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Published: December 14th 2012
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wacky statues of Shymkent
I never did find out what they stood for To get to the Uzbekistan border we have a final 50miles of Kazakhstan to cover. What a 50 miles – its totally different to the previous 1300miles!! There's hills, there's green fields full of crops, there's snow capped mountains in the distance. There's people and life: roadside markets and stalls. Its like we have entered another world. There's some weird stuff too – mostly in the form of very wacky sculptures – a ship on the top of a mountain pass, rings and suns in the parks of Shymkent. I'm sure they all mean something. The tulip lamppost I can work out – Kazakhstan is where tulips come from !!
You can tell when we get near the border as suddenly there's lots of trucks all queued up – don't know where they came from as we never passed any on the road. Getting out of Kazakhstan is quite quick but getting into Uzbekistan is really slow. Us pillions get through really quickly but the riders are carted off to another building and that's the last we see of them for ages. Its 40
0C outside but luckily the border guards don't seem to mind us sitting on the floor inside
hills
something we haven't see for weeks their building, they are even quite concerned when one of us lies down for a snooze and want to know if he's ill. After 2½ hours 3 of the riders have managed to get into Uzbekistan. The Australians like to travel as a pack so they are happy to sit and wait for the other 8 riders and 2 support vehicles but as soon as Edwin emerges we break ranks and head for Tashkent closely followed by the 1 American and a Kiwi.
As soon as we step into Uzbekistan it feels very different. Its strange the things you notice – central reservations often planted with colourful flowers, people working in the fields and the re-appearance of U turns & bus stops on “motorways”. Generally it just feels more alive than Kazakhstan, there are people around, there are roadside stalls but maybe that's just a reflection on the vastness of Kazakhstan with a population density of a mere 6 per km
2 or the fact that we are reasonable close to Uzbekistan's capital Tashkent.
Tashkent is a strange city. Totally different from the grand Silk Road cities of Uzbekistan. It reminds me of Turkmenistan – wide, tree lined boulevards
Kazygurt Holy Mount, Kazakhstan
one of the possible final resting places of Noah's Ark - hence the ship on top of the mountain with very little traffic, a large immaculately manicured park full of monuments but no people, lots of smart new, slinky, marble & glass government buildings. All very smart and neat & tidy but no people or life. The war memorial is quite moving: surrounding the usual Grieving Mother statue are two long corridors lined with enormous bronze “books”. There's one book for each region and they list the names of the 400,000 Uzbeks who died in WWII. The books draw you in, you instinctively go up to them and turn the pages and run your fingerers over the long lists of names. Somehow when you touch the names they have more impact.
The most exciting part of Tashkent was seeing the Osman Koran – one of the Muslim worlds most important relics, its the world's oldest Koran, written in 651AD, only 19years after Muhammad's death. Its enormous & written on deerskin. Its in the Khast Imon complex amongst some beautifully understated mosques sporting the minimum of tile work in subdued hues. Quite a contrast to what awaits us in Samarkand. Its a very peaceful, restful place.
Changing money is an interesting challenge. For US$100 you get 280,000 Som
green fileds
a pleasant contrast to the last 1300 miles of Kazakh steppe land but the largest note is 1,000 som!! You go out for your evening meal with your pockets bulging. So having made it into Uzbekistan and with every space available stuffed with bundles of notes we are ready to head out and ride along the Silk Road.
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