The recce.....
I had a week to travel Uzbekistan before my first group arrived which was a mixture of adventure and being taken around in a bubble. Taxis were organised for me, hotel owners would drive me to the train station and be waiting there for me in the next town with a sign saying 'Fiona Anderson, Explore'. Pretty different to trying to haggle for 10 minutes over a dollar for a taxi ride and having that unknown feeling of where you are and what you're doing. Definite pluses and minuses to organised travel. The fun for me in my week happened in Bukhara where I met the hotel owners daughter and we wandered town just as if I lived there too - knocking on her friend's doors to see if they wanted to come to town with us. It was great to blend more. One evening we went to the local park where everyone goes as the temperature is much less sweaty and they have a fair ground. Just as I was thinking, look at that Ferris wheel death trap, rusty and not maintained, the girl had bought us a ticket and we were on!! Now, the tea cups and fairly mundane fair ground rides are dull everywhere else because they are not a thrill, but when you fear for your life that it may collapse today - now that's when the heart races!! We also went on a rollercoaster and the safety features were next to none - amazing.
The factual / historical bit...
Ancient cities of Uzbekistan were located on the Silk Road, the trading route between China and the West. In the 8th century the Arabs came from the west bringing Islam (85% of Uzbeks are Muslims). Many mosques and madrassas were built during this period including remaining structures from the Samanids. Most of the cities were destroyed during the invasion of Genghis Khan in 1220 but later, Amir Timur resurrected the cities using slaves and artists he had captured during successful crusades - the Uzbeks consider him their national hero.
Russia conquered Uzbekistan in the late 19th century. Stiff resistance to the Red Army after WW1 was eventually suppressed and a socialist republic set up in 1924. During the soviet era, intensive production of grain and cotton or 'white gold' as it was known, led to overuse of agrochemicals and the depletion of water supplies, which have left the land poisoned and the Aral Sea and certain rivers half dry. Luckily, the proximity of Uzbekistan to the mountains in the east mean that they still have an annual supply of melt water into the country. The highest mountain in Uzbekistan is around 4000m which is in the same range as the mountains that spread through Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan that rise up to around 8000m!
Independent since 1991, the country seeks to gradually lessen its dependence on agriculture while developing its mineral and petroleum reserves. A majority of the country is desert receiving 50 mm of rain per year, whereas the cities receive 300 mm and the mountains 700 mm per year. So it is a dry climate all year around and artificial irrigation is therefore the only way that they can grow crops and create the oasis's that surround each town and city. The Uzbeks can grow all their own produce (part of the grand plan since independence) except sub-tropical fruits like bananas. Winters drop to -30C and summers (July) up to 50C!! Very pleased that tour I was doing in July is cancelled!!!!
The desert areas are sparse with a small amount of vegetation holding on to what life they can find. There are many sheep herders in the desert and a few camels too. Occasionally you whizz past a gas or oil plant out in the desert and the country is also rich in coal. Mulberry trees are everywhere as they are great for shade, the Mulberries eaten by the locals and the leaves fed to the silk worms to supply the silk industry which has continued for 2000 years.
The tour....
Ok, well the first group arrive into Tashkent - the capital of Uzbekistan. They all seem nice and we get off to a good start with a city tour with the local guide telling them all the information and history and a good group meal in a Georgian restaurant of all places. Not too much to say about Tashkent really, almost 2.5 million live there and although there are some older parts around 1000 years old with narrow streets, most has been rebuilt into the Soviet style of mega structures spaced out and back from the street side. Tashkent has its positives of lots of parks to keep the city cool and shaded in the heat of the summer and outside there are some amazing madrassahs with the usual blue mosaic style dome ontop. It is a strange but pleasant experience not to be the sole information provider!
A noisy overnight train down to Bukhara through the desert - very nice carriages with 2 beds in each cabin and green tea supplied! Bukhara is a small (300,000 population but still 3rd largest), ancient and holy city with a huge number of madrassas (an Islamic religious school) and mosques (a Muslim place of worship). Each with incredibly decorated minarets and blue domes using mosaic pieces, with symmetric patterns inscriptions from the Quran. Again with trees for shade in the centre and puppet shows and old boys playing dominoes. Our hotel was in the old part of the city located along muddy paths meandering through the mud or brick houses where the local Uyghur tribal groups live.
Onwards to Samarkand, the 2nd largest city, which has largely been rebuilt in the 13th and 14th centuries by Timur (or Tamerlane) with wide streets filled with the 'national' car of Russia - the Lada, the snowy Pamir mountains as a back drop and blue domes dotted around with many tombs too for Timur, his wives and various important family members.
Great food; salads, soup, shashlik (kebabs) and the local bread (lepioshka) sold in wheelbarrows by toothless old men which is wonderful when the bread is warm but very rapidly turns into a deadly item from Cluedo when it dries. Speaking of teeth, many of the women particulrly have gold platted teeth as supposedly is prevents all types of cancer - very strange to see! So after that, back to Tashkent to complete our week here and off to Kyrgyzstan! :-)
Over and out
