Exploring the Silk Road in Uzbekistan

The ancient trading route of the Silk Road was what many of our group had joined the expedition to see.  Although our Silk Road experiences had started from the very beginning of the expedition, including our stay in a caravansaray in Azerbaijan (one of the old hotels used in the times of camel caravans plying the Silk Road), and will continue through to our journey into China, it is the cities of Khiva, Bukhara and Samarkand in Uzbekistan which are the most visually impressive remnants of times gone by.

After our night at the incredible Darvaza burning gas crater, and camping in the Karakum Desert, we headed north into Uzbekistan.  If you have followed previous blogs, you will know that the border crossings in Central Asia can often be quite protracted affairs. Think long queues; lunchtime closures of at least an hour, sometimes two; endless paperwork with the added excitement of very strict rules as to the way in which forms can be filled in (any mistakes mean doing another form, there’s no crossing out here!).  Heading into a border crossing in this part of the world means packing your patience, sense of humour and a good book to keep you amused during the inevitable waiting.  On the whole, the border officials that we meet are friendly, helpful and curious, but they still have a job to do and that can mean they enjoy the pleasure of our company for several hours.  Occassionally however we do come across someone who appears to be intent on making the border crossing as painful as possible for us!  It is usually on entering a country that we are subject to in depth inspections of the truck, but it was on exiting Turkmenistan that we had our most thorough search every (and Pete’s most thorough search in 14 years of overlanding!).  After 3 hours of prodding, poking, unloading, scanning and searching of Penelope, we were finally free to leave Turkmenistan and cross to the Uzbekistan border which fortunately proved to be a much easier and quicker process!

We rolled into Khiva just as the sun was setting and everyone headed off for a bite to eat, and a shower to de-desert-ify themselves.  Our hotel is an old 19^th Century madrassa (Islamic university) located in the old town itself, under the shadow of Khiva’s most identifiable landmark, the turquoise-tiled Kalta Minor minaret.  Construction on this minaret started in 1851, and it remains unfinished due to the death of its sponsor, but it is unique amongst all the minarets in Uzbekistan because it is tiled for its entire height.

While Khiva, Bukhara and Samarkand are all wonderful cities to wander aimlessly and enjoy the incredible architecture and decoration, doing a tour of these cities with a specialist guide brings them to life as you start to understand the purpose of the buildings and their historical context.  With invasions, conquests, power struggles and slaves all featuring heavily in Khiva’s past, it is a fascinating history to get to grips with and our guide was rated by some as the best guide they have ever had – high praise indeed!  

All three of these cities are a photographers paradise, so we will let the photos do the talking!

Our next stop, Bukhara, is more of a living city – although it has an equally interesting history, it feels less like a museum than Khiva, and is more compact and concentrated than Samarkand. In the evening, the place to be is the Lyabi-Hauz (meaning “around the pool” in the Tajik language) just a 100m or so from our hotel – where restaurants fill with locals and foreigners alike, all enjoying the cooler evenings with a shashlik (meat skewer) and maybe a vodka or two. 

In Samarkand, the modern city has interwoven itself into the historical city, providing quite a different feel from both Khiva and Bukhara, but it is home to two of the most visually impressive sights, Registan Square (which is claimed to be the most impressive site in Central Asia) and Shah-I-Zinda mausoleums. 

With all of the history we had been immersed in for a week, it was a nice change to visit a traditional paper-making workshop.  Mulberry trees provide the raw materials which are then boiled, pounded and pressed into gorgeous sheets of paper which is said to last for a thousand years.

Our final stop in Uzbekistan was the city of Tashkent.  Largely rebuilt in the 1950s after a devastating earthquake it is home to wide leafy boulevards and impressive marble buildings as well as plenty of Soviet-era concrete apartment blocks.  It is a city to wander, enjoying the parks and relaxed feel that this, the largest city in Central Asia, has managed to retain.  It is also home to what is claimed to be the oldest copy of the Koran in the world.

For those for whom the prospect of another plov (fried rice), lagman (noodles either served in a soup or with a bolognaise style sauce) or shashlik was just too much, Tashkent also offered the chance for a bit of international cuisine – Korean, Italian, Japanese, Indian – it’s all here!

With all these cities under our belt, it was time to head back into the wilderness of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.  But more on that next time!

A big THANK YOU to all the expedition members who have contributed their photos to this and previous blogs – Bob C, Neil, Ian, Sandy

Volcanoes, military processions and marble - Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan

So we head for another strange sounding country Azerbaijan - not visited by many tourists each year but a vital part of the old Silk Route. After a somewhat protracted border crossing we hit the road towards Sheki where we would be staying in an old Carvansary for the night.  Sheki was a major stop-off point on the Silk Road and our home for the night was a Silk Road hotel / trading post / resupply point and safe haven for the caravans in Silk Road times. With its rose-filled central courtyard and wonderful shady restaurant everybody soon settled in.

