Silk Road III Day 10: Arrival in Almaty

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Early morning departure to Shimkent airport for our flight to Almaty on Air Astana. As expected, we arrive at the airport waaaay too early, and with check-in pretty much a snap, we found ourselves to plenty of time to kill. I sat at the "Beer Port" and ordered up a cup of Lavazza coffee - USD 4, pretty fancy for a dinky airport - and a couple of piroshkis.

Upon arrival at Almaty airport - where we finally got off the plane using an air bridge - we were picked up by the guide and driver. Our guide Baghdad (yes that is his name) is a 60 something gentleman. Not quite what we expected, but according to him there aren't many young people who like the tourism business.

As it was too early to check into our hotel, we started with a bit of sightseeing. As we drove through the streets of Almaty, it was easy to see that people in this town were very well-off. Instead of the Russian Ladas and Daewoos we saw in Uzbekistan, the streets were overrun with Mercedes, BMWs, Lexus, Toyotas...although curiously, most people don't seem to keep their cars clean regardless of how fancy they are.

We started with the Museum of Kazakh Musical Instruments, an interesting wooden building housing - what else - lots of musical instruments. We quickly enter Panfilov Park, named after the 28 heroes led by General Panfilov who defended a village outside Moscow with grenades during WWII. The park is dominated by a large memorial and - you guessed it - an eternal flame. I snap some pictures, and move towards the Zenkov Cathedral. This is a very pretty Russian Orthodox cathedral, built entirely of wood and held together with wooden nails. There are many beautiful icons inside, and not surprisingly, very very bling. Baghdad, who is Muslim, does not join us inside.

Finally it is time to check into the Hotel Eurasia, located in a very plain building and looks more like a hotel-in-a-shopping center than vice versa. The lobby was filled with Indian merchants, and we were totally disappointed when we entered our rooms. The room decor was bland, but everything was cheap Chinese furniture, including the entire bathroom (there was only a shower stall, no tub). Nothing about this hotel room can justify its price tag of over USD 200 a night.

We are hungry, so we head to Sherbet, a fancy restaurant just around the corner from the hotel. This turns out to be a great choice. We sat in a booth and started to order up some delicious local dishes. Yes, we ordered up the usual selection of salads (including a delicious dish of fried cauliflower and mushrooms), and of course there was the obligatory beer. But we're in Almaty, so of course one should order up freshly blended apple juice. They were pretty delicious green apples, but at USD 8 a glass it's pretty much 5-star hotel pricing!

For main course we had three very traditional Kazakh plates. First there was kuurdak - a stew of beef, liver and other offal, potato and onions. This was actually pretty good. Then there was the national dish of besmarmak, which was by far my favorite. Chunks of mutton, beef, horsemeat, karta (horsemeat sausage) and onions on top of flat squares of pasta that resemble papardelle, all served with meat broth. It would be a dish that I relish for the next few days. Finally, we have the Kazakh version of plov, again served with karta and mutton. It was all pretty delicious, and this definitely is a place that is worth going back to.

To get the full view of Almaty, we rode the Kok-Tobe cable car up to the top of the hill. In addition to the nice view of the city as well as all the hillside villas, there is also a park with a small zoo. We take a stroll around, and ride the minibus back down the hill instead of paying another USD 7 for the cable car. Almaty rests against the mountains, and the city is built on sloped terrain where the southern side of town can be as much as 300m higher in altitude than the north.

After resting a bit at the hotel, we take a stroll around the hotel in search of a Russian restaurant. When the tip from our hotel front desk didn't work, we walk past the Presidential Palace, the Respublika Alanghy and find ourselves at the InterContinental Hotel. After determining that they didn't have a local or Russian restaurant within the hotel, we received kind assistance from the concierge and got ourselves a map as well as the name of a Russian fine dining establishment.

The restaurant was a few blocks away, but as it was nice and cool, I didn't mind walking before dinner. We finally did manage to find Borodino on Shevchenko Street, one of the streets with street cars. The decor looked nice from the outside so we had no hesitation in going in. We were seated in the bar section, since the restaurant section did not look open this evening.

