First on today’s schedule of fun, was white water rafting with some Russian guides down the river. We started right out the front of the campsite and headed down stream. The river is glacial fed and absolutely freezing, so falling…
Chong-Kemin Valley
After crossing the border to Kyrgyzstan and settling down for a night in Bishkek yesterday, a trip to the market was needed for supply shopping for the next 3 days of camping. It’s amazing how much can be communicated in these…
Aksu-Zhabagly NP
Today, we drove up into Aksu-Zhabagly national park. The winding, bumpy road up the side of the mountain had me throwing up on the side of the road. For those scoring at home that’s the third incident so far :-).…
Welcome to Kazakhstan, home of Borat
Today we drove a long way to Zhabagly in Kazakhstan. The most obvious difference is Kazakhstan seems much more european than its neighbours. Unlike Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan has retained the cyrillic alphabet with a few extra letters, and also has kept…
Chicken, dancing and vodka
Ok so last night is a bit sketchy, but it went something like this. We decided to go to a place that sold chicken and had dancing as well. We turned up and ordered 5kgs of delicious chicken, 2 bottles…
Uzbeks
Today we travelled from Samarkand to the capital, Tashkent. Mostly a deteriorating highway of ok quality. Although I did see roadworks in progress! I’m here for the weekend before the serious camping starts on Monday for 2 weeks in Kazakhstan…
Samarkand is actually quite nice
I actually really like Samarkand, the major sites are connected with leafy tree lined pedestrian boulevards. Modern yes, pleasant yes and actually is a welcome relief from the dusty cities of Khiva and Bukhara.Our first stop today was to Ulegbek’s…
Leafy, sunny Samarkand
Today due to various tour emergencies, we had no city tour. That comes tomorrow, but I still went out and visited a few of the major sites from the outside. The first stop is the Registan, a complex of 3…
Yurt for Desert
We left Bukara bright and early and headed back towards the desert for a bit of yurt camping. Our first stop in the morning was at one of Alexander the Greats old fortresses. Not much left of it now and…
Uzbek musings
Today is a free day. Basically nothing planned like driving, tours, meals etc. It gives the guides a break and us a break from them. So I won’t regale you with stories of wandering the hot streets of Bukhara and…