Dec 5th
Visited American University in Central Asia.

Threre is an Indiana Univeristy banner on the wall, not sure why IU.

Wedding

Dordoy bazaar which is the largest bazaar in Central Asia.

Bought my cap

They sell all kinds of stuffs here. There are many Chinese speaking people and like most wholesale market, there are Chinese wholesalers.

Walked around and found out that there was a Ballet/Opera/Play (70 Som~USD$1.5).

Dec 4th

Woke up from the taxi

Since today is Friday, getting a Kazakhstan visa is top priority for me. Took a taxi to Kazakhstan embassy located at Mira street first thing in the morning.

I tried to get a transit visa but the embassy won’t give out transit visa unless I have a prove of onward travel arrangement. They required photocopies of visa, passports and bank vouchers. After getting all the required documents, returned back to the consulate and the person in charged asked me to come back on Monday evening to collect my passport. The consulate doesn’t provide express service and a 30 days tourist visa cost USD$30.

The embassy is located at the south of the city so took a marshrutka to the city center and got a room at Hotel Semetei (900 Som~USD$20).

There weren’t many options for accommodation in Bishkek, most of the places recommended in lonely planet were out of date.

City pics

Night View

Went to Golden Bull recommended in the guide book and met some Kyrgyz friends.

Took a marshrutka to Karasu In the morning (30 minutes ride, 20 Som). There is a big bazaar in Karasu

and there were a lot of Chinese traders doing wholesale business at the market. Most of the products in Kyrgyzstan are made in China and many clothings and goods have Chinese brand name on it.

Took a shared taxi to Bishkek (1000 Som ~USD$22) at 2pm instead of flying.

Stopping for a break, with other passengers.

For the first half of the journey, the view was pretty flat.

However, when we drove around the mountains, it’s too dark to take pictures of the beautiful scenary.

Arrived in Bishkek at around 12am. Went to Hotel Ak Sary which is quite dirty and Sakura guesthouse was closed, so finally I bought the taxi driver food and drinks and slept in his car which was quite cold.

Dec 2nd

Osh University

Laghman again

City street

Yurt

Osh Museum (50 Som~ USD$1)

Shape of the country

Solomon’s throne

View from above

Lenin’s statue

Bazaar

Local housing

Manti (dumplings)

Walked to Munduz travel agency at the south part of town to get some information regarding transportation to Bishkek. Flight from Osh to Bishkek cost around USD50, 1 hour flight and shared taxi cost USD$30 for 10 hours ride. I think I will take the shared taxi just to see the scenery on the way to Bishkek.

Park

Chess

Moved to Hotel Sanadar and got a dorm room (150 Som~USD3.5)

because I find the road to the hotel in the bazaar a little dangerous at night. Plus, the owner is not friendly and the room is too cold. Went to Hotel Beijing to have a chat with the Chinese worker. He was quite friendly and told something about business in Kyrgyzstan.

Dec 1st
Met up with Bakhtiar at around 7am, walked around and visited the museum at 8am.

I didn’t know that Koreizmi and Ibn Sina were Uzbek from Andijon. Koreizimi is the famous mathematician and Ibn Sina, the famous doctor.

Fergana Valley

Cotton plant. Uzbekistan is the 2nd biggest exporter of cotton.

A medressa (islamic school) which was shut down by the government because the government is afraid of Islamic fundamentalist teaching.

Young center (A center for young people to hang out with facilities such as reading room and the first bowling alley in Andijon)

Crying mother statue

The security is tighter in Andijon because of the Andijon massacre in 1995 where the military killed around 1000 unarmed protesters. There were also a few terrorist attack, the most recent case being a bomb in front of the government building close to Hotel Andijon. I guess probably that’s why Hotel Andijon refused foreigners now.
Statue of Babur. He is from Andijon and is the founder of Mughal Indian empire. His great grandfather is Timur. There were statues of Timur everywhere in Samarkand but in Andijon, there are statues of Babur instead.

Since my Uzbek visa is only valid until Dec 1st, I have to get out of the country fast. Took a shared taxi to Dosytk at 12pm (around 45 minutes ride, 2,500 Som~USD1.30) and then changed to another taxi for a short ride to the Uzbekistan border.

There are many people waiting outside in the cold weather. Uzbekistan border crossing is very bureaucratic. They required me to fill up 2 similar forms as the 2 forms I filled when I got in the country.
Kyrgyzstan border crossing is slightly easier. A custom officer brought me to a room and checked my bags. He was acting a little weird and I am pretty sure he wanted some bribes so I just ignored him.
Then took a bus from Kyrgyzstan border to Osh which is just around 8kms away. Osh is the second biggest city in Kyrgyzstan and is an old city and some people mentioned that the city was founded by King Solomon or even Alexander the great. There are a mixture of Uzbeks and Kyrgyz people in Osh. Osh was a territory of Uzbekistan some years back and there were an ethnic conflict in 1990 between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz.
Kyrgyz looks just like East Asians which is different from their Uzbek neighbors.
There were a lot of money changers on the street and a lot of Mercedes on the street. These combination seemed like a place for Mafias.

Jameh Bazaar

Local Kyrgyz hat

Asked around a few hotels and found a hotel inside the bazaar, (300 Kyrgyz Som~USD7.5, 1 USD~43.80 Kyrgyz Som).

Laghman for dinner (40 Som ~ USD$1)

Asia hotel provided quite a good breakfast.

Jerry had an appointment to meet a prospective bride in the morning. We met up later, walked around the park.

