Blogs from Khiva, Uzbekistan, Asia - page 2

Sept 19-21 Khiva Sept 19th. Over 1000kms of train ride from Tashkent to Urgench through mostly barren empty desert, few camels, bit of dry tussock, but mostly just nothing. Eventually arrived in Urgench, where we negotiated a short taxi ride to Khiva for 20,000 Soms discovering the weird nature of the Uzbek currency - at about 3,000 Soms to the dollar. Changing a $100 note into Soms results in a huge 'brick' of notes as the dominant note is just 1,000 Soms (about 30c). So everyone is walking around with huge lumps of cash - much too large to fit in a wallet ! Paying for anything is a real exercise in lengthy counting ! Ancient Khiva had a reputation for barbaric cruelty, slave caravans, and terrible journeys across inhospitable deserts. The historic heart of Khiva ... read more

My road ended in Khiva, in between the 2 Kyzylkum and Karakum deserts, right at the border with Turkmenistan. I didn’t expect it to end there. That wasn’t the plan at all. This is my last blog about Uzbekistan and Central Asia. This 8-month adventure is over but it is without any doubt calling for other journeys. I have made the choice to go back to China to be with Jiang Xin. She couldn’t stand the distance anymore and this affected me. I hate it when people say you can’t have everything… maybe I can have it all… later. I know I want to hit the road again to discover new places and make new friends the way I did in Khiva, my last stage on a 6-month bike journey. I left my bike in Bukhara ... read more

This part of the journey is beginnning to wind down . Two days ago we did the 10 hour bus trip from Bukhara to Khiva and a more desolate landscape would be hard to find . It is desert and it has thousands of sage bushes about which will be eaten by the animals in the next few months. The shepards and their families will live in yurts and use the mudstraw structures as their kitchens . It is an unforgiving land . Mind you on our nature stops we have managed to find the spring flowers blooming in the shade of the sage and they are small but quite beautiful .Yura tells us this will only last for a few weeks and everything will begin to dry up .There is not a lot of wealth ... read more

Viele Reisende, die wir bis jetzt getroffen hatten, haben uns von Chiwa vorgeschwärmt… Und so waren wir also schon sehr gespannt, was uns hier erwarten würde. Die Taxifahrt von Buchara nach Chiwa durch die Wüste war abenteuerlich und es war vor allem sehr mühsam, einen Taxifahrer aufzutreiben, der uns einen einigermassen anständigen Preis nach Chiwa fahren wollte. Die Taxifahrer haben leider das Geschäft mit den Touristen entdeckt und verlangen einen x-fachen Touristenpreis vom üblichen lokalen Preis für Einheimische. In Chiwa ist die Zeit stehen geblieben. Die Lehmhäuser der Stadt sind gut restauriert und in standgehalten und man fühlt sich mehr den je in einem Märchen aus Tausenduneinernacht. Wenn man gegen die Sonne blinzelt, kann man fast die Karawanen sehen, die hier ein- und ausgegangen sind…. Hier kann man sich einfach treiben lassen und in diese orientalische ... read more

Uzbekistan has a lot to live up to - Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva; just hearing the names of its cities conjures up such strong images of the Silk Road, of traders from India, Persia and China all mingling and bartering goods, of Alexander the Great capturing the Sogdian Empire, of Genghis Khan raising the cities and of Timur's near mythical rebuilding of Samarkand to be his capital. Its all so exotic in my imagination. Luckily I liked Uzbekistan the second we crossed the border. It has a wonderful lived in feeling and is such a contrast to the almost sterile white marbled Turkmenistan. Neat brick built, mud rendered, white painted houses line the road. The front gardens are all neatly tended vegetable patches with structures for growing vines. For sure it is much poorer than Turkmenistan, there ... read more