several road signs and ended abruptly onto a dirt road. The problem was that our 2 lanes suddenly went into one, with virtually no warning, so the fast lane in our direction was suddenly where the oncoming traffic was… Horrid.

Just after a mid afternoon lunch, we stopped at a petrol station to refuel, on the outskirts of Aqsu. This is where we experienced the wonderful Kazakh hospitality. The petrol station owner, Cirik, invited us to have tea so we accepted. He was such a sweet man. He showed us to a table and invited us to sit. He cut a watermelon in two then chopped the insides into bits, gave us a fork each and invited us to eat. Another man broke up a large loaf of bread into chunks for us. He told us that to him, it was a priviledge to invite us. We hope he realised what his hospitality meant to us! Then we washed 2 cups with his hands and served us tea. He was 48, had 10 kids, works the land, grows watermelons, makes the bread and generally works very hard. When we left him and his team, we left a little bit of our hearts there with him.

Cirik , who gave us an unforgettable experience of wonderful Kazakh hospitality

Cirik and his team

One thing that struck us in Kazakhstan, maybe especially coming from Samara in Russia, was a strong sense of pride and identity. The way they look after their homes, they may not have much and the local back roads may be in a horrific state, but there are flowers, they are watered, fences are painted, they look at you in the eye, smile and easily come up to you to find out about you or see if you need any help. We got to know that if you stopped in the middle of nowhere and a car stopped near you, 2 or 3 guys came out, it was to chat and be friendly. The only time we got stopped by cops on the road was simply to have a chat!

Taraz is a very pleasant little town, with an interesting history. One of the oldest cities in Kazakhstan, Taraz celebrated its official 2000th anniversary (recognized by UNESCO) in 2001. The city was first recorded under the name “Talas” in 568 was a major trade centre along the Silk Road. The Talas alphabet, a variant of the Turkic “runiform” Orkhon script, is named for the town. Talas secured a place in history by virtue of the Battle of Talas (751 CE), which was fought between forces of the Chinese Tang Dynasty and those of the Arab Abbasid Caliphate. One of its indirect outcomes was the introduction of paper to the west, via the Arab capture of Chinese paper makers.

We absolutely loved Kazakhstan. So much so that when we arrived in Taraz, our last stop before getting to Bishkek, and knowing that we would arrive in time for our visas, we decided to stay one extra day – just to be in Kazakhstan a little longer. The route we took through Kazakhstan isn’t the usual touristic route, didn’t have the typical stunning scenery or cultural sights, but we don’t feel we missed out on anything and probably got a better feel for the people of Kazakhstan. We didn’t get any photos of the great horsemen on their mobile phones – just another of Kazakhstan great contradictions, like the fact that they drive scarily but never hoot in anger, like this building in Taraz:

Building in Taraz – flash downstairs and not so above

The route we took from Taraz to Bishkek was beautiful. We finally saw hills!!!

Our first sighting of hills and snow as we got close to the Kazakhstan-Kyrgyzstan border

More unfinished roads and crazy drivers, but nothing unusual. We took a chance with our choice of border crossing as it was not listed as one on our map, deviating off the beautiful new M39 bypass to Korday and it was a perfect choice – 45′ and we were in Kyrgyzstan!! I did have a little lump saying goodbye to Kazakhstan but also felt excited that the real adventure was about to start as we could finally take our time exploring.

We had our tin of sardines lunch just past the border, on a lovely quiet country road and made it into Bishkek mid afternoon. We eventually found our hotel, the Silk Road Lodge and checked-in, glad to arrive at our destination so much earlier for once. As usual, they wanted our passports. Anthony’s was nowhere to be found!!! Horror, as both his passports were together!!! They must have fallen out of his inside pocket when we stopped for lunch. So off he went back in search for them. We decided it would be easier for him to go alone as our bluetooth had decided to play up which makes travelling together through traffic more difficult. He returned 4 hours later, beaming – they were in his top box so all was good, despite the speeding fine…

We are in Bishkek for a few days to collect visas – unsure how long it will take (we now have an appointment for our Uzbekistan visa next Tuesday) as nothing is as simple as collecting the visa which was meant to be ready for you!! Nothing new for those who have travelled in these parts of the world.

– Anne

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