Into China... Part 1

aCrossing the border from Kyrgyzstan to China at the Irkishtan pass, you could see immediately a difference. The Kyrgyz border post was a little wooden hut in dusty surroundings, the Chinese border buildings were BIG, new, shiny and overmanned. The crossing took about 13 hours !! yes really. Brief diary summary

6:30 am - Arrived at the Kyrgyz side
8:30 am - Allowed through the gates to the customs control (it opens at 9am)
9:00 am - Let into building
10:00 am - Out of customs building
10:15 am - Drive on
10:30 am - Stopped, sent off bus by Chinese guards, all made to line up with bags, all bags searched by two officials, passports and names checked by girl in oversized uniform walking along the line, looking up at faces under the overhanging peak of her oversized cap, saying 'Imya?' (russian for 'name?') to check if she had found the correct person before moving onto the next passport and moving up and down the line again looking for him/her. No real problem for me and Michael - a german tourist also on bus - but locals were thoroughly checked, foods sampled, drinks were made to be drunk, packages opened etc etc
11:30 am - Back on bus and onwards to customs building, big queue of trucks ahead of us
12:00 midday - Queue that was moving slowly now stops as border is closed 12:00 - 14:00
14:15 pm - Queue starts moving agian
15:15 pm - Bus drivers negotiate a overtake of some trucks, we move foreward and into customs building
15:30 pm - Food taken away from me (apples are dangerous in China obviosuly !) but I get through first ! Probably because the customs declarations and immigration cards are in Chinese and English only, so all the Kyrgyz/Uzbeks have problems filling it in !
16:30 pm - By now everyone else is through but no bus, still stuck behind a few lorries on other side of building. It cannot move through as trucks are piled up on Chinese side queueing to go the other way, blocking the way out, gridlock.
16:45 pm - Two Chinese border guards come bursting out of the building doors throwing wild punches at each other, one is thrown againsta low wall and nearly goes over, but escapes, more punches thrown until two larger Chinese officials break them up and drag them away in diffreent directions. Bit of entretainment at least.!
17:00 pm - I see driver arguing with customs and lorry drivers to move their vehicles, some move but still our bus cannot get through
17:45 pm - Again more lorries move, still not enough to get through
18:30 pm - Bus squeezes through and heads for exit, notices some passengers missing, they are in a restaurant
19:00 pm - All aboard and off we go
22:45 pm - Arrive in Kashgar almost 27 hours after leaving Osh

Sakura's Guesthouse, Bishkek

I've stayed there long enough it deserves an entry of it's own...

Delightful guesthouse, run by Sakura and her parents, nice garden, seating/eating area, interesting guests from around Europe and Japan and was always a fun atmosphere.



Left: Sakura, whose guesthouse I am staying at.
Right: A music fan already and loves wobbling back and for to the sounds

Here's a link to their website created by Noda ("the professor") and Taichi. You'll need Japanese fonts to see it all properly, but there's a link to an English page too

http://sakuraguesthouse.web.fc2.com/

It was here that I actually met the first fellow British backpacker since Moscow around two months earlier, I did not meet any Brits throughout Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, not that it was a problem, just an observation ! Matt had cycled from "somewhere between Bristol and Gloucester" to Kyrgyzstan and was continuing onto China and over the Karakoram highway to Pakistan and India, proud thet he had cycled every single bit of the way, though he did admit to taking a boat across the Caspian Sea from Baku, Azerbaijan to Turkmenbashi in Turkmenistan, but insists he cycled around the boat while it crossed !! I have met quite a few cyclists doing similar things and it sounds amazing, maybe some ideas for my future trips !



Left: Sakura with 'Mama', Tolka
Right: (L to R) "Yogi", Yoshi (Sakura's Dad), Tim, Cat, Andreas, Justin and me

Most of the guests have been Japanese and the rest European or Israeli, strangely as I noticed since Uzbekistan, all the Europeans travelling across Central Asia are either, British, French, German and occassionaly Dutch, no more Swiss anymore and none from anywhere else with the sole exception of Andreas who is Swedish, but he has lived in Japan five years so fits into that group now !!.




