Boris Briantais, a french legend who was living in Angola with us showed up in Uzbekistan. We only coincided for 24 hours but it was quality time drinking beers with some locals and eating shashlik! Bon voyage my friend and see you soon!!!
Thursday 12 April 2012
Day 274: Our Angolan friend shows up in Nukus, Uzbekistan!
Day 273-274: 4x4 adventure to the Aral Sea, Uzbekistan!
Photos from a fantastic and bumpy 800km overnight camping trip to the salty shores of what remains of the Aral Sea.
The Aral sea is one of the greatest environmental disasters of Central Asia in recent times. Back in the 1960s the lake was rich in fish life providing a much needed income to isolated towns like Moynaq. Little of the Aral Sea now remains due to the water feeding the sea being diverted to irrigate the cotton fields....a soviet experiment gone badly wrong....
Strange yet wonderful experiences of driving on the sea bed passed burning gas fields and floating like a lead balloon on the Aral Sea while watching the sun set over the Ustyurt Plateau: a highlight so far in our Asian adventures!
The evening vodka session with our russian driver Victor was classic too!
www.stephieandraigoasia.blogspot.com
Day 273: Music in Nukus, Uzbekistan!
We left the mausoleums behind in Khiva and headed further west across more desert to the remote town of Nukus in the province of Karakalpakstan near what is left of the Aral Sea.
As we arrived in front of our hotel in a shared taxi a group of 30 or so excited school kids stood between us and reception. And when they saw the guitar case they wanted a little concert. Soooo they all got their mobile phone cameras out and I played the only tunes I know and they clapped and cheered. My best ever audience on the pavement in Nukus ! superb.
A much bigger concert by Mr Navro'zbek Sobirov, apparently an Uzbek teenage legend took place that afternoon and I had no intention of missing it. Huge russian style stage so bizarrely layed out with the band in one corner and the singer running around at the other end. It was only when some girls ran on stage (upsetting the green policemen) and demanding an autograph while he was supposedly singing that I realised it was all a big play back show....ridiculous! Even I could do that!
If there is no concert in town from Rai or Sobirov when you visit Nukus, you can always check out the amazing Savitsky museum which houses an incredible collection of Avant Garde 1920-30s russian paintings ...apparently the second most impressive collection in the world after the paintings at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.
Sooo come to Nukus either for the "music" or the art collection or the desert or the Aral Sea!
www.stephieandraigoasia.blogspot.com
Monday 9 April 2012
Day 270-272: Counting the stars in Khiva, Uzbekistan
A beautiful mud walled town located some 400 kilometres to the west of Bukhara across the Kyzylkum desert on the ancient silk road. Slave caravans would have made the barbaric journey in unimaginable conditions. Nowadays Bukhara and Khiva are connected by a semi paved potholed road with plenty of police checkpoints and to our surprise lots of Bulgarian bound trucks. It takes 6-7 hours to get here with a shared bright yellow taxi depending on what kind of driver you have. Our driver was crazy enough and got stuck trying to get from one bit of road to another bit of tarmac....(check the photo...)
A Rai-Stephie top tip in Khiva is to find a guesthouse with a nice roof top terrace, play guitar if you can, sleep under the stars, get woken up by the chirping birds and gaze at the medressas, minarets and mausoleums in the early morning light. Perfect.
www.stephieandraigoasia.blogspot.com
Photos of the cyclists in Bukhara, Uzbekistan
Our special tip: get out of bed bright and early (6am) and watch the city get moving with keen Bukhara cyclists!
www.stephieandraigoasia.blogspot.com
Day 267-269: Beautiful Ancient Bukhara, Uzbekistan
One of Central Asia's most holiest city. More than just magnificent !
Bukhara 1 - Samarkand 0 : our favourite ancient city so far in Uzbekistan.
Apart from wonderful medressas and mosques there is an incredible array of old city lanes to get lost in and pass the time away. The locals are soooo friendly and chatty -you will definitely be invited into their homes for cups of tea or be pushed to join in a game of football. Raimon is like a fake Lionel Messi from Barcelona and Stephie an awesome dutchie with the ball. And we flew our new kite in one of the many squares of Bukhara and then it broke ! Cheap chinese Kashgar junk...!
The city is also full of colourful russian ladas transporting far too many tourist suitcases or practically the furniture of a whole living room (see seperate photo entry).
And who said food in Central Asia is disappointing....we had amazing russian style soups, delicious juicy kebabs, lots of bread and risotto (Plov) cooked by a local family....just don't come to Uzbekistan as a strict vegetarian and expect tooooo much! It's hard to avoid the meat here !
www.stephieandraigoasia.blogspot.com
Day 265: Siesta time in Samarkand, Uzbekistan!
A word of warning: Too much good Central Asian food (shashlyk kebab, dolma, laghman noodles....) makes you SLEEPY!
www.stephieandraigoasia.blogspot.com
Day 264-266: The ancient silk road city of Samarkand, Uzbekistan
Samarkand located in Central Uzbekistan was an important city on the ancient Silk Road which back in the days sat on a key trade route between Persia, China and India. Nowadays the city is easily connected to the country's capital (Tashkent) via a comfortable 2h30 train journey so there is no need to find a camel! In fact in the late 13th century Samarkand was the cultural and economic heart of Central Asia. The city has obviously dramatically modernised since then, but it still has these amazing majestic islamic blue mosaic tiled medressas like The Registan and Shah-i-Zinda Avenue of Mausoleums. You will not fail to be impressed....believe you me !
And if you need a break from the medressas you can relax at the bazaar or visit the fascinating jewish quarter in the old town or simply go back to the hostel and take a well deserved siesta !
Ooooh and think twice about coming here in summer unless you like the 50 degrees ' I desperately need shade' feeling. Beginning of April should be perfect!
www.stephieandraigoasia.blogspot.com
Tuesday 3 April 2012
Photos of how you pay restaurant bills in Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan is pretty cheap which is good news. What is less good news is that the largest note denomination (1000 Som) is equivalent to about 30 cents of a Euro ! Sooooo paying cheap restaurant bills means taking out huge packets of cash. Our money belts have exploded under the pressure! At least it is not as expensive as Japan. If it was we would have to take suitcases of cash into restaurants!
www.stephieandraigoasia.blogspot.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
