After a day drinking in Izbekistan I am in love! Donkeys pulling carts trudge city and country roadsides. Leafy boulevards, badly potholed roads and highways carry wee mini busses and tiny old cars the likes of which I haven’t seen for 30-40 years.
Throughout this entire journey we saw many donkeys carting huge loads. What amazing beasts they are.
Vineyards everywhere producing fruit for the table, fit frying and for the wine markets.
Everywhere friendly generous people and bountiful fresh food. Orchards, grapevines, market gardens and pistachio trees.
Mountains surrounded us - huge and rocky, steep sided and imposing, reaching to stony jagged peaks where we saw eagles soaring.
Uzbekistan has 13 regions/states (although only 12 stars appear on their flag). One of them, the region of Samarkand where we were, is surrounded by mountains. Over one mountain range to the SE lies Tajikistan, beyond another to the south is Shakhrisabz and 250 km further south lies the Afghanistan border, and over the mountains to the north lies Kazakhstan.
Way off in the distance is the border with Afghanistan. The valley is simply beautiful- wild flowers everywhere, pistachio trees covered in small green fruits - just out of reach!
The rather awesome rocky monolith looked to me like an old volcano with its side blown out.
In the mountains and hills, towers of beehive are stacked precariously among banks of wild flowers. And young boys, budding cocks of the roost, sell garlands of flowers by the roadside and swagger by on horse back - it’s all in the way they sit the horse!
Of course I bought a garland from this cute kid. The flowers lasted a few days.
This young guy really caught my eye great seat and attitude as he strutted by.
At strategic and scenic spots along the road, village markets offer mountain and village food - dried fruit, nuts, seeds, huge bundles of fresh herb, baskets and packets of dried herbs, dried yogurt (which I wanted to buy but was advised against), dried fungi and ginseng plus plus.
A busy stopping point with wonderful views over the valley and distant ranges - and a vast array of food.
We bought dried apricots and dates. I have never seen so many different kinds of dried apricots.
We drove by fat goats grazing by the roadside herded by men with long sticks. Passed sleek cattle tethered on long ropes munching the lush grass and flowers along the roads.
Sheep may gently graze! All very romantic I know but it was rather idyllic.
Then ...... Bukhara hundreds of kilometres west is surrounded by the Kyzylkum desert. Such a contrast but rather awesome with its distant horizons and spiky vegetation, dark subtle colours and stones and occasional groups of camels.
We saw many camels wandering along the roadside. This big beauty is probably attractive to a girl camel but .......
Splonked here and there, natural gas plants belch out malodorous vapours. Smelly eyesores but essential to this fragile economy (unsurprisingly Russia reaps the biggest returns on their gas). As a matter of interest, Turkmenistan has the 4th largest natural gas reserves and they have cut ties with Russia and forged a partnership with China (in order to get a better deal). Both Kazakhstan and Uzbek also have large natural gas fields. And Kazakhstan has the third largest oil reserves.
Keep your eyes on Central Asia! The worlds great powers certainly have. China is the new high-stakes player for control replacing the half-century long Great Game between Britain and Russia for regional domination in the C19th. This has always been at the expense of the local people whose cultures were almost crushed more recently by Soviet annexation. Such is the history of this ancient region .......
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