Week 5 up through Western Turkey

Week 5  Up through western Turkey

Day 28 Sailing in the Med
We couldn't get enough of the great view from our room, it made us late for breakfast and then the bus ride to Kekova. We spent the whole day on this sailing excursion, onboard a small motorboat, stopping at various swimming spots and eating and drinking to our hearts delight. Throughout the day the water was beautifully warm, very clean and there was only a light zephyr blowing. There were plenty of boats around but it never felt too crowded.
The water was so inviting that it was hard to stay out, however with clear, blue skies the danger of getting sunburnt meant having to be careful. In the afternoon we sailed into a small bay, formerly used for boat building over 2000 years ago with some remains still visible. Further along we passed what was a significant settlement, Batik Sehir,  which was destroyed in an earthquake and now only steps and walls remain.
We anchored in Simena across the bay and climbed the hill above town to the ancient fort. Originally built by Lycians, then rebuilt by Romans, Greeks and Ottomans, the majority of it is still intact. The views from the summit were sensational as it is surrounded by water and there was so much to see in every direction. On our descent we stopped at the "I'm Here Cafe" and enjoyed some amazing homemade ice cream with flavours such as prickly pear, mulberry and melon. The proprietor Mustafa is a clown and he entertained us with stories of his friends around the world and with his cat, Garfield.
After a day with too much to eat and drink, dinner back in Kas was minimal. It will be a shame to leave here tomorrow, its a lovely little town in a spectacular setting.

Day 29 Along the coast to Fethiye
A short days drive today, a bit more westwards past some truly wonderful scenery, the Med on one side and mountains on the other. There wasn't much traffic on the road so we arrived near our destination by late morning.
First up we visited a ghost town, Kakakoy, deserted since the Greek population left during the great population exchange in the 1920's. The Greeks worked the fields below and lived for centuries in stone houses in the hills above. Thousands lived here and because of the stony nature of the land most of the cottages and churches are still standing and easily visited with little vegetation.
On the way down to our hotel we stopped have a look at a hillside with rock tombs carved into the side about 3,000 years ago during the Lycian times. Almost like Petra in Jordan or Ajanta in India on smaller scale, it was a practice that did not continue anywhere else in Turkey.
Fethiye (pronounced Feteeya) is a city that was flattened by a 7.1 earthquake in 1957 therefore  nothing of historical significance is left. It is home to thousands of Poms who arrived for the cheap real estate and the weather. A bit like the Costa del Sol in Spain we saw egg & chips advertised in the cafes and some very similar supermarket names - Azda & Saintsburys??
Another relaxing afternoon, a blessing because it was a roasting 36degC. We've certainly had some varying wifi during this trip, here it is brilliant, yesterday only in the lobby and restaurant was it passable. It can be frustrating as Sally is trying to organise next semesters tutorials for her students and we use WhatsApp exclusively for family communication when overseas.
In the evening we decided to do our own thing and wandered down to the seafront, about 20 minutes walk. It was full of cafes, restaurants and shops with all sorts of food available and people everywhere. We managed to catch the red sun setting on the grey beach.
Turkey attracts visitors from all over the Arab world; we have seen and heard tourists from Russia, Western Europe, Morocco, Lebanon, China of course, Korea, Japan  and USA. It is cheap and there is plenty to see and do plus the weather is fine and hot.

Day 30  "Cotton Castle"
Another day of driving and sightseeing, there are times like today when it would be nice to have a break of 3 or 4 days to just stop and not travel or visit attractions. We drove north through the mountains for a bit over 3 hours passing a lot of farmland and quite a number of mining operations including a few marble quarries. We lunched in the city of Denizli with lots of fresh Turkish flat bread, dips and a spicy lamb soup before a quick drive to our hotel in Pamukkale (literally Cotton Castle).
In the  late afternoon it was off up the hill above town to marvel at the famous spectacular bright white terraces and visit the ancient Roman city of Hierapolis. The Romans recognised the benefits of natural hot springs and built their largest city in the region beside these waters that fix circulation and digestive problems. With high calcium bicarbonate content the bright white deposits form terraces and cascade over the rocks giving a very unusual effect. Growing up in NZ Tony remembers historical photos of the Pink & White Terraces destroyed by a volcanic eruption and these have similar characteristics.
There were literally thousands of people visiting the springs and a hot pool reputedly gifted by Marc to Cleopatra, at this time of the day. They were walking along the travertines, an upper terrace about 250 metres long, some slipping over on the reddish algal covering. In recognition of the importance of this site the Turkish government in the 1960's demolished numerous hotels built nearby which were sucking the springs dry. Unfortunately there's still now a need to replenish the water from other sources.
In order to have a good look at Hieropolis we caught a bus a couple of kilometres from the hot springs to view a few of the outstanding remaining tombs, gates and roads. The city evidently contained a population of over 200,000 at it's most popular and it certainly spread out a fair distance. There are thousands of marble and rock artefacts strewn over the hillsides and a few major structures are either still standing or have been rebuilt including a massive theatre with near vertical steeply angled semi-circular seats. The necropolis and the north gate seem to have survived the earthquake that destroyed most of the city in the 2ndC AD and many of the drains and the cistern look in remarkable condition. We wandered around in the windy hot conditions quite amazed that much of the area we were traversing had been covered in vegetation only 60 years ago before major archaeological work began and Unesco began to get interested.

