Kyrgyzstan
Bishkek was the perfect introduction to the Stans, a safe, clean city with a modern and easy to navigate city centre. Arriving on a night flight via Istanbul meant for a slow start to the trip wandering the city centre on Independence Day with some of the group members. Given it was 31st August, for those that braved the late-night packed crowds of families we were treated to a hard to hear long speech from the president in the main square. Not sure what he was saying nor did many of the families around seem too interested, I think they were more excited for the pop singers who were soon to take the stage before the drone show which I opted to swerve in place of my bed.
Despite enjoying the Kyrgyzstan opening weekend, the highlight was certainly our journey to and time spent in the yurt camp. The journey took us through the most dramatic mountainous scenery for which my photos can not do justice. Once we cleared the peak after some skillful driving from our driver we dropped down into a huge open at the bottom of which was a lake. We camped in yurts by the lake under the stars on what was a rather cold night… the outdoor toilets froze which made for an interesting morning once everyone had used them… one of the dramatic scenes from the stay was a herd of wild horses running across the vast open below one of the smaller mountains at dusk. Once again, my photos don’t do the scene justice. Here was me thinking we were staying with a traditional nomadic family who had ventured in to tourism at their yurt camp, nope, the workers were unrelated (despite looking like a family unit) and were driven in from Bishkek whenever the camp had guests.
We had two final stops in Kyrgyzstan, and given the size of country and time spent there I think we saw a good amount of it. Karakol, our final stop, was very enjoyable as there was a good amount to see and do there in and around the city. Here I organised some drinks for the group which was a roaring success in one of the very few bars in the city. All I did was pick the bar from a small list haha but nevertheless it proved a good night. The bar was a small alternative punk bar playing 80s/90s rocks with the walls covered in graffiti and music memorabilia in a small wooden shack on the edge of town.
Kazakhstan
Our time in Kazakhstan was short and is a somewhat recent addition to the tour. Relations between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan (our next destination) are not so good right now, so it is easier to head north and then fly down to Dushanbe (Tajik capital) from Almaty in south Kazakhstan. This was well received by the group as we were able to see another country, some of the Kazakh countryside (including the very beautiful sunken forest) and of course the increasingly popular city of Almaty.
Our time in the Kazakh countryside was short but enjoyable nonetheless, we were treated to more dramatic scenery, vast open desolate expanses and towering mountain ranges. A short stop off in a remote village followed by an hour off-road 4×4 journey took us to the sunken forest in the mountains. A forest which was drowned in the early 1900s due to tectonic activity, now what remains is a lake with bare tree trunks protruding from the water.
Almaty was a brilliant city, there was a hive of activity on the streets and a very strong coffee / café culture on the leafy streets. The customary city tour took in as many of the sites as possible before an early night and an early wake up call to fly to Dushanbe.
Tajikistan
Dushanbe was a fantastic city with incredible architecture, but sadly it was all constructed at the cost to the taxpayer, everything looked rosy in the city centre but if you step out to the suburbs or worse still to the countryside you see a very different picture. The 4th or 5th biggest contributor to the country’s GDP is Tajik migrant workers in Russia sending money back home to their families. Furthermore, a lot of the infrastructure (roads and tunnels) were built by China and Iran for favourable mining rights and relationships.
Our quick stop in Tajikistan took in many of the government buildings and monuments in the city centre and of course the infamous flagpole. Since independence from the Soviet Union there was a little battle of over who had the biggest flagpole in Central Asia, something that was regarded as a sign of power and success. Tajikistan was the leader for some time but has since been overtaken and now sits in 5th. Turkmenistan now sits in 9th.
Four of us opted for some drinks out in the capital taking in a rather sleek bar, Bundes, where Steph dropped her bag containing passport and wallet and in keeping with what we had been told it was returned later that evening by a member of staff. At a later point in the tour, our guide left her mobile phone on the table in a restaurant and returned two hours later to find it still there… in our welcome chat we had been advised on how safe the region was and I saw nothing to go against that, everywhere felt very safe. This was another drinks evening that went down well with the four of us that went. My friend ordered a Paulaner off the menu… I was on to my second and his first still hadn’t arrived, they kept telling us “it is coming”, little did we know it was coming from afar, a few minutes later we saw a very sweaty and dishevelled member of staff come running in with a crate of Paulaner, quickly pour one and then run it upstairs to my friend serving it with a big grin! Normally they would just say that they were sold out, but they were such good hosts in the bar I guess they felt they had to run out and find what my friend ordered.
We headed north into the deeper depths of the Tajik countryside along roads and through tunnels constructed by China and Iran respectively. I am not sure if Tajikistan also paid for their services as well as giving mining rights. The countryside was incredibly dramatic in a country which is over 80% mountainous. As we left the capital, it soon became apparent where the majority of the money was held. We passed by some summer houses of the Tajik 1% and the summer / out of town residence of the president which was of course very grand.
