Blogs from Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Asia - page 4

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Asia » Uzbekistan » Tashkent July 1st 2012

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 ... read more
hills
Kazygurt Holy Mount, Kazakhstan
green fileds

Asia » Uzbekistan » Tashkent May 14th 2011

We arrived in Moscow and made our way to Kazanskaya station where we were to catch the train to Tashkent at 11:30pm later that day to leave our backpacks in left luggage. Well what to do with half a day in Moscow? We’d done Moscow last time when we had a whole day. Lunch near the Bolshoi and then acting suspiciously for 20 minutes looking for a geo-cache? Everybody knows St Basil’s cathedral on Red Square, the one that looks as though it is an advert for pick and mix. This time we looked inside; no big spaces at all; it is series of very high chapels all vividly decorated. See here for photosynth panorama: St Basil's Interior For the late afternoon a lazy time on Moscow River, cruising past the Kremlin, the Moscow parks and ... read more
Moscow River
Train No. 4
Soemwhere in Kazakstan

Asia » Uzbekistan » Tashkent September 14th 2010

Unser Taxi-Chauffeur brachte uns zu dem Hotel, das wir aus dem Reisführer ausgesucht hatten. Leider war dort kein Hotel mehr….. umgezogen, war die Information, die auf einem Schild vor dem Hoteleingang geschrieben stand. Für weitere 2 Dollar Fahrtpreis war unser Fahrer bereit uns zu der neuen Adresse des Hotels zu fahren. Leider fanden wir an der angegebenen Adresse nichts und da der Taxifahrer etwas nervös wurde, packten wir unsere Sachen und stiegen aus dem Taxi aus. Als wir wohl etwas verloren mit unserem Gepäck auf der Strasse herumstanden, sprach uns der junge Usbeke Cihan in fliessendem Englisch an und fragte uns, ob er uns helfen könne. Es stellte sich heraus, dass er einen Teil seiner Jugend in Deutschland verbracht hatte, und dass er in Amerika studiert hatte. Er sprach nicht nur fliessend Englisch, sondern auch Deutsch. ... read more
Eingangsportal von wichtigem Gebauede
Timuriden Museum
Moni auf dem Amir Timur Platz

Asia » Uzbekistan » Tashkent September 13th 2010

Nach unserem Aufenthalt in Turkistan stand er also nun vor uns, der erste Grenzübertritt zwischen zwei zentralasiatischen Ländern. Wir hatten schon einiges darüber gelesen und einige „Schauermärchen“ darüber gehört. Und deshalb waren wir sehr gespannt, wie das so ablaufen würde. Wir hatten uns von einem Taxifahrer überzeugen lassen, dass es viel einfacher sei, mit dem Taxi bis zur Grenze zu fahren und dann den Grenzübertritt zu Fuss zu machen, als mit dem Zug zu fahren. Da er uns preislich entgegenkam und wir durch die Taxifahrt viel flexibler waren, haben wir uns also für diese Variante entschieden. In einer 3-stündigen rasanten Fahrt brachte uns der Taxifahrer bis zu usbekischen Grenze. Dort stiegen wir aus dem Taxi aus und packten unser Gepäck. Der Grenzübertritt war offenbar für Autoverkehr ausgelegt. Die Strasse war jedoch gesperrt und es gab ein ... read more

Asia » Uzbekistan » Tashkent February 13th 2010

“What! You don’t exchange your own money?” I heard a man shouting in the hotel lobby, he was flabbergasted, whining about what he will do with the sum he had in his bag? This was a very strange indeed; something I hadn’t witnessed or experienced anywhere in the world before. It was what taught us to stick to the good old dollar for wherever, whenever in Tashkent. The two-and-a-half hour flight from Lahore to Tashkent left me feeling rather dopey. But stepping into one of the most beautiful cities of Central Asia was like entering an Old Russian movie. The capital of Uzbekistan and also of Tashkent Province, Tashkent is a cosmopolitan city with a large ethnic Russian minority. The city is noted for its tree lined streets, numerous fountains, and pleasant parks. We rested for ... read more

Asia » Uzbekistan » Tashkent December 1st 2009

UZBEKISTAN, 1° Dicembre 2009: Sopravissuto a medioevali epidemie, sfuggito a torme di loschi briganti, lo Mercante è ritornato infine a percorrere la via e, approfittando dell'attuale pax tecnologica, lo ritroviamo a girovagare per le lontane contrade al di là del fiume Oxus , le terre di Tamerlano, e vuole con questo rendere omaggio all'autore de "La via per l'Oxiana", colui che scrisse "...Se ne avessi i mezzi, istituirei un premio per il viaggiatore giudizioso: diecimila sterline per il primo che riuscirà a ripercorrere la strada di Marco Polo leggendo tre nuovi libri alla settimana, altre diecimila se riuscirà anche a bere una bottiglia di vino al giorno. Un individuo simile avrà sicuramente qualcosa da dire sul suo viaggio." TASHKENT Devo ancora togliermi la ruggine di dosso a causa del lungo periodo di inattività, ma, dopo i ... read more
Bukhara vista dall'alto
i simpatici Chaar Minar di Bukhara
Tamerlano lo zoppo

Asia » Uzbekistan » Tashkent October 1st 2009

The guide on the boat trip in St. Petersberg said that the train journey from Moscow to Tashkent should certainly be an eventfull one as all the Uzbek workers were leaving their Summer jobs in Moscow to head back home. Eventfull it was. We were in second class which consists of a number of four berth compartments in one of 16 carriages. 3 days and 3 nights of noone speaking English and a horrific toilet. Weren't sure about the train guards to start with, clearly the first chap decided westerners were easy pickings and that we would be the right couple to chose to say to the Russian border guards that his two random cardboard boxes that he had left in our compartment were actually ours. Jesus - good start. Then he followed up with trying ... read more
landscape
train kettle
wedding

Asia » Uzbekistan » Tashkent August 30th 2009

Avid followers of the blog will know that I was impressed by the talents of Ozodbek and his compere for the show. Just to give you an idea of how big (not in the physical sense) this guy is, the compere that is, we've attached a picture of him as a cover model. Now why did I drag Nicola to Uzbekistan? A lure of outpost towns in the desert, inhabited by the mainly static Uzbek people with a penchant for hard bargaining with the nomads of the Silk Road. This gave them plenty of money to build fantastic medressas and minarets inside wonderful walled cities. And what did we find? Prices that start at three times higher for tourists than locals (told you they bargained hard) Gold teeth - they are clearly loaded But despite all ... read more
Uzbek
Tashkent
Us with Lenin

Asia » Uzbekistan » Tashkent July 4th 2009

We left Ashgabat behind having met up with some new passengers, three Australians, two American and two Dutch and headed off into the desert having first visited one of the largest markets in Central Asia, where you can buy anything from carpets to camels (We didn’t buy either). We visited both areas, the carpets were gorgeous and the camels were very smelly and noisy - but then I would too if I knew what fate was ahead of me! The desert was unrelenting - a huge sand dune desert which just went on and on and we spent two days driving through it. The temperature was 50° in the truck with all the windows open. The breeze blowing in was like a hot hairdryer blowing in your face and it was all quite uncomfortable. We set ... read more
Camel Sale
Camel
Fire crater




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