The Mongol Rally:
Silk Road Wanderings
It was time for a rest. We had finally reached the historic walled Silk Road city of Khiva in Uzbekistan. After three nights of sleeping rough in Turkmenistan and a full day of challenging driving through the burning desert, we were ready for a break. As such, we checked into a B&B for two nights and looked forward to a lie-in in our air-conditioned room the following day. It was pure luxury after our time wild camping in the Turkmen desert.
In the Silk Road city of Khiva, we didn’t just rest; we also had a puncture to fix
Silk Road trading in Uzbekistan
In Uzbekistan, the black market rules. Petrol and money especially. Luckily, we managed to sneak 20 litres of cheap Turkmen fuel across the border in our jerry can with the help of one of the border guards;
“Yes, we bought this fuel in Iran.”
Most petrol stations only carry LPG. The only one we saw with petrol had a queue of cars stretching the length of the street. The black market is more reliable.
The black market in money is even more conspicuous. Wherever we went in Uzbekistan, we couldn’t get far without someone offering to change money. While technically still illegal, we could exchange our USD for Uzbek Som at our B&B at double the official exchange rate (which the government keeps artificially low). With the government unwilling to admit the actual value of their currency and still printing ludicrously low-value notes, this meant changing ten dollars resulted in more bank notes than we could fit in our wallets, each worth a measly 12.5 cents.
The Uzbek Som has a meagre value, and we needed a bag to carry all our cash
Exploring a Silk Road city
With a bag full of Som, we headed out into the cooler evening air (still around 38°C) the following evening to explore Khiva. Supposedly founded by a son of Noah, Khiva has a rich history: a one-time Silk Road fort and trading post, the capital of the Shaybanid state of Khorezm, and the biggest slave market in Central Asia well into the 19th century. With such a rich history, there is no shortage of sights and, happily for us, everything of interest is concentrated within the mud-built old city walls, the Ichon-Qala.
The mud-walled Ichon-Qala, the historic centre of Khiva
As a first stop and to get our bearings, we climbed the walls to take in the minaret-stippled city skyline. With a better idea of where to head, we plunged into the twisting alleyways of this old Silk Road city, meandering our way to the unfinished Kalta Minor Minaret.
Construction of the minaret was started in 1851 by the then-ruler, or Khan, of Khiva. He wanted to see all the way to Bukhara, over 250 miles away, from the top. Unfortunately, construction was halted after his death, leaving the beautifully tiled structure looking somewhat unusual but still brilliant in its gleaming turquoise tile-work.
The unfinished Kalta Minor Minaret
Passing by many old Medressas (religious schools) along the way, all beautifully tiled in turquoise and green, we eventually reached the Islom-Hoja Medressa and Minaret, the tallest in Uzbekistan and truly magnificent in the setting sun. A beautiful dinner of traditional dill-infused noodles and Uzbek dumplings, eaten alfresco by the Western Gate, completed a truly magical evening. A great introduction to Uzbekistan.
Islom-Hoja resplendent in the setting sun
The Silk Road linked east and west through the deserts of Central Asia
After a nice rest in Khiva, we felt ready to brave the desert roads again. A six-and-a-half-hour drive in 43°C heat through a baking desert, sand drifting across the road and blowing through the windows, brought us to Bukhara. Like Khiva, Bukhara was built with the proceeds from trade along the lucrative Silk Road, which was more an ancient network of trade routes connecting East and West than a single road.
At its height, the Silk Road stretched from the Korean peninsula in the East to the Mediterranean Sea. It carried goods (including lucrative silk from China), people and ideas for over a millennium. Starting around 120 BC, trade along this route gradually dried up in the 1400s as maritime trade took over, leaving behind a treasure trove of cultural monuments to a bygone era.
Standing beneath history at the Maghoki-Attar in the Silk Road city of Bukhara
And Bukhara has its fair share of these. Starting with the Maghoki-Attar, Central Asia’s oldest mosque (dating from the 9th century), we continued through a maze of domed bazaars and winding lanes to the Kalon Mosque and Minaret. The minaret was built in 1127 and has stood for nearly a millennium, with foundations of reeds used as an early form of earthquake-proofing. Even Genghis Khan, who destroyed much of Central Asia while building his Mongol Empire, was dumbfounded by its beauty and ordered it spared.
