Wonderful Kyrgyzstan - We are in love

On the way to Issyk Kol


Lake Issyk Kol


Lake Issyk Kol


Bel Ata Pass at 3176m


Camping at 2440m


Suusammyr valley


It is so damm cold


A minor accident on the road to the snowed Kyzart pass


A major accident on the way to toktogul reservoir


Toktogul reservoir



(Arslanbob)

Hi guys, it was quite a long time since our last blog update, but hey, we didn't find any internet cafes and when we found one it was dial-up modem speed, so forget it.

We are now in Karakkol, a city on the Eastern shores of the Issyk-Kul lake. The lake is the third biggest lake in the world and indeed it is quite sizeable but the most impressive attribute is that it is surrounded by high mountain peaks of 4,000m-5,000m.

Let's start with first things first. Kyrgyzstan has 5 million inhabitants and the country is 94% above 1,000m and 80% above 2,000m..you get the picture?

We arrived in Osh several days ago and unfortunately for us we spent an unusually cold week (for this season) in Kyrgyzstan. We had temperatures ranging from -3 to +14 degrees celcius. It is so freaking cold that we have now all our clothes on. The weather was either very windy (Bora or Mistrak like), rainy, snowy...we had it all, including 2 days only of sunshine. This is so frustrating in particular since it is a random week where the weather is so bad. Apparently 1 week ago, it was more like 2-0 degrees celcius and beautiful sunshine!

We still love it here as the little we could see is more than impressive and beautiful. Imagine all the hidden stuff we couldn't reach because of closed passes etc... and it probably becomes the highlight of the trip so far. The people are very friendly and we stayed most of the time in homestays, a very good system that Kyrgyzstan has set-up.

After Osh we moved to Arslanbob which boast the largest Walnut tree forest (weird hey!) just below a 4,400m peak. We did a small treck up part of the mountain to some high summer pastures and we really loved it. We stayed at Abdullahanjun's family, really a great place to be. I was sick on the second day, so in the end we stayed 3 days there.

We then moved-on under the pouring rain on the main road to the capital (the only one that was the most likely not to have too much snow) and discovered Toktogul reservoir, a very nice high alltitude lake. After the lake, we climbed to the highest point on our journey so far, the Bel Ata Pass at 3,176m. Amazing to be there will all the snow and the peaks so much higher than you. We encountered there a German couple (Bettina and Stefan) that was cycling from Mongolia to Germany for 10,000km during a full year and who started in August of last year. We camped together at 2,440m and whilst cold, we had an excellent night only to discover the next morning that it had snowed.

We then pressed on into the Suummayir valley, a gorgeous day with super mountains all around us. Whilst it is a valley, it is still at +2,000m. We wanted to reach the lake  Song Kol, apparently a beautiful spot in Central Kyrgyzstan at 3,000m but forget it, there was so much snow (and it snowed whilst we were riding on the Kyzar passs (2.,664).I am still glad we went on this road (actually a track + mud) as it was a good test for Mongolia.

So instead of going up Song Kol we reached lake Issyk Kol with strong winds where we are now.

Tomorrow we will drive close to the Kazakh border and cross it the day after to reach Almaty.

We have updated all the Kyrgyz pictues, you'll love them.

Oh by the way, regarding washing...hmm, we haven't had a shower for the last 6 days. We asked our hosts everynight if they had a shower and they have all replied immediately with a No of course. But tonight's the night, we found a place with a shower!

Entered into Kyrgyzstan and its outdoor wonders

Bye-Bye Uzbekistan; it was clearly an highlight of our trip so far – especially for its amazing historical heritage.
We therefore left the Fergana valley in Uzbekistan yesterday to enter Kyrgyzstan and its mountains. The border crossing was fairly uneventful – at least compared to what we had been used to so far. We spent the night in Osh – a typical Central Asian border town with a lot of trading activities and many small businesses along the road. This is also the 2nd largest city in the country, has one of the very few remaining standing statute of Lenine and it hosts the largest bazaar of Central Asia. Quite impressive – all sort of people from the mountains and valleys around (Uzbeks, Tadjiks and Kirgzks) selling their products in one massive mess spreading to all the streets around. Cars and trolleys coming and going in all directions with anything from fresh meat to traditional hats.
Our first impression of Kyrgyzstan is very positive: extremely friendly and welcoming people, a lot of different faces, the food seem to vary a little bit (getting a bit sick of the mouton meat…) and we both look forward to discover the high mountains that are known to host some of the most impressive landscapes of the region.

With the mountains should come back some of the riding challenges and the road are said to be in pretty poor conditions especially at this time of the year (Thanks again Chopat !). We should be at above 2,000m for most of the time over the next few days and will have to cross mountain pass above 4,000m (snow well expected). So far so good – the bikes are holding up very well and there is little technical problem to report.