Left: Kyrgyz ladies selling Kyrgyz shyrdaks (felt rugs)
Right: Some odd "synchronised mop dancing" I came across in Bishkek

While in Bishkek I have been out to various restaurants/cafes with various visitors at the guesthouse, the choice of food in Bishkek is pretty good, especially compared to the rest of central Asia and another of the reasons I have stayed a while, enjoying eating out at Chinese, Lebanese, Turkish and Italian restaurants. Central Asian food although good at times, has not so much variety, lots and lots of meat and no vegetables, so gets a bit dull after a couple of months. I enjoyed the dinners I had at homestays, Kyrgyz homecooking was great, but sadly local cafes do not even get close to offering the same kind of meals. Fortunately the pretty good range of internation cuisine in Bishkek's reastaurants makes up for this.



Left: Aisuluu (a friend of my friend Cath in Amsterdam) and me at a Turksish restaurant.
Right: Delicious Turkish lavash bread, yummy

Some wildlife from around Kyrgyzstan

Above: Various butterflies encountered on walk to Altyn Arashan



Left: Cow in the snow at Song-Kul
Centre: Horses at lake Issik Kul in Tamga
Right: Horses galloping across the plains at Song Kul



Left: Kitten at Yak Guest house, Karakol
Right: Not wildlife, but a toilet with a great view.

What prams are really for..

Throughout Central Asia, I have been interested in the way people carry their small children around, held cradled in one or both arms, hanging over the shoulder or sometimes just held under one arm so the small child appears almost to be flying. From South East Asia I remember the usual way mothers carried their small children was using a large shawl, wrapped around themselves with baby wrapped inside, shoulders and head poking out. I assumed this was because puchchairs/prams etc were out of the price range of most mothers, but in Samrkand bazar I found the real answer. Prams are not for pushing lazy babies around at all, they have a far more important use....

To transport and sell bread at Samarkand bazar !

Back in Bishkek

Have been lazing around Bishkek for few days at the lovely Sakura guesthouse, a bargain price, friendly people and a load of Japanese guests to drink tea with. One day when a couple of Israelis left and two more Japanese turned up, I counted there were 8 guests, 7 Japanese and me ! Also the owner (Yoshi) is Japanese and his Kyrgyz wife (Tulko) speak excellent Japanese, it's like being in a small Japanese enclave in a quiet road in Bishkek. Yet another 'Lost in Translation' moment for me. Some evenings Yoshi also invites along his fellow Japanese teachers or Japanese workers in Bishkek - whoever they are - for dinner, usually a lively affair... As i said, it's a great little guesthouse

Today, took a day trip to Ala-Archa again, this time with Andy from Ingerland and Nicola from France, we took a different route high into the mountains with wonderful views around as we climbed and climbed along a stoney and at times snowy path upwards towards the clouds that seemed to hang just a reach away. At lunch break the clouds started to sneak around the mountains and engulfed us and it got a 'bit chilly' (that's for Rich ;-)), so headed back down and now back in Bishkek, after five and a half hours walking up there and back at quite a pace, I'm shattered....



Left: Me at Ala-Archa canyon
Right: Andy and Nicolas at Ala-Archa


Wales are playing Slovakia tomorrow, I have a small hope of finding on TV here, fingers crossed anyway.

that's all I have to say today, bye for now...

More from Song-Kul

I already wrote briefly about Song-Kul in the previous post, but it deserves some more attention..

I made arrangements in Kochkor, an average sized town with little to offer except for a beautiful setting in the foot of the mountains and the ability to arrange trips to the surrounding mountains and lakes. Wandering the streets, school kids got excited at the sight of me and shouted 'hello' and 'my name is ......' and some - as in Khiva - asked for photographs, which made them even more excitable. I remember as a child always being told not to talk to strangers, it is so good that children in Central Asia don't have this restriction or any inhibition to do so, they are usually delighted and excited to speak to foreigners - strangers - and for me it has so far provided so many memorable photos and moments. I stayed at a homestay run bu Kuka and on arrival she was just starting lunch with some family, which I was invited to join. Some tasty pasta and vegetables dish, bread and few vodka toasts with Kuka's sister who was constantly astounded that I was from somewhere so far away from Kyrgyzstan. A friendly and enjoyable homestay with the usual way too much food which makes me wonder if all Central Asians really believe all foreigners eat twice as much as they generally would for a meal.

