Canyons, lakes and a narrow escape

It feels as though I open every blog with a dramatic border crossing, and today is no different! I was still feeling a bit poorly in Tashkent and it was 40 degrees so we decided that we’d treat ourselves to a taxi to the train station rather than sweat like pigs on the metro. We asked our hotel an hour in advance to arrange one, told him where we were going and which train we were getting so he had all the information to hand. We went downstairs about 10 minutes before we needed to to check out and get our registration slips (Uzbekistan takes foreigner registration very seriously and when you check out of somewhere you have to get a little slip of paper which states how long you stayed somewhere). We got our latest slip and I checked it and the dates were incorrect, I questioned him and he said it would be fine, everything was online etc, etc) this was the first clue that perhaps he wasn’t the best at attention to detail.

Then he ordered our taxi on the Yandex app (the soviet equivalent to Uber) and said it would be 3 minutes, 3 minutes came and went, then another 3 minutes, we kept checking with him and making sure he knew we needed to catch a train. After about 20 minutes I was starting to get a little bit anxious and was saying to Joey that we needed to leave NOW, and we said that to the guy. I then insisted that we go to the street to flag one down and even that took over 5 minutes! We were cutting it fairly fine at this point as Uzbek railways like you to be there to check in for your train 30 minutes in advance. Eventually a cab did stop and he said a price which we just agreed to straightaway, no time for messing and bartering at this point! We had a really nice guy who spoke a little bit of English and who’s sister lives in the UK. We were a way into our journey when Joey checked Google maps and realised we were heading in the wrong direction- the hotel receptionist had told him to go to the wrong train station! The taxi driver wasn’t convinced that we were right until we’d shown him our tickets and all he said was ‘good say’ before making a quick u-turn. He was great though and got us there just after the 30 minute slot and boy did we run with our rucksacks – I felt like we were on the BBC show ‘Race across the world’. It was really stressful thinking we might miss it if they didn’t let us on so we really tried to race through the security checks. Thankfully two very sweaty and stressed people made it!

That was not the end of the stress though! We still had a border crossing to do, and you may remember from the last blog that we were carrying illegal goods with us! Leaving Uzbekistan the train guards came and collected our passports so I thought that might be straightforward and we’d be ok, but then the border guards boarded the train with sniffer dogs and wanted everyone to open their bags. Thankfully Joey had hidden the drone in a packing cube of clothes! They checked the bags a few times and even asked us if we had a ‘helicopter’ before clarifying that they meant a drone and it’s not my proudest moment to admit that I lied to a border official and denied that we did indeed have a drone. Before too long thought the train guards were back with our passports and we were on a short journey to the Kazakhstan border. This time the border guards boarded with a small handheld computer and sat at a table seat with passengers taking it turn to sit opposite them and have their passports scanned, pictures taken and getting the vital stamp. Then the dogs and border guards were back on board for the luggage checks. I found the whole experience so stressful, knowing I’d lied earlier and having everyone in close proximity in the carriage watching the two foreigners was almost too much to bear! Thankfully everything was fine and before we knew it we were In Shymkent, a very narrow escape!

We spent a pleasant morning exploring Shymkent, there were a surprising number of green parks and a lot of WWII memorials. The next day we were catching a night train and so we decided to take ourselves to a town a couple of hours away called Turkestan, which is home to a mausoleum of Kozha Akhmed Yasaui, and is described as Kazakhstan’s most beautiful piece of architecture, the best piece of man-made beauty in the whole of the country! So with those words I was keen to go, and we were a little underwhelmed! Maybe if we’d visited before we went to Uzbekistan it would have been better but the place was half finished! There was wooden scaffolding in place and the tiling hadn’t been finished at the front! Ok, so the guy who commissioned it had died before it was finished but you can see what I mean, the rest of it was nice, but it just didn’t wow us in the same way all the buildings in Uzbekistan had. It was however a good way to spend a homeless day.

You can see the wooden scaffolding on the inside of the arch of this photo

I had pushed the boat out with the finances and booked us a first class cabin on the train, which meant it just had two beds in. This was great for us, it meant we could sleep in peace without well meaning people forcing us to eat meat. We locked the door and both slept fairly well. I got up around 4am to go to the toilet and all was well, a little later, when I wanted to go again I tried the door and it wouldn’t open, at first I thought I was being weak, but it soon became apparent that the door was stuck, possibly locked from the outside, we pressed the attendant’s bell but no one came! I was getting a little panicky at this point, definitely a new fear unlocked of getting stuck in a train carriage! At this point we decided to just hammer on the door and hope someone heard us! We were hammering for a good 5 minutes before someone came to our rescue and it took a little while before we were freed! At that point I decided the door was staying open!

