Day 15

Left hotel at 6 am.  Terrible passport control and security.  Had to open suitcase. Easy flight to Istanbul but landed 10 minutes later than boarding for flight to LAX. We were met by TK airline person who told us to follow her. She ran  and we tried to keep  up. We had to go thru security again then ran some more. When we finally got to the gate we were dripping wet and the plane was delayed 1 hour.  Once on the plane it was a nice flight.  We were surprised that it had rained in OC in May.

Day 14

We walked thru the park with Jamshed and went to several museums. One of them had small weaving workshop where women were weaving the traditional Tajik fabric called atlas or adras. It’s ikat dyed silk and cotton woven together. Bo bought a couple of samples to add to her Uzbek ikats.  Lunch was at a restaurant called “White House”. It was the typical sequence of several salads, breads, soup and meat with rice, but the meat was surprisingly tender for a change. We also got a lot of fruit. Strawberries and cherries are now in season so we’ve been eating lots of them. Khujand area supposedly produces the best apricots in the world, most of which are exported to Russia. Unfortunately, the best apricots called kandiz don’t ripen until a month from now. We did get some good ones, though. After lunch  we went to a concert at the music department of the Khujand University. It was covert of traditional and contemporary Tajik music for students and faculty. Since our guide also works at this university in the international relations office, he got us in. The concert was quite interesting, and the guy who played the drum was a real star. After the concert Bo was interviewed by the local TV station about her impressions. Then we saw a huge statue of Lenin and also an even bigger statue of the local hero Sommoni. Then bus to border.  Exiting Tajikistan was laborious and entering Uz more so. Then a 2-hour drive back to Tashkent, dinner and hotel (Mirai) to get ready for the flight back tomorrow.

Day 13

After breakfast we started a trek to Tajikistan border. The border crossing is unbelievable chaos.  To leave Uzbekistan we had to show our passports 4 times and produce all three of our Uzbekistan entry visas.  After an hour they let us leave and we had a 5 minute walk to Tajikistan.  Entry there was also chaos but a little better then Uz exit. Luckily, our Tajik guide Jamshed met us at the border and helped us with formalities. Otherwise, we might have been there much longer.  From the border we drove to the city of Khujand and had lunch and money change.  Then to the market. A large indoor market with everything.  Friendly vendors and they welcome you to sample anything and practically ask you to take their picture, wave and smile.  Then we drove to the Arbob Palace. It was built in the 1950s in the Soviet style by local craftsmen. The story of the huge, beautiful palace is unbelievable. It was built thanks to the vision and perseverance of one man, the director of a collective farm near Khujand who went for a trip to Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), saw the palaces there and decided that his hard working people deserve a place like this to enjoy in their free time. The cost of building a palace this size and quality was estimated at 50 mln rubles, but his farm only make 12 mln per year so everybody told him it was impossible. And yet he did it – by uniting 12 collective farms and getting lots of volunteers among builders and craftsmen. The result is amazing. When we were walking to the bus, a group of students approached us and wanted a picture with us. Then we checked into our hotel (Grand Hotel) – also surprisingly nice. The hotel is across the street from the city park so after dinner we walked in the park, which was full of families with children, music, lights, and all kinds of activities. Kkujund is probably the biggest and nicest surprise of this trip.

Day12

After breakfast we walked around the old city.  It is walled with tiny streets and thousands of vendors. Bo read somewhere that you can walk on top of the city walls and get a nice view of the city so we embarked on a quest of finding access to the walls. With some difficulty finding several people along the way, we did find it. It wasn’t what we expected it was a crumbling, pretty steep stone ramp, not easy to climb. We did it anyway and walk on top toward the main gate hoping that there may be a better way to get down there. The view was not spectacular either. When we reached the main gate, there was a dead end and no way down so we had to go back the same way. On the way back we met an Uzbek man and Bo started a conversation with him in Russian. The first question he asked was :where are you from/”, the second “How old are you” followed by “how many children do you have?”, etc. We later found out that this is a pretty standard way of questioning. To get down from the wall, Bo had to take off her shoes for better grip. In the afternoon, we visited Mosques, Madrasas (it’s all the same). Bo did some shopping (earrings). After an early dinner we had an hour bus ride to the airport which was a disorganized mess.  Our flight to Tashkent was not non-stop and we had layover in Bukhara. Then we had to wait an hour for luggage. We did not get to hotel till 2 am.

Day 11

After breakfast we toured the Savitsky museum. It really is an amazing collection spread over two buildings, and the guide told us that only 3% of the collection is currently being displayed. In addition to paintings, they also have an ethnographic part – artifacts collected by Savitsky in the Karakalpakstan province, including traditional clothes, jewelry, pottery, musical instruments, etc.  Then long drive over horrible roads.  Stopped at two fortresses, one of which we climbed. Since three people (including Al) were suffering from stomach problems, we didn’t stop for lunch and had a simple box lunch on bus.  Finally arrived at Khiva. It would be a really gorgeous and charming town if not for tons of tourists and an equal number of vendors along the streets. Khiva is a walled-in city and it’s small so it gets overwhelmed with tourists easily. Dinner at the hotel included local folk music/dance which was terrible. We took a stroll through evening Khiva – most vendors were gone, but many streets were dark and the uneven stones and steps made it difficult to walk.

