Chaos in Kyrgyzstan

Our last stops in Uzbekistan were in Samarkand, the picture postcard city of the Silk Road and Tashkent, the capital.  The Registan complex in Samarkand is breathtaking at first sight, the three medressas apparently the world’s oldest preserved.  Shaken by numerous earthquakes over the years, some of the minarets stand at jaunty angles; impressive they are standing at all.  Mirza took the group on their final majolica tile and mosque filled tour in the country.

Finding our way to Samarkand

Tree-lined University Boulevard

The Registan

Wonky minaret

Inconceivably beautiful ceiling

Judy in the Batmobile

Onion overload

Chorsu Bazaar, Tashkent

A very organised bazaar

Rogs negotiating nuts

How much?!

A note between friends

Tom, Anita, Sue & Rogs

Tashkent is another city that has been flattened by earthquakes and rebuilt in Soviet times.  Apartment blocks line Soviet-built avenues, now labeled in style as ‘Staliniski’, with high ceilings and thick walls to help them withstand further tremors and newer ones known as ‘Karimovski’ after the now president, Islam Karimov.  Tashkent is a sprawling and cosmopolitan city with a mixture of architecture.  The Chorsu bazaar is a bustling taste of real life.  With a population five times that of Turkmenistan, even though they are also a controlled state, with many more police check points along the roads, life is more visible.  The fast food chains are not here either but they do have their own imitations, with rip off logos and names such as Keffic serving popcorn chicken, zingers and twisters!

Apartment blocks along the way

A ride on the metro is a must do here, built as nuclear bunkers, they are all individually styled and decorated.  Jumping out at each station to admire the decorative pillars and mosaics.  Photography is banned on the system but we did manage a sneaky picture or two.

 

The Tashkent metro

Anita

The group was parted from the crew and truck for the journey between Tashkent and Fergana.  Restrictions banning buses and vehicles with more than 5 seats over the 1,800m Kamchik pass through the Pamir mountains, the group travelled by taxi the following day whilst the crew did their stealth nighttime mission, thinking good truck thoughts all the way, the mission was a successful one.  Then stocking up in Fergana for the coming days bush camping whilst the group visited a silk factory, this area being the centre of the industry and Uzbekistan the world’s third-largest silk producer.

Entering Fergana at night

The Kamchik Pass by day

At the palace in Kokand, en route

Silk factory in Fergana

Oh good, we've found the market to stock up our food supplies

Fergana bazaar

Hiring a man with a barrow to transport our shopping back to the hotel

Another bread pedaller

Anyone for a quick poligraf?

Rogs cleaning the spice rack

Crossing the border the next day, the officials provided some amusement, asking Ross to “please show us your back”, “what?” he said, “your backside” they repeated.  Referring to the drawstring backpack he had forgotten he was still wearing.  They nearly had an eyeful.  Smoothly out of Uzbekistan, saying goodbye to Mirza, and then an easy entry into Kyrgyzstan, the only other country after Georgia that is completely fee and visa free.  Whilst waiting in line for our passports to be stamped a lady came through with a smoldering pot of juniper branches, wafting the smoke amongst us and even the immigration officials.  A Shamanistic practice intended to ward off evil spirits.  Post fumigation there was a bit of a wait for the truck as the new shift of customs officers changed the goalposts, which also gave the group time to eat the world’s largest ice creams, but after some negotiation Penelope ticked all the boxes and was welcomed in and we picked up Farhad, our local Kyrgyz guide.

Entering Kyrgyzstan

Three nights of bush camping allowed us a relaxed start in one of our favourite countries.  The scenery refreshing our senses, crossing snowy high mountain passes, driving through valleys with luminous lakes and reservoirs adding a splash of colour at the bottom of steep sided cliffs.  Yurt camps, recently moved to higher pastures for the warmer months, untethered horses grazing.  The first night’s camp offering our first swimming opportunity of many in the following days.  Camping on poppy covered grass next to the dry mud flats, a short walk from the water of the Andijan reservoir.

