The 5 Stans of the Silk Road

[RooFlyer]

Dushanbe is Persian for Monday, not Arabic)

Oops, thanks for that!

Yes, we were told ( on both sides) about the Tajik/Uzbek disputes, esp. over water and electricity, but it seems to have settled down now, with the Tajiks less reliant on Uzbek power and their highway no longer transiting their neighbour.

The drawing of the modern boundaries by the Soviets certainly cut across a lot of ethnic sensitivities!

 

[RooFlyer]

We departed the highway and began an hour or so on dirt roads, going up another canyon.

The view from the back:



The water was still that great turquoise colour







The erosional load in the rivers from the Tajik mountains must be absolutely huge!





Two more of Siobhan's photos:

 

[tgh]

How did you find sitting in the back of the bus ?

 

[RooFlyer]

Our destination comes into view. Lake Iskanderkal - at an elevation of about 2,200m - is said to be one of the most beautiful lakes in the former Soviet Union. Its late summer, so most of the snow has gone, but it was still pretty good. We are in the Fann Mountians of Tajikistan.



'Iskanderkul' is Persian for Alexander; it is said that Alexander the Great came by here on his way to India.

The Lake is just perfection in colour:









The signs say no swimming:



But that obviously only refers to Olympic swimmers so some went in:



Far too cold for me, so I cooled off in other ways:

 

[RooFlyer]

How did you find sitting in the back of the bus ?

We took turns in various seats on the bus, so it was OK. the Tajik guide, Bek, sat in the back, so that allowed us to sit in the front seat, in turn. Some didn't like it up front.

 

[RooFlyer]

At the lake, there are a number of 'camps', providing various levels of comfort. I think we were in the most 'upmarket' one, and were accommodated in basic 'dongas', but with en-suite facilities:







Dinner was bread (always lots of bread!!), salad of tomato and cucumber (I rarely ate the salads anywhere on the trip, as you weren't sure of the water they were washed in), soup:



... and um, chicken and fries



Worst meal of the trip, although the vegetarians did worse. One meal for them was a plate of cold fries. Central Asia has yet to come to terms with 'vegetarianism'. Vegans can seriously forget it.

During the night, packs of dogs opened up barking in and around the camp. At 5am, unable to get much sleep, I ventured out the door to be greeted by a barking, snarling dog, so I retreated back.

Nice lake, but coughpy facilities. The lake reminded me of Lake Louise, but the facilities reminded me of, well, nothing I've been in for a while.

 

[Drakecula]

Are they unicorns on the bedding?

 

[RooFlyer]

Are they unicorns on the bedding?

Could be. I didn't notice at the time.

 

[RooFlyer]

Next day ... we are off to Tajikistan's second city Khujand.


But first a few more looks at the lake:





Brekky:



Off we go, back down the canyon:






Along a valley for a bit:



... then h-u-u-u-p and over again:

 

[RooFlyer]

We learned that morning that our country guide Bek's wife had a daughter that morning and as were were going to drive through the town where she was in hospital, of course we insisted on a stop. .

But first a few scenes along the way:





Its melon season!! Fields are full of them, and roadside stalls aplenty.





A stop in the town for lunch, and to inspect the 'cutlery market' where things are done in an old fashioned way (and using the whole family ...) and using old car parts such as bearings, pistons etc melted down.









While Bek was paying his visit (we sent him off with some chokkies) , we looked at this new, faux fort, that 'hides' a sports stadium!

 

[RooFlyer]

The valley opened up to being wide and fertile and we got into Khujand late in the afternoon.









Checked into the hotel, which as well as being pretty nice (and right on the river) had the advantage of having the city's largest grog shop attached. I went fossicking for some Tajik wines, but only a single, inscrutable bottle was on offer, so no dice.

 

[RooFlyer]

No rest for the wicked - there were sights to be seen!!

First up, the grand building of the former Soviet farming collective, which seems to have been built and managed by a local mate of Stalin. Its now a museum, but you can imagine the Collective getting on well here.



The theater is the highlight:



... with hand painted decorative ceiling panels, each unique and with a chandelier below:










A huge tapestry commemorating the socialist worthies, with Stalin's mate at the top:



We moved onto the centre square of the city, where there was a mosque. I gave it short shrift, because, as far as I was concerned, the tour had 'moved on' from mosques!

 

[RooFlyer]

The town square was a bit dull, but there was an indoor market/bazaar behind it.



Melons on special! (Actually, they seemed expensive, considering the supply ...)





Khojand was known as Leninabad during the Soviet era (to go with the capital, Stalinabad ) and was a major stop on the old Silk Road (yes, we were still following it, or various of its branches). Alexander the Great founded his most distant Greek city here- called Alexandria Ultima (Alexandria the Furthest) in 329BC.

