Ala Archa Valley

We've spent yesterday in the Ala Archa; a national park only an hour south of Bishkek. We were prevented from camping up the valley because it was closed due to a VIP visit- who turned out to be the president of Kyrgyzstan camping himself.

After a bushcamp lower down the valley, some of our group set off at 7am for a big hike up to a Glacier far above us. We didnt have any maps of the area, and the info we'd been given to find the path was ambigious to say the least. So we ended up scrambeling up a river bed for almost 2 hours, not knowing whether we were even heading up the correct side valley. We eventually joined a path and continued the steep climb up to a mountain hut at 3400m (we started at about 2200m altitude- I think) From here was the most spectacular view of a giant glacier. Three of us continued on to the glacier so we could say we at least had touched it, then headed down. It turned out to be an 8 1/2 hour strenuous hike but it was all good because we drove into Bishkek and due to our agent messing-up, we're staying in a 4star hotel with indoor and outdoor swimming pools and sauna. I'm definitely not complaining!

Neptun Resort Hotel; Issyl-Kul Lake

We spent one night on the shore of Issyl-Kul lake, near Chochkor, in the Neptune Resort Hotel- sounds mighty posh, it really wasn't! The rooms were minging, dirty bed-sheets with cigartte burns. The boiler in the bathroom was meant to heat the water but failed miserably. There was a sandy beach where the guests were lounging under old-fashioned parasols, on pedalos or jumping from the wooden rickety pier. It was like a time-warp. To survive the night, we all thought the best idea was to be less aware of the situation by playing drinking games. We ended up dancing with the locals on the beach celebrating a 21st birthday to the early hours of the morning, whilst some others went skinny dipping off the pier!

Neptun Resort Hotel; Issyl-Kul Lake

We spent one night on the shore of Issyl-Kul lake, near Chochkor, in the Neptune Resort Hotel- sounds mighty posh, really wasn't! The rooms were minging, dirty bed-sheets with cigartte burns. The boiler in the bathroom was meant to heat the water but failed miserably. There was a sandy beach where the guests were lounging under old-fashioned parasols, on pedalos or jumping from the wooden rickety pier. It was like a time-warp. To survive the night, we all thought the best idea was to be less aware of the situation by playing drinking games. We ended up dancing with the locals on the beach celebrating a 21st birthday to the early hours of the morning, whilst some others went skinny dipping off the pier!

Hiking in Tien Shan Mountains

We had two nights bushcamping in the same place allowing for a hike into the spectacular mountains. On our first night there, we were visited by some inquisitive nomadic locals, who offered their services of guiding and horses. So four of us hired a young excentric boy as our guide and he took us for a good 7 hour hike through amazing scenary to a view point of the heart of the Tien Shan range (translated to "celestial mountains" in chinese) and simply breath-taking panarama.
Our guide absolutely loved the camera, anytime I wanted to take a photo of the view he'd jump infont in all manner of poses!

Children on a donkey at Song-Kul Lake

I thought this was such a cute picture especially with the two children poking their heads round and Daphne in the back. These are the children of the nomadic family we were staying with at Song-Kul Lake.

Song-Kul Lake; Goat Carcass Polo

Finally, we can have a night out of tents, we are staying in Yurts by the shore of Song-Kul Lake, at an altitude of 3016m. A large proportion of the Kyrgyz population are still semi-nomadic, they spend the summer months in the high plains with their herds of goats, sheep, horses and cows. During the winter they normally move down into the towns. We were staying with one such family who have extended their herds to include a few tourists wanting to experience the nomadic lifestyle. The yurt complex even included flushing toilets- such luxury!


Many of our group hired horses for the day and trekked near the lake, but not being too confident of my non-existent riding skills I opted for a hike up the surrounding hills. We reckon we climbed to about 3600m from which we had a fabulous view of the lake and distant snow-peaked range behind. Up to now the scenary has been beautiful but very different to what I was expecting. The mountains are less impressive than the Caucuases because they are more a rolling expanse of grassy hills, but I think the landscape will change as we head further East.