We arrived into our hostel and were able to shower before heading out to explore. Almaty was again full of green parks which surprised us, we also visited a catholic cathedral, which was constructed from wood but you wouldn’t have known this if you hadn’t been told.

We had arranged for a private two day the next day to take us the Charyn Canyon and to the Kolsai lakes, it’s pretty hard to get there on public transport which is why we opted for a tour. We had a great tour guide named Sergey and a very comfy car which was just as well given some of the terrain we went over! We started off going to the main canyon where we walked for 2km down to a river, it was about 31 degrees at the top of the canyon but inside the canyon it felt about 45 degrees so it was hot! We had a little paddle in the river when we got there and then walked back which was hard going due to the heat. It was beautiful down amongst the rocks though, we then walked up to the top to view it from above.

After this we drove on to another canyon, the moon canyon, then stone shelf canyon, the Austrian view and the black canyon! There was a lot of very hot canyons and they were all quite different, we had to go off road across some really rugged terrain to get to these which meant there was no one else but us there. Driving along some of the main roads to get there meant that we encountered lots of animals in the road such as cows and donkeys! Seeing donkeys instantly made me sing the Christmas song ‘little donkey’ and I don’t think Sergey knew what to make of me singing this song and trying to explain that it was a Christmas song.

That evening we were staying in a guesthouse which was probably nicer that a lot of accommodation we’ve stayed in! The thing I liked the though was the dinner, or rather a peculiar element of dinner! We were served what Sergey kept referring to as ‘cookies’ but definitely looked and tasted more like crisps, which you were meant to dip into jam and honestly it was the tasty combination ever! I don’t know if I was just making up for not eating much over the past couple of weeks but I couldn’t get enough of these!

The next day we were headed to the main event, to Kolsoi lakes, the first lake was Kaindy lake, formed about a hundred years after an earthquake. The lake that formed flooded a forest and left lots of tree trunks to form a unique view known as the sunken forest and it was quite beautiful. We had a lovely walk around the lake and dipped our toes into the river again – it was freezing! To get to this lake we had to drive through a river to reach it!

After lunch we headed to Kolsai lakes, which is the most famous lake and has a beautiful view of it between the mountains. It was nice, but overcrowded and we preferred Kaindy lake.

We headed back for a night in Almaty before heading off early the next day to Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan. We had planned on one night in the capital before heading to Karakol in the mountains. The topography/ public transport system was slightly frustrating as we’d been almost parallel with Karakol when we were at Kolsai lakes but public transport limited us to going via Bishkek (unless you wanted to pay a fortune for a taxi) we were lucky upon arriving into Bishkek though as we met some of the nicest people we’d met so far. We met a Slovenian guy who we spent the evening with drinking beer and hopefully inspiring him to quit his job and travel longer term. We also met Ombi and Alex who we kept in touch with and who ended up in the same hostel as us in Karakol.

The journey to Karakol was pretty uneventful, just long, it we had great views of Lake Issyk-kul along the route. Issyk-Kul is actually the second largest alpine lake in the world, after Lake Titicaca in Bolivia /Peru. Kyrgyzstan is very accessible for many long treks, but we opted out of doing any! We instead had a day padding around the town, visiting the cathedral (again constructed of wood) as well as the Dungan mosque – the Dungans are an ethnic Muslim group originally from China and the Chinese influence was evident in the mosque which resembled more a Chinese temple.

We visited the lake beach two days in a row which was very pleasant. We also went to the hot springs which I’d been looking forward to going to. It was an effort to get to as not all the marshrutkas (local minibuses) went there and when we got the one we wanted it didn’t go to the hot springs so we ended up getting off, walking and waiting and bickering about the whole thing. Then when we made it there the springs were really tiny and the first pool which you had to walk through was SCALDING. It was almost impossible to walk through. Then when we did make it to the main pool there were loads of dead flies. It was such a disappointment! We ended up staying 20 minutes! The only thing that saved the day was when we were waiting for a bus back a car stopped and gave us a free lift back to Karakol. I’m not sure if we had a bad day or something as we heard from Ombi a few days after that they’d had a great time when they went.