Bumping into friends in Osh, motorbikes and epic travel writers Chris & Laura

Laura & Chris

Big Dave doing a bit of window cleaning

Poppy bush camp

Stilt walkers

Sue & Tom (Ursula & James), the first to swim

Farhad telling us about Kyrgyzstan

The next day, the dreaded Friday 13^th, started with pancakes and went on without incident, apart from our mystery bent rear bumper discovered at a loo stop.  No one had heard or felt a thing, a total mystery!  Is Uri Geller in town?

An interesting monument on a hill

The mystery bent bumper

Rounding a corner and past a dam we saw a way down to the turquoise waters via a small track.  Conveniently coinciding with lunchtime we relaxed for a couple of hours at what will one day become a beachside resort with restaurant but at the moment is little more than a few ‘tapchan’ sun loungers.  We enjoyed a cooling dip and a wash in the Tash Komur reservoir filled from the Naryn river. 

Refreshing lunch time swim

Hels & Sue

Sue & Maggie

A shamelss selfie of Rogs & Hels

Good thing we are not superstitious

Thanks to the dam for the reservoir

Reluctantly moving on to find a camp for the night, we attempted to navigate down to the edge of Lake Toktogul but the edges proved too soft, so we settled for the grassy hillside above with another outstanding view and some interesting scents of wild sage and cannabis.  The sun still strong and warm well into the evening we sat in the shade of the truck and then cooked up a sticky marinated BBQ chicken for supper.  A group of locals who had been down at the water’s edge came to see us, Tom striking up as good a conversation as is possible with the language barrier, the father clearly touched took the watch off his wrist and handed it to Tom as a gift.

Lake Toktogul camp

Anita & Maggie playing backgammon

Tom & Rogs tending to the fire

Locals arrive at camp

The sun sets on a beautiful camp

Rogs

Big Dave and Jo-Ann

Horses galloping past in the morning

Wait for us!

Kyrgyzstan’s most valuable natural resource is not gas or oil like its neighbours, but water.  Discontent occurred between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan when the Kyrgyz built a couple of damns to protect their supplies.  The Uzbeks claiming water as a gift from god should be shared.  Eventually coming to a deal with Uzbekistan, who have dried up vast swathes of the Aral Sea to boost their cotton production.  They agreed to swap gas for water.

On the way to our third bushcamp we stopped for an impromptu lunch at a yurt camp on a high plain.  For those that didn’t fancy tuna and crackers (most of the group!) we ate a deliciously tender mutton dish with tea, bread and homemade butter in a yurt, the locals joining us for the feast.

Yurt camp lunch stop

Beautiful palomino

Tom & David

Farhad

Not wanting to get too close to Bishkek we turned off the road once clear of the mountain pass and went off in search of a suitable camp for the night.  Settling on a field with slope behind, a small farmhouse, a few cattle and horses nearby.  After pitching camp we’d just sat down for a beer when some ominous dark clouds behind the hill brought a storm gust through camp with a whoosh, jumping up to grab the flying bin, lone chairs and washing up bowls, we thought it would pass in a minute or two.

The wind turned out to be relentless and a local farmer on horseback confirmed we had chosen to camp in a notoriously windy spot.  The warm wind rushed down the hillside for hours on end, the kind of wind that when you jump in the air you land two metres from where you took off.  Thanks to clever use of a table as a windbreak to stop the coals blowing off the top of the pokje pot, we dined on a cheesy potato bake.

Big Dave sitting back watching the carnage unfold at camp number three

The apocalypse

It takes a lot of wind to do this!

The Dorchester (tent) cleared and ready for take-off

Hels, Anita & Tom

Gary & Jo-Ann leaping for joy

Rogs keeping an eye on the fire

Rogs and Tom seeing if they can run faster with the wind behind them

Hels enjoying the wind

A local farmer stops by for a chat

Tom, Hels, Anita & Sue

We arrived in Bishkek not needing a shower quite as desperately as we would have had we not found so many rivers and lakes on the way.  Something rather unusual is happening here, another two Odyssey crew are joining us!  A big hearty welcome to Emma & Simon, hot off the truck in South America and after a few weeks break, they are taking over this trip towards the end of Kyrgyzstan and then on through China to Beijing.  This is a planned handover; Hels & Rogs are not doing a sneaky runner or taking a Learjet home this time!  It’s not over for us just yet as we have a week all together in the beautiful Kyrgyz countryside to gradually hand over the reigns.