Day10

Schedule was to leave hotel at 5:30 am for 6:45 flight. The hotel restaurant said they would open breakfast at 5 for us and they did – a full breakfast buffet. Nice. Easy flight for 50 minutes on Boeing 737-800 to Dashoguz. The coach met us and we drove to an archeological site of Kunya Urgench. It is MMMs from 12 to 14^th  century. From there to lunch then to border crossing. Leaving Turkmenistan was as elaborate as entering. Passports examined 7 times. We had to show our visa for entry into Uzbekistan.  All luggage x-rayed and we were photographed and finger printed. Then we were allowed to leave and we walked 200 meters to Uzbekistan where we had to show our passport 4 times and our old/used and new visa. They also took our temperature to make sure we are not sick. Our Uzbek guide, Farouk, met us at the border with our bus and drivers. We were very happy to be back and Uzbekistan felt like home. On the way to Nukus, which was our destination for the night, we stopped at an oldest and very large necropolis called Mazda Khan. The place is enormous and in addition to graves and mausoleums of prominent people dating back centuries, there are modern graves there from just a few years ago. After checking into our hotel in Nukus (Jipek Joli), we went for a walk before dinner. Nukus is a modern town of about 350 000, without much charm. Tourists come here because of the Savitsky Museum, a place that has the largest collection of Russian art from the 1920s and 30s, second only to the Hermitage. We have noticed that there seems to be more Russian/soviet influence here than in other Uzbek towns – more women wearing western clothes, fewer traditionally dressed people. Al got sick from lunch and missed dinner.

Day 9

The airport was OK  the flight  was full. The ride to the hotel was impressive. The city (Ashgabat) is beautiful.  All the buildings have the exterior in  marble.  Tons of marble from all over the world. In fact, they are in the Guinness Book of Records for the most marble in one city. There is a Ferris wheel enclosed in marble. We were told that to cover one mid-size building costs about $8 million. The idea came from the first president of independent Turkmenistam, Niyazov. He had lots of other brilliant ideas – planting evergreen trees everywhere, golden statues of himself everywhere, and in his last, crazy period, he wrote a book called Ruhnama, which he made everybody read and memorize like Quran. He had it translated into 40 languages and sent one copy into space. Lots of parks and large squares but no people.  We saw hospitals, universities and dorms but not a single person going in or out. The absence of people was evident to all in our group.  There are extensive archaeological digs of significant size on the outskirts of Ashgabad (Nissa Fortress built by one of the generals of Alexander the Great) from 2 ^cd  century BC. We went to a museum with displays of found artifacts.  The “spiritual” mosque that Niyazov built 2 years before his death (2006) together with his own mausoleum is the largest in central Asia and impressive. It’s not a real mosque because instead of quotes from Quran, it displays quotes from Ruhnama.  They are so rich in oil and gas it is spent frivolously. Niyazov decided it would be a good idea to plant evergreen trees.  This was a dessert but there are millions of small pine trees everywhere. The Russians came in 1924 and changed the country.  They built canals to bring water.  They built hospitals, education facilities and liberated the women. They  taught them how to capitalize on their gas and oil deposits.  And they built apartment complexes all over.  In 1948 there was an earthquake of magnitude 9.  Almost all was destroyed and 200000 people died. Then came massive rebuilding. In 1991 the Russians left and the first president went on a spending spree building monuments and buildings clad in marble, but leaving the road outside Ashgabad in terrible state, not to mention the horrendous bathroom facilities we encountered along the way. The 5 star hotel, in which we stayed looked magnificent, tons of marble everywhere, but you have to wait for at least 5 minutes to get hot water in the shower, and it never really got hot. What is definitely noticeable is that Turkmen horses are very beautiful and so are Turkmen women. Young women are tall and slim and wear traditional long dresses and head coverings, but both with a twist --- the dresses are colorful and form-fitting and the head scarves are more like hats covered with scarves (color coordinated with dresses) and are very flattering.  The official exchange rate is 3.5 Manak to a dollar but our guide exchanged money at 7 Manak to a dollar (the black market rate).

Day 8

After breakfast we started our ride to Turkmenistan.  It was a 2 hour ride over the worst roads.  Bus speed never exceeded 30 mph.  Finally at the Uzbek border they checked our passports 4 times before the allowed us to take a hike towards Turkmenistan.  A mini bus took us (for $1 each) for a short hop to the Turkmenistan immigration.  This was the most laborious process.  The border crossing process took 2 hours.  Our passports were examined 5 times and we were fingerprinted and photographed and charged $73 each. Some bags were opened and checked.  Only 2 packs of cigarettes are allowed and medicines are scrutinized. Another minibus took us across the plaza to our coach (for $1 ea).  Our first impressions of Turkmenistan were favorable.  Nice roads and clean. The country is rich with oil and gas. Our guide told us that health care and education are free and up to a few years ago so was  gas, water, electricity, gasoline and rent.  Now there are nominal charges. Her 3 bedroom apt with 2 TVs, 2 refrig, and air condition is $60 a year.  Gas and electricity are a couple dollars a month, gasoline is $1 a gallon.  People used to leave the gas in the kitchen on all the time since gas was free but it costs money to buy matches. The buildings in the city had marble facades. She told us it costs $8 million to marble a building. After lunch we started our 4 hour ride to our destination. Once out of the city, the road got terrible. It was miles of desert and nothing but pot holes.  We did see packs of goats, sheep, camels, and cattle. After 4 hours of pot holes we arrived at an archeological excavation of the ancient city of Merv, which was one of the largest and most important cities of the Silk Road until it got destroyed by Ghenghis Khan .  After 20 minutes of visiting we entered an old mosque/palace.  Then a sand storm arrived. We managed to get back to the bus and set off to the restaurant.  The city (Mary) is not pretty. Our hotel (hotel Mary) is nice from the outside. In the lobby while registering everything went dark. This has happened more 4 times in the room, and it was frightening.  We have an 8am flight in the morning and will be glad to leave. The building is beautiful but the hotel is terrible. No water, no phone, no tissues, no coffee, dirty windows, bad breakfast.  And they charged $2 per person to leave.