Our hotel in Sheki

The town it self is great to wander with a nice central square full of old men drinking tea and discussing life in general. The big attraction though is the amazing Khan's Palace set within the old walled city just up the road from the hotel. The building took two years to build after which they took an additional 8 years to do the intricate wood and stained glass latticework and paint the amazing frescos on the moulded ceilings and walls. Some chose to have a local guide explain it all and others chose just to wander through.  No photos are allowed these days, but we have a couple from an earlier trip to give you an idea of what they were getting to see.

From Sheki we headed towards the Caspian Sea coast and after a bit of a drive around (thanks to the new road network!) we finally bounced our way up a steep track to our bushcamp for the night.  Set on the edge of a field of active mud volcanoes with a 180 degree view out over the Caspian Sea, we were lucky enough to watch the sun set and then the "super moon" rise, a spectacular sight.

Lou, Pete, Marienne & Karin

The "super moon"

Early the next morning we headed for Baku the capital city of this oil and gas rich country with amazing buildings, fast cars and luxury boutiques that feel very out of place compared with the more traditional villages and countryside we had been driving through. When we arrived the city was in the midst of preparing for a massive military parade which saw it seem like all the roads we wanted to drive down were blocked off!  The seafront boulevard was packed with various military vehicles, rockets and heaps of other imposing machinery.

Baku at night

As soon as we arrived we headed for the Turkmenistan consulate to get our visas. Visas in Central Asia are very impressive sticker plastered into your passport which take a fair bit of work to get.  Luckily our local fixer knew the consul and even though it took close to 5 hours we got our visas in record time.

This though was only the start of our adventure, while the group headed to the hotel, Pete headed down to the port to find out about a cross Caspian ferry. This ferry journey is always an unforgettable part of the adventure as schedules, plans and luxury cruising do not feature in this part of the world! After being checked out by the large-hat wearing Customs and Immigration officers we headed to the ferry ticket office.

This small building would be impossible to find unless you had been here before, or someone pointed it out, but after a couple of knocks we were admitted to start the haggling to get onto a ferry to Turkmenistan.  One would imagine that the port ferry captain would have a fair idea of when the next ferry would sail, but it seemed not.  After much discussion it was decided that yes there may be a ferry that day, but they were not sure, but we should part with large wads of dollars and buy our tickets anyway.  After a lengthy process the tickets were waved at us and an amount was mentioned which in no way reflected the amount on the paper.  Strange you would say but very normal and after a bit of negotiation we finally settled on a figure. As soon as they had the cash then it seemed as if by some miracle the ferry had arrived and taxis were sent to collect the group and get the show on the road.  So we were all aboard and ready to roll, won’t bore you with all the details but suffice it to say, we finally set sail 8 hours later with the highlight being the military parade practice fly-by of about 50 helicopters and 30 Russian Mig fighters, some which seemed to be making rather a lot of black smoke as they flew by.

Helicopters over the Baku skyline

Our sail across took us about 30 hours as for some crazy reason we sailed across using only one motor but finally after two nights on board we docked in the port of Turkmenbashi ready to explore Turkmenistan.  Entrance to Turkmenistan is not easy and it took about 4 hours for us all to be processed, but finally we were in.

On the ferry - Neil, Jill, Marienne, Karin, Gerti & Colleen

Not our ferry, but one just like it

On to Ashgabat a crazy city of marble and French designed buildings, will let the pictures do the talking but to give you an idea the President built a five-storey wedding palace for his people so that they could also get married in a palace – enough said.

The largest mosque in the world - able to accommodate 20,000 worshippers at one time (nothing is done on a small scale in Ashgabat!)

After two nights in the capital we wandered north again into the desert, en route stopping off at the huge bazaar on the city's outskirts for a bit of shopping.  The entire bazaar has been rebuilt using the all-essential Turkmen white marble and is all neat and tidy which is great for the locals, although lacking the character that the old market possessed.

We stopped at a small village where some of the villagers still live in yurts

Inside the yurt

Gerti and a baby goat

Camels alongside the road

Penelope next to one of the other gas craters

Penelope

Our destination though was the burning gas crater of Darvaza a deep in the desert. We arrived and set up camp and then transferred in by jeep to the crater.  Pictures do not really do it justice, but some great shots below.  A truly unforgettable sight.

Before the sun sets

Colleen & Bob enjoying the blast furnace - standing downwind of the crater!

Pete & Kirsten

Sandy

From here we headed north to the border and into Uzbekistan but more about the Silk Road cities in the next blog. 

The roads of northern Turkmenistan - that's a tar road!