Day 31 Aegean Coast
The road system in Turkey is very good, roads and highways are well maintained and the signage  is first class. Many major highways are toll roads, without tollgates however, as all vehicles are fitted. with a small disc that is read periodically by a sensor. The drivers do like to take the odd risk or two, especially when passing near corners and rating them on a scale of 1 to 10 (good to bad), they are about 6 or 7. On a rating system Sri Lankan bus drivers are the tops at 10, Indians are 8, Italians are 6, British are 3, Germans are 2 and Aussies about 4.
Today's drive took us west through a valley for just over 3 hours, alongside a large aluminium pipe for a hundred kilometres, that was carrying hot water from geo-thermal springs to power a number of large power stations. Turkey sits on the "ring of fire", has had plenty of recent volcanic activity and is one of the worlds five biggest geo-thermal power producers (quiz question, name the other 4).
Arriving in Selcuk around lunchtime we visited the Temple of Artemis, a lone marble column is all that really remains. We had a lovely meal in a little restaurant in the centre of the city where cooked dishes were piled up in a semi-circle and we could choose what we wanted; our choice included zucchini fritters, meatballs with potato and carrot, broccoli, sautéed mushrooms, aubergine moussaka, brown rice.
Our little pension called interestingly "Amazon Palace" had the rooms enclosed around a courtyard with a meal area upstairs and a swimming pool. We waited out the heat, another 35+ day, although it was hotter in the UK and France!  
The walk up to St Johns Basilica was thankfully short. Built by Justinian (Byzantine Emperor who built Hagia Sofia in Istanbul) in the 6thC AD, it stands over the believed burial site of St John the Evangelist. Unfortunately most of the structure has either fallen down in earthquakes or been pillaged, however it commands a lovely position on a hill overlooking the town and the valley to the sea. Tony wandered up and had a look inside the walls of the Ottoman castle above where again little remains.
We wandered around town, into a few tourist shops until we lost interest. We were planning on a quiet evening however our guide being misinformed by his company, assumed it was Tony's birthday and invited us out to dinner where a special birthday cake was enjoyed by all the tour group.

Day 32 Ephesus
Ata thankfully organised an early start, to beat the heat and the crowds, to visit the ancient Roman city of Ephesus, a 5 minute drive from Selcuk. Originally settled in 10,000BC by the Hittites, then attacked and taken by the Lycians in 6thC BC and for the next couple of thousand years fought over by Persians and then Greeks. It became the most important Greek city in Asia Minor until the Romans arrived in 189BC. Under Roman rule, Ephesus was a centre of commercial activity and the most impressive example of a city in these lands. Originally settled because it was a major port, because of silting of the river the coast is now 5 kilometres distant and the port fell out of use. In early Christian times Ephesus saw the arrival and protests against St Paul, as described in the New Testament and was the city St John died in. A major earthquake in the 7thC destroyed most of the city.
We had the entire morning to see the ancient city, which winds down a valley towards the old port. Starting where esteemed visitors arrived at the Agora, we walked to the theatre or Odeon, a 1400 seat area used for concerts and parliament. 2000 year old pipes that delivered fresh water to the city can seen everywhere. There are temples, gates, alters and monuments all along the marble road where shops, brothels, baths and fountains would have also lined the street. A large library in a very prominent position has mostly been rebuilt and the 24,000 seat stadium is at present being the worked on. The public toilets are obvious in their design and intent, evidently well-to-do citizens got their slaves to warm the seats for them in the cold winters.
A lot of work has been done to resurrect Ephesus by the Turkish and Austrian governments and archaeological teams can be seen on duty. The best example of their work is an area of terrace houses, now sheltered beneath a roof and part of a special museum where mosaics and frescoes have been unearthed and cleaned.
By the time we departed for lunch the place was heaving with visitors and tour buses lined the carpark outside. Lunch was nearby at a pide restaurant, lovely wood-fired Turkish pizzas and we had fresh lemonada to accompany them.
A relaxing afternoon in the aircon meant we were all ready to drive about 30 minutes into the hills to Sirince, a little village of winemakers. We tasted white and red varieties, all of which were of a very good standard and also a few fruit wines: cherry, pomegranate and melon. Plenty of market stalls selling hand painted plates, jewellery and clothes were browsed through before we had dinner, overlooking the valley, in a family-run restaurant where Turkish ravioli is the specialty.