So, Song-Kul. After the pictueresque and often interrupted journey in my taxi as mentioned earlier we climbed over a snowy mountain top and down towards the lake with beautiful mountains sitting behind, it's a memorable first sight. At the yurt that would be my home for the next two days, I was greeted by a number of shepherds, 3 dogs, and a couple of horses. I had no idea who was living in that spot, until later when I returned in the evening and deduced who was still there. Rosa was the "lady of the yurt" and her husband was one of the men I had seen earlier, but he never told me his name ! I arrived around lunchtime, so after a quick snack of salad, bread and mutton, washed down with Kymys (fermented horse's milk) and as much tea as you can drink, I went for a long wander along the lake into the distance, just gazing at the views around. It was certainly cooler her than Kochkor, probably a drop of around 20 degrees in temperature to a climate everyone warned was cold and very changable.



Left: Lake Song-Kul at night.
Right: Taking some cattle home beside Song-Kul.

I was a little surprised the next morning, when I woke to find snow on the ground, I had heard rain on the yurt roof early morning and it was cold, but didn't really think it would snow, but snow it did and despite the that everyone else kept complaining about, I thought it was really nice, if unexpected. Another walk in the other direction that morning to discover what was over there, back for lunch, Plov (fatty Mutton, rise and pumpkin; the national dish of Uzbekistan) as ever washed down with Kumys and endless tea. The afternoon I tried the third and final direction away from home, which was back the way we had driven in, but after an hour or two, diverted to try and avoid some very black clouds which truend out to be a very heavy and painful hailstorm to shelter back in the yurt.





Top: Yurts on my first evening (left). Same photo the next morning (right).
Bottom: Family transport and pet (left). Another photo of my home (right).

As I had arrived back early, an early tea was provided, tomatoes, bread, fatty meat, kymys and tea. Not so long later dinner arrived, pasta with mutton, and friend potatoes/vegetables which was very nice, although as usual the mutton had little meat on the fat. Throughout communication was a little restricted, all conversations were in Kyrgyz which I obviously don't know, expect for the occassional order from the taxi driver (he stayed there too) who continued to speak (though seldom) to me in Russian, "sit down" when I preferred to stand, "here, eat" when i was trying to be polite and wait for everyone to be at the table, "sleep" when the beds were put out, but i didn't want to sleep yet. But the point of all this is that it would have been reasonable if someone had told me that that evening we had been invited to a 'Kyrgyz feast' at another yurt. I had already had 2 meals and I noticed a lack of eating amongst everyone else, but only when we finished and my driver said to me "po-idyom" (We're going). "Gde?" (where?), I asked, "gostii" (visiting) he replied.. Oh ok, so a visit, that's OK I thought, but i didn't realise it was a visit to a speacial feast. A third dinnner.

At first we sat and had Kymys, but then the table was taken away, a cloth put on the floor in the middle of everyone and food delivered, it was grandly unveiled and turned out to be a very dodgy looking pile of meaty stuff in different forms. It is known in Kyrgyz as "five fingers" as it is traditionally eaten with the fingers from a shared bowl. Now anyone with any germ phobias should stop reading. The meat was handed out to 3 or 4 key male members of the party who cut it all up and threw it back into a bowl, or simply put it on your plate. After various pieces had been eaten, the final dish was a mixture of all and some new bits all thrown back into the central bowl, had noodles added to it and was then mixed up by hand again before being handed out. I don't know exactly all the contents but I have to say I didn't enjoy it, it was horse meat, though some bits were undeterminable, like a sausage shaped piece of hard rubber with some fatty lining inside and then.... well i won't say anymore as it gets even worse, but I know it contained some parts of an animal I wouldn't normally choose to eat. With it was a greasy, oily bowl of stock, which although pretty awful was quite pleasant in washing down the bits of whatever it was.! Thankfully I wasn't forced into eating very much and my plate was taken away by one of the ladies who shared out all the leftovers between themselves. Finally some more kymys, (no tea this time which I would have loved) and we left, stopping off at another yurt for tea and biscuits on the way home. A traditional final Kyrgyz evening at lake Song-Kul if nothing else.