Internet connection is likely to be non-existent in mountains and so you will have to wait for a few days for the next pictures and stories. We are hoping to stay with nomads and experience the infamous ‘yurt’ stay.

SOS CHILDREN VILLAGE

In Tashkent, I had the time to visit SOS Children Village. It is a great charitable organisation that was founded in Austria and is active in a lot of countries in the world. They help children with multiple backgrounds and give them a family and much needed love.

SOS Children Village in Tashkent is a small village that was built according to EU standards that houses children with an age up to 17. They currently have 99 children and are always looking to expand. Each house hosts 7 children and an SOS mother (what a job!). They also have an onsite kindergarden for childrens within the SOS village and for the surrounding villages.

It really doesn't cost much to adopt a children, or at least to help them with a small donation while it gives the children a much needed sponsor for higher education which most of them are keen on.

Please be generous and go onto the SOS children village website (link on the right of the blog) and donate what you can.

Thanks

Cyril and Niccolo

A BIG THANK YOU to the team there for showing me around, in particular for Sayora that stayed with me translating until late.

(Sayora)

(SOS children village Uzbekistan administrative staff)

Last days in Uzbekistan

Maddy left us 2 days ago. It was quite emotional for both Cyril and Maddy but don't worry Maddy, I will take great care of Cyril...as soon as you left, hop in the tent...he won' miss you. Just kidding, when you left we headed for the Chimgan valley and discovered a beautiful scenery with high mountains around this green/blue coloured reservoir.
We had decided the night before that we won't go to Tajikistan as we talked to their embassy and they indicated the mountain passes we intended to take to reach the pamir highway (one of the highest roads in the world (with a pass at 4,600m) would be closed. We wanted to try it to see for ourselves but the issue was we only have a 1 entry Uzbek visa so couldn't try Tajikistan and go back if not feasible...we were quite sad, but hey, we'll stay longer in Kyrgistan.

Another quick story one for Tashkent. We have a bike to bike system and since the start I am having trouble with a button that lets me speak. I shouted at the company that sold them to me and they sent me a replacement. I got the replacement (thanks Maddy) only to find out that it didn't work either! I can't believe they didn't check it before sending it out...Anyhow, the cool story is that I tried to find one in Tashkent and nobody had a similar button until I found a guy on the street, that said he might have one but in metal (I don't care as long as it works), so I go with him to his old GAS car (old Russian model) and he points to a button on his dashboard. As I say yes, he quickly dismount it from his car and gives it to me! Good old (30yrs+) button still works perfectly. One thing the soviet did well, do things that last forever.

(Russian and UK style of bike to bike buttons)

We stayed overnight in the Chimgan valley next to a farm house. We had good fun with the farmers and their childrens. After staying in the Chimgan valley we headed back towards Tashkent to reach the Fergana valley where we are now.

In order to reach the Fergana valley we had to climb a mountain pass of 2,178m, the highest on our journey so far. It was an incredible sight, but we couldn't take any pictures as the entire area was a military area...sorry.

We staying in Kokand yesterday night. Kokand was the centre of a Khanate in the 18 century. Nothing major remains from that period apart from busy streets and part of the old Khan palace which we will visit today. In addition, there are 2 further sights, some nice Soviet buildings that were built before they turned ugly (I kid you not!) and the bathrooms in the hotel Kokand where we slept.


(Prime camping spot in the Chimgan valley)


(Amazing scenery in the Chimgan valley)


(Family we stayed with in the Chimgan valley)


(Leaving Tashkent with Michel and his tricycle - Good Luck!)

(Kokand hotel bathrooms)

Samarkand to Tashkent

After a pleasant evening with fellow travellers, we left Samarkand to Tashkent. On the way, after our now traditional shashlik stop (grilled lamb), we found a garage that would help us change Niccolo's tyres for about US$1.

The ride took us through very nice landscapes and unlike the previous day, the weather was very pleasant with about 20 degrees and some sun. Oddly enough, the main highway is now literally cut by the border with Kazakhstan and we had to get around and add a good 60km to our journey.

We failed to find good accomodation in Tashkent and were a bit disturbed by loud music and noise from the drunken owner and its friends most of the night. However, we met with Michel, a French guy who put our trip to shame... he is currently going for a 7-year round the world trip on a seated bicycle. Chef - an idea for you?

Visiting Tashkent today, we were slightly disappointed after the wonderful historical monuments of the previous days. Pretty much a Soviet town with wide boulevards and a few grand palaces. The old town bazar was very lively though and by far the largest we had seen so far.

Sad to say but the good news is that there are several western style restaurants in town and we went for a nice pizza yesterday night... Niccolo was a happy man !

