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Dushanbe

Posted by Jim St. George on May 21, 2023
Posted in: Tajikistan. Leave a Comment

Mark snapped this while we were flying down to Dushanbe. Pretty impressive mountains, huh?

We’re kind of hopping back and forth over the Tian Shen mountains – north of the range in Bishkek, south in Uzbekistan, north again in Almaty, and south now in Dushanbe. What has been interesting to me, in part at least, is that while the area is relatively small and the cities are relatively close, the people are quite different. While north of the mountains people are decidedly Eastern Asiatic, south of the mountains they are Turkic and Persian. Very different look, language, and (I would guess) cultures.

Dushanbe is the capital of Tajikistan, a land-locked country that is 90 percent mountains. It feels poorer than the other Central Asian cities we have been to and dustier. The first day we were here, in fact there was an intense haze in the air that we’re pretty sure was just dust blowing in from the deserts around the city. By the evening it was really becoming a problem for our eyes but then a rainstorm blew in and the next day all was clear.

Fountains in front of the Opera House. Sadly, nothing was playing while we were in town.

There wasn’t really a lot to do in Dushanbe – we hiked up in the mountains one day, went to the National Museum another day – but that was OK; we didn’t expect a lot here. To be honest we figured this might well be our only trip to Central Asia and if you don’t check off Tajikistan now, when will you?

I did learn bit about the country and history, though, and some of it was interesting. First, when we’d been in both Bukhara and Samarkand in Uzbekistan we were told that most of the people in those cities were ethnically Tajik. Then why are those cities in Uzbekistan? And doesn’t Tajikistan want them back? They are, after all, world-class tourist destinations.

Our hotel was on a main street through the city with a wide boulevard and these cool lights at night

It turns out Tajikistan would like them back. The national museum was mostly forgettable, but there was one line in one display that intrigued me. Under the heading of National Territorial Demarcation in Central Asia the display read “Although the national territorial demarcation on the basis of national identity [performed under early Soviet rule in the 1920s] offered tremendous advantages to some peoples of Central Asia, it artificially deprived Tajik people of their historical cultural centers. This act is evaluated as a national tragedy, the negative aftermaths of which are still discussed from political, economic, and moral stands.”

That’s it, just two sentences in a big national museum, but they clearly reference Bukhara and Samarkand. Uzbekistan is vastly larger and wealthier than Tajikistan so don’t expect the latter to start a war or anything, but it clearly grates on the national pride here.

Oh, and when we were in Uzbekistan our guide explained that while the people in Bukhara and Samarkand are mostly Tajik and speak Tajik, they understand Uzbek as the two languages are pretty close. Not true at all: Tajik is a Persian language while Uzbek is Turkic. Completely different families of language.

One other thing about the national museum? You could spend a lot of time there and as far as I could tell you would have absolutely no idea that there had been a civil war when Tajikistan declared independence from the Soviet Union. Someone must have forgotten about that.

The other thing I learned is that Tajikistan, like neighboring Turkmenistan, is well down the path of becoming a dynastic dictatorship. The current President, Emomali Rahmon, has ruled since 1994 after winning a five-year civil war on the dissolution of the Soviet Union. His son is both mayor of Dushanbe and chairman of the National Assembly; many people expect him to succeed his father. On the one hand, that sort of dynastic power seems fairly ridiculous in the scheme of things. On the other, Rahmon claims with at least some credibility that he is keeping radical Islam at bay (Tajikistan borders Afghanistan…) and that justifies his relative lack of concern for religious freedom and civil rights. The one thing we were certain of was that he is serious about the cult of personality: his picture was everywhere in the city.

Rudaki Park – named for a ninth century Persian poet – is a wonderful oasis in the center of the city and a perfect place to relax with a good book (or Kindle, as the case may be)

Highlights of the city included some good food – Lebanese, Ukrainian, and of course Georgian – and a fabulous park in the middle of everything. We hired a driver for a morning to drive out of town and up into the mountains; we read in Lonely Planet that there was a nice hike up to a waterfall. That didn’t exactly pan out: there were no signs at all as far as we could tell and at some point the gravel road that we thought we get us there ended in a big, locked gate. It was nice hiking in the mountains along a bubbling stream but it would have been nicer if we’d found the waterfall.

