Uzbekistan- Architectural marvels which make it the Jewel in the Silk Road's crown

All the articles I had read in my pre-trip research always described Uzbekistan as the "Jewel in the Silk Road's Crown", usually under a strikingly beautiful photograph of the Registan in Samarkand, a square which bordered by three turquoise tiled Medressah's ( For anyone who doesn't know a Medressah is an Islamic school). Needless to say I knew we were going to be in for a treat in terms of the sights we would see in Uzbekistan. 

Uzbekistan is a country which was considered to be of the greatest importance during the time of the Silk Road. It was considered to be the crossroads which connected Asia and Europe. Therefore it was unsurprising that Asian conqueror Tamerlane chose to rule from this land and leave a large architectural legacy behind.

Our first town on the itinerary after our visit to the Aral Sea, which Malcolm described in our last blog, was Khiva. A walled city which proved a challenge to enter for our big overland truck, after driving around it's perimeter a few times we eventually found a gap in the wall and arrived at our traditional guest house. In spite of the nearly 40 degree heat, we managed to do a sightseeing tour with our golden toothed guide who enthusiastically took us around the many sights of Khiva, from palaces to minarets, each had meticulously hand tiled walls and ornate ceilings.

Like Khiva, the famous silk road cities of Bukhara and Samarkand did not dissapoint. Bukhara's peaceful square and relaxed atmosphere made a good base for us to catch up with our fellow overlanders from African trails (Ok maybe we ruined the peace a little). Meanwhile Samarkand's Registan provided an overwhelming display of Islamic architecture and how stunning it could be. I don't feel that any of my descriptions of these sight's will give them justice, so I have tried to include as many pictures as possible.

Sadly the price to pay for such beautiful sights is the extensive work the government is doing to preserve the sights for tourists by moving the day to day life of the local people further away from sight. While this has yet to happen in Khiva, Bukhara and Samarkand had whole sections of the city being walled off while new building was happening all around us which the government had ordered in order to "compliment" their beautiful architectural sights. The effect was a slight loss of atmosphere due to our inability to interact with the locals and get lost amongst their sprawling 'old town'.  That said, interactions with locals were still possible you just maybe had to do a bit more work to have them, the Uzbek bazaars provided many an opportunity to barter with the locals for a bag of pick and mix biscuits and restaurants filled up in the evenings with people getting their Plov fix, a dish of buttery rice with chunks of meat mixed in.

So did it live up to the name of being the jewel in the Silk road crown? The blues of each Medressah and Mosque we saw could certainly be compared to a big fat sapphire. The buildings wowed us and it provided us with some amazing photos to share with you and although slightly harder to find than in say Iran, the hustle and bustle of Uzbekistan life also provided us with some awesome experiences.

Behind the Iron Curtain.

So after an amazing time in Iran it is time to head behind the Iron Curtain and into the Former U.S.S.R. Turkmenistan is our first stop. It is often called the North Korea of Central Asia and for many years had a very crazy leader.
He named cities after himself and built gold monuments all over the country of himself. There was one in the capital, Ashgabat, that would turn so it was always looking at the sun. There is also a good story of him saying that Turkmenistan needed to do better than U.S.A. landing on the moon and land on the sun. The experts explained to him that it would be too hot, so he said they would do it at night!
Even the new leader is a bit funny. In officers and buildings around town there are staged photos of him in many different situations. One of him in the middle of the jungle in camo directing troops, one dressed as a scientist in a lab, a man of many talents.
Our main stops in the country were Ashgabat, it holds the Guinness world record for the most marble buildings (all the marble is imported from Italy), and then the Derweze Gas Carters. They tried to drill for gas here but the mine collapsed, it was leaking a lot of gas. They were sure it wouldn't last long so lit it on fire. That was about 60 years ago and it is still burning. They have tried to put it out but can't yet. The other story is that a farm kept losing sheep into the hole so he lit it to keep them away.

First we need to get through the border. It is hard to get a tourist visa for Turkmen and we had to have a guide for our time there. We are only aloud to stay 4 nights and have to leave on day 5 no matter what. It is also very controlled on where you can go. The customs official knew which border we were leaving from and told me what roads I could go on to get there. By no means could I go on any other roads or it would be a $200 fine per person. Now even though the cold war is over our guide in Turkmen told us that people are still very wary of outsiders. They were told for so long that inside the iron curtain was friends and outside was enemies. I am used to borders being very easy and fast for the truck but that was all about to change.
Getting tourists in was fine and easy but the customs go through the whole truck. Every locker and bag. They open and smell every spice. Open and smell every jerry can (we have 22 for water). They asked about 15 times if we had guns or drugs.
They are very friendly and nice about it but takes ages. We have had it on both sides of all borders for the last 4 borders. Takes between 4-6 hours to get the truck through. Even had a guy the other day read all the lonely planet books we have, then he left, another guy come in and started to check the same books again.

But we got through in the end and spent a couple of days in Ashgabat and did a tour to see their crazy buildings. Not only do they have countless huge marble buildings, there are no people around. We went around all the government buildings and saw no one, not even cars anywhere. And as you will see in the photos we were lucky enough to have Turkmenistan T.V. come with us for the day and interview us. I say interview us but the girl with the microphone didn't say or ask us anything. So we just said what we thought they wanted to here and told them how amazing their country was. Still haven't been paid for it tho???

That is Turkmenbashi on the top.

A huge thermometer.

The wedding building.

Gaps giving them some fine words.

The man himself again.

The book Turkmenbashi wrote on history.

Then a few days on bouncy roads to the gas craters and up to the Uzbekistan border.
Our first stop in Uzbek was to be the Aral Sea. If you don't know anything about it you should have a read. Was once the fourth biggest lake in the world but the U.S.S.R. decided they needed huge cotton farms so built massive canal systems to take water from the rivers that feed the lake. In 50 years the lake has shrunk by 90%. It used to have big fishing industry but now the main fishing town is now 150kms from the waters edge. The towns around and the people have suffered massively and it is said to be the world's worst man made ecological disaster. They are still taking water from the river for the farms.

Our plan was to try and make it to the waters edge. It is said to be so salty now that a brick will float on it. So we organised a guide to take us as you need local knowlegde so you don't get lost and stuck in the middle of nowhere. But our guide turned up and told us he didn't really know the way. Great help. So we got rid of him and decided to visit the old fishing town. A lot of fishing boats are still there but are now sitting on the sand. Very sad place.

You can see from the sign when entering the city how important fishing used to be.

So this was once the 4th largest lake in the world, now it just had rusting fishing boats.

Going for a swim in the lake.

I have been told before that I talk a lot so I will leave it there and just put a lot of photos up. I will explain the next photo though. We changed money as soon as getting into Uzbekistan. Uzbek has the som currency, the largest note is 5000. But you never really see them so the biggest is 1000 som, which is about 30c worth....30c. When paying a bill at a restaurant we would need about 500 notes.