Heading north we veered off into the remote countryside stopping off in a local village far from civilisation. Here we stayed in two very remote family run guesthouses and enjoyed time hiking to a local traditional village in the hills and later that afternoon three of us opted to undertake the tough hike to snake lake… of course seeing no snakes in the lake! Along with the guide I helped set the pace and we did it in record time, although enjoying the dramatic views as we went there was no point hanging around! After all we had a post hike ice cold beer with our names on!
Last stop in Tajikistan was Khujand, a wonderful little city sitting on the banks of the river Darya. The highlight was the cable car across the river and the recently opened very impressive fortress, akin to Beamish museum in the UK but a lot more grand. We went late at night and pretty much had the place to ourselves which meant for some great pics.
Uzbekistan
Next significant stop was Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan and busiest city we had encountered so far. The city was fascinating, in keeping with the rest of the trip to date. The city was a lot bigger than the others, more spread out and quite hectic. Once again there were a lot of monuments and grand state buildings to take in along with the incredibly beautiful subway stations! They weren’t quite on a par with Stockholm, nevertheless they were largely beautiful! Built in the soviet 70s imagine very grand marble lined stations with chandeliers and intricate decorations. The quality and style varied station to station but for our free time I planned a tour taking in 8 of the top 10 stations with great success. Stations 1 and 4 were very underwhelming versus the others during our tour.
Being in a capital city tried to take a few drinks out in the city which proved more difficult than anticipated, firstly the “Irish Bar” required bookings so couldn’t accommodate, secondly the street feast location took over 20 minutes to serve us (perhaps the manager with a recently beaten up face had more pressing issues on his mind) and eventually we retreated to the sanctuary of the sisha bar opposite our hotel where we had a great time whiling away the hours.
Prior to this we did try to take in some drinks in the rooftop bar of the infamous Hotel Uzbekistan, however, the bar looked like it hadn’t been renovated since opening in the 70s and anything we tried to order wasn’t available. This evening we also visited the Magic Park, akin to Disney’s Magic Kingdom, just without any rides and with absolutely no relationship to Disney itself, copyright infringements aren’t taken too seriously here…
A highlight of Uzbekistan was our time spent in Samarkand, a city steeped in history being among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Central Asia, as such there were a lot of historic sights to take in the main ones being Amir Temur’s Mausoleum, the Observatory and Registan Square. The latter being particularly impressive at night during the light shows. On state occasions they also have incredibly impressive 3D light shows in the square but for some random reason they are not advertised and just happen… We were in town over one such weekend as the German government was in town… as such there was a huge light, laser and 3D show which I of course missed… the authorities just don’t publicise them and they happen when they happen… but for the more eagle eyed keep an eye out for the authorities setting up additional lasers although they do it quite late in the day.
Next day the whole city was in lockdown for the germans and Uzbek president, I bumped in to them both in Registan Square. The city was in lockdown pretty much but there were some walking routes open which I followed to the square by chance when they all arrived. The important germans arrived at the head of the square with the president and the lesser ones entered from behind me in around 20-30 blacked out brand new looking Land Rover Defenders.
With some of the ladies we walked to a leafy suburb to watch a show of Uzbekistan through the Ages as told by Dance… it wasn’t great, the dancers were very talented of course but the show was a bit naff… nevertheless I had gone there under loaded pretences, the show was quite close to Dinamo Stadium who were kicking off an hour later. I took a wander up to the ground and decided to try get in, cue a mad scramble and mosh pit outside a hole in the wall ticket office and I soon had my ticket for around £2. The stadium was an old soviet bowl with capacity around 12k, I would estimate there were maybe 8k in attendance with maybe 15 in the away section supporting the team from Tashkent. There was an ultra-section with pryo, choreographed songs and many flags. As the temperature dropped and still feeling under the weather, I left on the 65 minute mark at 1-2 to the away team, the game finished 2-3. The game was lively, with a calamitous own goal gifting FC Bunyodker of Tashkent the 1-2 lead before I left.
Final stop in Uzbekistan was the ancient city of Bukhara, here we stayed inside the walled city and spent most of our time visiting the old sights and taking in the breath-taking views and sunsets from atop the city walls and towers.
Whilst here I visited a Hamam, which I wont be doing again, where I was stripped down, aggressively scrubbed and washed, stretched in ways I didn’t think possible and then had my skin set on fire with a mix of ginger and salt! I was left to burn for 25 minutes or so before having it washed off with ice cold water. It is supposed to be good for your skin… it felt somewhat refreshing afterwards but not sure it was worth the experience, and for 25 minutes I was worried I was having an allergic reaction and that the burning sensation was not normal.
8 of us also took in an Uzbek wine tasting experience, something else that I will not be repeating. Of the 12 wines tasted, 2 maybe 3 were bearable, the rest not so much and two were undrinkable for me! Incredibly sweet and tasted awful. The experience was a lot of fun though with the charismatic local playing loud rock music in the background as we enjoyed the experience in his cosy old fashioned wine bar.
And now it was time to say goodbye to four members of our group before the rest of us moved onto Turkmenistan!