Top: Horses on their way home (L). More sheep in Kyrgyzstan than Wales! (R)
Bottom: My hosts for 2 days (L). Song-Kul and mountains at night (R).

Around the lake and back in Bishkek

Just arrived back in Bishkek yesterday after a couple of weeks going around Issik Kul, the 170km lake in eastern Kyrgyzstan. Following on from Cholpon-Ata, next stop was at the far eastern end of the lake at Karakol, a town used primarily as a base for hiking and trekking tours in the Southern Terskey Alatau mountains. From here I went into the mountains to Altyn Arashan at around 3000m where there are thermal springs in which you can bathe. It was about a 15km walk there (longer if you start heading the wrong way, because you have been wrongly advised by two French tourists, the same ones referred to previosuly !!) and the warm spring water was delightful seeing as the temperature had dropped to 'pretty cold' up there in the mountains.



Left: Walk along the river Arashan.
Right: Accomodation at Altyn Arashan.

After a night in a building loosely classified as a 'hotel', I headed back down to Karakol where the next day I managed to extend my Kyrgyz visa for an extra month. Getting the visa extension took around 30 minutes, finding the correct building and office took about three hours ! Anyway, this now means instead of having to get to China by yesterday before the Chinese border closed for a holiday, I can stay here some more time. Apparently the Kyrgyz/China border is closed on the Chinese side for ten days for a national holiday from Oct 1-10. Ten days for a holiday !! Now you can understand why working in China is quite appealing ;)

Along the southern shore of Lake Issik Kul, I stopped one night in Tamga, a quiet, sleepy small town with the feel of some wild west town, dusty, almost deserted streets, horses tied up outside houses, dogs fighting and barking all night. The land around was full of fruit trees, there was a quiet park in which was located one of the lake region's many sanatoria and by the lake there was a small but OK beach where a local lad had brought his horses to drink and rest.



Left: One of 3 lovely kittens at my Tamga homestay.
Right: Tamga villager's house and horse

Moving on, I caught a lift on a bus as far as Balukchy and then a shared taxi to Kochkor, which is the nearest point at which you can arrange a trip to lake Son-Kul, possibly the highlight of Kyrgyzstan's wild and natural scenery. It took a rip-off priced taxi organised by CBT to get there and for the price paid I would have expected a taxi that didn't need to stop every now and then to cool down the overheated engine with litres of water along with occasional repairs to the engine parts. The climb up the mountain track over snowy peaks, avoiding horses, cows, sheep and yaks along the way ends in a descent down to the lake, which lies at over 3000m surrounded by pretty stunning mountains. By the lakeside, I stayed for two nights at a shepherd's yurt, fed and looked after by Rosa, who seemed a very popular chef, as each day visitors arrived at our yurt for her lunch.










Left: The all too familiar scene of taxi driver with his head under the bonnet.
Right Top: Views along teh way to Lake Song-Kul
Right Bottom : Yurt camp where I stayed by lake Song-Kul

The area has a few shepherd's still living there, tending their sheep and cows, though it is now the end of the summer season and most have already descended back to their villages as the weather has begun to get cold. As if I needed evidence of this, the next morning on emerging from the yurt, I found it snowing and the grass now covered in a layer of white.




more (+ pics) to follow....