I must say I did a rather poor job of ordering. In addition to a bit of salad and a platter of mixed meats, the only good dish I ordered was a bowl of mutton and pork ravioli. The herring, beet and cucumber salad was not to everyone's liking. And the two orders of rack of lamb were both done normal Western-style, with rosemary and all. Pretty lame. I knew I should have ordered the chicken Kiev and the beef Stroganoff...

The worst thing is that for a Russian restaurant, they didn't even have any Russian beer! We ended up with Belgian beer instead, and ordered a bottle of red wine from Georgia. Not knowing anything about Georgian wine - and unable to read and understand the wine list anyway - I ended up with a bottle of 2005 Marani red that was semi-sweet. Not exactly to our liking, and we struggled to finish the bottle only because it cost USD 80.

We leave the restaurant and try to get taxi back to the hotel. While we waited, I took a look at the cars parked in front of restaurant. Nothing but S-Class Mercedes, Lexus and Mercedes SUVs. Across the street, I see a stylish sports car but don't recognize the shape. It's certainly not a Porsche, Ferrari or Maserati. What could it be? Then I recognized the racing decal on the side of the car and read the lettering: Ford GT. I am impressed. For a car with such a small production, someone must have paid pretty big bucks to get one imported into the middle of nowhere...

We quickly discover that anyone with a car in Almaty could be a taxi driver. We flag one down and negotiate a fare back to the hotel. Very tired...

Silk Road III Day 9: crossing into Kazakhstan

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Checked out of the hotel this morning, and hopped into the van to go to the border crossing at Chernyaevka. This is one of only two land border crossings between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, and is about 30 minutes by car from Tashkent.

After being dropped off, we dragged our luggage to the checkpoint. It was 8:30am but there were already lots of locals swarming around. There were two lines leading up to the counters, and we decided to line up at one of them. There were tons of people pushing and shoving around us, and a lot of locals simply chose not to line up and bypass us. The scene was honestly pretty chaotic. In the end, we had to shove our passports through the window opening and in the face of the officials in order to get their attenion. The locals were doing the same and we needed to make sure that they don't cut in front of us.

After getting our passports examined, we dragged our luggage to the building further ahead, only to find that this was actually the real immigration checkpoint! Once again we line up, and try to fight off the local who seem to just squeeze past us without having to be in line. Anyway, as we were blocking the traffic for locals, the immigration officials decided to process us relatively quickly, and finally we surrendered our customs forms and successfully exited Uzbekistan!

As I walked towards the area where some people had gathered, I saw a blonde woman talking to Stan and Eric. This was Anna, our tour guide on the Kazakh side. We quickly filled out the immigration form and lined up at the counters. The process seemed a lot smoother here as there were multiple counters (instead of 1 or 2 on the Uzbek side), and they were using passport scanners and computers! Quite an improvement over the other side...

One hour after we got off the van on the Uzbek side, we were finally through immigration and had entered Kazakhstan! We leave the checkpoint and look for the van. For some reason, the van wasn't parked anywhere near the border gates, and we had to drag our heavy luggage a long way. I was pretty frustrated at Anna and didn't understand why she couldn't have asked the driver to come closer to pick us up. In the middle of all this, I decided to take a picture of the Kazakh side of the border to remember this experience.

We still have a long day ahead of us, so we drive through Shymkent towards Turkistan. The differences between the two countries were immediately apparent to us. The roads on the Kazakh side were nice and smooth; the landscape was the beautiful steppes, which Central Asia (and Kazakhstan in particular) was famous for; there were white clouds contrasting against the blue sky; the horses seemed larger, healthier and their coats shone in the sun. Everything just seemed better on the Kazakh side compared to the Uzbekistan that we had seen over the last week.

