Almaty

When you enter Kazakhstan from Kyrgystan it doesn't seem to be much different at first - until you reach Almaty. Almaty is very European in terms of buildings, roads, cars (actually nicer cars than in Europe...), cafes but also prices. A Cappuchino in a "hip" Coffee sets you back 5 USD. The people are really dressed up here, we kind of felt underdressed wherever we went...

Almaty, Kazakhstan

"Mallorca in Kyrgystan" - Cholpon Ata

Kyrgystan is about as far away from any sea as you can get. To compensate for this they established their own "Mallorca" at the Issyk-Kul lake in the north east of the country. We were there during low season when it's a pleasant place at a lake. But even then you got a flavour for how it must be in summer. Most restaurant have a life singer performing all the famous songs but with Russian text and even charge about 50 cents extra for the performance (believe me, you would be willing to pay much more if he would just stop!). In general you can say tourists like two things - Vodka (starting 1 USD for a bottle here) and loud music (really loud and everywhere - including the nice restaurant for breakfast...). In June it was cold (we were wearing fleeces) but to locals and Kazakhs this is no problem. They were swimming, playing beach volley as would it be hot...

Cholpon Ata, Kyrgystan

Bishkek

We arrived in Bishkek on a Saturday morning and were suprised that the city was almost dead. As we walked on and saw the flags on half mast and the huge gathering we asked - it was the funeral of Aitmatov. Absolutley impressive, it seemed like the entire city was here. We walked on to our hotel but it was closed - the people had gone to the funeral. Besides many locals several presidents from surruounding countries and TV stations were there. The people were very proud of Aitmatov. Besides this there is not that much to report of Bishkek. We saw the Spain-Sweden game with "half the Spanish Embassy" (that's the way it felt like) and met this Spanish soldier on the way home from his assignment in Afghansitan (Bishkek has a large US airbase - which is actually within the regular civil airpot - and is a major base for Afghanistan supplies. You can see many tank transporter planes there). After telling us his story he asked what we would do here. He almost colapsed when we said holidays. He repeated about 3 times, you - here - holidays, vacaciones???

Bishkek, Kyrgystan

Pamir 4 - Karakol to Sary Tash and Osh

The last part of the Pamir highway brings last wonderful views of the mountains, too many checkpoints and border controls (including emptying all luggage 3 times as this is a famous drug route out of Afghanistan) and wonderful Kyrgyz yurts with horses in front. Osh isn't really a big city but after the Pamir it feels like heaven. A warm shower, a real bed, your own room, shops and restaurants and even media to update you (although the news were rather bad - Switzerland was already out of the EURO). There is delicious bread and dumplings, omnipresent "mineral water" boxes where you can get a drink on the street and a lot of the traditional hats.

Pamir 4 - Karakul to Sary Tash and Osh

Pamir 3 - Murgab to Karakul

Karakul is an amazing alpine village. At 3900m next to a beautiful lake surrounded by nothing but mountains and only meters away from the Chinese border life is quite different. Solar ovens are used to heat up water, donkeys for local transport and hospitality is as big as it can get. We stayed with this family with their two lovely kids - simply great!

Pamir 3 - Murgab to Karakol

Pamir 2 - Langar to Murgab

From Langar you leave the Afghan border and cross a further pass with many animals using the same track. You reach amazing water and salt lakes, pass by women doing laundry in a river and see Yaks grazing. For the first time the Chinese influence becomes visible with restaurants having both Russian and Chinese names. Murgab is a "wild east" city, which is even in June pretty fresh (over 3000m). Water is pumped manually and digicams are not very common (we met these 3 kids who wanted a picture of them that they can look at them selves - withing seconds over 20 kids were around us asking for a picture). The people are very innovative. At our homestay they used an old car gas tank over a fire to heat water which was the "bathroom" (in Europe this would be called Hammam these days and cost a lot). Interesting to see was that the Swiss goverment supports several projects in the area and that most maps are made by a Swiss guy or the University of Bern.

Pamir 2 - Langar to Murghab (Tajikistan)

Pamir 1 - Khorog to Langar

From Khorog we went through the Wakhan Valley which divides Tadjikistan and Afghanistan. It's a wonderful mountain valley with small villages on both sides and the Hindu Kush (= Killer of the Hindus) in Pakistan in the background. In this part of the world gas stations are old trucks and vehicules are marked with a "no gun" sign. We spent the night with a local family in a very basic house. The "toilet" is a whole in the ground and the "shower" the little spring running by.