We spent our evenings in Karakol strolling round a park, the temperature dropped to about 20 degrees and it felt like an English summer evening – it was so much more pleasant than the high 30s/ low 40s we’d been used to! We also went with Ombi and Alex to an evening at another hostel which put on traditional Kyrgyz music which consisted of low singing and playing an accordion. It was a little bizarre at times but good fun.

We left very early on a Tuesday morning to get back to Bishkek before heading back to Almaty to catch our flight to Thailand. We were on the 8am Marshrutka and us and the driver were the only sober passengers. The bus was full of extremely drunk men who were either passed out or who were bothering us. They kept trying to talk to us or to touch us. At one point one of the men got up and went to the front and ripped the driver’s sunglasses from his head! He was not happy about this but at no point did he threw him off the bus! After a short break he did make him sit in the front next to him, presumably thinking that he’d been able to keep an eye on him from there! We were very glad to reach Bishkek in one piece and we just wanted to make it to Almaty.

We took the first bus we reasonably could the next day and thankfully made it to Almaty without any drama. We had one night in a hotel close to the airport and spent the afternoon messing around in the pool, sauna and steam room to gear ourselves up for our flight to South East Asia.

Central Asia was different to anywhere we’d been and the language barrier made it hard going at times but I’m glad that we went. We had originally intended to visit Tajikistan on this trip but we changed our minds during the planning for a couple of reasons – mainly because we’d have to re-enter Uzbekistan to leave Tajikistan as the border with Kyrgyzstan is currently closed due to their war and we couldn’t face going through the drone drama again! I’m sure we will be back to visit Tajikistan in the not distant future though as we’d love to spend time driving the Pamir highway.

August 8, 2023 2

Under the Uzbek spell

It definitely felt like a bit of a treat to fly. We had to fly to Tashkent international airport, collect our bags, go through customs and then take a taxi to the domestic terminal which is 5km away. It should have been relatively smooth but it was hard work! Our first issue was not being able to use the ATM at the airport to get any cash to get a taxi. A guy behind us said he could never get it to work either and actually offered to give us the money for our taxi, but there was an exchange office so we opted for that rather than taking money from a stranger! Once we had collected our bags Joey’s bag had some customs tape around it which neither of us were really sure about and when we tried to leave the airport we were stopped by customs who insisted on x-raying our bags and then opening Joey’s. This wouldn’t normally cause us any stress as we’re not carrying anything illegal, except for when we were entering Uzbekistan. You cannot import drones into Uzbekistan and we had read stories about them being destroyed at the border so we were semi prepared for this to happen and it looked like this was the moment.

The border guard insisted on getting us to open all the packing cubes and asking what was what ‘what’s that?’ ‘Rain jacket’ ‘open’ ‘what’s that?’ ‘Clothes’ ‘open’. He eventually got to the bag containing the drone and we both thought this was it, but he was too busy wondering what something else was to actually look at it properly and do his job! So we were somewhat relieved and bewildered a few minutes later when we left the terminal with everything still in our possession. I would definitely not recommend chancing this though!

We caught a taxi and actually met a really nice taxi driver, who gifted us a traditional Uzbeki bracelet; our time in India has scarred us and we were both a little sceptical but he was just a really nice man! We arrived at the domestic terminal and had our first massive cultural shock. The language barrier was huge, I had been learning a little Russian in preparation but not nearly enough! Then there was the money situation, the exchange rate was 15,000 to the pound so getting my head around all the notes and their value was huge. Then there were really quirky things such as someone drying their washing on a few seats and there was a washing machine in the toilet! Not sure why there was a washing machine in the airport but there you go.

Uzbekistan was HOT. We got off the plane at Tashkent and were hit by that immediate wall of heat, we were arriving at the hottest time of year were its temperatures regularly reach the high 30s / early 40s so we wanted to move through the country as quickly as reasonably possible. We landed into Nukus in the evening and even in the dark we could tell just how hot it was.

Nukus is in the far west of the country and is the gateway to the Aral Sea, a largely dried up lake, destroyed by mankind when the Soviet started diverting rivers for irrigation purposes. However we were not intending to visit the Aral Sea, instead our reason for visiting the town was to visit the Savitsky museum of art. This museum is home to one of the largest collections of soviet art in the world and remained hidden from the world for many years. Stalin had banned all non socialist realist work and these paintings remained hidden in the middle of nowhere, precisely because they were in the middle of nowhere.