Cultural highlights - Bukhara and Samarkand

After having spent 2 nights in Bukhara, we are now in rainy Samarkand. After 2 weeks of sun and warmth, the rains comes again.
After a month of riding with little interruption, it felt good to have a day-off biking, even for me who simply loves starting the engine and ride. Even though we were riding few kms a day in the last few days, we simply were tired of the last month and needed a break.

On the road to Bukhara my rear mudguard broke and fell off. Nothing to worry about as I don't really need it, but weird as I was driving on tarmac...it took quite a beating on the last day of Turkmenistan though.

Where to start on Bukhara and Samarkand....hmmm, let me start with Khiva. Among the 3 cities Khiva is still my favourite as the old city is preserved (but lacks the buzz of a real Uzbek city). Samarkand has a majestic Registan (a square) with 3 huge and beautiful Medressas (schools) , one of them from the 14 century, within a big city and Bukhara is a bit of an in-between Khiva and Samarkand (smaller attractions but a city centre which is better preserved).

(Bukhara)

(Maddy and Nicco in Samarkand)

Cyril mentioned, can you believe they built these wonderful schools (rather universities at the time) whilst we were building fortresses in Europe? Ok, we did have the arts, the churches etc...and believe me I love our history but it feels great to see these ancient educational buildings withstanding centuries.

(Samarkand)

We very much enjoyed the bazar of Samarkand, with plenty of attraction. I bought an Uzbek hat and cyril a jerican (to increase his range when we go to Tajikistan and Mongolia).

(Bazar)

We met an Austrian from Vienna, Peter, who left in November for a 3 year round the world trip with his car. It looks like he will be in Kazakhstand, Russia and Mongolia at the same time as us! Would be great to do a bit of riding together. Let's see, we are going to meet him up for dinner tonight.

(Peter)

We are a very worried about 2 things, the Pamir highway in Tajikistan and China.
- Will the Pamir highway be open, considering that it was the coldest winter since 40 years and there are severl passes above 3,000m and one at 4,600m (next to 7,000m+ peaks). I so wish to see the scenery there but if there is too much snow, we won't make it.
- Will we be able to enter China, in particular since they are getting so restrictive with their borders because of their troubles with Tibet and the Olympic games. If not, this would end our trip in Mongolia, something we have to consider...but we still have some time till then.

On the cost and food side, costs are actually getting higher as we get closer to Tashkent. You pay entrance fees of approx. usd3-5 per monument and food costs approx. usd3-4 per person. Sleeping is a whopping usd20-30 per person. Today, we ate in the bazar and had an excellent feel of everyday food. The basic meals are: Camca (a sort of pie with meat and oignons), Laghman (sort of noodles), Plov (rice, carrots and a bit of meat), Shashlik (skewers of all sorts) and I tried something new, Marat I think it was called (Mutton and oignons dumplings). Everything is quite tasty.

(Shashliks)

By the way, it is interesting to see that in Bukhara and Samarkand, a lot of people are actually Tajiks and not Uzbeks. The borders have been set by the Soviets and they didn't consider the cultural element deeply, hence these odd cultures within a same country.

We might not always post any pictures on blog entries as it takes quite long to download them onto blogger...sorry.

Finally culture! Uzbekistan here we are

While it took us 2 hours at the exit of Turkmenistan, mostly because the custom guy was out for lunch and they wanted to fill-in a new custom declaration at the exit (how weird is that!). The entry into Uzbekistan was a pleasure with only 3 notebooks to fill-in (compared to the 20+ in Turkmenistan) and we couldn’t believe it when after 20mins they waved us goodbye.

The difference with Uzbekistan was quite shocking, everyone here has a mobile phone, the country seems much more developed and the people are still as friendly as in Turkmenistan. The downside is that everything is more expensive (don’t get me wrong, still relatively cheap, with petrol at $0.8/L). The second thing I discovered already before crossing the border is white powder all around us and first I didn’t understand what it was…can’t be snow with temperatures close to 30deg, could it be their sand? Nope. So what is? I stopped and tasted it to make sure we understood this phenomenon and yes, it is SALT!!! Everywhere you look, there is salt sprinkled on the ground. First I thought it was because they use the water from the Aral Sea but I was then told that they have Salt/Sand storms.

The first thing we did in Uzbekistan was changing Cyril’s tyres as they are already so run-down that it was getting dangerous to continue riding with the old ones. We stayed overnight in Nukus, a really uninteresting old Soviet town. We stayed in the top hotel and this was already a shabby old Soviet room with bathrooms you wouldn’t like to use, but hey, we had no choice.