Day 33 Long drive to Canakkale
Over 5 hours on the bus, mostly on motorways, up the Aegean coast to the pretty university city of Canakkale. The scenery was interesting as we traversed a mountain range, crossed the third biggest city Izmir and passed through farmland and coastal scenery. On the way we stopped at Troja, or Troy, the ancient city made famous by Homer in his Iliad. This settlement had eleven iterations, either conquered or destroyed by earthquakes, the foundations of the last one were used to build the next. Originally pre-bronze age, it was still being used by the early Ottomans.
There is a Trojan horse, of course, of course. At the entrance to the ancient site, a wooden one has been erected to satisfy the tourists.
Then when we walked along the waterfront in Canakkale, the Trojan Horse from the 2004 film Troy, stands proudly looking over the Bosphorus towards the Gallipoli peninsula. As this was the final evening our travelling group, Mustafa our diver and Ata our guide would all be together, we took the opportunity to have a final meal together. We all gathered in a restaurant next to the ferry terminal, including Bob the septegenarian Geordie on his 23rd Intrepid trip who only normally eats one meal per day. It was a nice occasion, a speech was made and tips presented and a few drinks consumed.


Day 34 Gallipoli on the last day
A very early start to catch the 7am ferry over to European Turkey for our morning touring the WW1 battle sites and war memorials. By coming early we missed any other visitors and were able to enjoy Anzac Cove in serenity and peace. Our first impressions were of fields of sunflowers, hillsides covered in pines and shrubs and rocky beaches and lapping waters.
It is so difficult to envisage the thousands of men fighting all over the hills, thirsty, injured, dying and then leaving after 8 months. There is little left now except a few trenches, a road delineates where no-mans land was with Turkish, Australian, New Zealand and British war memorials and story boards of the major battles. We visited Lone Pine cemetery, the Turkish war memorial and Chunuk Bair, scene of the last major allied offensive. The beach, where the soldiers were brought in rowing boats, where first aid posts  and campaign headquarters were set up and from where the only real success of the campaign, the withdrawal took place is now so serene.
It was a privilege to be able to visit this sacred site on a lovely, warm summers morning with the birds singing and little disturbance. Now it was time to return to the metropolis of Istanbul, along the coast of the Sea of Mamara. Until we were 100kms from the city, progress was rapid however it did slow to a crawl on the 2 lane highway, with roadworks, traffic police stops and frustrated drivers.
With our official trip finished it was time to bid farewell to our fellow Intrepid travellers who were all off in different directions: to Egypt, Croatia and in our case home to Perth tomorrow evening. We'll spend the morning doing some last minute shopping and working out how we'll get all our purchases including the carpet bought in Kyrgyzstan into our suitcases.
We've had a ball over the past five weeks, it has been a great mid-winter break for both of us. We both heartily recommend all three countries we've visited, they all have fantastic scenery, amazing history and are friendly and welcoming. We feel we will return home enriched and energised and are looking forward to putting out more travel blogs in future. The 