Pamir 1 - Khorog to Langar (Tajikistan)

Pamir Highway

Having grown up in Switzerland I thought I know what mountains are. Well, the Pamir area showed me a new dimension of mountains. You can be at 4500m and feel like being at "sea level" as you are surrounded by 6000er and 7000er - absolutely amazing. The Pamir highway (a road through this area) was built by the Sowjet Army in the 30's to supply their troops in this strategically important but geographically very remote area in the border region of Tajikistan, Kirgistan, China and Afghanistan. We went from Khorog along the Afghan border to Langar, then to Murgab, Karakol and then Osh traveling by 4WD and staying with local families - a wonderful experience.

Flying from Dushanbe to Khorog

Again it's either 22 hours car or one hour flight. This time the flight is kind of famous. On one hand for the fact that it was the only flight on which Aeroflot paid danger money to the pilots as it passes between 7000m mountains. On the other hand for the fact that there is only one flight a day with just 15 seats and typically about 100 people trying to get a seat... . Obviously there is no system to book these seats, the only way to get one is go to the airport the day before the flight, wait, wait, wait and then fight. It was quite a mission (about 5hours) but eventually we got a ticket. The flight is absolutly amazing. You really fly between these 6000 and 7000m mountains covered with snow and glaciers. Sometimes it feels like you can almost touch the snow...

Flight Dushanbe to Khorog (Tajikistan)

Dushanbe

Mmmh, how can you describe Dushanbe? On one hand it is a real capital with a "Barcelona like la rambla" and street coffees selling snacks and beers. On the other hand it still has the odd Sowjet reminders such as some "not very nice buildings" and the old men with the bear... Dushanbe was also the place where we saw the EURO 08 opening game, Switzerland - Czech Republic. Well, the result is nothing to write home about but the atmosphere was interesting. We were in this bar with a guy from Yvory Coast (the head of the European Commission in Dushanbe) and a couple locals.

Dushanbe, Tajikistan

Flight Kohjand - Dushanbe

Tajikistan is a very mountainous country with bad roads making most ground transports neverending long. Flights on the other hand are operated by old Antonov planes. What to go for?
Well, we tried our luck with an Antonov 24, which didn't exactly look brand new. There were no seat numbers and at the plane the crew said woman and children first... . Once they had their seat the men were alowed to fill up. Inside the plane looked even older. The seats weren't really fixed and incredibly close together. There was no fentilation making it incredibly hot. Nevertheless we made it safely to Dushanbe and celebrated with a cold Baltika beer.

World champions in red tape

The (hopefully) last visa related post... . Tajikistan is definitely world champion in charging red tape, absolutely amazing how they handle this... First you need a letter of invitation in order to apply for the visa (35 USD), then you can apply for the visa (if you don't want to wait forever this is 80 USD), after entering the country you have to register withing 72 hours with OVIR (22 USD and a process with going to the bank and then to their office etc). To enter GBAO (a district of the country - where the Pamir area is) you need a special permit (another 80 USD). In this GBAO you have to register again with both OVIR and KGB... . Last but not least there are many checkpoints along the street.

Fast wheel...

  
Uzbekistan and Tajikistan aren't best friends for various reasons (eg border disputes). Therefore there is no public transport between the countries (no flights, no bus, no train) leaving no other option than taking a shared taxi to the border, walk over and take a new taxi. That's nothing special as such but our taxi in Uzbekistan was "excellent". Once we were full (4 passengers) in Tashkent we took off and everything went well for the first hour. Then there was this strange noise and we stopped. The driver opened the front of the car and had a look at everything. Shortly afterwards we drove again. Then there was this smell from the back right side. Everybody was kind of guessing what this could be when the car fell to the right and our own back wheel flew past the car... Even the locals had a good laugh before we changed to another car leaving the poor guy with his tire in the field.

 

Tashkent

The Uzbek capital is a center for entire Central Asia and as such a very developed city in every aspect. From an excellent metro system to ATMs (even dispensing USD) to an excellent opera and wonderful markets. We took advantage of these possibilities and organized two further visas here while enjoying the city life. A highlight was definitely the opera visit - we splurged and went for the top seats in the 3rd row (for 4 USD...) and saw a great show.

Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Samarkand

As Bukhara, Samarkand was a major trading city along the silk road and is an impressive sight today. Combined with the delicious food and the hospitality simply a wonderful place. (We mentioned some foto stories from Iran. Here we were even asked by a wedding couple to take a picture with them. Well, they dressed up very nice and we in our ... clothes - at least they were happy)

Samarkand, Uzbekistan

Bukhara

Bukhara in southern Uzbekistan used to be an imporant city on the silk route and the impressive buildings from these days remain today. A wonderful place to enjoy ancient culture, have a good meal around the wonderful water pods and stay at one of the beautiful houses.

