The Plan B Adventure

With our Western Uzbekistan education complete the next leg of our scheduled journey took us through the interesting Eastern section of Uzbekistan…….over the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border……into the city of Osh, Kyrgyzstan for a few days……then over the Irkeshtam Pass bordering Kyrgyz and China and onto Kashgar, China the center point of the Great Silk Road. Due to our ambition plans covering three countries and two under-utilized border crossings would be completed in under a week….Stressful, not really, but tiring, definitely. Whew…..we are tired!!!

So after a great time with our guide, Bobur for over eight days, we parted ways and picked up Tehir, a veteran guide whom would take us through the culturally and artisan rich countryside of Eastern Uzbekistan. It’s amazing to leave Tashkent, UZ’s biggest city and after just minutes find yourself amidst glowing red fields of poppies; giant, brown tracts of cotton fields; and moving down the highway alongside a guy asleep on a donkey cart. This is Eastern Uzbekistan in all it’s glory. Very rich in agriculture and as we moved further into the mountain villages of the Fergana Valley we come to find extremely rich in natural resources (iron, gold, silicon, coal) and livestock (cattle, sheep, goats, horses) as well. Fergana Valley has made it’s name through the ages as the home of the “Heavenly Horses”, which enticed the Chinese to advance their path along the Silk Road as a means for obtaining these powerful horses instead of the wimpy, (cheap shot, but later you’ll understand) little traditional ones that they had. The Fergana Valley is home to many towns and actually stretches all the way into and across parts of neighboring Krygyzstan. Being that many of the towns have many different crafts and customs, Tehir recommended we visit Margilon (home of handmade silk products for hundreds of years), Rishdon (home of handmade ceramics for thousands of years) as well as Andijon and Kokand for a look at the final frontier of the evil Khans in far-reaching Eastern Uzbekistan.

After such an intense look at history, religion, and architecture over the past few weeks, we loved getting a first hand look at some of the local crafts that made the Fergana Valley famous throughout time along the Silk Road. These crafts and unique features are really what attracted all types along the famous Road. First, we stopped at Rishdon and the home of a ceramic master whose family has been creating beautifully, handcrafted ceramics of all kinds for 15 (yeah, that’s a long time) generations. We hadn’t seen Westerners in so long it was a shock when we ran into Clausens from Fort Wayne, Indiana in the same little small ceramicist’s house. Actually, they aren’t located in Fort Wayne currently they are living in a far-reaching village of Uzbekistan working for an NGO and training local nurses on caring for the community at large. Quite admirable work and we really enjoyed sharing some tea with them and their two daughters before heading off to Margilon.

This city (Margilon) has been making handwoven silk products since the early days of the Silk Road. We were allowed an inside look at the process from the creation of the dyes through all-natural products to the rooms of young women painstakingly constructing rugs, scarfs, and local Suzanes. Seeing the step-by-step process is fascinating especially since they are still using tools and products that have been successfully making silk products for hundreds of years. However, the best part was the silk worms. Each April the government breeds a set number of silk worms and distributes to businesses as well as locals that wish to make a few extra bucks. These worms are no bigger than a centimeter at the beginning of their lives and through 30 straight days of eating mulberry trees, branches and all, they grow to be the size of your pinky. Shockingly, individual families monopolize up to 80% of their living space in order to breed these worms. Once bred the families deliver (for a modest fee) the worms to the local businesses whom take care of the harvesting process on a large scale. Great tour if you are ever in Margilon, just don’t go crazy on an end-of-tour shopping spree like yours truly!!

After a few more sights (palaces, museums, etc) we hopped in the car and headed off for the last few kilometers of open road in Uzbekistan. Our Uzbek guide Tehir and our new guide, Elnura, made a perfect hand-off at the border and we were very excited things went so smoothly. Just a few KMs down the road and we had arrived in Country #7 and its cultural capital of Osh.

Kyrgyzstan has a rich history yet since the country is essentially scissored between two giant mountain ranges (90% of country is mountainous) it often goes unexplored. Due to the lack of tourists the sights are quite underdeveloped yet still offer some amazingly rich historical documentations. For instance Mount Suleiman (named for Prophet Solomon) contains 3000 year old petroglyphs on the original rocks!! We won’t go into many more of the sights as Elnura, our guide, provided much more excitement and information than museums could ever provide. We received a local’s perspective on politics, female rights, the Islamic faith, feeling towards America, and being a woman entrepeneuer!! That’s right at the ripe age of 27, Elnura is starting her own travel agency (Kyrgyz Nur Traveling Co.) in a male-dominated society and we are so excited for her future success. Our discussions and conversations with Elnura were the highlight of our short 3-day trip through Kyrgyzstan….well that is until the last day!!!

Tags: Kyrgyzstan, Travel, Uzbekistan

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