Two friends and myself set out for Tashkent on the 8th May2023. I have been very late in posting this as other travels got in the way. Tony had wanted to go to Uzbekistan for many years and Richard and I were happy to tag along and see a new country and it’s people. We could get a ucell sim card at the airport which was very handy.
We were assailed by drivers as we were leaving the airport as they do in many countries and ended up in an old taxi with the boot open and luggage tied down. We were amazed at the wide European like boulevards and cleanliness of the streets. The old car got us to the old soviet style Uzbekistan hotel where we were given suites looking over the city for about $65 a night. The staff spoke English and were very helpful. They asked us to keep our registration cards in case we needed to show them when we left the airport.
There were Banks and ATMs where we could get Uzbek Som. The exchange rate then was about 80,000 for $10.
I learnt a few basic Uzbek words but I made sure I asked first whether to say “Rahmat” in Uzbek or “Spasibo” in Russian as there were many locals who only spoke Russian even though they were born in Uzbekistan.
We had pleasant walks around the area and dined at a few nice restaurants.
The Russian run Ogni restaurant was very retro with excellent food.
The discovery of Breadly a beautifully decorated upmarket cafe was a great find as it served the best coffee and cakes that we had ever had.
All the locals that we met were dignified and very friendly wanting to know from where we came. Even the young boys put their hand on their heart and bowed when we met them. Such lovely people.
It was interesting to see most of the other guests at our large hotel as they were in Tashkent for the World Boxing Championships. We saw
Africans, Armenians, Jamaicans and men from Burundi with their trainers at breakfast which was a varied buffet style one. The Australians were apparently staying at another hotel.
Yandex which was their equivalent of Uber and very cheap. We ventured the next day to the huge market Chorsu Bazaar selling everything from homewares, plants, souvenirs and very fancy dresses for the locals. Food was found mainly in a huge domed building, mostly fresh produce and dried nuts and fruits of which they had plenty for sale. There were large carts of fresh strawberries and bread and banks of apricots and fresh vegetables outside as well.
The metro stations were similar to the Russian ones, very clean and beautiful artwork or ceramics decorating the underground. We did a trip stopping at a few of them to see the various beautiful decorations.
When we were wandering around the city or in a cafe we were stopped by university students who wanted to practise their English and ask us why we came to Uzbekistan and did we like it etc,etc. They were all very sweet.
The weather there was perfect. Warm to hot during the day and pleasant enough to sit outside at night. Cafe Forn Lebnen was well worth the visit with delicious food at very reasonable prices. In fact all the hotels where we stayed and restaurants where we ate were very reasonable.
The large madrassa complex we visited only had one foreign group and the rest were locals or school aged children. A lot of the complex was being renovated and we couldn’t enter it.
After a few days in Tashkent Tony had arranged the train tickets to our next stop Samarkand which was a couple of hours away. We were lucky that Tony wanted to get to the station in plenty of time because as soon as we arrived on the platform we were hurried onto the very modern, comfortable Afrosiyob Fast train even though we were very early. It was a good trip and for the princely sum of about $8 we were also given a paper bag with a croissant, a piece of cake and a muffin. Coffee and tea was also available from a trolley.
We had the usual tussle by locals trying to take our bags. We eventually picked someone who took us to the atmospheric Jahongir Guest house for four nights. We were given tea and the staple hard sweet yogurt balls.
Samarkand was located along the Silk Road between China, Persia and Europe and at times was one of the largest cities of Central Asia.
It was worthwhile staying in the old part of the city where we could see the locals going about their business, see the local bakery and Friday mosque visitors.
The main tourist attraction was “Registan Square” which was not far from where we stayed. It was a very large complex with many shops selling quality goods in the courtyards of the many buildings and beautiful madrassas. These complexes were the seat of learning where students studied for many years such subjects as medicine,astronomy, philosophy and many other subjects.
At night the Uzbeks have a spectacular light show where the Registan is lit in many different colours and the history of the buildings is given, unfortunately not in English.
We walked around the old Jewish areas of the city where most of the houses were hidden behind large walls.
The Shah-I-Zinda complex was also fascinating with mausoleums and other ritual buildings of the 11-15centuries and 19th century with an adjacent cemetery high on the hill. Many local tourists wanted pictures taken with us and Tony was the main pick.
We took a day trip to Shahrisabz to see the ruins of the winter palace of Emir Timur the Turco-Mongol conqueror of the 14th century.
Within the gardens there was the Kok Gumbaz Mosque. We struggled to find a restaurant for lunch and ended up in a fast food place and had a pizza. Apart from seeing the mountains and a like on the way there was not a lot else to see in Shahrisabz.Back in Samarkand in a lovely leafy part of town we found lovely cafes and restaurants, a large Catholic church and a protestant church as well as a beautiful building which had been a Russian bank and was now a museum showcasing interesting artwork and innovative sculptures and Japanese type costumes.
Our next stop was Bukhara a totally different old town with stunning mosques and madrassas, many shops and restaurants and an interesting covered market selling quality clothes,carpets, artwork, ceramics and souvenirs. The price of goods there was more expensive but the quality was excellent. We walked around the city walls to an old water tower which was remodelled into an observation tower with attached restaurant below. The only other tourists at the tower were locals and the same applied when we went into the Ark of Bukhara Fortress which gave us an insight into the Aral sea disaster. There were many school groups and locals visiting it as well.
In the evening we went to the very upmarket Ayvan restaurant in Lyabi house which had been an old Jewish house with beautifully adorned walls and a lovely outdoor terrace eating area.
We also caught a taxi one night to the Zaytoon restaurant where we could drink Aperol Spritz and have Lamb shanks.