The main highlight of our stay at Song-Kul was wateching a traditional game of "buzkashi" a polo-style game played on horseback with a goat carcass. The game started with the official ceremony of preparing the carcass, including cutting it's head and feet off! They then placed the decapitated goat about 200m from the "goal" -a blanket on the floor, and the aim of the game was to pick the goat up and throw it on the blanket. The locals took it very seriously and all the men's families came to watch. It was a vicious sport and since there were no boundaries the 4 horsemen easily blundered their way through the crowds of spectators. There were a number of occasions when I dived for safety in a near-by Yurt! The winning team received the goat carcass but often gave it as a present to a local family and recieved a gift in return.

Osh to Song-Kul

We stayed one night in Kyrgystan's second city- Osh, having had a prolonged border crossing. We visited the extensive market the following morning, where I managed to get separated form the group and thoroughly lost! We also climbed a hill in the centre of the town, which claimed to be the burial place of Solomon, although another 7 sites make the same claim across Asia. Climbing the steep hill overlooking the town reminded me, bizarrely, of Arthur's Mount in Edinburgh.

Following the civilisation of Osh, we had three nights bushcamping ahead of us. We made our way slowly towards Song-Kul lake, camping by lakes, resevoirs and streams (such as the photo) where we had most of the late afternoon to enjoy the refreshing water. Only the last camp was less than perfect as the trees by the river were infested with millions of vicious mosquitos.

Silk Production in Ferghana Valley

The day after we left Tashkent, we all took hari-raising taxi rides to the Ferghana valley (because the truck for some reason couldnt travel on the same road, and had to detour through Tajikistan randomally). Ferghana is famous for silk production, which is highly valued across the world but only produced in this valley. We had an interesting tour through an traditionalsilk factory, following the production from start to finish.

Of course, it would have been absurd to have left the valley without a souvenir, so was persuaded to buy a dark blue silk scarf ("twist my rubber arm").

The FM Bar! Taskent

Before arriving in Tashkent, almost everyone we had met who had been there, said "check out the FM Bar!?" The Lonely Planet guide descibes it as "One of Tashkent's few dens of debauchery..." - t certainally was educational! There were 2 guys, and 4 girls in a group, and we were the only girls in the whole place wearing more than just their underwear. I was certainaly impressed by the strength of the poledancers- never quite seen anything like it. But it was really very sleezy and so we left promtly, and experience all the same! (Sorry I dont have any photos, you'll have to use your imagination)

In Tashkent

I've now spent a whole 3 days in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. To be honest, it's not that interesting a city, especially having been to the historical sites of Khiva, Bukhara, and Samakand. It's extremely Soviet and has any parks and wide tree-lined avenues but it's also got more than it's fair share of blocks of flats. I've mainly been on missions to do various errands, such as changing my travellers cheques (that took about 6 hours yesterday) and stocking up on snacks for the next few weeks.

Tashkent is also a end/start of trip leg so we've had to say goodbye to Anthony, and 8 new people are joining us. I cant believe it we're going to have to share the truck with 15 people. I'm so used to spreading out and going to sleep on 5 seatsbut ... no more, it's going to be crowded!

We are now heading into Kyrgystan, and yet again a very different varient on overlanding. This will be the toughest of the legs yet, as we are mainly bushcamping in desolate mountains- miles from anywhere. I cant wait, there are many options for some serious treks around the Issul-Kul Lake and upto Glaciers etc, that I will be taking full advantage of. As a consequence, I wont be updating the blog for a while cos I cant imagine I'll see too many net cafes whilst I'm trekking and horse-riding with the mountain nomads! Bishkek (capital) will be my next contact in two weeks time most likely.(although every time i say i wont be blogging soon, i seem to find a cafe the next day unexpectingly)

Samarkand

We arrived in Samarkand this morning. We spent the last few days out of the towns, firstly on Sunday night we were in a Yurt in the middle of the desert. But unbelievably they had a satelite dish and we were able to watch the world cup final at midnight our time, which was quite cool. I bet no-one else watched the final from quite such an exotic location (prove me wrong and leave a comment if you can though). We then bushcamped last night on the way here.

Tomorrow is our full day guided tour of the Samarkand, but just walking around today there are some amazing sights. Yet again, the architecture here is bigger and better than anything we have seen in Khiva and Bukhara. The picture is of Registan Square the centre of the old city, and where our hotel overlooks.