Lake Issik-Kul

Hoping the weather would get better I decided to head towards Issik Kul instead of hanging around longer in Bishkek, it didn't. I arrived Monday evening and it was still raining. Tuesday was no better, so wasted most of the day uploading photos (will be on here soon I promise, but computers here are crap), eating a delicious 'гуляшь' (goulash) and bumping into the 2 French guys who had also gone to the closed Uzbek/Kyrgyz border last week, I explained to them how I had spent my day on a tour of the Fergana valley Uzbek/Kyrgyz border regions !

In the morning I popped into the local bazaar and picked up some local honey 'tasty, from the mountains' the lady told me, which was packaged in an old coca-cola bottle!, some bananas (which are expensive in central Asia) and some lakrioshka, local bread. For the next couple of mornings and lunchtimes, I feasted on delicious fresh bread with honey and/or bananas, one of my favourites as a kid too. This is just to let my Mum know - if she is reading - that you can get decent food here too!!

The next day was better and after arguing with some thieves, errr I mean taxi drivers (they are al thieves) over the price of a car, I went to 'Chong Kul' lake in the Ak Suu valley, an alpine lake high in the mountains north of Issik Kul, some 23km along a rough track, the journey although bouncy was full of great views of surrounding pine forests, mountains, rivers and the valley through which the track passes.



Left: Lake 'Chong Kul' along the Ak Suu canyon.
Right: Views along the way.

Back in Cholpon-Ata, the sun was shining and I headed towards the beach. It's an amazing sight, the crystal clear lake Issik Kul ('warm lake'), with soft warm sand at its shores, lies surrounded by cloud covered mountain peaks in all directions, but with a circle of clear blue skies above. To the North are snow covered peaks behind which lie Kazakhstan, to the South, the Terskey Alatau arm of the Tien Shan, peaking through the clouds in the distance.




Left: Lake Issik Kul
Right: Terskey Alatau mountains in the distance, South of Issik Kul.

How the lake can be entirely circled by distant clouds yet above the lake it is nothing but blue, is some piece of meteorological magic. Issik Kul gets its name 'warm lake' because it never freezes over, this is due to a combination of its depth, thermal activity and mild salinity.

Next day I returned to the same bar as the previous evening, because it was so good before and here below is a picture of the best shashlik I have had on my travels. Surpassed only by one in Azerbaijan some years ago.




Left: Best shashlik on this journey so far.
Right: Someone I met on the way to the beach.

Bishkek and around

Arrived in rainy Bishkek from sunny Osh. First rain I have seen since Moscow, way back on 14 July, exactly 9 weeks ago, so bit of a shock. I know that day in Mosocw well as it rained like I have rarely seen rain before, torrential downpouring from the skies, massive thunder and lightning and flooded streets... So on the bus into town I even had to get a jacket out on the minibus into town as it actually felt cold, I haven't felt cold for even longer, way back in Bosnia in the early days of my journey in early June, is the last time I had to wear my warm top or coat. Seems the temperature has dropped some 15 degrees between Osh and Bishkek..

Bishkek seemed OK, nothing special, but has a bit of character, again like Almaty, many parks, though it doesn't strike me as being quite so attractive to wander around and I wonder how soon before I will get bored. I stay in the 'Saray Chelek' hotel for two nights but it's pretty awful so decide to change and eventually get into the Sakura Guesthouse (after days of trying by e-mail and phone I eventually get in by just turning up), a new place run by a Japanese/Kyrgyz couple that was recommended to me by John (who has been mentioned previously in Romania, Odessa and Almaty). It's nice there and plenty of other independent travellers, mainly Japanese.

On my second day in Bishkek, I met up with Aisuluu who I was put in touch with by my friend Catherine in Amsterdam, they used to work together in the US and Aisuluu now lives in Bishkek once more. We talked of going to Issik Kul together or a day trip to one of the many canyons in the Bishkek region, but in the end plans did not match and I stayed a couple of extra days in Bishkek, happier with my new temporary home. So it was nice when three of the Japanese at the hostel asked if I wanted to join them in a taxi to Ala Archa for the day, exactly what I wanted and we headed off there for a few hours to clamber around rocks, rivers, streams and trees in the sunny and fresh mountain air. A nice day out of the city.