The following day, we had a marathon day, as we wanted to see the biggest ex-port of the Aral sea, Moynaq before going to Urgench to meet Maddy, Cyril’s fiancée who will be with us for the next 10days. In total we rode approx. 600km that day and we were completely exhausted.
Moynaq is an ex-port, because the Aral sea was so drained for agricultural use that the water level fell so much that the water is now more than 150km far away from the port. It was a desolating place, with the old boats decaying in the sand whilst the population of this rather bigish town not knowing what they will do in the future. On the way back, I was caught in a tornado…not a nice impression, believe me. In the desert, when a bit of wind blows, you see these small tornados quite often…so I was driving on the road and in one go, a tornado built up next to the road a few meters from me and swept across the road with full speed. No way I could stop in time, so here I go at full speed in the tornado, the bike and me shacking quite a bit, but we managed to withstand it. What a scary moment!

(Aral Sea)

The desert here is a quite different from Turkmenistan. Less sand and really flat here. You have some very nice views.

The following day we visited Khiva, a splendour in the desert. After having traveled a cultural desert for the last week or so, it was good to have some man made culture. Khiva is an old town of the Khan’s in Uzbekistan used from the 12c to the 19c. The town still has its entire town walls, many medressas (coranic schools) and many mosques. It was great to stop riding a moment and visit an astonishing place. We spent a night in the desert on the way to Bukhara (first time camping for Maddy) and reached Bukhara yesterday. Bukhara is a very nice old city in Uzbekistan. We visiting it in detail today and will post more when we find a better internet access.

(Khiva)

(Camping in the desert)

Two further things, food here is quite monotonous with meat being the basis of their diet (Manon, I miss the good old vegetables and fruits!) and the people are very friendly and helpful.

It feels good to be visiting cultural sights. I was expecting Uzbekistan to be the cultural highlight of the trip and it seems I was right so far.

I've posted more pictures on Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in the photo album.

Across the Turkmen Dictatorship

Catching up after almost a week without internet connection

 

We rode across Turkmenistan from March 25^th to March 29^th. Entering the country was fairly difficult; first with very painful negotiations with the ferry company running the Baku-Turkmenbashi line and then a 5-hour process once at the Turkmen border and about 20 different checks with each time a few forms to file and a some dollars to pay out… inefficiency at its very best !

 

The 600km ride to Ashgabat was then quite pleasant and landscapes were mostly deserts and a few scattered small towns with little to no infrastructures. Petrol was very cheap – about $0.30 per liter – and police checks plentiful. We met with friendly locals and got introduced to a few traditional dishes (see pictures for more details). The Arrival in Ashgabat was then quite a shock… literally an oasis of wealth with very grand brand new buildings and parks with water falls at every street corner. Pictures of the dictator were everywhere! We are not into geopolitical commentaries but when most of the country lives on very low standards, this clearly does not seem like a good use of public money (mostly petrodollars).

 

We then spent 2 days crossing the Karakum desert – first on a decent road but we then had fairly difficult riding conditions on a mix of sand, gravel and decomposing tarmac. Struggled a lot in the sand dunes and realized that our bikes are still way too heavy… The ride left us exhausted but the overnight stop in the Darvaza oasis was well worth it! Amazing camping site and the lava crater was very impressive.

 

Heading for the Uzbek border, we stopped at Konya-Urgench, one of the jewels of Turkmen tourism and once one of the greatest Islamic cities before Genghis Khan arrived and decided to destroy pretty much everything.

 

The exit of Turkmenistan took us another 2-hour of administrative procedure…

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All Good in Uzbekistan

Such a shame... that's when you see the most amazing things that internet access and therefore the update of the blog becomes very difficult. We (painfully) crossed the Caspian Sea, travelled across Turkmenistan and its desert and entered in Uzbekistan 2 days ago. After a trip up North to see what is left of the Aral Sea we are now heading towards the historic wonders of the Silk Road.

Hoping to post much more detailed stories in a day or two with full load of pictures.

Thanks for all your support !

Baku

We arrived safely in Baku yesterday night. Whilst it wasn't easy to find an hotel we are impressed by the city. The road from Seki to Baku was a beautiful small country road. We had it all, from the mountains, to high plateaus, to hills, sand dune like mountains and the sea. I was really amazed about the beauty of nature here.
Baku is a very well developed city on the Caspian Sea and it seems they have invested a lot of the petrodollars to rebuild the town entirely in its original state. The historical town is full of old restored palaces etc... They are constructing new buildings all around but they seem to respect the city style.
We have very little time as we need to prepare our ferry journey over the Caspian Sea to Turkmenistan. We anticipate this to take the best part of 24h-48h and we need to prepare for food, drinks etc...
In Turkmenistan we aren't sure of finding an internet cafe, so it might take us 4 days to post something new.
I've updated the pictures on the album