Bukhara, Uzbekistan

Merv

Merv is a desert city in the middle of Turkmenistan. We waited till 18.00 to go out and visit the famous sites but it was still incredibly hot! Besides the ancient ruines there are many camels on and next to the roads. After the "hard work" in the heat we enjoyed "kebab" and local beer.

Merv

Central Asia

Central Asia covers a large part on the world map (half the size of the US) but is hardly recognised in media or travel reports. That's why it was a bit difficult to imagine how it would be like here. As it was part of the former Sowjet Union one would probably expect something very Russia like. In fact it's quite different. People look rather Chinese than Russian, Food is rather Turkish, Religion is Islam and Language is a mix of national languages and Russian. It's amazing to see a Chinese looking Moslem eating Turkish Pide and speaking Russian!

Cave lake (Koew Ata)

It's probably not obivious that you go to a thermal bath when outside temperatures are close to 40 degrees but it's an amazing experience nevertheless. Close to Ashgabat is a large cave with a hot (36 deg), mineral rich (yes, nasty smell) lake at the bottom. Locals go there (in their underwear) and have great fun. Part of the experience was getting in. We were told we have to wait one hour as a VIP group would come. Indeed some minutes later a series of brand new, black Mercedes limousines arrived in a convoi with Police in front and back (could have been a movie). The eldery men with "largerly" bellies entered the bath and waiters followed with cold beer. While they were in, the bath was closed and we were told that these are "friends of the president". Later they came out only wearing a towel, jumped into the waiting cars and drove away. No wonder everybody wants to be a Politican...

Koew Ata, Turkmenistan

Ashgabat, Turkmenistan

Have you ever played SimCity? Then you can imagine how downtown Asghabat looks like! Everything is brand new, clean and empty (built with petrol dollars according to Turkmenbashi's plans - mostly by French companies). But there are some features which SimCity doesn't have. For example the dozens of golden (real gold) Statues of Turkembashi (the former president) or the Walk of health (35 km of concrete stairs built into the mountains south of the city...). Once you leave downtown you come to "normal" Turkmenistan where everything looks quite different. One thing every location has in common is that it's incredibly hot - it's a desert! We had a great time with Daniel & Greg, two Polish guys we met while applying for the Turkment visa (that's the good thing about waiting for visas...).

Ashgabat, Turkmenistan

Visa for Turkmenistan...

Yes, the visa for Russia was a pain but Turkmenistan was able to top it... . In Dubai it was simply niet if you don't have your own car. In Teheran we had to provide copies of our passport and the next visa and they said they would send it to Ashgabat (Turkmen capital) and they will check your data and decide whether you get a visa or not. We should come back in 5 working days. Obviously the working hours don't match - Iran has weekend on Thursday & Friday while Turkmenistan has weekend on Saturday & Sunday making 5 working days a bit longer... . Luckily Ashgabat approved our request but then the embassy let us run back and forth (call there and come back, now call there and come back, get a colour picture...) till we finally got the visa. The funniest thing was that the guy at the embassy pretended to speak only Turkmen or Russian which made us use Russian speakers, hand, feet, sign language etc. At the very end when he handed over the visa he spoke perfect English and had a big smile on his face...

Night train from Teheran to Mashad

What a ride! We took the train from Teheran to Mashad and it was the best night train we've ever been on. Compartments with 4 beds, 2 TVs, superbe service including hot dinner, tea and breakfast etc. Very comfortable. Btw It was the first time for us to experience that a train stops for evening prayer. Amazing to see how everybody leaves the train to enter the small mosque at the train station.

The scarf and me...

No, I have neither converted to Islam nor do I have constantly bad hair days in Iran... Wearing the scarf is mandatory by law in Iran, foreigners not exempted. It's quite a strange feeling to wear something on the head all the time and not to have the possibility to put it off. It took me quite a while to get used to it and I still fight everytime there is a wind gust or when the sun is beating down. But then, not to wear it is simply no option here, and we already get a lot of attention by being foreigners, so imagine the situation "Katrin without scarf" (I guess I could just as well walk around nacked).. In the end the question is, Do I want to visit Iran or not? and if yes, I have to respect this rule. But I have to admit: I'm looking forward to put that *** thing off (and to get back my freedom of choice) as soon as we cross the border again..

Want to be famous?

