Further Wanderings

Nukus was a strange kind of a place. We arrived at the bus station outside of town, with little idea of where we were and even less of how to get where we were going.

Rather than put ourselves at the mercy of the taxi drivers waiting at the station, we immediately jumped into the first marshrutka departing the station. We weren’t certain it was headed our way. But then we weren’t certain what our way was, and the bazaar, the Marshrutka’s stated destination seemed like a better place to orient ourselves at the very least.

As soon as we arrived in a suitably built up area we disembarked and Sarah sat in the shade while I went to find a hotel. Unlike in Samarkand and Bukhara, this was complicated not by the overabundence of lodging, but by its scarcity. Nukus had only two hotels and they took advantage of their duopoly by charging exorbitant prices to foreign tourists (though to be fair, these were only slightly more exorbitant than the prices charged to Uzbeks.)

We eventually selected the less expensive of the two hotels, and went out to see the city’s sights.

Part of the Moynaq fishing fleet sitting on what used to be the bottom of the Aral Sea

[read on]

Khiva is the third in the triumvirate of Uzbekistan’s architectural gems. It’s also the most remote. So much so that most people fly at least one way when visiting the city from elsewhere in Uzbekistan. Lucky for us we were leaving the country to Turkmenistan from nearby so we only had to make the overnight train trip in one direction.

It was actually kind of a fun trip. We blundered through the carriage in semi-darkness with our big bags on our backs, then actually managed to fall asleep so quickly that the conductor coming to collect tickets and issue us with our sheets had to wake us up.

By the time we woke early the next morning we’d gone from the semi arid surrounds of Samarkand to the full on desert of northwestern Uzbekistan. In this respect the train trip was reminiscent of our earlier train journey from Urumqi to Kashgar in China.

The train tracks don’t actually pass through Khiva, so we disembarked at Urgench, a larger city 35km distant then got a taxi to Khiva (after having made the mistake of trying to head into town to look for a marshrutka. We didn’t find one and by the time we got back to the station there were no other passengers to share a taxi with. On the positive side we did manage to start a bidding war between taxi drivers so we actually got a pretty reasonable price even without taking the cheapest offer.)

In Khiva no bidding war was necessary to get a cheap hotel room. Contrary to what one might think, mid summer is low season for tourism in Uzbekistan. It’s just so hot that many people can’t be bothered. So we got a pleasant room just outside the city gates for US$16/night including breakfast. And including an early dinner with our hosts on our first night there (there I go messing up my Ramazan fasting yet again…)

Sleepy sleepers in the sleeper car of our Samarkand-Urgench express train

[read on]

The title of this post comes from a poem by Canadian poet Dennis Lee called "Homage to Moose Factory, Ont." which was almost certainly the first time I ever heard the name Samarkand. We had first class train tickets on ... [Continue reading this entry]

Bukhara was, if not the exact opposite of new Tashkent, then at least a welcome change. This extended even to our place of lodging. The Amelia Boutique Hotel had been recommended by our friends Kev and Nat. At US$60/night ... [Continue reading this entry]

We spent our first night in Tashkent lazing about in our hotel. The Hotel Uzbekistan was the sort of place that at some point in the 80s or 90s would have been the best hotel in the country. ... [Continue reading this entry]

We approached the Uzbekistan border crossing with some trepidation. The Uzbek border guards (and police generally) have a reputation as being some of the most corrupt and difficult to deal with anywhere. Add to this the large amount ... [Continue reading this entry]