We stop for lunch after a couple of hours in the middle of nowhere. Initially the restaurant appear to be out of food and closed, then Anna managed to convince them to serve us. Aside from the usual salad, and having them slice up the melon we had brought from Uzbekistan, the main event here was deep-fried fish. We hadn't had fish or any seafood in a while, since Uzbekistan is a double-landlocked country - meaning there are at least 2 countries between it and the ocean in any direction. Kazakhstan is a bit better but still landlocked. The fish here was of the freshwater kind...Anna couldn't quite explain what exactly it was, and we weren't able to determine from its chopped up remains... It was a welcome treat, although they did add a lot of salt to it (probably to make it go better with the draft beer that they were serving us).

Our first stop of the day was the Otrar Museum. We had a English-speaking guide showing us around, and at the end he asked us to sign the guestbook since we were the first visitors from Taiwan. Well...apparently a Taiwanese woman had just beat us to it 1 week earlier, but since she was in a group of French tourists her nationality was not known to the guide.

We move on a bit further to the ruins of Otrar. Otrar has the historical distinction of having slaughtered the first trade delegation sent by the Mongols, thereby incurring the wrath of Genghis Khan and triggering his decision to invade Central Asia, wiping out pretty much everything in the path of his army of 200,000. Not much is left here, and due to time constraint we did not linger for very long.

It's another 2-hour drive to Turkistan, where we visit today's highlight - the Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi - one of two UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Kazakhstan. Though it remains unfinished, the mausoleum is an important example of Timurid architecture, and is significant in that it is the resting place of the famed Sufi teacher. Both the teacher and his daughter are buried within the compound.

We also pass by the rose garden outside. I am sure at one time (perhaps a few weeks earlier) the garden would have looked truly beautiful with all the blooming roses of various colors. Unfortunately, today most of them looked wilted as a result of the extreme heat in these parts. No matter how well you irrigate, flowers just can't take 45C heat for very long...

We take the long drive back to Shimkent, and again we are stopped by the police on the way. On our first day in Kazakhstan, we get the first taste of police corruption... The cops just try to use every excuse to impose a fine on our driver, failing which he apparently said: "Can't you just give me something?!" Oh well. It is Kazakhstan, after all.

Arriving into Shimkent, we get our first look at a reasonably-sized Kazakh city (population just under 1 million). As in the Uzbek cities we visited, the city is very green with lots of trees lining the streets. But we pass by a number of large, bright electronic screens showing all sorts of advertisements. Now this is something we never saw in Uzbekistan, and it takes a certain level of prosperity for people to afford these things.

Hotel Sapar is actually a converted apartment building. There are two apartments per floor, and each is a 2-bedroom suite with a large living room and kitchen. Furniture is a bit dated but the place is clean. After spending a few nights in regular hotel rooms, we are unaccustomed to this sudden increase of space! We end up having dinner in the restaurant downstairs at a pretty late hour, and order up the usual salads including a mix of rice, corn, potato and veggies that was quite yummy. We also get an order each of beef and mutton, and for the first time in recent memory I find the taste of the mutton fat to be a little beyond my threshold. But I am not going to complain at 10pm... I'm just happy that I can stay in and not have to venture outside in search for food.

Silk Road III Day 8: the long drive to Khiva

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Got up bright and early this morning, and left Bukhara at 7am for the long, 8-hour drive to Khiva. The roads were again in terrible condition, and it really did take us a long time to reach our destination. We entered the city gates around 3pm.

The main event today was to visit Ichan Kala - the walled city that was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in its entirety. After a quick lunch break, we started by visiting the Pahlavon Mahmud Mausoleum. This is a tomb for Khiva's most famous poet, philospher and (!) wrestler. The interior of the main chamber here is absolutely stunning. The interesting aspect here is that in Khiva, the beautiful ceramic tiles were not fixed to the walls using cement, but attached by driving a nail through the center of each tile.

We pass by the Islom-Hoja Medressa and the Islom-Hoja Minaret, the tallest in Khiva. I am still thinking about climbing it to get a good view of the city...so we don't go in just yet. Next stop would be the Juma Mosque with over 200 wooden columns which serve to support the roof. Some of these columns were the original ones dating back over 1,000 years. Naturally, the newer columns have decorative carvings which are much more elaborate. Outside the mosque stands the Juma Minaret, but I have another minaret to climb later...

