Central Asia

We are back from our most recent crazy trip. This time it was Central Asia and the "five stans" - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. We made all of our objectives. And we have now been to 104 countries. Angie has 95 and I have 94 countries. Together it is 104. These five countries were packed into 12 days, 7 flights, 2 high speed trains, 1 cable car ride, 1 horse ride, and lots of hours in car trips.

They are all Muslim countries, but they are better characterized as former Soviet countries. Russian langauge is a strong second language in all of these countries. There isn't much English spoken in any of them. Angie being fluent in Russian made all the difference and did intrepreting for me as well as a couple of British backpackers we met in Turkmenistan.

Tajikistan is the Country with the distinct langauage being a derivitive of Persian with the others being Turkic. Ethnically, Southern Uzbecs are Tajik. Interesting, the spelling of many words is distorted in unpredicable ways. Since there is transliteration happening between two or three languages and two or three alphabets, you can pretty much rule out consistent spelling.

We learned a lot and we had a great time with this episode of adventure tourism. Great place for it.

Kazakhstan

We didn't explore much of this large country. We explored Almaty (the old capital, but still the capital in many ways). We went out to the country for horseback riding and archery. And we took a cable car up to the "Kok Tobe" which appears to be a kinda mini Soviet style resort. In the summer it would be a good place to get into some cool clean air.

Kyrgyzstan

We flew into Bishkek. On the way downtown I noticed the smell of burning coal. It turns out a lot of coal is burned for heat. There is also a massive central heating facility in the city that supplies heat to buildings. The central facility rings of Soviets. Krygystan is generaly less polished than other places we went. The people were super nice. Our driver spoke terrific English. We went on a trip to lake Issyk-Kul. it was about 4 hours each way with stops. The lake is salty, but not nearly as saulty as the ocean. Of course we tasted it.

Tajikistan

We hired a driver in Summerkand UZ and drove to Panjakent (Панҷакент). Actually, it was two drivers, one on each side of the border and we walked across the border. We went to a great market in Panjakent. There was no electric in the market because it was considered too much of a fire risk. I agree. The masonry walls and tight quarters would be a bad scene. We found local goods and well as imported goods. There was a gypsy going around offering a service on inhaling some burning grasses that were supposed to be good for your health and particularly your eyes. Of course we had to try some of that. The fire hazard in the bazaar was forgotten.

Uzbekistan

We took a highspeed train between Tashkent and Summerkand and again to Bukhara. Very nice and relaxing compared to our normal flying. I wanted to stay in the old soviet Uzbekistan Hotel. The brutalist architecture is fascinating.

Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan is a fascinating place. Most Westerners are totally unaware of what Turkmenistan is and what it is like. "It is just one of the stans". All the countries we visited on this trip were distinct and Turkministan stands out loudly in almost all respects. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkmenistan

Turkministan is a closed country since 2008. Basically, you are not allowed in as a foreigner and you are not allowed out if you are a citizen. There are exceptions, of course. Angie says it's Soviet thing.