We should be meeting up with another Drago truck tonight, they are going in the opposite direction- towards the UK so I feel a bit of a party coming on...again!

On top of Daphne

Daphne (our truck) has been a bit ill recently, her turbo charger has failed which means we cant go very fast. But dont worry, now we have reached Samarkand, she's gone to hospital for a transplant and should be as good as new before we leave for Tashkent in 2 days time. The positive side is that we can sit on the roof through the desert. So here are four of us enjoying the sun and fresh air on top Daphne. From L to R; Giz, Angela, Jude and Me. All of them except Angela are going all the way to Katmandu with me. (Mum- ignore the fact that I'm the only one with a beer!?!?)

Bukara

We spent 2 days exploring the small confined but spectacular city of Khiva, and from there had a long drive across yet more desert to reach Bukhara. Bukhara was bigger and the buildings were grander than Khiva. It had been the capital of almost all of Central Asia in the 14th and 15th centuries, and although almost all the buildings had been restored, it certainally seemed very impressive. Here is a photo of the main Medrassa (muslim school) in Bukhara. Unfortunately you just cant get a feel for size from the picture, it's absolutely huge! It is the only Medrassa in Bukhara that is still functioning but in the city's prime, there were over 350 medrassas.

Pete, Renee (2 crew) and Jude and I had a hilarious night out in Bukhara as we felt it had been a while since we'd been "out on the town". We ventured to Bukhara's one and only nightclub in a hotel out of town a bit. It was so slezzy and full of rich russian men with their young girlfriends. I've actually been fairly ill with food poisoning of some kind so I wasnt drinking, but it was very funny to watch the others get rapidily wasted on $4 vodka (for a bottle) and start dancing to Asian music. When the club shut at 2am, we got the name of the place to head onto next, which was way out of town. One hair-raising, music blaring taxi ride later, we pitched up in the middle of a Soviet housing estate and were escorted behind the scenes to an even more atmospheric club and another bottle of vodka. We succeeded in persuading the DJ to play western music from his computer. We got seriously lost on the way back to the hotel, driving through rubble and back yards until we gave up and walked back to our hotel, eventually rocking in at 4:30am!

Khiva Panorama

This is the most beautiful panorama from the top of the fort in the Kaan's Palace in Khiva.

Khiva, Uzbekistan

(i think this is my 5th attempt at posting this cos this computer keeps crashing!)

Ashgabat was the end of our first trip which called for a change of passengers. Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to Jim and Sian, they had two weddings to go to in England, before returning in Tashkent. American John also had to leave us as his Uzbeck visa application was denied. He was pretty gutted as things were looking hopeful for a while. The atmosphere in the truck is certainly different, quite a lot quieter without Jim's out-there laugh and patriotic banter with John. Five new passengers joined in Ashgabat, who are settling into the overlanding thing really well, and it is nice to discuss new experiences and travel stories etc.

Three days ago, we visited the world famous Ashgabat Sunday Market where one can buy absolutely anything. We mainly were looking through the carpet and souvenir sections, but camels, goats, kitchen sinks, spare parts, old soviet ladas were all for sale. Renee (trip leader) and I were feeling slightly worse for ware after a particularly heavy final evening with John, so we found a lovely accomadating lady who let us sit on her carpet for a while. In return, I felt I had to buy something from her; no- not a carpet!? but a embroided head scarf.

We then set off into the vast expanse of the Karakum Desert, and bushcamped in the middle of nowhere. Only a nomad's yurt and herd of goats were in sight. Early the next morning, I went for a run through huge sand-dunes in spectacular scenary. Our guide showed us around the ruined city of Kongye-Urgench. We spent the next night in a homestay farmhouse surrounded by cotton fields, turkeys, chickens and cattle. We played Backgammon way into the night watched closely by the children of the household who were very much intrigued.

Today we crossed into Uzbekistan in a mere 4 hours, it could have been a lot worse! we are now staying in Khiva, an ancient city perfectly preserved into a surreal network of brick alleyways, minarets, and blue tiled domes of mosques. We have a 4 hour guided tour tomorrow morning.