The museum is closed on Mondays and flight timings meant that we had arrived on Sunday evening so we had a day to kill before we could get to the museum. It was a day for adjusting to the culture and climate, and one we needed. We’d only exchanged a small amount of cash and needed to get some more out so off we trotted to find an ATM that worked. We actually found one straight away and managed to withdraw some cash, an old lady was very intrigued by us and was standing right next to me whilst I was doing the transaction, she then wanted to know how much we were getting and looking in my wallet – she was quite excited to see I had a million Som in my wallet (about £67).

The guide books described Nukus as having very little charm, but we actually quite liked the city! It was clean with wide pavements and everyone was friendly. We were pretty bowled away by the museum as well, we’d both imagined that soviet art would be really grey and brutalist but everything was so colourful and modern, it was definitely worth the stop.

Next up was Khiva, which was 2.5 hours away in a taxi. Shared taxis are a great way to get around this area but we splashed out on a private one to take us there. Uzbekistan is huge and as you’re driving or catching a train anywhere the whole amount of nothingness and desert takes your breath away. We were dropped at the door of our guesthouse and had an amazing welcome from our host, we’d booked a budget room but he upgraded us to the best room in the guesthouse- it was huge and had a small balcony but best of all the bathroom had a bath!

Khiva was such a delightful city, our guesthouse was in the city walls and we liked nothing more than wandering round and taking in all the sights. Every building was caked in mud and looked like something out of Aladdin. There were beautiful minarets, and a mosque made of over 200 wooden pillars. You can buy a day ticket which will allow you to enter various museums and palaces, and you do just wander around and go in any building you like the look of. We climbed the city walls at sunset, the gate was locked and there was a guy hanging round the bottom of them offering to let us up for 20,000 soms. We decided to take him up on his offer and we were the only people on the walls at sunset. In one of the museums we visited we met a 15 year old girl who had the courage to approach us and practice her English, you could tell she was really embarrassed about it when she went back to her family but I was so proud of her for having the courage to approach us! She told us it was her dream to visit England so I hope that one day she achieves her dream.

We loved Khiva, we were just so charmed by its beauty. A lot of tourists stick to Bukhara (our next stop), Samarkand and Tashkent but I’m glad we started in the west made our way there.

Our train ride to Bukhara was over 7 hours, in a non air conditioned train, when it was 38degrees outside! The windows were open, which was fine when we were moving but stopping at any station was very hot! As we travelled through the desert a lot of dust made its way into our cabin! We were sharing with two men who insisted on sharing their food with us. The food they wanted to share was meat, some chicken wings and sheep trotters. I was really reluctant to take any, as I say it was 38 degrees outside and our cabin didn’t have any air conditioning and I could foresee some health issues if I ate anything. Unfortunately the men were VERY persistent and it got to the point where it was becoming rude to say no so I took a small amount and tried not to eat too much.

We were grateful to arrive into Bukhara and get into an air conditioned car. Everyone is Uzbekistan drives a white Chevrolet. That’s not even a sweeping statement, it’s a fact, everyone drives a white Chevrolet- finding your car in a car park must be a nightmare!

Bukhara was a nice city but we didn’t love it in the same way that we loved Khiva. We had a wander round at night upon arrival and found some beautiful lit up minarets and mosques. The next day we continued our habit of getting up early and getting out before coming back late morning and staying in until the evening to avoid the worst of the heat. We were at the Ark in Bukhara, it was super hot and the inevitable happened. I needed to get back to the guesthouse NOW. The guesthouse was pretty much where I stayed for the next couple of days feeling a little bit sorry for myself! We tried to console ourselves by reminding us that we’d made it to the three month mark without getting sick and it was going to happen at some point so at least we were somewhere relatively comfortable and had our own bathroom!

We did manage a couple of walks out but were glad to move on to Samarkand. This train ride was only about 4 hours and we had air con this time. Samarkand was an absolutely gorgeous city, we loved it from the moment we arrived. Our guesthouse owner collected us from the train station (in his white Chevrolet), and he said he didn’t speak much English so it allowed me the opportunity to wow him with my Russian. By wow I mean saying all the Russian words I know- which include: cat, dog, mice, flies, car, towel, how much and daughter. At our guesthouse in Khiva I had actually asked for a towel in Russian which impressed me! I will actually say at this point that probably the most useful thing I did was to learn the Cyrillic alphabet which allowed me to be able to read place names (useful for when catching buses) and some things off a menu!