Week 4 To Cappadocia and beyond

Week 4

To Cappadocia and south to Mediterranean Sea

Day 22 Into the Turkish countryside

Our first couple of hours was an orientation for everyone about Istanbul and its part in Turkey's history while looking around the Blue Mosque and Hippodrome area. It's always a buzz to be standing somewhere of huge historical importance and this small paved square was the centre of the Greek city of Byzantium in 667BC.  The Romans built the Hippodrome and had chariot races and other more inhumane contests involving wild animals and slaves. A large Egyptian obelisk from Amun-Re temple in Karnak was carried here (and unsurprisingly partly broken in the process) under Constantine the Great's orders and erected after he died. Also erected during the Hippodrome days was a serpent column taken from the Temple of Apollo in Delphi which someone hacked the head off many centuries ago.
The Blue Mosque or SultanAhmet mosque is also under renovation, this one internally so we were restricted in what we could see. Nevertheless the amazing blue tiles that still cover much of the walls and the vastness of the structure was seen and appreciated.
Onto the bus, a 16 seater with little leg room, for our first leg of a 3,000 km journey around the western half of Turkey. The traffic was pretty heavy for the 90 minutes until we exited the city, through hills with apartment blocks by the thousands. We passed a heavy industrial area with a Hyundai car plant, a coal fired power station and numerous solar farms. The motorway was very European-like, 2 or 3 lanes, 120kph speed limits and lots of services, cafes and petrol stations. We stopped at a services for lunch then continued on into the mountains and into fairly intensive agriculture with a lot of cropping especially wheat.
Our destination was Beyaparazi, a settlement on the Silk Road, a major market town servicing Ankara and now a city of 50,000. It was a pleasant change from the Istanbul metropolis to this semi-rural setting, a spacious, modern hotel on the main street. We wandered up to a Living Museum to see Ottoman life in the 19thC, watching demonstrations of weaving and shamanist fortune telling. The architecture was very different, almost Swiss alps like, high windows and plenty  of wood and plaster. We later ate a simple dinner in a traditional Turkish restaurant down near the river.

Day 23 To Cappadocia
During the mornings drive east, our guide Ata gave us his potted history of the Turkish revolution in the aftermath of WW1 and then the subsequent founding of the modern secular Turkish Republic. He's pretty proud of the manner in which Ataturk pulled forces together to defeat the Great Powers of Britain, France and Italy after the Ottoman Empire fell and  then modernised all aspects of society and government against much opposition. In doing so the Turks turned their neighbours the Greeks into enemies and expelled millions of them. The city of Ankara was established by Ataturk's government as the seat of government because of it's central location.
The driving today was fairly long and a bit monotonous, south-east past Ankara into the Cappadocian  Region. We only stopped in Ankara for petrol and ablution facilities and I don't think we missed much; over forty kilometres of high rise and highways on a high plain surrounded by hills. Our next stop was to pay homage to the country's biggest salt lake, Tuz Gulu along with hundreds of others.  This lake provides the salt requirements of the country.
Our lunch stop was almost a highlight, luxurious toilets and good wholesome food with a bank of 8 ATMs - all the better to pay for balloon flying and other extraneous activities we've got coming up.
The road into Cappodocia climbed to 1200m, passing a mountain range with a smattering of snow.
Our first glimpse of the cones, hats and needles and the soft volcanic tuff rock around our destination of Goreme was a real eye-opener. It's like a fantasy land because it doesn't look like anything we'd ever seen before, almost like a child's playground in a larger dimension. This area has been settled for thousands of years, first by local tribes, then Greeks, Romans and onwards to present day Turks - all of whom lived in caves carved out of this soft rock.
The hotel we're installed in is relatively new but in common with many others in the town it has rooms carved from the surrounding rocks as well as suites of rooms built from rock quarried nearby. These blocks of quarried stone resemble limestone. A thunderstorm arrived as we did, soaking everything and immediately cooling the temperature. To complete the picture we have about 15 turkeys in an enclosure nearby, gobbling happily away.
Early in the evening we travelled to the Sarihan caravanserai to see an exhibition of Whirling Dervishes, a major part of Turkish custom and beliefs from the 13thC. The building was used by Silk Rd. travellers, it has an enclosed courtyard and sleeping rooms and would be locked up at night to deter robbers. The Sema ceremony  was a hypnotic experience of 7 parts: starting slowly with a eulogy to the Prophet, followed by drums, a "ney" reed instrument, dervishes greetings and salutations before the whirling began in the fifth part which consisted of 4 salutes all to do with God and the Prophet. Finally the last 2 parts were reading of the Koran and a prayer. Very interesting to watch and impressed they don't get giddy! Years of training obviously.
We enjoyed a group dinner afterwards of local stew, either beef or chicken cooked in clay pots with salad, rice and mashed potato on the side.

