Greg and Mandy's Travels

Forgot to tell you that yesterday we came across a well known and well dressed guy whom our guide introduced to us as a TV show host of a Russian fashion and clothing channel. They’re the same the world over. Gay as. 

This morning after a very leisurely start, we walked to some of the close-by sites of modern Tashkent starting with Independence Square, situated next to the President’s palace. There were 100s of police everywhere blocking off every path into the park around the square, and we were repeatedly stopped from entering. Eventually one kind officer radioed somebody to let us in.…

In an unusual, but rather practical custom, police officers in Uzbekistan wear a little cloth badge on their uniform over their heart embroidered with their blood type.

Today was our day to explore the highlights of Samarkand. Back in the day, Samarkand was one of the most important stops on the Silk Road between China and Europe, and it was the place where a number of the various routes from all four directions all intersected. So everybody came through here. The great Emir Temur made his capital here, and for good reason. It was also the capital of Uzbekistan, until the Soviets decided otherwise.…

Back on the 1960s with the cotton industry established, and the area designated to provide cotton to the whole of the Soviet Union, they needed bulk water to grow it. So they created 150 water channels to take water from the Aral Sea in the north west, and then piped it to various areas of the country. Unfortunately the term Aral Sea is a misnomer. It’s actually the Aral lake. 

At 66000 sq kms it was the 4th largest lake in world. By the fall of the Soviet Union some 30 years later there was only 8% of the water left, and it won’t ever recover as the rivers that feed the lake are in Russia, and the water has been diverted for their own use.…

Bukhara is the cotton bowl of Central Asia, and we passed hundreds of small cotton farms in the bus. The plants are around 60cm tall, and not as prolific as in Australia. They are irrigated from above by plastic hosing strung through the tops of the bushes. 

Not sure about the planting, but all picking is done by hand. There would be 50 or so labourers in every field, and it seems that there was a percentage of balls left on the plant. Maybe the hand picking is less efficient, or maybe they have bloomed after the pick. 

In finished paddocks, there were labourers with scythes cutting the plant to a couple of inches (though we saw a couple of tractors), and others gathering the cut bushes.…

Restaurants in central Asia are different to the west. In the west, a restaurant is one big room with lots of tables. In central Asia, a restaurant is a series of rooms off a corridor or central area. Bit like a hotel corridor. Each dinner party has their own room. 

It’s great. It’s quieter and you can hear others talk. For a group like ours, we can have a single conversation, or the tour leader can talk about the next day. A family group can sing Happy Birthday, or a couple can whisper sweet nothings.

Last night there would have been 30 rooms in our restaurant over two floors.…

Are you ready for a huge substitution game? A big coding puzzle?

OK, so:

B is really V

X is really H

H is really N

N (backwards) is really I

3 is really Z

P is really R

C is really S

Y is really U

W is really SH

BI is really Y

Got all of that? Good! Now you can read Cyrillic.

Don’t believe it? Let me prove it to you.

Start with an easy one. What do the Cyrillic words ‘mnhn mapket’ mean?

Mini market. Bet you got that one.

OK, a bit harder.

How about ‘catnh’, and ‘takcn’?…

The day dawned sunny and warm, with not a sign that it had been raining and snowing the day before. 

There is a law in Tajikistan that you have to display the president’s picture for two weeks before and after every public holiday, so that ensures that there are permanent pictures displayed everywhere.  Lots of them. He is basically president for life, as he is the only candidate in every election. 

He has two sons. One is mayor of the city, and the other is head of the parliament. No prizes for guessing who will eventually be next president. 

Tajikistan has the tallest flagpole, the biggest library, the largest palace, and so on.…