The Kalon Minaret in Bukhara is still splendid after nearly a millennium
After a shashlik dinner by The Ark, Bukhara’s oldest structure and the abode of its leaders of yore, we rested before a final bit of morning sightseeing. The Char Minar is a beautiful little structure and one of the most famous sights in Bukhara. It was once the gatehouse of a long-disappeared Medressa and, while not as impressive as the many pictures suggest (including the one on the front of our guidebook), it was a nice last stop before another desert road, this time to Samarkand.
Rico ‘being free’ outside the Ark in Bukhara
The Char Minar enjoying a face-lift in the Silk Road city of Bukhara
Silk Road hospitality
Uzbekistan is yet another Central Asian police state, and visitors are tightly controlled. As such, all tourists must register their location at least every three days while in the country. This can be done with your hotel each night, at which point you receive a slip of paper to hand in with your passport when departing the country.
You could face problems getting out of the country if you don’t have enough little slips. With three slips already collected for our nights in Khiva and Bukhara, we felt comfortable returning to our usual couchsurfing routine. So, after a little Samarkand sightseeing, we met up with Sanjar, our host for the night, and his friend for a city tour.
Timur’s burial place, the Gur-E-Amir in Samarkand
First stop: Bibi-Khanym mosque, their first time inside as well as ours. Next: The Registan, Samarkand’s – and indeed Uzbekistan’s – crowning glory; a large plaza surrounded by three wonderfully tilting medressas, redolent of a bygone era with their beautifully tiled mosaics. Arguably Central Asia’s finest single sight. All built with the proceeds from Silk Road trade.
The sightseeing was followed by the best kebabs of the trip and a night on the town: karaoke in the back of an empty Indian restaurant. It was not what we had expected of Samarkand, but it was fun all the same.
Inside the grounds of the Bibi-Khanym Mosque in Samarkand
The Registan by night, a Silk Road marvel for centuries
Before heading back to Sanjar’s house on the outskirts of town, we had a last bit of black market action to deal with. The next day we would be taking on the long drive to the Tajik border, and our petrol supplies had dwindled. With no petrol stations in Samarkand holding any petrol, we were lucky to have Sanjar and his friend on our side.
A few calls and they had located what we needed. Pulling up in a dark street alongside a battered old car, we found its owner syphoning petrol into five-litre water bottles from the tank. This was an informal (and illegal) petrol station. Those running it drive to the capital, where petrol is apparently cheaper and more readily available; they fill up there and then sell what’s left when they return to Samarkand, with a small profit. The fuel was low octane (80 compared to our usual 95), but it was all that was available. We bought four of the five-litre bottles and scarpered. Luckily for us, the zebra isn’t too fussy.
The following day, I woke up feeling horrific, an intense bout of traveller’s diarrhoea curtailing my ability to enjoy Sanjar’s mum’s beautifully prepared breakfast. Unable to leave early, as planned, we were treated to a traditional Uzbek lunch of steamed dumplings and Uzbek samosas (which, sadly, I could only nibble on) before finally departing for the Tajik border.
Saying goodbye to Sanjar’s family, our hosts in Samarkand, Uzbekistan
A Silk Road detour
It should be a simple and short journey from Samarkand to Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, only a short distance away as the crow flies. Unfortunately for us, the logical border post has been inexplicably closed for years, and the journey now requires a long detour south to a remote border post that is still open. With the stomach bug-induced late start, our plan of reaching Dushanbe that day had become impossible, but we could at least make some progress before nightfall.
Thankfully, the roads were not too potholed or rough despite the remoteness of the journey. After a night in the small rural town of Baysun (still feeling pretty awful), we crossed the border the following morning with relatively little difficulty. The border guards still rifled through our belongings, trying on Rico’s sunglasses and everyone inspecting my Kindle very closely,
“I need one of these.”
He didn’t get one!
On the road to Tajikistan, a Silk Road detour
It was a short distance on a great road from the border to the Tajik capital. By the time we arrived, we were more than a little relieved to have made it out of the desert and into the cooler climate of this mountainous republic. Next stop: the Pamir Mountains.
This Leg
Days: 5
Countries: 2
Distance: 796 miles
Time in car: 23 hours
Total
Days: 28
Countries: 21
Distance: 6,367 miles
Time in car: 6 days 19 hours 30 minutes