Fri 18 Oct - Homebound and Observations

The very long day was spent flying home. Bishkek to Istanbul was six hours, and Istanbul to Toronto was ten hours. Needless to say we were glad to arrive home that evening.

Some observations:

The five countries we travelled through were Muslim, but only on paper. We never heard a ‘call to prayer’, apparently they didn’t bother to pray five times a day, alcohol was popular, some women wore a headscarf but I don’t recall any full facial coverings. In four of the countries (not Turkmenistan) women seemed to be out and about, some working, getting on with life. Kazakhstan was the most affluent, having lots of oil and gas money, Turkmenistan was indeed the poorest. Uzbekistan was the most developed country for tourists, and we spent ten days there. When they all got their independence (1991), non of them wanted the responsibility of nuclear on their soil so it was all given back to Russia. No one is ever going to Central Asia for the food, though we did have some good meals, they were good at Shashlik (skewered meat), and in the bigger cities there were international restaurants for a change. We skirted close to some other countries at times, namely 50 miles from Iran border crossing, 1.5 hours (by road) into China, 100 miles from Russia (Siberia). All things considered, it was a good trip, we saw some fascinating places where it was easy to picture life during the heyday of travel on the great Silk Road.

Thur 17 Oct - Return to Bishkek

We journeyed back to the capital today, with a few stops along the way. The first was to view the Burana Tower, an eleventh century monument, restored by the Soviets in the 1950’s.

Next stop was to see a demonstration of some of the nomadic games carried out on horseback by local villagers. It was done in a very muddy field. One was “horse wrestling” (two riders try and wrestle each other off the horse), another was snatching up small coloured bags from the ground while the horse is moving at a gallop (the more bags grabbed at once the better) and throwing them into the air. Lots of cheers and encouragement was given!!! And lastly a game of “Kok-Boru” (horse polo), but this version used a headless, limbless goat, instead of a ball (I kid you not). They try and wrestle the goat from each other, before galloping down the field to score into the opposing team’s goal. The winners get to take the goat back to their village for dinner!

Afterwards we continued on and checked into The Plaza Hotel again, this time our room was on the 9th floor overlooking the stadium again, and we’d been upgraded to a suite. There was a local team game that night, and though not as noisy as the previous international game, we could see about 90% of the pitch from our room (there were also not as many supporters). The last nights dinner was at a local restaurant with a four piece band playing. It wasn’t a late night, most of us were up at five a.m. for our short journey to the airport.

Wed 16 Oct - Bishkek to Lake Issyk-Kul

 We took a scenic drive out to Lake Issyk-Kul, it is a large saline lake, surrounded by snow capped mountains, just south of the Kazakhstan-Kyrgyz border. It’s the second largest mountain lake behind Lake Titicaca, it has warm water and never freezes. We are staying at a resort, mostly closed for the season, with a few other guests. We’re in stone cottages , basic but large, with heated floors - very welcome as it’s chilly in the mountains.

Our sightseeing today has been viewing Petroglyphs. There is an area of land full of boulders withe the Petroglyphs scattered around, dating from 1900 and 2800 years old. Many are of wolves, deer and hunters. We also went on a boat trip on the lake, complete with supplies of vodka, wine, beer and soft drinks our leader had picked up in the supermarket earlier.

After dinner, one of the ladies had brought a Chinese lantern, so we set it off on the beach and watched it climb the dark but moonlit sky. She said it was a wish for safe travels and journeys home. Tomorrow will be our last day together.

Tue 15 Oct - Almaty, Kazakhstan to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

We set off to visit the last of the five Stan’s this morning. We had a four hour drive to the border. It was a rainy morning, but not too heavy, we got stuck in a 45 minute traffic jam getting out of town but we made up the time later on. The scenery was rolling green steppes, with a mist in the distance stopping us from seeing the mountains. We passed lots of road construction (6+ inches of fresh tarmac) and some wind farms, also one cowboy on his horse checking his cell phone.

Border crossing went ok, rain had stopped so we didn’t get wet during our no man’s land section. Went to the money changers to get rid of Kazakhstan leftover money. Once we arrived in Bishkek, the capital, we moved our watches forward an hour and had a bit of lunch. We then watched the changing of the guard (soldiers with high kicking Russian style), and went into the Natural History Museum for an hour. When we came out there were newly weds posing for pictures, and also the guard was changing again. Viewed Lenin statue (not John Lennon) and had to walk 15 minutes with our luggage because bus couldn’t get to hotel as some roads are closed due to a football game on tonight. Kyrgyzstan is playing North Korea in a world cup qualifying match this evening. Our hotel is next to the stadium and the music is already thumping!

Had to pack a small bag for our overnight to the lake tomorrow, and leave main suitcases at the hotel for our return here for the last night. We’ve been warned - take all your warm clothes!

Mon 14 Oct - Almaty City tour

We proceeded south, up into the Tian Shan mountains this morning. We passed the high altitude speed skating complex of Medeo on our way up to the Shymbuluk mountain resort. We took cable cars to the top and walked around viewing the mountains, then had a coffee. I’m sure it’s very busy up here during ski season. We were at 2260m and it was 13C so we bundled up. It’s a pity it was an overcast day, a blue sky would have made the mountains look better.