Hence our next stop - the local museum ... we were flagging ... Highlight was a depiction of Alexander The Great's life, all done in marble mosaic.









The bookshop at the museum had a great selection of books, all featuring the one theme/guy ... El Presendente





Final stop (yawn) is a statue of Lenin, relocated from a prominent place in town to a 'retirement park'. There are still a lot of ethnic Russians here (and throughout the 'Stans, so it couldn't be done away with entirely.

 

[RooFlyer]

I include this pic of the restaurant at the hotel to bring out one feature that was frequent during the tour, no matter what country - a disco to go with your dinner! From Termez in Uzbekistan's south, to here and beyond, REALLY LOUD disco music to go with your meal if you timed it wrong. The option to go out to the terrace was here, but the service was such I didn't risk it and had a hasty meal before they cranked the volume up.



Entree of roast egg plant wraps, one of my favourites. I forgot to pic the main, but I think it was a skewer of lab and roast veges (again).



Bed!!

 

[Major]

In post #229 you show a breakfast of egg/sausage.

Is that what the locals eat or is that what they perceive as a Western breakfast ?

What sort of food would your drivers normally have ?

 

[RooFlyer]

I'm pretty sure it's the 'western' breakfast ( with bread and the jams and honey were usually pretty good).

I'm afraid the drivers always ate separately ; I suspect it was bread and porridge for them but I'm not sure. Rice Porridge was often offered to us, as well.

From what we could gather, drivers were generally on a daily 'allowance' and they choose their accommodation and rations from that. Sleeping in the bus seemed a popular option.

 

[RooFlyer]

Next day, the destination was Ferghana, back in Uzbekistan. The border situation here is complex - the Soviets determined the borders after they take-over of control. There are enclaves of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan within each other's main borders. The Ferghana Valley - our route today - was the scene of ethnic conflicts in the early 21st century and still has a some precautionary notes in travel guides, but it would be hard to guess this from just driving through.i



The Ferghana Valley is very fertile and once again we are on a main 'silk road' trunk route. Its been traversed by traders from the east for at least 2,000 years. Barbur, who founded the Islamic Mughal dynasty in India for hundreds of years, was born here.

I should have mentioned before that Poplar trees are endemic here. When a child is born, ten poplars are planted - for then to be able to use in construction etc when they are grown up. Our guide, Bek said he was shopping for poplars now . Lots of vineyards about - but seemed to be table grapes.














About to leave Tajikistan for Uzbekistan (our second visit). This was a short crossing, but still tested the wheels on suitcases - loose gravel!! Two wheel 'pull-me' type much better than 4 wheel type of cases, as they simply can't be glided through the gravel and other rough pavements found in these crossings.

 

[RooFlyer]

At Khujand, first stop was at a museum, which i thought deathly uninteresting, not helped by our new Uzbek country guide (for a day), whose English probbaly wasn't up to scratch.

The Khudoyar-Khan Palace was more interesting, built in 1871 for the last Khan of Kokand. As usual, the tile-work was of the most interest for me.

As in Samarkand, the front of the structure is currently defaced by a bloody music event staging. Very unusually, the facade is asymmetric. Note ahexagonal minaret to the left and a reound one to the righ, and differences in the arching.

 

[RooFlyer]

Next, a pottery which was uninteresting to me and a mausoleum, ditto. I was looking frward to what i thought would be a highlight of the 'Silk Road' tour, a visit to a silk factory in Marghilan - I had been saving my US$ for this! We got there a bit late, but they had kept the demos open for us:

Unwinding the silk cocoons, followed by collection onto a large wheel:







Collection of the raw silk (it feels rough and raspy at this stage), then staining in large vats and baths, either whole or by 'tie-dying'.



Various pigments and dyes





On racks for tie-dyeing



Then a demo of hand weaving (incredibly skilful - the footwork would do a cathedral organist proud)





Then an old machine - the expression 'dark satanic mills' comes to mind; there was a room full of them!

 

[RooFlyer]

Then to the shop, of course! here I was terribly disappointed. You hardly got the feel of being in a special place on the silk road. Lots of selection, but very repetitious and of course not that cheap. In spite of the cost, I didn't spend as much as I was planning and came away with only two items from this place.





We then went up the road a bit to this place - just a shop, but I enjoyed it more, as we got another demo of tie-dyeing and the things for sale seemed a smaller, but better quality selection (but what would know!!). I bought another piece here - silk from here with patterns of Kyrgyz cotton on it.








Nearby, some of the local bread: