From Khiva to Amsterdam in 5 Days

In a period of five days at the end of our Silk Road journey we have seen remarkable changes in time and space. The change is more than appearance, environment and distance.  Life style, attitude, relations with the western world are only a few of the differences we experienced

Khiva is an intriguing walled city in Uzbekistan. Because it remains unchanged in many ways, it is a good example of what life must have been like on the Silk Road. We spent two nights here, but we fell in love with its many traditional charms. This town is a living museum, deeply rooted in the past.

Sunrise on one of the many minarets.

The wall and buildings are built entirely of adobe. The modern orange pipe brings natural gas to the residents who otherwise live a traditional village life.  The protuberances on the wall are graves. These are for defense. In Islam, it is forbidden to trod on graves.  

It just so happened that a bride and groom were having a photo shoot when we climbed to the top of one of the many towers in Khiva.  Old Khiva is in the background, the couple is wearing traditional dress with a modern twist, but the photographer had up to date photo equipment.

Ashgabat, Turkmenistan is a futuristic white marble city in the desert. It has many white marble buildings, wide boulevards and practically no people. It was quite a shock after falling in love with the hustle and bustle of Khiva. This is the final stop on our tour of the Silk Road.

This is an air conditioned indoor ferris wheel. Considering that temperatures get up to 130 F, air conditioning is a must. All the buildings in Ashgabat have a similar opulent appearance. Notice the lack of families lining up to take their children on this ride.

This is one of the many styles of street lamps in Ashgabat.  Note the white marble apartment building on the left.  All the buildings are covered in white marble. No marble is from Turkmenistan - it's imported from all over the world. I was easily able to stand in the street to take this photo as there is hardly any traffic.

Our final Road Scholar dinner was here at the Palace of Happiness.  This is where couples come to get married, or to get divorced.  Both are a source of happiness.  Although the building is red in this photo, it is white marble.  The white marble city is all lit up with colored lights at night.  I caught it in red, but it changed to a multitude of other colors.

Our flight from Ashgabat to Frankfurt departed at 3:30 am.  Given how exhausted we were, landing in Frankfurt was plenty weird.  The first item on our agenda was to get a decent cup of coffee.  

After three weeks of tea bag tea, or instant coffee, this coffee shop was perfect.

We haven't seen a newspaper in three weeks.  The first New York Times we see has a front page article about the World Nomad Games which took place in Kyrgystan while we were there.  We did not attend, but we were lucky enough to watch two villages play dead goat polo with one another so we understood what the article was about more than we would have had we not been in Central Asia. 

The final stop on this leg of the journey is Amsterdam, where we will stay with Iris' lovely parents, Carolien and Fritz. The first thing I saw when I was going through the airport was a display of bulbs!  We are in bulb country.

The huge ones in front are amaryllis.

The best part of this journey from the past (Khiva) into the odd future (Ashgabat) into the present that we know (the western world), is being welcomed with open arms by our friends from the Netherlands.

On the Silk Road, From Samarkand to Bukhara

If we were travelling on the Silk Road in the 11th Century from Samarkand to Bukhara, we might have stopped at this caravansari.  This place was like the Hilton in the desert.

At the end of the journey, we climb down from our camels and trade goods and gossip among the other travelers newly arrived in Bukhara.

With Love From Samarkand

Too Busy Having Fun

Some of  you have expressed concern that you haven't heard from us on the Silk Road lately.  Not to be concerned.  Note that because of the politics in this area every  hotel in Central Asia comes equipped with 2 gas masks.

I can't wait to take time to share what we are seeing and doing. We are currently in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. We are heading for Tajikistan this morning.

A Few Memories of Almati Before Continuing on the Silk Road

An amusement park in the sky - or on the mountain overlooking Almati.

Yes, we are really here - in Kazakhstan.

 

We rode up to this mountain amusement park on this cable car.

When I thought of coming to the Silk Road, I never imagined this sight.

Final glimpse of Almati, as we start the 4-5 hour road trip to Bishkek and the Kyrgyz Republic - Kyrgyzstan.

Almati, continued

We met our guide, Jama, and the rest of our Road Scholar tour group this morning.  We then spent the day getting the feel for Almati, the biggest city in Kazakhstan. Today afforded a small taste of this enormous country (the ninth largest in the world, and the wealthiest of the Stans). Almati is the jumping off point for our tour of the Silk Road. Tomorrow we head for Bishkek Kyrgzstan.

Paul at the Falcon Center puts a raptor through its paces. 

Sergei, on horseback, with another big bird.

Zenkov Cathedral is being refurbished. It is one of Almati's few surviving tsarist-era buildings.

St Nicholai Church.  Stalin closed all the churches in the USSR except this one.

Mosaic wedding in the subway station.

Almati Kazakhstan

Dostyk Hotel

Thirty hours after we left our home in Portland, OR we meet Igor, a tall well sculpted blond young man (note from Taylor: Jamar is sleep deprived at the moment, but Igor may represent the Viking gene pool in Kazakhstan), at the airport in Almati. He drives us to the Dostyk Hotel, gives us a few words of advice and leaves us to our own devices.  We walk into our room around 1 a.m.,  exhausted.  Jamar's ankles have become their own entity giving a new visual for the term hub caps.

The next morning, Friday, we sleep until 10:30. We find the Traveler's Coffee House for morning coffee, followed by lentil soup and a walk. At first exposure Almati feels quite European. I'm not sure what I expect to see in Almati, but I don't expect this guy.

Fortunately, the signage on the shops looks more like my idea of Central Asia.

Merchandise on the shelves of the mini market further meet my expectations.

After purchasing Taylor's Coke Zero, the sales clerk says, "Dasvidaniya." Does this surprise me, or I did I know that Russian is the spoken language here?

One more full night's sleep should improve our currently fuzzy mental state. As of now, all is well in this part of Kazakhstan.

The Silk Road 2018

Taylor and I are on our way to The Silk Road!!!! We leave Portland on Wednesday August 29 at 7:00 am, and we arrive in Almaty Kazakhstan on Thursday August 30 (at 11:50 pm local time).  We like to say we are going to "the Stans".  This means we will visit all the countries that have the final syllable "stan", except for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

One of the hopes for ourselves and for you readers is to be able to say the names of the five countries we will visit.  If any of us manage to be able to spell the names of the countries as well, we should get a huge reward. Shall we organize a Spelling Bee?

Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Tajikistan
Uzbekistan
Turkmenistan

 We will stop off in the Netherlands on our way home, to break up the long journey,  and to spend some time with Iris' parents.  As if not spelling challenged enough, we plan to visit Aachen (Germany).  Since we will be in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium territory I'm sure there will be even more spelling challenges.