After that we made our way back down into the city and stopped to view the Golden Man (Warrior) statue at Republic Square, he is on top of a winged snow leopard (apparently snow leopards are in the mountains around here). Towards the back of the statue there are pictorials depicting periods of the history of Kazakhstan.

We then went to a self service restaurant for lunch, we were the only Westerners in the place, loads of cheap food options but not many were familiar.

Next we went to the excellent Central State Museum, where a guide explained the main exhibits, then had some time on our own. A quick visit to the large, spotless, unisex bathroom before we left 😀

We are having dinner at a Georgian restaurant tonight.

We’ve noticed Almaty is a modern city, the financial district had western looking tall buildings. There are more International chains here than we’ve seen before, KFC, Burger King, Starbucks, Pepsi, Coke, Kristy Kareem donuts, Gucci to name a few.

We’ve seen lots of manual labourers, men and women, sweeping streets and working with shovels - they’re all working, not watching!

Lots of electric cars, public buses and taxis in the last two countries.

Sun 13 Oct - Dushanbe, Tajikistan to Almaty, Kazakhstan

We moved on to country number 4 today. A short flight, one hour 45 mins. Decent airports at both ends and the formalities for leaving and arriving weren’t too time consuming - just lining up and letting the officials do their jobs!

Almaty, is Kazakhstan’s largest city but is not the capital. We met our local guide at the airport and he will be with us for the two remaining countries. There are loads of car dealerships here, not sure why, but we passed all sorts, including Subaru. The city is surrounded on one side by white snow capped glacial mountains, which looks very pretty. It is cooler here too, we may have left those beautiful sunny, hot days behind.

We first went to Panfilov Park and walked through it to visit Zhenkov’s Cathedral, built in 1904. It’s Russian Orthodox and built of wood, it was painted in a lovely cream colour, and of course the inside is in the usual style - lots of gold and icons. There was a service in progress but we were allowed to mingle and take photos. I had no idea what was being said but the choir was performing and two priests were walking around with a ‘thingy’ of incense (spreading it around), - I’m sure they are better words to describe it! Anyway it was quite moving in there. By this time it was about 5 p.m. and the sun had gone done, the church was lit up and looked very nice. There were a few war memorials (very Russian in style) and an eternal flame. We also went to the Museum of Musical Instruments- sounds a bit lame but was interesting. The park had quite a few little electric cars for kids to ride, with lots of lights on them (families were hanging out here), and what looked like a princess carriage for rent. 

Next we checked into the hotel before going out for dinner to Del Papa an Italian restaurant where I had some awesome lamb and tiramisu. Washed down with a decent Czech beer - prices have gone up, no longer $2.50 this was now $4.

Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend, guess I got lamb instead of turkey.

Sat 12 Oct - Dushanbe City Tour

Nice and comfortable last night, and a good breakfast to start the day.

Dushanbe is the capital of Tajikistan, there is lots of construction going on. Many new buildings since their independence in 1991, some utilitarian old Russian buildings still around. The mountains are a backdrop to the town. We drove to Friendship Square, in Rudaki Park and started our walking tour. First was a statue of Ismail-Somoni, their most important leader (even the money is named after him) of the Samanid States, an empire that covered most of Central Asia from 819 to 999. As we walked through the park, there are lots of water features, greenery, rose gardens, a lake with paddle boats, the world’s biggest flag pole (165m) in 2011, and on the edges, loads of big, impressive buildings. A statue of the famous 10th century poet Rudaki (whose work we’d seen in a mosque a few days earlier).

Next, the vehicles picked us up again and we went to Navruz Palace, which miraculously only took six years to build, ten years ago. We went in about six huge rooms with chandeliers, parquet floors, huge wooden carved pillars and doors and ceilings, marble walls and panels. All done by local artisans, and all materials from this country. It was a truly amazing place, we were Lucy to get inside, there’d been an official function here yesterday and it was locked down. It is used for Central Asian countries to meet, including China and Russia, Armenian, Azerbaijan. You could rent it out for weddings for $35 a plate.

Next up was the National Museum of Antiquities of Tajikistan, a very good museum, with finds from this area. The Silk Road passed through here and many nationalities of people passed through enabling the spread of language, religion, ideas etc. There was a stone carved with petroglyphs indicating directions to places (ancient road signs), a huge reclining Buddha, frescoes.

After all of that walking, listening, and education we were ready for lunch! A Turkish restaurant and then back to the hotel for some free time before meeting for dinner at 6 p.m. The Lebanese restaurant Al Sham was a great choice, awesome food! Afterwards, the drivers took a slow drive through the city so we could take photos as lots of buildings were lit up and looked good.

Notes: The kids are all friendly/curious here. Apparently they learn English and Russian at school, and speak Tajik/Farsi at home. Farsi makes it easy to communicate in Iran, which is not far away.

We’ve been paying $2 for local draft beers, the Hilton only serves International beers (Heineken, Bud) and charges $8 US . . . . just sayin🙁