If you would like to experience how Roger Federer must feel like when he walks through Basel then go to Iran... It must be kind of a trophy for Iranians to get a picture with a foreigner. It is therefore very often that somebody approaches you "asking" to take a picture with him. We must be in dozens of Iranian family albums by now... It's typically pretty funny as their English and our Farsi is about at the same level making conversations very short. Conversations are like this "Salaama (hi in Farsi) Flash?" - "???" - "You, I flash (using body language and showing his camera)?" - (ah, Foto) "No problem" - Click, big smile and waving good bye.

Is the cold war over?

Getting a visa for former Sowjet countries can be a pain in Switzerland as we had to experience on earlier trips. Getting one outside your home country is even much worse as we (unfortunately) can tell now... . It's a story over 3 episodes... 1st attempt - Russian embassy in Dar es Salam, Tanzania. The consul was surprised to see Swiss people in Tanzania applying for a Russian visa. He informed us that "You know, Russia is very far away, you really want to go there?". All small talk didn't help, he wanted an additional paper with a russian reference number. FAILURE 2nd attempt - Russian embassy in Dubai, UAE. Pretty short process. no visa if you're not resident in Dubai. Mmmh, poor travelers... - FAILURE 3rd attempt - Russian embassy in Teheran, Iran. This "rendez vous" actually lasted 3 days... . - Day 1: The guard welcomes us with "niet, tomorrow". It takes a while to just get in and explain what we need. After discussing with two different guys the consul comes in person and talks to us in French. He says that 1. he can't issue a visa if we are not resident, 2. our invitation letter is copied - he wants the original and 3. it taks min 10 days to get the visa. Pretty frustrating. We try to organize the original invitation by DHL from Moscow but this takes too long. - Day 2: We return and explain that the letter is coming. They discuss back and forth and say that they can't do anything unless the travel agent in Moscow calls the consul on his personal mobile. We leave the embassy and ask Moscow to call "Mr Dunaev". The response is quick and negative - if the embassy wants to talk to us they should call... (grrrh) - Day 3: We go there before they open and wait in front of the gate. This gives us plenty of time to discuss (which is needed). After long discussions the consul decides to issue the visa (now all of a sudden without calling Moscow...) but only 3 days later. As we lost plenty of time before, this doesn't work out as we have to leave earlier... . No chance to discuss this, even after more than 30 minutes it's 3 days or nothing. During the 3 days at the embassy we made friends with an Irani who works for a local travel agent and is at the embassy every day to get visas for his customers. We had some small talk with him every day and gave him a look at our Russia Lonely Planet which turned out to be valueable as he "saved us". He said accept the delivery time the consul offers. That's what we did. So consul himself tells you that it's impossible to get a visa faster than in 3 days. Our 'friend' then walks to one of the windows and says 'Olga..... (Russian discussion which I didn't understand) and 30 minutes later we had our visas...

Teheran

Teheran is an amazing city. First of all the size - 15 Million people and a huge area make it impressive! Then the wide range from noisy basar to efficient metro, from rich jewel museum to smoky Paykan cars, from cheap kababi places to up-market starbucks like coffee place, from hot downtown to fresh air at the mountain at the northern end of town (3900m) incl ski lift! Simply amazing.

Teheran, Iran

Esfahan

Esfahan is a wonderful city. Impressive sights, a nice market and a very relaxing river area. The Iranian people like to spend their spare time in the public parks. Consequently these parks are very busy with families having pic-nic, girls playing badminton, boys playing volleyball or anybody smoking water pipe and having tea.

Esfahan, Iran

Special things in Iran

Some things are special in Iran. Enclosed a few examples. - Toilet signs A scarf is compulsory for all women in Iran. Consequently the toilet sign also shows a women with a scarf. - Hotel registration The registration forms are two sided. The front page is a regular registration form with name, passport nr etc. This page is only used for the man. On the back page is a table with name and job with 4 lines to register the wifes... - City buses City buses are seperated in the middle with a metal screen. In front are men only while the back is reserved for women.

Special things in Iran

Shiraz & Persepolis

Shiraz is a pleasant city in the south of Iran and home to the grave of the Iranian Poet Hafez. Besides, its nice alleys and parks make it a perfect place to enjoy iranian fruit juices and ice cream at a shadowed place. Some 50 km outside of Shiraz are the ruins of the ancient city of Persepolis. The remainings are impressive and we spent a whole morning wandering around what once used to be the capital of a huge imperium.

Shiraz & Persepolis

Yazd & surrounding

The desert city of Yazd and the surrounding area has many sights. Wind towers (ancient air condition), impressive palaces and mosques, traditional tea houses with delicious food (incl camel meat), tower of silence (graveyard of Zorostrians - they put the dead bodies on top of a hill and waited till the vultures cleaned them to the bones) and much more.

Yazd & surroundings