Welcome to Uzbekistan, my 132nd Visit and 127th Run UN Country out of a total of 193. As usual, after the last lot of photos below is a brief summary of the country of Uzbekistan and ten interesting facts that set this country apart.
Welcome also to the half-way post for this Madventure Istanbul to Beijing Truck Expedition.
We left the Konje-Urgench ruins at 10am and headed to the Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan border only 18km away surrounded by flat almost sea-level farming areas. Exiting Turkmenistan was normal with big and small bags. Short walk to the Uzbekistan border office and we almost went through with no bags until the X-Ray guy asked for big bags. Would have been the quickest and easiest entry to date. The Uzbek guards were very friendly. No one else was around so the whole exercise was close to 2.5hrs which is good. By 2pm I was rolling in my 132nd country !!!
First impressions of Uzbekistan were good. ATMs, credit cards and slightly better roads. First hour landscape much like Turkmen border – flat, low and mostly farmland. Towns and buildings nowhere near as fancy as Turkmenistan – basic like Turkey. More rough roads on this side of the border delayed us coming into Moynaq at 745pm. Headed to the viewpoint elevated above the now dry Aral Sea with 11 rusted ships spread out before us. Where did the Aral Sea go ? When ? Who ? In 1960 the Aral Sea was the 4th largest lake in the world. The USSR constructed of irrigation infrastructure, including canals, dams, and reservoirs, that diverted water from the Syr Darya and Amu Darya rivers, which were the main sources of fresh water for the Aral Sea for cotton farming. This led to the demise of the Aral Sea in the late 1980s.
The truck attempted to camp next to one of the larger ships but the soft sand of the bottom of the Aral saw and end to that. The truck got stuck and for the first time, the steel traction plates came out and holes were dug behind the back wheels and inserted into these holes. It worked. The plates created the right grip for the back wheels to gain traction and moment and pull out. Truck was parked at the top of the hill overlooking the ships and my cook group swung into action for dinner. By 9pm we were eating and the good news came. I had asked Tyne to checkout some hotels only 1km walk away and he found a room with 3 beds in it. $32AUD for 3 people. Unreal. I cleaned up and walked back with Tyne and William to experience one of the best things after 2 days of constant heat, sweat, dust, 12hr drive days and the rigours of tent camping – a shower !!! Slept in seconds.
Up at 515am to walk back to the truck for brekkie service. The sun rose as we prepared and by 730am we were on the road again destined for 377km and 9hrs of driving to Khiva and 9 straight nights of hotels and Wi-Fi – bliss bliss bliss !!! The roads were much better on this journey and you could see the eagerness of everyone to get to Khiva and that hot shower. Landscape very sedate with scattered towns and lots of farms. All flat. All low at around 100m. Several stops along the way revealed a definite “Mongol” look amongst the locals with lots of Russian being spoken. Uzbekistan has its own language based on Latin letters which resemble half-Turkish and half-Polish/Czech. We rolled into 36C Khiva at 5pm. We stayed in a traditional mudbrick hotel inside the ancient walled city. I had the supermarket already marked, confirmed it with Murat at reception and off I went to stock up on wine, cheese and olives.
Khiva (Pop 147,400, Elev 110m) is built around an ancient mudbrick walled fortress called Itchan Kala, established by the Khorezm peoples in 503BC. Legend has it that Khiva was the site of an earlier settlement founded by Shem, one of the sons of Noah after the great flood. The settlement was then taken over by Turks in the 10th century AD, and the region gradually turned into an area with a majority of Turkic speakers. In the 17th century, Khiva began to develop as a slave market. For several centuries, the cities of Bukhara and Khiva were known as major centres of the slave trade. During the first half of the 19th century, around 30,000 Persians and an unknown number of Russians, were enslaved there before being sold. A large part of them were involved in the construction of buildings in the walled Itchan Kala. The old town retains more than 50 historic monuments and 250 old houses, mostly dating from the 18th or 19th centuries. Khiva was also home to a number of madrassahs (educational establishments).