Left & Right: From Ala-Archa canyon.


Next day I will leave to Issik-Kul lake, but return here in around 10 days..

Fergana Valley and onto Kyrgyzstan

Leaving Tashkent I had 2 days to get to Kyrgyzstan before my visa expired, it is not straight forward so I left enough time. There are no buses going this way except for one which goes via Kazakhstan, which requires a transit visa, so not worth doing that. The train goes via Tajikistan and apparently does not require a transit visa, that was a good option, except it only runs once a week on thursdays, so that was also out of the question. So, the only option was a shared taxi. At the train station I found a group of Fergana bound taxis, about 7 or 8 cars, but only one passenger, well they don't normally have to wait long I was told. Two hours later it was still only the one lady in the car and me, guess this could have taken a while. But then, luckily, one driver (who had only recently appeared) offered me a lift in a solo taxi at no extra cost ! After arguing with the driver whose car my baggage was in, they agreed I could go with him. He could only take one passenger anyway as the car was full of merchandise which we then delivered on the way, but at least I got going. I felt sorry for the woman who was still waiting and wondered why she was not offered the lift first, I can only assume that despite my hard nosed haggling, the price they wanted from me was still a little higher than what locals were paying. I wonder what time she got away, if ever.

The road to the Fergana valley crossed through mountains with wonderful views (expect for the large advertisements painted on hillsides), the roads were pretty busy and everyone was in a rush, at times there was double overtaking taking place while cars approached in the other direction on a road just wide enough for two cars! The rubble lined tracks alongside the roads were frequently used for undertaking too ! Chaotic. I noticed after any close shave my driver running his hand over his face, an islamic act, signifying thanks to Allah. But we arrived safely and early evening in the town of Fergana, there did not seem to be much there, a few loud cafes, and people selling food anywhere on the streets was all that caught my attention. After some dinner and a particularly nasty half litre of beer (cost 500 som which is about $0.40, it's true, you do get what you pay for) I tried to sleep with loud Uzbek and Turkish music screaming out in the cafe outside my hotel, eventually I did.

The next morning I found out where to get transport to Kyrgyzstan, I had two options on which direction to go, the easy one to Osh, which meant a long 15 hour journey to bishkek, or a not much further, but unknown route, trip to the border at Uchkurgan, which would knocka few hours off the journey time to Bishkek, though admittedly it would not be so easy to move onwards from there, so could end up taking longer. I had opted for the easier Osh option until I met 2 french guys I had seen previously in Samarkand, they were going via Uchkurgan. So, I decided also to go that way thinking I may catch up with them later. I got a mashroetnoe minibus to Andijan no problem, there I was told a bus goes to Uchkurgan at 13:25, nice. an hour later i was told the bus would not run today, there maybe one at 15:00, alternatively go to Namagan and take a mini bus form there. To keep moving i did this. Speaking to a lady on the bus, she chatted to some man who agreed to show me where to get off and get a minibus to another stop where i can get another minibus to Uchkurgan, it all went ok. On the last of these mini-buses which flew through the streets like it was a rally event, some old ladies started talking to me and got excited about the foreigner on board, they were going into the town of Uchkurgan and offered me a place in their taxi, which was nice, no problems. Centre of town, found a taxi to the border, got to the border and it's closed !!! No international crsossing apparently, gates were closed and it looked very closed, though some cars were occassionaly coming through, but they weren't going to let me through anyway. So by now it was 16:15 or so, taxi back to Uchkurgan, no buses from here to Andijan, so get a taxi to Andijan which wound through country lanes swerving and braking regularly to avoid cows, sheep or dogs, another taxi to the border at Dostlik and eventually into Kyrgyzstan after about 12 hours on various mashroetnoe buses, proper buses, taxis, mini-buses and some walking across the border and still with a couple of hours left on my visa !! In the final taxi of the day to Osh, I shared with Fatima who seemed to be a friend of the driver, the driver was excited when he found my age and that I was single as I seemed a very good match for Fatima and he jokingly (I hope) offered her to me as a potential wife, she didn't argue too much, so maybe she was interested actually ! I don't know but I politely declined and went to my hotel for what I hope would be a good sleep.