Our guesthouse was a stone throw’s away from the Registan in Samarkand, a collection of three buildings and honestly our favourite thing in Samarkand. The night we arrived we went for a walk and ended up at the Gur-e-Amir mausoleum. It was beautifully lit up and as we arrived so late we were the only ones there! We then wandered back and got to the Registan in time to see some of the light and sound show that happens most evenings in summer. The next day we were up early and headed to the Bibi-Khanym Mosque. This mosque is huge (the cupola is 41m high) and it’s so beautiful. It’s also in a bit of a state of disrepair having been damaged by an earthquake and you can see the minarets leaning and huge cracks in the walls. It sparked an interesting discussion though as I realised that the buildings I find the most beautiful and have been moved by, have all been Islamic. There was Humayun’s tomb and the Taj Mahal in India, the Blue Mosque in Turkey and now the Bibi-Khanym mosque and Registan in Samarkand.

After the mosque we headed to another mausoleum before turning back and spending a couple of hours at the Registan. The Registan is so beautiful, as I say earlier it consists of three buildings and the tiling on each of them is very different. One of them has ‘lions’ on the outside – although these lions actually look very much like tigers! Inside the middle building, the Tilla-Kari, is a fascinating photo exhibition of how Samarkand used to look, and how much restoration had taken place at the Registan and the Bibi-Khanym. Perhaps the most fascinating thing of all though was the the ceiling. It is flat, but is painted so as to appear domed – quite exquisite.

We spent every evening at the Registan, watching the light and sound show, it was such a lovely place to hang out and spend our evenings. We also visited the Ulugbek observatory which was really interesting, then we made it to yet another mausoleum! I was all out of clean modest clothes by this point so had to be lent some suitable attire at the front desk to cover my dress!

Our next port of call was Tashkent, the capital. We were able to catch the metro to our hotel which saved a taxi ride. We retreated inside until the early evening when the sun wasn’t beating down on us. We had a walk around the city taking in some famous sights such as Hotel Uzbekistan (as featured on Race Across the World). At some point we reached a fountain and were so hot we joined everyone else and dunked our feet in! The next day we wanted to visit some monuments in a couple of parks but everywhere we tried to go to was closed off and guarded by the police, there had been elections a few days before so perhaps it was connected. We decided that we’d hop on the metro and visit a few stations. The metro stations in Tashkent are really intriguing, everyone is different and they’re all very soviet! We bought a ticket each, went to the next station, hopped off took a few photos, then hopped on to the next train to the next station. This was a good way to pass an hour in the heat of the day – all for about 10p each! We then headed to the Green Bazaar, after about 5 minutes there we vowed to not eat meat whilst we were in the Stans! No wonder we were ill if people bought their meat from here whilst it was lying in 40 degrees heat!

We didn’t enjoy Tashkent as much as the other cities of Uzbekistan but overall we loved Uzbekistan, it surprised us both how much given that it was all about the cities here and I wished we’d actually planned to stay a little longer, however all good things must come to an end.

July 26, 2023 3

Voyage 3.0 – the prelude

We have just over 3 weeks to go so time for an update!

For those new here we are Joey and Becca, we have been together for nine years and married for five years. Very shortly after we met (four months) we were on a plane to Buenos Aires and travelling around South America for 5 months, before we headed to South East Asia for three months. That started our love of long term travel and three and half years ago we set off for India for the start of what we had planned to be a 18 month trip. We managed six months and covered two countries (India and Sri Lanka) before we had to fly back thanks to Covid! This means that we’ve pretty much spent the last three years talking about and planning for when we could go again.

So what’s the plan?

We’re starting in Europe, catching a Eurostar to Bruges, and we’re planning to canter (rather than meander) through Western Europe for the first three weeks until we reach the top of the Balkans. We’re planning on spending a bit of time meandering through the Balkans and into Turkey and onwards to Georgia and Armenia, maybe Azerbaijan if the land border’s open. Then it’s into the the Stans (Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan before catching a flight to somewhere in South East Asia. We’ll spend a few months hopping round South East Asia with the plan being to make it to Central America and down to a bit of South America,

When we were away in India we came up with the idea of visiting 40 countries before we were 40, Covid stopped that and the new plan is 44 before we are 44 – we should make this easily but subscribe below to find out how it’s going!

March 18, 2023 3