The Tosh-Hovli Palace has its main draw in the Harem, where the aivans are ricly decorated both in terms of woodwork as well as the tiling. The aivan of the Khan (as opposed to those of his wives) was distinguished by its additional height and grandeur. We pass by the Alloquli Khan Medressa, with its pretty facade but we do not go in.

Our final sight of the day is the west gate of the city, and we climb up to the Oq Shihbobo bastion of the Kuhna Ark. This is a good vantage point for a view of all Itchan Kala, and I take the chance to snap few pictures, including those of the Kalta Minor Minaret that was never completed. I am sufficiently tired at this point, and give up on the idea of climbing the Islom-Hoja Minaret.

We decide to sit outside in the courtyard of a family with whom we had stored our luggage, and while away the next couple of hours drinking and snacking on bread, almonds and mulberry jam. Around 9pm, our replacement driver showed up (the original driver had to drive another 8 hours back to Bukhara immediately after we got here...). We make our way to Urgench to catch our late flight back to Tashkent.

After arriving at the Dedeman Silk Road Hotel, we quickly wash up and head to bed. We will need all the energy we can muster as tomorrow will be another long day, including our land border crossing to Kazakhstan!

Silk Road III Day 7: Bukhara sights

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This morning we were meant to go to the bazaar and visit the animal market. This is something that I had seen in Kashgar, and I wanted to have another chance to see people trading sheep and cattle, and perhaps even camels.

But first, I make a quick stop at the Bolo-Hauz Mosque, the place where the emir used to worship. They used to roll out carpet from the gates of the Ark so that the emir could walk to worship with the common people. The woodwork here is really nice.

On the way to the bazaar we pass by the Ismail Samani Mausoleum. The architecture here is pretty unique, and as it was covered with sand at the time of Genghis Khan's invasion, it was spared from destruction.

We run into a little girl who was dressed up and just looooved to be photographed. She was very cute and tried to strike up simple conversation with me in English, and her English was pretty good for her age!

Batir led us on a bit of a hike through people selling various types of used junk, in the search for the "animal bazaar". Evenually we realized that what he meant was the place where people were selling pets, such as rabbits, ducks, chickens...etc. This was a far cry from what we had expected to see, and we were a bit frustrated by the time we were wasting.  We headed back to the covered part of the Kolkhozny Bazaar, where I picked up some more fruits such as melons, apricots and peaches. All were very juicy and yummy.

On our way back to the van, we passed by the Chasma Ayub mausoleum. A spring exists here which locals come to drink from for his magical properties. Legend has it that Job struck his staff on the ground and out came the spring. That Job really does get around, since I remember visiting somewhere in Oman where his presence was also found...

Last stop of the morning was the Ark, the royal citadel dating from the 5th century where the emirs lived. We can still see the throne that the emir used to sit in to watch the procession in front of the gates. We visited the museums inside to get a bit more color on the history and culture of the region.

We are back at Lyabi-Hauz for lunch, this time sitting inside an air-conditioned room. We order up some plov, which was pretty good although not as good as what we had in Samarkand. We also had some beef meatball and chicken shashlik. Of course, no lunch is complete without Sarbast beer...

After a break to avoid the midday sun, we retrace some of our route yesterday and visit the sights around the hotel. First stop was the Abdul Aziz Khan Medressa, which is undergoing some restoration. Across the road was the Ulugbek Medressa, the oldest of the three so-named and predates the one at the Registan Square in Samarkand.  We wander off to the Maghoki-Attar Mosque, reputed to be the oldest surviving mosque in Central Asia, with a beautiful portal dating from the Middle Ages. It is now a carpet museum.

Eric and Stan did a bit more shopping for souvenirs, and we ended up at the Kalon Mosque. It is a beautiful structure, with an octagonal lectern in the courtyard. After walking around the halls, I decide to pay 4,500 Sum for the privilege of climbing up to the top of the Kalon Minaret. I am really glad I did, because the view was spectacular. We had a full view of the old town through which we wandered yesterday. We can also see our hotel next door, plus the Ark and other monuments nearby. And I took lots of pictures of the Mir-i-Arab Medressa across the square, which is still a working medressa and therefore no tourists are allowed to enter. It has two beautiful blue domes. Later on I learned that in the old days, executions were carried out here by hurling the prisoners from the top of the minaret onto the square below. Pretty gruesome, but I must admit that it seems convenient...

