Pavlodar

Sep 20-24 I visited Pavlodar. It is mainly populated by Russian ethnic group (nearly 50%), which is noticable when you walk around the city. It was wicked cold there! Pavlodar is famous for its wharf at Irtysh River. Together with Ustkamenogorsk it is an industrial center of north-east of Kazakhstan.

Sexy Uzbekistan!

Insight. The idea of traveling to Uzbekistan was born in May, 2007, three months prior to the trip, during our travel to Issyk-Kul. Asel and I were excited about going somewhere “abroad” together, away from routine life in Bishkek and Almaty. Why we picked Uzbekistan? Magnificent architectural complexes of Samarqand and Bukhara, enormous (comparatively to Central Asia) city of Tashkent, cheap prices, excellent local food, no visa requirement and geographic proximity. The last, but definitely not least, was helpful recommendations from Alisher. This friend of ours, originally from Tashkent, always invites everyone to visit his country (thus makes a good promotion) and spend tourist money there. He argues everything in his country is SEXY!!! We got to admit this was true. So here goes the story – Sexy Uzbekistan!

Almaty-Bishkek-Tashkent – Sept 7-9. We got out of work Almaty on Friday and moved to Bishkek where Meder (friend of ours) was getting married on Saturday. This was an excellent wedding party we all enjoyed and loved. On Sunday night we took 11-hour ride with a bus from Bishkek to Tashkent. We watched couple movies and fell asleep in not too comfortable seats. By 7am, Monday morning, we arrived in Kazakh-Uzbek border. Big crowd, hardly recognizable (at least for us) Uzbek/Tajik language and messy-trashy street on Kazakh side of the border. It took us 2.5 hours to get through when we were squeezed from all around by the crowd, had to pay 200 tenge each (!) as a fee for ridiculous quarantine rule (we got no receipts, whatsoever) and had to fill out a strict customs declaration, indicating all cash we were bringing in.

Tashkent. Sep 10. The taxi driver (guess which car brand was that? DAEWOO, of course) took us to very nice and affordable hotel within close proximity to downtown area. We had few hours of rest and browsed through local attractions, accompanied by Alisher, who is currently enjoying a sexy living in Tashkent. We had a nice dinner in a local chaikhana (Bukharian food) with friends of ours. It was good to see them.

Samarqand. Sep 11. This year Samarqand turned 2750! We took a morning train (very comfortable and incredibly cheap!) and in three hours we arrived to former capital of Amir Temur’s (Tamerlan) empire and checked in very nice Uzbek-style Kamilla hotel with very friendly and guest-oriented personnel. It was quite hot (35C). Registan, main tourist place in Samarqand, was the first spot Asel and I visited. Cute medrese, a lot of tourists and souvenir shops, picturesque views. Oh, by the way, every time we were asked to pay admission fee for this or another tourist site we were confidently introducing ourselves as students from Nukus (Karakalpakistan) in order to pay local resident’s price. It worked!!!:)
It was an obvious decision to eat plov and drink green tea for lunch. Next destination was Amir Temur’s mausoleum, which impressed with inside decorations and history. This guy, greatest warrior, is a present-day symbol of national idea and propaganda in Uzbekistan. We also visited huge Bibi Khanym tower and Shohi-Zinda complex. Dinner at Marco Polo, touristy restaurant, served us with nice shish-kebab (shashlyk) and local drafted beer.

Bukhara. Sep 12-13. Next day we took the same train to Bukhara. It was incredibly hot (40-45C)! We stayed in the hotel, located in the heart of Old Town, where at every step you take you bump into sightseeing spots. We stopped reading the names of the constructions as there were too many! However, we have to draw special attention to Kalyan Tower (47 meters) and Arc fortification (which Great Wall and 4 museums inside), which, in our mind, are the best of local attractions. Bukhara used to be a capital of Bukharian Emirate, which united present day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. There is also large Farsi speaking Tajik population. We were a bit disappointed by small sizes of Ismail Somani Khan memorial, which is, as far as I know, a symbol and national idea of present-day version of Tajik historyJ Ironically, main hero of Tajikistan, Ismail Somani, is buried in Uzbek (or Tajik?) city of Bukhara. There is an abundance of tourists in Bukhara this time of year, most of them are Europeans (French, German, Dutch). Unfortunately, we have not met any tourist-looking counterparts from other Central Asian countries and noticed very few, seemingly, Russians. Unforgettable memory is huge (like 600-700 gram) lovely and splendid shish-kebabs we had for dinner in the company of tourists from Switzerland. Both of them bear the same name of DanielJ. It was a nice lively talk where we shared our travel experience. Of course, we invited them to visit no less Sexy Kyrgyzstan. (I figured that “sexy” would be a good marketing word, sex sells indeedJ)

Back to Tashkent. Sept 14-15. On Friday we had 7-hour train ride back to Tashkent where we visited People’s friendship park. I was impressed by extensive areas inside the city! Beautiful, notable and sexy!:) In all addition to our awe, we found out that all these nice places were built after 1991.Another wow! The government spends big sums (like big bucks, no sarcasm, sum is a national currency in Uzbekistan, the ratio is 1270 sum for 1USD) for infrastructure projects. This deserves a respect but thinking of poverty in countryside Uzbekistan and comparatively low USD salaries I am wondering whether this is worth of it. On the other hand, comparing urban infrastructure facilities in Tashkent (with only subway system in Central Asia and effective turnpikes) and Bishkek (and even Almaty) we have to honestly admit that Tashkent is well better off. On the next day we visited almost every place it is ever possible to make it in one day! First one was local Disney Land (Entertainment Park) with absolutely no crowd or lines on Saturday morning! We had fun rides. For lunch with Alisher and Elvira we moved to… are you ready?.. Central Asian Center of Plov!!! They say every day almost 2000 people have lunch there. Elvira reminded of an interesting tradition which says that Uzbek men regularly eat plov with horse meat and quail eggs on Thursdays and then make love to their wives. Well, at least 4000 people (2000*2) are having fun on Thursdays thanks to this lunch place in this sexy country!:)
There is a Japanese style park in the heart of downtown. Its beautiful inside and is a very good location to take pictures. The next event in the program was the attendance of 9th highest in the world (!!!) (375 meters) Tashkent Television tower. We were lifted up to observatories at 110 and 220 altitudes; this was a bit scary, but opened a terrific view on Tashkent! Finally, in conclusion of our 1- week sightseeing experience in Uzbekistan we were able to get tickets for Oblomov play (Mr. Griboedov) at Ilhom theater. All four us loved the play and Asel was even crying a bit at the end. Good job for actors.

Tashkent-Bishkek. Sep16. After our heroic efforts (very routine for many others though) at crossing Kazakh-Uzbek border on the way in Asel and I got ready to the worst case scenario on the way out. Fortunately, we had absolutely no problems getting out because we have Kazakh resident stamps in our passports. We were given a green light at the customs, leaving the crowds of people behind us. On the way back home it was again 11-hour ride but this time it did not seem to be too bad. Our first backpacking trip turned out to be a great success, very much affordable (thank god!), full of excitement, memories and some adventures.