Statue of Babur

Like most countries around this region, Uzbekistan is famous for its carpet. This huge carpet 3X5 meters cost around USD$150.

Street performance

Another Bazaar

We met with Jerry’s prospective bride at a bazaar and I tagged along to visit the girl’s workplace,
Law faculty

and then had lunch together. It’s kind of hard to understand the conversation because it’s a three way conversation. The guide translated Russian to Korean for Jerry and Jerry then explained to me in some English.
Hang around the city with Jerry.

Then took a shared taxi at around 5pm to Andijon which is around 75kms away (1 hour, 2,000 Som~USD$1).

Took a cab to Hotel Andijon recommended in lonely planet guide book. However, the staff working there mentioned that I am not allowed to stay there after giving me the price. I don’t understand what’s the reason because she couldn’t speak English.

Took marshrutka 33 to Hotel Voldyn instead (16,500 sum~USD$8).

Andijon Plov for dinner

Met a friendly Uzbek guy, Bakhtiar at the internet café and he told me that he is willing to show me around the city tomorrow.

Nov 29th Fergana Sun
Went to Fergana with Jerry and his guide, Eh Jah. Jerry’s guide is a Korean grandmother who was borned in Uzbekistan. She can speak both Russian and Korean fluently. We took a taxi to Qoylok Bazzar and then took a taxi to Fergana at 11am (325km, 5 hours drive away. 50,000 Som~USD$25 for a car).
Passed by some very nice mountains.

Local Uzbek family picnicking

Local Uzbeks selling their goods.

Back to the Mountains

Arrived at Fergana around 4pm and the weather here is colder. Fergana is a city of around 200,000 people situated at the Fergana Valley. A third of the population of Uzbekistan live in Fergana Valley. The Fergana Valley is a flat bowl surrounded by Tian Shan mountain to the north and Pamir Altay to the south.
We checked in at Asia hotel which is quite a nice hotel. Usually I prefer to stay at budget hotel but since I am with Jerry, we shared a hotel room for USD$25 each.

Visited Eh Jah’s relative then had Shashlyk for dinner.

Eh Jah and Jerry

Nov 28th
History Museum of the People of Uzbekistan

Metro

Went to Hotel Intercontinental which is at the north part of Tashkent to get USD from Asaka ATM.
Met Jerry, a Korean guy at a bar. Jerry’s mission is to look for a wife in Central Asia and traveled all the way here from Seoul.

Nov 27th
Tashkent is the biggest city in Central Asia with a population of around 2 millions. Tashkent was hit by a big earthquake in 1966 and most part of the city were destroyed. Uzbek is now the official language after the Soviet Union broke up but Russian is still the primary language used because Tashkent is quite cosmopolitan. Most signs are still in Cyrillic. Spent the morning looking for another place to stay and found Hotel Orzu (60,000 Som~USD$30) which is at the south west part of Tashkent.

Lunch (a kind of gravy and soup, I forgot the name of the dish but it’s Uzbek food)

A Medressa

Walked around Chorsu Bazaar.

Seoul Plaza

There are many Koreans in Central Asia including Uzbekistan, especially in Tashkent. During the world war I many years ago, Stalin moved many Koreans from Vladivastok to Central Asia so the army can identify the Japanese from the Koreans.

There is a street called Broadway around Mustaqillik Maydoni which has some shops and restaurants.
Ate fast food and checked out the night life in Tashkent since it’s Friday night. Walked a lot today and covered most part of the city on foot.

[mappress]
After having breakfast at the hostel, walked to the ancient Samarkand site called Afrosiab, northeast of the Bazaar. It’s a 2.2 sq km site and there is a museum at the site.

Walked another 1km to Ulugbek Observatory.

A local wedding. Uzbeks and Tajiks marry pretty early, it’s not uncommon to see married couples who are just 18 years old.

So far in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, the local people I met will usually ask if I am married and looked surprise that I wasn’t because the marrying age here is quite young.

Uzbek Kids

I spent a lot of time looking for Plov for dinner yesterday and couldn’t find it. So that’s my mission for lunch today. (4000 Soms~USD$2).

The only shopping mall I found.

Took a Marshrutka to the train station and then got a 5pm train ticket (18,000 Som~USD$9, 300km 3.5 hours ride) to Tashkent.

Arrived at Tashkent around 8.30pm and took the metro to Gafur Gulom stop which is at the north west part of the city. Tashkent is the only city in Central Asia with a metro system and the architecture inside each station is different and very pretty. Every metro station has many police and since I have 2 backpacks, they knew I was a tourist and asked for my passport and questioned me. Being a police is a boring job in Uzbekistan. There are so many police everywhere and they just stand at the same spot the whole day without doing much. Found Hotel Hadra and it’s the cheapest hotel in the guide book and cost 13,000 Som~ USD$6.50 but it’s dirty and empty.

Later someone told me that the building is also used as a brothel.

Samarkand is one of Central Asia’s oldest settlement. Since it’s located right in the middle of the crossroads leading to China, India and Persia. The city had a few rulers such as the Turks, Arabs, Persians, Mongols. It was destroyed by Genghis Khan in 1220 but then Timur decided to make Samarkand his capital and built many nice buildings in Samarkand.
In Bukhara and Samarkand, there are many Tajiks and most people here speak Tajiks, which is a language similar to Farsi instead of Uzbeks. During the Soviet Union times, Russian is the official language so even though not everyone speak Uzbeks in Uzbekistan but most people do speak Russian.