It is now sundown, and I decide to go back to the Ark to photograph the outer walls as well as the main gate with the warm light. I did manage the catch the last bits of the warm light, but it would have been better to show up half an hour earlier...

We had a bit of a tough time finding a place for dinner. We walked around the area of Lyabi-Hauz but found no restaurants which looked appetizing. The Russified Korean restaurant, Kochevnik, was not open. It would have been quite an experience to see how Korean cuisine was adapted to local tastes!

In the end we got a tip to go to Caravan, which is in the new town. The two main dishes we ordered were different types of beef jiz - one looking like a normal plate of beef, but the other was stir-fried with sesame and looked downright Chinese! And the funny thing is, it did taste Chinese as the sauce was definitely made of soy sauce. The food was pretty good here, and we continued to drink more Baltika...

After dinner, I once again took my tripod out and photographed the Kalon Mosque, Kalon Minaret and Mir-i-Arab Medressa. The blue domes of the Medressa are particularly striking, and the almost-full moon in the backdrop against the minaret also made for a good picture. As the lights of the Mosque were turned off at 11:30pm, I packed up my gear and went back to the hotel to crash. It's gonna be a really long day tomorrow.

Silk Road III Day 6: wandering in Bukhara

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Woke up early this morning and walked to the Registan Square by myself. The streets were pretty empty, with some people going to work early. The sun wasn't very high yet at this time, so it was pretty comfortable. I chit-chat a bit with the lone guard at the square, who was disappointed that I had already climbed up the minaret since this deprives him of the extra 4,000 Sum...

We are driving to Bukhara today. There is not much to see en route except the remains of one caravansari and sardoba, the supply stops of ancient caravans. Just before arriving in Bukhara, we make a quick stop and snap some pictures of the Vabkent Minaret. This is a very pretty minaret, one of a series built along the route of the caravans and used as lighthouses in ancient times.

Time for lunch again! We stop at Ismoil on the outer edges of town and sat out in the garden. Starting with the usual assortment of salads, we also had quail eggs for a change. When we saw the staff lift out a batch of roast lamb from the oven, we immediately decided to order up some. It was dry and crispy on the outside - very yummy and satiated our appetite for lamb. Afterwards we each had a little roast quail, and more quail eggs. For fruits we decided to go into the garden and pick apricots from the trees. They were not as ripe and sweet as the ones we bought from the market, but were still very delicious.

After checking into Hotel Zargaron right next to the Kalon Mosque, we went on a walking tour in the old town. Our hotel location was quite ideal, since it was smack in the middle of old town and within walking distance to basically everything. We walked through all three of the covered bazaars in the area - Taqi-Zargaron (jewellers), Taqi-Sarrafon (money changers) and Taqi-Telpak Furushon (cap makers). We even went inside a hammom to take a look, but decided that none of us could bear getting a massage inside a steam bath in this weather.

We took our time strolling through the narrow alleys of the old town, visiting the Jewish quarter with its synagogue, and examining the construction methods used by the locals. It's actually very interesting to be able to walk around in residential neighborhoods in an old city. We pass by Char Minar, with its four blue-domed minarets which symbolized the four daughters of the original builder.

We go back to the hotel for a quick shower and a break to drink some beer. We have finally lined up three cans in the Russian Baltika range - Nos. 3, 7 and 9. We do a taste test... No. 9 has the highest alcohol content at 8%, while No. 7 was probably the winner in terms of taste.

We stroll to Lyabi-Hauz and have dinner by the pool. Menu was pretty limited - in fact they didn't have any - so we ordered some beef and chicken. Apparently there are more Tajiks in Bukhara and they are not big on mutton! Unbelievable! The food was so-so but the shurpa was good, and came in individual ceramic pots. We call an early night and prepare for a full day tomorrow.