The Doston house was the most intruiging because it was down an alleyway and there was a double door with just the number 5. It had also been a Jewish house and they made the traditional food called Plov which consisted of a large pan of rice which was steamed over a fire and then meat and carrots added when it was cooked.
After three nights at the Golden Minaret hotel overlooking the beautiful Minaret which was lit up at night and where we got a lovely view over the town we were picket up in a car to take us to our next stop of Khiva. It was a pretty rough ride on very rough roads and we were glad to get to our destination. We stayed for three nights at the Shaherezara hotel which was very beautiful. The rooms and breakfast there were excellent and we were treated by the Manager Ollashakur to a rooftop breakfast which was outstanding.
The town was very easy to walk around and we had a wonderful coffee and then excellent evening meal with a clarinetist at Terrassa a three story wooden building over looking the town. Outside the city walls was another local restaurant the Khiva moon where we sat cross legged on low table sat on a platform. They served very local dishes. Manti were small loose dumplings with cheese or egg fillings and a yoghurt sauce or bright green spaghetti called Shivit Oshi made from dough which is dyed with a dill infusion. It tasted vastly different from the usual spaghetti.
The goods in the shops and outside stalls for purchase there were very reasonable and there was an interesting array of carpets, artwork, ceramics and clothes for sale. The stall holders and shop keepers were all so polite and there was no pressure to buy anything.
Khiva is surrounded by wonderful rounded town walls and city gates. Ollashakur took us on a day tour to three ancient fortresses, Ayazkala, Toprakkala and Kizilkala. The landscape in places reminded us of Australia somewhat with vast open spaces. On our way back we stopped at a large bakery and indulged in delicious cakes.
I went the next day to the palace museum which consisted of many adjoining buildings with very opulent interiors. The shop at the front of the museum had some beautiful artwork by local painters.
The next day Tony and I left Khiva in a car to Nukus organised by Oasis International travel. Richard stayed in Khiva as he was not doing the Aral Sea tour. It was a very bumpy
trip of over 4hours. We were glad to get to the Tashkent hotel in Nukus. We only learnt when we were there that Nukus is the capital of Karakalpakstan which is an autonomous republic within Uzbekistan. The Karakalpak people are fiercely patriotic and are not keen on the Uzbek people. They have their own language and traditions.
We ventured out to get a meal at a place I had found online. We found it no longer existed and we ended up in a strange bar and the menu was very small but the owner could speak English so we had a nice conversation with him. Tony and I were booked on a 3day 2nt Aral Sea package. The next day we located our driver Shamrat and Guli our guide who was a mine of information but for a 28year old she acted more like a 16year old. At least she had a lot of knowledge of the Aral Sea and the surrounding areas.
We started out first to the large Mizdakhan Necropolis not far from Nukus. The remains of an old fort were nearby so we clambered over it and then set out to Muynak and the Ship Cemetery which was a very sad sight. In the early sixties the Soviet government decided that cotton would become a major export so they diverted the rivers for irrigation which had led into the Aral Sea. The sea water level evaporated to the extent that the profitable fishing industry was destroyed so all the fisherman and their families left and most of the boats were taken away but a small number of boats remain on the sand. It led to the disappearance of all the fish and the great increase in salinity which killed most of the remaining flora and fauna.
The absence of any roads made for a very rough ride up and over the 200sq kms Ustyurt plateau and clay desert where we could find sea shells from when the sea covered part of that area. The sea is reportedly shrinking 5metres every month and they expect it to disappear completely by 2030.
A steep path led to our small yurt camp fairly close to the sea. We had a communal eating area where we were served large portions of
vegetables,bread cheese and fruit mainly cherries which were delicious.
We had a fun time dancing to Karakalpak music and the cook joined in.
There was a handful of other tourists with their drivers.
The drivers all slept outside on low couches with heavy quilts with a couple of dogs. Three little kittens were also in the camp eating area and although very cute they jumped all over us and one landed in my empty plate.
The next day we drove for many hours to see amazing rock formations and went down to the sea for a swim. It was almost impossible to swim with the amount of salt in the water and the sea floor was
very thick mud. Not a great experience. We drove for miles along the now dried up sea and we walked again towards the sea where Guli wanted to get her feet wet. Well, I sank into mud up to my knees and it felt like quicksand. It took me an age to extract my legs and sandals. Shamrat very kindly washed the mud off my legs and feet and took my sandals back to wash at the camp. We had another nice evening and left the next morning for our very bumpy ride back to Nukus via
a small town which was a Russian enclave for gas fields. However the gas disappeared but some inhabitants stayed on and they have a small school and hospital. The old runway that was used was in evidence and the people survived by herding goats and camels. Our next stop was a
A large lake was our next stop and there were a few ruins of an old white Russian settlement but long abandoned.
We bumped along again back to Nukus and made it in time to go to the
Karakalpakstan State Museum of Art named after I.V Savitsky where we saw art which depicted the flourishing Aral sea prior to the sixties as well as many varied art forms.
The cafe across the road gave us a good coffee and cake which we deserved after the trip back.
We collected our large suitcases from the Tashkent hotel where they held them for us and left late that night on Uzbekistan airways back to Tashkent where we met up with Richard for our last nights in Uzbekistan. The next day we caught a yandex car to Breadly again where we spent a few hours enjoying the air conditioning and delicious cakes and coffee. We later went to our Russian Ogni restaurant for our last meal in Uzbekistan. The next morning we left for the airport. Tony and Richard returned to Perth via Dubai again
and I left to meet Maurice in Istanbul airport.
We all were most impressed with Uzbekistan and it’s people and were glad that we spent three weeks exploring the country in such a safe environment.