One more stop in Central Asia – we’re headed north again, this time to Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan – then it’s Istanbul and back home.

A lovely creek we walked beside heading up to the waterfall that we never actually saw…

Mark and Jim on the hike

And just Jim

A statue of Ismoil Somoni at the entrance to Rudaki Park, built in 1999 to mark the 1,000th anniversary of the Saminif Empire which he led

A view across Rudaki Park from the national library to the Presidential Palace

Daytime under the strange-but-not-unattractive walkway

One final strange picture. We had lunch twice at a Georgian-Italian restaurant. When you entered they asked which menu you wanted and seated you to the left for Georgian and to the right for Italian. Apparently a Georgian appetizer and Italian main course is just not acceptable. This space, though, is the waiting room for the toilets – women on the left, men on the right. It was just the most attractive, comfortable-looking space I’d ever seen. It would be weird to just sit there, but it looked so comfortable!

Almaty

Posted by Jim St. George on May 18, 2023
Posted in: Kazakhstan. Leave a Comment

Zenkov’s Cathedral in central Almaty, my favorite site in the city

Three days in Almaty and there was a lot to love about it. Now, much of the story was just about recovery from the bike trip. We were both a little exhausted, I was still recovering from dehydration or whatever hit me in Bukhara, and there were little chores to do like laundry and replenishing my lost drug supply.

On that last note, the only really important drug I needed replaced was my blood thinner. And I’ve experienced this before but I’m starting to recognize that this may be universal, at least in poorer countries: not only do I not need a prescription – I just tell them the name of the drug and the dosage – but it’s massively cheaper outside the U.S. than it is at home. Even with my Medicare Part D subsidy, I paid about one-third the cost per pill as I pay in the U.S. That’s crazy. And I may never buy it at home again. Why not just travel to Mexico or the Caribbean (or Almaty) once or twice a year and stock up?

Now, back to Almaty. Three things in particular stand out: the food, the weather, and the views. Let’s take the last first. We stayed at the Ritz-Carlton on the edge of town as part of our recovery regimen. When the yurts in Uzbekistan weren’t as comfortable as we might like we would say “Just four nights until the Ritz!” It really lived up to the Ritz reputation but the special part was that we had amazing views of the Tian Shen mountains from our window. No photos – there was too much glare and reflections in the windows when I would try, but trust me, the views were great.

The interior of the Cathedral

(Pro tip: If you’re on your way to Russia or Central Asia, there is an Uber-like shared ride app called Yandex that makes travel so much easier. And insanely cheap – a 15- or 20-minute ride from our hotel to the center of the city would typically cost no more than $4 USD. Not bad!)

As for the weather, apparently spring is the time to be in Almaty, just wonderfully warm but not hot and lots of fresh greenery. Just about perfect.

And then the food. Almaty is something of a bustling city these days, much more so than what I remember from a couple work trips some 20 years ago. Kazakhstan is a big oil and gas producer and that’s generated a lot of wealth, at least for the elites. And you can see the results all over the city: chic restaurants, luxury hotels, glistening new office towers. I’m pretty confident that the area where our hotel was located wasn’t remotely in the city 20 years ago. So we ate at a very nice Georgian restaurant, a stylish Italian place, and buzzy international cuisine place. Good wine, good drinks, great food. And after two weeks on the bike trip the chance to pick our own restaurants was pretty special!

A very buzzy, happening restaurant in Almaty with really good food

Oh, and one other way you can tell Almaty is thriving. About a quarter of the younger, hipper, westernized women you see out and about have these crazy medically enhanced big lips. Sometimes it looks like a porn convention must be taking place as these women parade around with these big puffy lips. Very weird.

So, what is there to actually do or see in Almaty? Not a lot, at least for those who were more into recovery and errands than being serious students. There is one major park in the middle of the city that was our favorite hangout. Leafy, green, cool – perfect. In the middle of the park was a beautiful wooden cathedral – the largest wooden orthodox cathedral in the world – that I remember from earlier visits. Built without nails, it’s a fun visit. The park also included just about the most serene, perfect coffee shop I’ve ever visited, just comfy and relaxed.

