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.

Queen Hatshepsut's Temple

We have now seen more temples than I can count, without looking at our itinerary.  I'm feeling a little dazed, but still enjoy the cruising life.

With the red carpet, I kind of feel like royalty as I go back and from from ship to shore.

Like everyone else, we have a room with a view.  When we are lucky enough to be in our room we look out on Luxor Temple.

The highlight of today's temple tour was definitely Hatshepsut Temple. This is a mortuary temple.  Mortuary temples were built near royal tombs in Ancient Egypt.  Right up the road from here are the Valley of the Queens, and the Valley of the Kings. Temples were designed to commemorate the reign of the Pharaoh under whom they were constructed and then would further be used by the pharaoh's cult after death.  Hatshepsut Temple's architecture is remarkable and uses materials not found locally. It is also interesting because the Pharaoh who built it was a woman! Queen Hatshepsut was the stepmother of pharaoh Thutmose III and through various twists and turns of history she herself eventually became the pharaoh. She was the longest reigning female pharaoh, and accomplished much for Egypt. Well done, Queen Hatshepsut!

Hatshepsut Temple looks very modern to me, compared to the others we have seen. It was built between 1479-1458 BCE so it is another young temple.  It's built right into the side of a mountain.  Materials used in this temple come from all over Africa and Arabia. Further up the road from here are royal burial tombs that are also dug into the mountain sides.

Multiple statues of Queen Hatshepsut line the upper entrance terrace.  She is wearing a beard.  According to hieroglyphic stories, pharaohs always "strapped" on a beard when doing their royal business.

 And after a long day of admiring the work of ancient pharaoh's it's time to return to The Senator, and the elephant in the room.

I continue to be amazed by the bath towel sculptures.  I guess this is part of the cruising culture.