We took the sleeper from Khiva to Tashkent. The train was okay - newer and cleaner than the one we took from Moscow to Tashkent.
We found a hotel with a fast internet connection so I am hoping to load all the backlog of photos onto flickr whilst we are here.
Friday 28 May 2010
Monday 24 May 2010
Khiva 24/05/10
We are in Khiva now. We took a taxi from Bokhara which took seven hours, mostly through desert. It was very interesting, we saw falcons, marmuts, loads of goats and sheep and sand-dunes.
Khiva is a beautiful historic walled town that was renovated by the Soviets and it looks fantastic. It is an open air museum really, with many grand old buildings - mosques, palaces, a fort and an intact city-wall. Few people live here, it seems most people were moved out during the renovations, which does give the place a rather unreal atmosphere. Anyway, at least it is still here.
We are staying in a hotel just outside the walls. We chose the hotel because it advertised that it has wireless internet which we confirmed over the phone with the hotel manager. We wanted wireless so I could clear some of the backlog of photos to be put onto flickr. However, when we arrived we found that it not only did not have wireless but the hotel internet connection is a slow old-fashioned dial-up, so I could not load any photos after all. Finally we found another place with wireless and we are spending quite some time here in order to access the internet.
Today we took a marshrutka (mini-bus with a fixed route) into the local big town where the main railway station is, to buy tickets back to Tashkent. We are taking the overnight train that takes about 19 hours - it must go very slowly to take that long. It is cheap though - we bought first class sleeper tickets and they were only about £50 each. Trains in Uzbekistan are a very good and cheap to get around.
We will stay in Tashkent for a few days and then fly to Bishkek.
Khiva is a beautiful historic walled town that was renovated by the Soviets and it looks fantastic. It is an open air museum really, with many grand old buildings - mosques, palaces, a fort and an intact city-wall. Few people live here, it seems most people were moved out during the renovations, which does give the place a rather unreal atmosphere. Anyway, at least it is still here.
We are staying in a hotel just outside the walls. We chose the hotel because it advertised that it has wireless internet which we confirmed over the phone with the hotel manager. We wanted wireless so I could clear some of the backlog of photos to be put onto flickr. However, when we arrived we found that it not only did not have wireless but the hotel internet connection is a slow old-fashioned dial-up, so I could not load any photos after all. Finally we found another place with wireless and we are spending quite some time here in order to access the internet.
Today we took a marshrutka (mini-bus with a fixed route) into the local big town where the main railway station is, to buy tickets back to Tashkent. We are taking the overnight train that takes about 19 hours - it must go very slowly to take that long. It is cheap though - we bought first class sleeper tickets and they were only about £50 each. Trains in Uzbekistan are a very good and cheap to get around.
We will stay in Tashkent for a few days and then fly to Bishkek.
Thursday 20 May 2010
Bokhara 20th May 2010
We took the Sharq express train from Samarkand to Bokhara. The train is comfortable and quite fast, but all the carriages have Uzbek television playing the whole time with the volume turned up really loud - enough to give a headache. I was so glad I bought a good MP3 player and then bought a good pair of noise reducing earphones - I wore them for the whole 3 hour trip. This was much betther than the 4 hour trip from Tashkent to Samarkand when I forgot to keep the earphones handy and could not use the MP3 player.
Bokhara is a much smaller and quieter city than Samarkand and the old town is fairly separate from the new part. The old town is an arabic-style place, with narrow streets and walk-ways and lots of old buildings leaning into the street. It is so much like the old town in Cordoba. The old monumental buildings are the same design as in Samarkand and the Alhambra in Granada. Most of them have been renovated by the Russians during the soviet period, so they are in quite good condition even though they are quite old. It is like being in an Arabic tale from 1001 nights.
Lian Choo went to a Hammam today that is 600 years old. She was there for one and a half hours - they gave her a massage, bath, scrub, sauna - she loved it.
Bokhara is a much smaller and quieter city than Samarkand and the old town is fairly separate from the new part. The old town is an arabic-style place, with narrow streets and walk-ways and lots of old buildings leaning into the street. It is so much like the old town in Cordoba. The old monumental buildings are the same design as in Samarkand and the Alhambra in Granada. Most of them have been renovated by the Russians during the soviet period, so they are in quite good condition even though they are quite old. It is like being in an Arabic tale from 1001 nights.
Lian Choo went to a Hammam today that is 600 years old. She was there for one and a half hours - they gave her a massage, bath, scrub, sauna - she loved it.