Through most of Fergana valley, you see field after field of cotton plants, a sight not familiar to Europeans, with a few fields of rice, wheat, and fruit trees, scattered in between it's a very green area of the country. I later found out that this is government influenced, farmers have to allocate a percentage of their arable land to growing cotton, from which they get poor profits. This is just one of the many controls that appear to be put on Uzbek people by their government.

One of the many good things about Uzbekistan is that it is - to me anyway - the land of melons, probably my favourite fruit. Wherever yo go there are all varieties of melons and watermelons available at all times of day. Along the roadsides you see stall after stall of melons for sale at pretty reasonable prices, at markets there are more melons than you can possibly imagine and in most of the guesthouses I stayed in, after agreeing on a price, the host will invariably bring you a pot of green tea and some melon...Excellent

Tashkent and around

The capital of Uzbekistan, Tashkent has none of the history and grand architecture of Central Uzbekistan. But fortunately not far away it has some picturesque areas around Chimgan and the Chirchik valley which are an easy trip if you have a car. And thanks to a friend Irina and her friend Nazima I had a car for a day!

We travelled to Beldersay which has a 2.2km cable car ride, which is certainly the longest cable car trip I have ever been on, it felt like it took ages, but the views were wonderful and the time didn't matter when I had a beer in my hand too. From the top of the mountain which reaches 3300m were great views of Chimgan, Charvak and Chirchik areas.



Left: Irina and Nazima at the Beldersay ski area.
Right: The best way to get around those mountains.



Left: Irina and me at Beldersay again.
Right: Charvak lake.





Left: My shop in Tashkent
Centre: Amir Timur (Timerlane), Central Asia's greatest leader.
Right: Yuta and Ikiko from Tokyo in our Tashkent homestay

The first two nights I stayed again with Yuta and Ikiko, my two new Japanese friends, who I have been following since Khiva. They had heard of a good cheap homestay in Tashkent, although technically illegal as a non-registered guest-house I stayed a couple of nights there, where we had a bargain deal of bed, breakfast and dinner all for $5. The first nights meal was macaroni which was a great change from all the typical uzbek food of the past 2 weeks, the second night we were served some of sausages which were not so appealing unfortunately... I don't know what they were made from but it didn;t taste like your normal pork or beef sausage for sure, I know horsemeat sausages and worse still, horse entrails are a' speciality' in Uzbekistan cuisine, I didn't dare ask what it was, but I wouldn't try them again if I saw them on offer.

Another bit of typical Uzbek hospitaility also occured one night in Tashkent, I went along to a cafe for a beer and as the evening progressed, a few other customers started getting quite lively with some Uzbek dancing and singing (there had also been a karaoke). As i sat there quietly, I got suddenly dragged into the dancing by one of the girls and then pulled away by another and whenever i tried to escape I was dragged back into the middle by someone. After speaking they were surprised to find I was a tourist and from that moment on I was not allowed to leave, I was taken to one of Tashkent's best nightclubs, followed by a visit to a late night teahouse to round off a late and lively evening out.

After two nights I left the homestay and went to an official guesthouse, where I bumped into two Dutch I had seen in Khiva some time back, after leaving and returning later, they told me that the 'OVIR police' had been round checking people's registrations for previous nights ! Luckily I missed them by about 20 minutes apparently. Despite the reknowned checking up on tourists, I was only stopped once in the Tashkent metro and after it was obvious my visa was all in order, and that I was not carrying narcotics or weapons in my bag (he seemed to pin his hopes of a 'win' on this one!) he had to let me go, game over, with nothing more than a handshake..

One warning if you do visit Tashkent at this time of year, I regularly heard the fall of something on the ground around me, I thought at first it may have been locals playing "let's get the tourist" with some little stones, and it's not obvious when you walk around in the dark, but turns out it was harmless acorns falling off trees lading near my feet as I sat in cafes or walked around. They fall everywhere, really.