Medressas, minarets and mosques in Uzbekistan

WARNING : If you don't like really old ancient buildings from the Silk Road era, then you're probably not going to like this post. But I'll stick in lots of pretty pictured to keep you happy.

First stop on the Silk Road was Bukhara, which many travellers list as their favourite Uzbek city. It's got some cool looking buildings such as the Ark.

An old royal fortress containing an ancient town complete with mosque, reception and coronation court, the Ark is pretty impressive. Occupied from the fifth century until it was bombed by the Red Army in 1920, it is Bukhara's oldest building. 

The most noteworthy buildings in Bukhara, though, would have to be the Kalon Minaret, Kalon Mosque and Mir-i-Arab Medressa. They all face onto each other so can be viewed at once. Here is a photo of me at Chashmai Mirob restaurant which undoubtedly has the best views of the three structures in town.

View from inside Kalon Mosque courtyard.

And of course we had to visit Char Minar. Not a particularly outstanding building, but it's on the front cover of the Lonely Planet so a visit was of course essential.

After spending five nights in Bukhara we got a shared taxi to Khiva with a Belgium couple we would continue to bump into throughout our time in the city.

Khiva was by far our favourite town, with the old wall surrounding the ancient city centre. The modern town of Khiva is quite large, but we barely saw any of it. Our hostel was located just inside the east gate of the Old City, and as all the sights and most of the decent eateries are situated within the Old City, we barely ventured out.

Juma Minaret

The most eye catching building would be the Kalta Minor Minaret.

Me at Bir Gumbaz cafe with Kalta Minor Minaret in the background.

It kinda looks like a chopped-in-half minaret due to construction ceasing before the structure was completed. Building of the minaret commenced in 1851 under Muhammed Amin Khan who apparently wanted to build a minaret so high it would be seen from Bukhara. With 452 kilometres between the two cities, this was an audacious undertaking. Unfortunately for the good khan, he died four years later and construction ceased, leaving the minaret in the stumpy form we see today.

One can't help but be overwhelmed by the number of souvenir stalls in Khiva. If only I had enough room in my pack for one of these!

In the desert north of Khiva there are some old forts, including the ruins of the impressive Ayaz-Qala, dating back to the 6th century. 

A day tour around these old forts is cheap (around $10 per person if you have four in a car) and well worth the effort.

Be aware there are no ATMs (well, working ATMs) in Khiva and we had to make a quick dash by taxi to the larger town of Urgench to get cash out. Doh.

Be warned that the food situation in Khiva is nothing to get excited about. Unless you enjoy microwaved food. We only found one good restaurant in town, to which we inevitably kept returning when we needed a good feed. This was the Khorezm Art Restaurant, where we were introduced to a wonderful food called 'gumma', which is kind of like a deep fried potato cake, only better.

We ventured outside the walled city one night for dinner at a local restaurant. After waiting over an hour for our meals to arrive it came with meat, despite us ordering it biz myaza (without meat). When we pointed out that it had meat in it, the lady gave us a spoon so we could pick it out. We were not impressed. Keep your expectations low if you're eating outside the city walls.

After four nights in Khiva we got an overnight train to Samarkand. It's how the locals travel and it's good value for money, around $17 for the 12 hour ride.

We arrived in Samarkand at 5am and had no problem getting a taxi and checking into Bahodir B&B, just a short walk to the Registan.

Samarkand is more glitzy and expensive than the other towns, causing me to like it less. However, you can't help but be impressed by the incredible architecture which is the most impressive in all of Uzbekistan.

Tilla-Kari Medressa at the Registan. 

Claire at Ulugbek Medressa at the Registan.

Shah-i-Zinda mausoleum.

Ulugbek Medressa the Registan.

Woman in trading dress at the Registan.

After three nights in Samarkand we made our way to Tashkent, the day before flying out to Astana, Kazakhstan. While there we headed to a good coffee shop for some treats and amazing wifi, after being deprived of a good internet connection for two weeks. Downloading podcasts while eating a brownie and drinking good coffee felt very luxurious. 

Ala-Archa Canyon

Bishkek is fortunate enough to have a world class mountaineering playground only 30kms from its city centre. Ala-Archa National Park contains more than 20 glaciers and over 50 jaggered peaks.

With the number of the correct marshrutka in mind, and our overnight packs decked out with supplies for the next few days, we swung by the Kazakhstan Embassy to collect our visas, before intending to jump on the marshrutka and head for the hills.