Samarkand 15th May 2010
Samarkand is beautiful. So many beautiful mosques and mausoleums. The Registan and Shah-i-Zinden mausoleum are particularly spectacular. The town is a mixture of old arabic-style and soviet straight streets with modern buildings. We had poblems finding a good internet connection so I don't know when I will be able to put the photos I took on to flickr.
The people in Uzbekistan seem to be very friendly wherever we go. they stop and talk to us and are interested in who we are, where we come from, if we like Uzbekistan, where we are going next. Most people speak very good Russian and some speak some English.
The people in Uzbekistan seem to be very friendly wherever we go. they stop and talk to us and are interested in who we are, where we come from, if we like Uzbekistan, where we are going next. Most people speak very good Russian and some speak some English.
Wednesday 12 May 2010
Tashkent
We took the train from Moscow to Tashkent. We stayed on it for 3 days and nights. It was a great trip, we ran along-side the Volga River for a long time and then crossed it via a long metal bridge to get to Samara. We crossed into Kazakhstan in the early hours of the second night. The 2 border crossings each took about 2 hours, but both were problem free, the officials were very nice and helpful in all 3 countries.
Tashkent is a big busy Asian city with obvious Russian/Soviet influences. The food in Uzbekistan is good and the bread great. The bread is sold in the street all over the city. We stayed in a very nice family run guesthouse not far from the Chorsu Bazaar, which is a very big market selling all kinds of fresh fruit. Everything was fresh, high quality and cheap and the people running the stalls were all friendly and sociable. We stayed in Tashkent for just 2 nights because we will need to return there before leaving Uzbekistan. We took the express train to Bokhara from Tashkent and got out at Samarkand - we will stay in Samarkand for about 6 days.
Tashkent is a big busy Asian city with obvious Russian/Soviet influences. The food in Uzbekistan is good and the bread great. The bread is sold in the street all over the city. We stayed in a very nice family run guesthouse not far from the Chorsu Bazaar, which is a very big market selling all kinds of fresh fruit. Everything was fresh, high quality and cheap and the people running the stalls were all friendly and sociable. We stayed in Tashkent for just 2 nights because we will need to return there before leaving Uzbekistan. We took the express train to Bokhara from Tashkent and got out at Samarkand - we will stay in Samarkand for about 6 days.
Vladimir and Suzdal, Russia
We spent 2 days in Vladimir and Suzdal whilst we were in the Moscow area. We stayed in a nice hotel in Vladimir and also visited suzdal from there. We took the train from Moscow to Vladimir, which takes about 2 hours and returned 2 days later by bus so we could see more of the country-side - which is pretty samey, but nice to see nevertheless. The journey mostly was pine forests and wodden houses lining the road-side.
Both towns are nice and Suzdal is a beautiful small country town. Although at one time it was an important Russian city and Vladimir was the Russian capital in the 15th century.
Both towns are nice and Suzdal is a beautiful small country town. Although at one time it was an important Russian city and Vladimir was the Russian capital in the 15th century.
Wednesday 5 May 2010
Moscow - 27th
We took the SAPSAN bullet train from St Petersburg to Moscow. It was really great - the train is luxurious.
We will stay in Moscow until Friday 7th May. But we will go to Vladimir and Suzdal 4th and 5th May.
In Moscow we went on a river boat and the Kremlin. We are enjoying Moscow - it is so easy to get around on the Metro. We took a trolley bus to see the Yuri Gargarin statue.
Vladimir and Suzdal are Golden Ring towns and are very interesting. Old churches, a Kremlin and museums.
We will stay in Moscow until Friday 7th May. But we will go to Vladimir and Suzdal 4th and 5th May.
In Moscow we went on a river boat and the Kremlin. We are enjoying Moscow - it is so easy to get around on the Metro. We took a trolley bus to see the Yuri Gargarin statue.
Vladimir and Suzdal are Golden Ring towns and are very interesting. Old churches, a Kremlin and museums.
St Petersburg - 22nd to 27th April
We took the overnight train to St Petersburg from Vilnius. It was great - comfortable beds and they gave us okay dinner and breakfast. Crossing the border was strange - it took one hour to get to the russian border staff after leaving the Latvian border.
St Petersburg is very beautiful. Loads of grand buildings, canals and Palaces. We went to Peterhof - it was styled on Versailles.
St Petersburg is very beautiful. Loads of grand buildings, canals and Palaces. We went to Peterhof - it was styled on Versailles.
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