And that was Almaty, Kazakhstan’s biggest city though not it’s capital. That’s Astana, which we’ll be visiting later. For now it’s off to Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. How often do you get to say “Oh, I’ll be in Tajikistan tomorrow…”?

Here I am in the perfect coffee shop in the perfect park in perfect weather. Kind of nice!

The Memorial of Glory, a fierce tribute to the Soviet warriors of WWII, in the same park as the cathedral AND the coffee shop. Is that a great place or what?

Italian food in an elegant, semi-outdoor restaurant

Another shot of that cool buzzy restaurant filled with upscale tourists and residents

Mark and the fountains

End of the Bike Trip

Posted by Jim St. George on May 16, 2023
Posted in: Asia, Uzbekistan. Leave a Comment

The Three Wise Women – Becky, Lorilyn, and Rachel – on a camel ride at the yurt camp

For the last few days of our bike trip the scenery and climate changed dramatically. While before we had been up in mountains now we were in flat deserts. Not entirely flat, to be sure – there were some big climbs – but much flatter and drier than anything we’d encountered before.

After our last night in Samarkand the day started – as too many did – with a long bus ride over bad roads. As in three-and-a-half hours long. Eventually though it was time to ride and it was beautiful in its own bleak, desert, nothing-ever-changes way. A highlight for me at least was that much of the route was on very new pavement, a great relief after the awful roads we’d biked on up to this point.

Mark in the morning starting a long climb up away from the petroglyphs. We wanted the crew to put our bikes on the van and take them to the top of the hill rather than starting the day with a long climb. Peter, the lead guide, declined our offer and said we’d be fine on the ride. He was right.

Eventually we got to our second yurt camp of the tour, one that would go down in our memory as by far the worst of the three we would eventually stay in. No hot water when we got in, no running water for a few of us in the morning. Crazy loud speakers when we got there – it was Victory Day, a major celebration of the victory over the Nazi in 1945 – and everything kind of dirty.

The highlight of the region was that a kilometer or so from the yurt camp was a bunch of petroglyphs, art carvings in the rocks, some of which are believed to be up to 3,000 years old. After a lot of biking Mark and I weren’t super eager to go exploring but we went out there, saw a few petroglyphs … and came back to the yurt.

The next morning it was back on the bikes, returning the way we’d come in over that same freshly paved road, and on to the town of Nurota. A lot of that dry, desolate landscape that a lot of our fellow bikers didn’t enjoy but I was still into it. The interesting thing about Nurota is that it was founded by Alexander the Great and there is, in fact, still the (very minimal) ruins of a castle he built.

Here I am with Rachel, Susan, Stewart, Rebecca, Luba, and Lorilyn atop the remains of an Alexander the Great castle in Nurata

Next morning, back on the bikes and off to the Kyzyl Kim Yurt Camp. This was one of the stranger places we stayed in Uzbekistan. Truly out in the middle of nowhere, but only a kilometer or two from Aydar Lake, a huge reservoir in the middle of the desert. So after settling in and cleaning up we got on the bus and headed to the lake for a swim. To my enormous surprise it was pretty nice: there were wooden beach chairs and umbrella-sort-of-things for comfort and the water was pretty good for swimming. A little cold but you could get used to it. Slightly brackish from all the salt in the desert so you could float a bit. Nice.

Luba and I in the reservoir

But then it got strange. We were the only people at the beach when we got there but not long after a parade of middle-aged and older Muslim women came parading by, all dressed in pretty conservative wraps and dresses and headscarves. We learned later that they’d come on a bus all the way from Samarkand and the lake (it was really a reservoir, but they call it a lake) was apparently a key destination. They all made their way maybe 200 meters down the beach from us and proceeded to strip down and go swimming.

To say we were a little surprised is an understatement. I mean, they were well down the beach but certainly not out of sight. Someone in our group would ask “Are they really naked?” and then you’d see someone bend over and her large breasts would swing around and you’d say “Yup, they’re naked all right.” Our Uzbeki guide said that yeah, their husbands would be pretty upset if they knew they’d gotten naked with men in some proximity.

