9, 10 and 11 June - Samarkand, Tashkent and Ferghana (Uzbekistan)

The cost of fuel is 50p/litre with an increase in the diesel cost due to the harvest starting and the increased use of diesel on the farms. This is now 64p/litre. The exchange rate is £1 = 3850 som and as the largest note is 5000 som, though mainly 1000 som notes are used going shopping with a wad of noted 20mm thick is difficult. It is made easier by each cashier having a note counting machine at the till, quite strange to watch.

The morning of the 9th saw us leaving Samarkand for Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. Our journey took us along the edge of the ‘steppes,’ previously desert but now quite fertile with water supplied by pumping stations from the nearby rivers. The land is farmed by the farmers on a 99 year lease from the government with the condition that they must grow what they are told on 80% of the land and sell at a price determined by the government. The crop is mainly cotton and silk with cattle, sheep and goats kept as well. On the remaining 20% of the land they may grow and sell what they wish. There has been controversy abroad about the labour used to collect the cotton, some saying it was child labour and poorly paid. It seems that at the cotton harvest time many people still come from the towns and cities to harvest the cotton as it has to be collected quickly to be at it’s best and the people, professional and others, do so because it has been something that has always been done. With the change in working conditions in the country and the reduced use of insecticides the life expectancy of the people has increased from 59 for both male and female in the Soviet era to 69 for males and 66 for females now.

At Tashkent we stayed in the Rovshan Hotel which appeared to be a business mans hotel. I went out that afternoon to visit the railway museum where there were old steam engines from the Soviet times, huge and thunderous they looked as well. They are big so as to be able to pull the large loads of military equipment across the old Russian lands.

Built 1949

Built 1949

Built 1944

Firebox of the engine above

Built 1935

Built 1934

Open carriage

Inside the carriage

Snow plough

Crane

 Walking back to the hotel I went into a Russian orthodox Church (to find out later that it was the main Russian Orthodox Church for the whole of Uzbekistan) and sat down for a while to listen to the singing of unaccompanied voices (not Gregorian chanting) during a service.

Views of the Russian Orthodox Church

The following morning four of us went by the metro to the Chorsu bazaar. Various information was available to indicate that the metro stations were something special to look at, like the metro in Moscow. There was no comparison, this metro was very dull, and although different on each station was not worth going to each station to check out the decorations.

The cover over the cold food section (meat, fish and milk products)

Inside the cool part of the bazaar

Meat!

I have no idea what I said to make her laugh

Suzanne buying sunglasses

Views about the city

Suzanne and Anita

Roses for whom!

Tashkent was just a normal city with bigger buildings than we had seen before and more cars. There was very little to recommend the place. It had been completely rebuilt in 1966 after a devastating earthquake and in the rebuilding no significant monuments were preserved. The following morning we left in hire cars for Ferghana, our last stopping place before crossing the border to Kyrgyzstan. The road, which is being upgraded, goes over the Kamchik Pass at 2267 metres and is restricted to buses and vehicles carrying passengers. This is so to control the movement of people and trucks, and for the safety of those who are able use the road.

The country on the way to Ferghana

Looking down the Kamchik Pass

At the lookout

Hire my binoculars

Hilltop advrtising

In the town park

Fresh bread in the evening

I expected Ferghana to be a small pretty village type of place with old buildings. It has however wide streets and many buildings besides a large park in the centre of the town. Sitting outside a cafe this evening the pace of the was slow and easy, a relaxing place to be. The town was an important conduit on the North Silk road which went from Xian in China to the Black Sea via Kashgar. It is now the centre of oil refining for the whole of Uzbekistan. 

Our passports have to be handed into each hotel we stay and they have to put into the passport a slip showing that we have stayed in the hotel. Three are now five slips in each passport and I assume that they will be checked when we reach the border in the morning.