The Stans - Kazakhstan & Uzbekistan

The Stans were originally the highlight of our Bordertrekkers trip. Unfortunately due to G's father illness and her 5.5 week stay in Germany it got drastically reduced to just a week in Almaty (Kazakhstan) and a short 2 week round trip through Uzbekistan. Nevertheless, G&T obviously were really happy to continue their trip and The Stans presented us with some true marvels:

First of all, after nearly three months of Chinese (vegetable) food, Almaty in Uzbekistan was such a welcoming change for T that he had a meet shashlik extravaganza at least twice a day. The Kazakh do know how to do a good skewer of meet and also have great beer to accompany it (Derbes). Apart from that (and the abundance of well dressed Kazakh women), I found Almaty surprisingly boring with typical Soviet style architecture dominating the streets and no real city centre to do people watching. Venturing outside the city, some amazing sites are within a day trip distance from Almaty: First of all Chimbulak, a ski resort, where snow capped mountains can be seen even in summer. And secondly Charyn Canyon, the Grand Canyon of Kazakhstan which with its deep gorges and steep red rocks it does look as impressive as its American counterpart.

Arriving in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, felt like leaving Asia and entering the Middle East. Huge Islamic bazaars and mosques as opposed to Soviet style basilicas, Muslim women dress code as opposed to Western style fashion, more Uzbek language as opposed to just Russian.

After finally meeting G at the airport in Tashkent, the two of us went on a "Arabian Nights" / "1001 Nacht" trip through the ancient cities of Khiva, Bukhara, and Samarkand with a side excursion to the horrible environmental disaster site of the Aral sea. All three cities were scattered with old mosques and medressas (Islamic schools) dating back to the 13th century (after the Mongols left most of Central Asia destroyed). All buildings were true marvels of old times and had beautiful tile work on display, mostly held in blue colours. However, due to a keen renovation government programme, most of the old buildings were a bit over renovated and quite often it was hard to imagine that the site in front of us dated back nearly thousand years. Somehow it felt like walking within a giant museum rather than a living old town. Nevertheless, all buildings were very impressive and Bordertrekkers recommend Uzbekistan as a travel destination (G more than T).

A welcoming change to old buildings although quite daunting was the trip to a desert landscape formerly known as Aral Sea. A too ambitious Soviet project to grow cotton in a desert lead to an impressively complex irrigation system all over Uzbekistan, but also to a disastrous disappearing of the lake and many related health problems for the people living there. We visited the fishing village of Moynak where old fishing ships are stranded on sand. Apparently, since the start of the cotton project in the 60s, water levels fell by 18 meters and the lake has declined to 10% of it original size!!

So ... The Stans fascinated us enough to put them on the list of potential destinations in the future, but we will make sure to come in summer (when it's warm) and seriously brush up our Russian (as communication without Russian is difficult).