We had submitted our applications over two weeks ago and were told our visas would be ready the following Thursday. So it should be ready, right? 

Wrong.

It appears that while we were enjoying ourselves in Karakol, Kazakhstan's visa policy had changed and Australian passport holders no longer need a visa if their stay is less than 15 days. 

Even though we had applied for a 30 day visa, and already paid, the embassy decided to hold off on processing our visa! What the...?!?

I explained to the man behind the counter that we would be in the country for more than 15 days and so would require the 30 day visa for which we had originally applied and paid.

'Okay. It will be ready at 6pm tonight.'

What!?! We had our bags packed and were ready to hit the road for Ala-Archa. We couldn't hang around till 6pm.

I leaned over the counter towards the official and said with determination, 'We were told our visas would be ready last Thursday at 6pm. We are leaving Bishkek today. Can you process them before you close at 12pm?' 

It was 11am already, so I knew it was a big ask. The expressionless man behind the counter told us to wait one moment before going to speak to his colleague. Upon coming back he said, 'Alright, they will be ready at 12pm'. 

I smiled inside. We took our packs and waited outside. I had my doubts whether it would be ready on time and thought maybe he was just trying to placate us. At 11:45am Claire went back to the counter. 'Not ready' was the response as soon as she stepped in the door. 

At 11:55am, I sat in the foyer. I wasn't going to give them the opportunity to lock us out. Then exactly at 12pm I saw the man I spoke to exit through a back door. Noooo!  My hopes were dashed. It was supposed to be one of the easy visas and now we would have to miss out on Ala-Archa while we sat around in Bishkek another day. 

Just as I had lost hope a man came to the counter and said 'Australia?' He had our passports with a newly inserted Kazakh visa. Hooray! We stepped outside with much glee, double checked the visa dates were correct and headed for the 265 marshrutka which stopped virtually outside the embassy.

It was now early afternoom and the temperature was soaring above thirty degrees. The marshrutka ride was hot, cramped and full of oldies who I dont think appreciated us foreigners taking up their marshrutka space. Our packs were blocking the door and one old grandma, as she disembarked, picked up my pack with superhuman strength and threw it away from the door. I would have been pissed off, but I was too impressed by her ability to lift my pack one handed. 

The 265 marshrutka only goes all the way to the park entrance on weekends,  but we managed to convince the driver to take us all the way for 150 som each. Once at the gate, we bumped into an Indian guy who was also heading to the Alplager and managed to bargain a taxi for 300 som for the three of us. It seemed too cheap to me and the taxi driver displayed his dissatisfaction by speeding around the corners at full pelt. It took me a good 15 minutes for my stomach to find itself once I got out of the car. 

The Alplager is a tiny village with a hotel that looks like it belongs in the Swiss Alps...

After admiring the surroundings, which included a few necessary tourist yurts, we pulled out our trekking poles and began our ascent. When the Lonely Planet said it was a strenuous climb it wasn't kidding. Up and up and up. Very steep. At several points the track split and momentarily Claire and I lost one another but eventually met back up. I waited on a rock in the shade to avoid the stinking heat and took photos of the view.

Finally, after three hours of excruciating pain, we made it to a forrested area which had a few flat spots to pitch a tent.

It was just below the base of the waterfall which is half way to Ak-Sai Glacier, so we decided to leave all our gear here and do a day walk to Ratsek hut the following day, hoping no one would steal our stuff.

We woke up early to start our climb in ordsr to avoid the heat. It only took two hours to get to Ratsek hut and the glacier, thanks to not having our 15kg packs. It was steeper today than yesterday, but thankfully a lot of it was in shade due to the rocky outcrops.

Finally, we reached the quaint valley in which Ratsek hut sits. There was a trickling stream with half dozen tents near by.

There were no people around as it was a perfect day for climbing and hiking and most people were off exploring the glacier and summiting Mt Korona. Above the Ratsek hut is a narrow ridge which is accessible via a scree slope. Once on top, the glacier is in full view and looks a little something like this. 

We could hear voices echoing around the rocky crags above us and soon spotted five rock climbers on a precarious-looking piece of rock up very high. We saw another couple walking down from the glacier but besides that it was pretty deserted and not nearly as busy as we were expecting. 

After chilling on the ridge for about an hour...

... we made our way back down the incredibly steep and slippery slope.

Upon our return it was nice to see nothing had been stolen from our tent. In fact, we gained an addition to our campsite.

I'm guessing he's some kind of Kyrgyzstan squirrel?? Bye bye little friend. Back to Bishkek tomorrow for us.