This is what our beach neighbors looked like dressed after their swim

And this is what it was like while they were enjoying their freedom

The next morning it was up and out of the yurt camp for one last bus transfer and one last ride. And it was pretty much a disaster the whole way. We were never real happy with the yurt camps and while this one had the advantage of the lake/reservoir, I actually don’t like sharing my bathroom and shower stall with dozens of other people. The beds aren’t that comfortable, you can hear everything going on in the camp, and they only have electricity during a few hours in the evening.

Our third and final yurt camp

Conditions at the yurt camp could be kind of rough, but the extreme cuteness of these marmots helped a bit

So we packed up, got on the bus … and learned the next day that I’d left my toiletry bag in the yurt. Without electricity it was just dark in there and I didn’t see it. Normally that wouldn’t be so bad but the bag included some medications I need. Replacing them has been a real pain, though eventually it worked.

If anything the bike ride was even worse. We were supposed to bike into Bukhara, another of the great ancient Silk Road centers and one-time capital of the Persian Samanid empire. Somehow our bike leaders and the local Uzbeki guide could never coordinate where we were going to meet up for lunch and so repeatedly we would be told that we would ride for 20 or 30 minutes and then there would be a break or lunch and … it wouldn’t happen. OK, they’re over there and we’re over here and we’ll ride toward them and they’ll drive toward us, except it never worked. Just a mess.

Mark on the road to Bukhara. We were supposed to have stopped for lunch LONG before this and ultimately it would be another hour or so before we finally made it.

Eventually, hours after it was scheduled, we got to a restaurant for lunch but by then I was hot and tired and apparently dehydrated enough so that nothing would help. That night I was running a fever and had chills and diarrhea and in all just a mess. And given that over the last couple days three – three! – of our comrades had tested positive for COVID I figured that was it but to my surprise I tested negative. Just dehydrated apparently.

Love that single bar!

So Mark will have to describe Bukhara in the pictures. Apparently it’s a beautiful old city, full of mosques and madrassas and so on, but I didn’t see much of it.

Finally the next morning we had a little more time in the city before it was off to the airport to fly to Tashkent and – for us – on to Almaty. Even that couldn’t go quite smoothly though – the arrival in Tashkent and transfer either to vans into the city or off to the international terminal was a mess in a pretty heavy rain – but eventually, somehow we got on the plane to Almaty.

What’s the summary of the bike trip? There’s lots of beauty in Uzbekistan – the mountains, the deserts, the Silk Road centers. And some of the food was really good, especially the multiple salads that came with nearly every meal. Don’t ever go out of your way to find Uzbeki wine, and the Grasshopper snacks that we’d loved on our earlier trips just weren’t as good, nor was the lodging. I liked a lot of the biking though I think I would struggle to get Mark to do another ride that didn’t have e-bikes. And the big thing that we enjoy about these trips is the people we meet. Doing the ride with Rebecca and Luba was always going to be great and running into Tony and Sharon was pure joy. But the rest of the people, almost without exception (almost), were fun and interesting and great to get to know. I mean, if you’re biking in Uzbekistan you must be pretty interesting, right?

One of my favorite pictures from the trip: Luba and our bike guide Sasha at the very end of the trip

And another favorite, Rachel, Becky, and Chee

Becky enjoying some tea. She was so upbeat and positive and excited about the whole trip – really made the experience better for all of us!

Even the cats loved her

Sasha leading the way on an amazingly smooth road through the desert

Mark cresting one more climb

One day we rode right past molting camels out in the wild

Our Grasshopper guide Peter and his guide-in-training son Ben. They would do the same ride as us and then do all the work getting things set up when we landed somewhere. Impressive!

Rebecca and Luba approaching the entrance of an 11th century caravansary

Bukhara was a great learning center in early Islam, with over 300 madrassas, some covered in spectacular tile work

The 154-foot Kalon minaret was probably the tallest building in Central Asia when it was built in 1127. It is such a stunning sight that even Ghengis Khan was amazed by it — enough to order it to be spared as his troops destroyed everything else around (as they generally did).

The 16th century Mir-i-Arab madrassa still operates today