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.