My 10km run out of the walled fortress was my first in Uzbekistan and went well. I spotted a barber shop during the run which paved the way for my number 1 shearing later that day. I set out on my solo walk of Itchan Kala at 11am. It was already 30C with blue skies. There is much to look at and absorb. Took me until 3pm to capture the best. I visited and photographed the following structures: Northern Gate & Walls, East Gate, Ak Mosque, Juma Mosque, Yunus Khan Mausoleum, Mozori Sharif Madrasah, Islam-Khoja Minaret, Bagbanli Mosque, Sayid Ata Mosque, Sayid Allauddin Mausoleum, Takhir Eshon Mausoleum, Muhammad Aminkhan Madrasah, Kalata Minor Minaret, West Gate, Konya Ark, Ak Sheikh Bobo Tower. The highlight was definitely the very last structure, the Ak Sheikh Bobo Tower because it has a commanding view of the entire Itchan Kala – side on – next to the West Gate. Tonight was a celebration of a great run and a great solo walk culminating in almost 30,000 steps !!! Hot BBQ chicken, lots of veggies, lots of Uzbek Wine and ice cream !!!
My final day in Khiva (Wed 14MAY) was a total rest day spent blogging, paying bills and planning attractions for the remaining cities in Uzbekistan. I also booked my first proper truck jump: a 4day, 3night solo trip to the capital Tashkent – instead of camping by a lake with the truck. That night I sampled my first two traditional Uzbek dishes: SHIVIT OSHI and SOIS KABAB. The first is green wheat noodles with stewed diced beef, potato, carrots and yoghurt. The second is large flat beef pieces sauteed in onion, tomato and chilli. Gorgeous.
I hope you find the following images of Khiva, equally gorgeous…
UZBEKISTAN IN A NUTSHELL
Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country, surrounded by five countries, making it one of only two doubly landlocked countries on Earth, the other being Liechtenstein. Uzbekistan is part of the Turkic world. The first recorded settlers in the land of what is modern Uzbekistan were Eastern Iranian nomads, known as Scythians, who founded kingdoms in Khwarazm, Bactria, and Sogdia in the 8th – 6th centuries BC, as well as Fergana and Margiana in the 3rd century BC – 6th century AD. The area was incorporated into the Achaemenid Empire and, after a period of Greco-Bactrian rule and later by the Sasanian Empire, until the Muslim conquest of Persia in the 7th century. The early Muslim conquests and the subsequent Samanid Empire converted most of the people into adherents of Islam. During this period, cities began to grow rich from the Silk Road, and became a centre of the Islamic Golden Age. The local Khwarazmian dynasty was destroyed by the Mongol invasion in the 13th century, leading to a dominance by Mongol peoples. Timur (Tamerlane) in the 14thcentury established the Timurid Empire. Its capital was Samarkand, which became a centre of science under the rule of Ulugh Beg, giving birth to the Timurid Renaissance. The territories of the Timurid dynasty were conquered by Kipchak Shaybanids in the 16th century. Conquests by Emperor Babur towards the east led to the foundation of the Mughal Empire in India. In 1924, national delimitation created the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic as a republic of the Soviet Union. It declared independence as the Republic of Uzbekistan in 1991.
Uzbekistan is a secular state, with a semi-presidential constitutional government. Uzbekistan is a major producer and exporter of cotton. With the gigantic power-generation facilities from the Soviet era and an ample supply of natural gas, Uzbekistan has become the largest electricity producer in Central Asia.
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT UZBEKISTAN:
1. Most influential Silk Road Cities with 4, now UNESCO protected for that reason.
2. Most influenced by Russian language & culture during its 200-year occupation by the Soviet Union.
3. Tea preparation & drinking is an hour-long ritual just like in Japan or parts of China.
4. Famous for Lepioshka (Good Luck Bread): must never rest upside-down or put on the ground to avoid bad luck.
5. It is land-locked with the most countries globally: 5 in total.
6. Famous for its Metro: largest & most ornate in Central Asia with platforms that look like museums.
7. No 1 Cotton grower globally (7% of GDP).
8. 17th largest population in all of Asia.
9. Tashkent (Capital) has the largest open-air bazaar globally called Chorsu Bazaar.
10. Has the greatest number of different sports in Central Asia.
UZBEKISTAN SUMMARY
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