Day 23 Ballooning or not?
Awake at 4am, to the hotel foyer in the drizzle, waiting for news of the hot-air ballooning flight that we'd paid for last night. Alas it was not to be! So we went back to bed for a couple of hours. These balloon flights have become such a big part of the tourism industry here, there can be over 100 balloons up at any one time.
After breakfast we were bussed out to commence a 2 hour stroll down into the valley, the only ones out there as the tourist buses stayed away from this area. It was a great walk, steep at times but with some amazing views of rock formations and carved out sections where pigeons were housed. The pigeons were kept for their eggs (mosaic glazing) and their droppings (fertiliser).
Then we journeyed to Goreme Open Air Museum, a monastic complex of cave buildings including over 20 churches. This was one of earliest centres of religious education beginning around 900AD. and some of the chapel art is exquisite with many frescoes. Its a unique location and the fact it has been preserved like it has is a tribute to the Turks sense of history.
The rest of the day was freed up from any activities or excursions so we had a light lunch, relaxed and wandered around town. One of the beauties of Intrepid travel is the free time afforded in their itineraries, plenty of relaxation.
The sound of the muezzin sometimes surprises us because for the most part there is no real outward sign of Islam except the odd minaret and religion doesn't intrude on everyday life as a visitor. Turks are so friendly, not obsequious at all, just genuinely nice, open people who love having visitors. Tourism was hit badly by the bombings and coup of 2016 and they are keen to welcome more tourists.  Tour guides have to do four years of study to become accredited and have an annual accreditation.

Day 24 Underground City to Religious City
A short ride from Goreme is the underground city of Kaymakli, one of a number in the area. We descended four levels through narrow passageways, animals were kept on the first level, wine production and the kitchen was on the second with living quarters below. There are another three levels that are being excavated which we were unable to visit. There was a air shaft just wider than a man's shoulders with steps to climb above and check for invaders or below to other levels. These settlements were mainly built to hide from aggressors by the Hittites and Phrygians around 1200BC. The rooms were of average height so it was easy to walk around and the ceilings had the evidence of pick excavation on the soft rock. There is some evidence these settlements were used at times in preceding centuries, their condition is remarkable and evidence again of the Turkish authorities determination to look after their history.
Today's drive was across a long plateau to Konya, a substantial city from the Silk Road which has seen much development of late, such that except for the inner city it is a continuous line of high rise suburbia. We stopped at a small town, Aksaray, and walked around Sultanhani Caravanserai built in the early 1200's with a magnificent front gate and huge walls to protect the travelling traders. In Konya the Mevlana Museum is a mausoleum and mosque for Rumi, a Sufi mystic and philosopher whose work later inspired the Whirling dervishes, as we visited on Friday, the Moslem holy day, it was full of visitors.
Our hotel was modern and central, near the electric tramline and a short distance to dinner of Turkish pide and salad.

Day 25 Down to the Med
We departed Konya early as the drive was fairly long, our destination has a fair amount of interest and we are only staying one day. The scenery was some of the most spectacular seen so far in Turkey as we traversed the Taurus Mountains on our way south.  There was little habitation except in a few valleys, although nomadic herders still come up in summer with their sheep and goats and move back down in the cold winters. Where towns existed we saw banks of plastic covered greenhouses, almost mini-cities of plastic; cucumbers, tomatoes, herbs, all the essentials for Turkish palates. As we descended to the coast we stopped and bought locally grown bananas and figs at a market stall.
Antalya is the major city on the Turkish Mediterranean coast, a former Roman port and haven for pirates who roamed this area preying on the small coastal vessels who traded here. The city is now a major holiday destination, therefore the coast is lined with hotels and resorts. We stayed in the old city, now a historical zone, full of winding alleys and 2 storey houses, shops and hotels. Our hotel was near the water and close to plenty of restaurants and bars. We had a big late lunch all together before having the afternoon and evening to ourselves.
The heat and humidity was pretty high and something we hadn't experienced on the trip so far. The Stans were hot, but very dry however here the sweat poured off us and doing much exercise was hard work. We ventured out late in the afternoon down to the harbour which was full of replica pirate boats and had a walk around the walls. Sally found a replacement red handbag for her faithful Aachen green one bought in Europe in 2016.

Day 26 West to Kas
After another very good Turkish breakfast (always plenty of fresh fruit, vegetables, eggs, bread, tea & coffee) we visited the Antalya Museum. It has a priceless collection of Stone Age , Bronze Age and Roman artefacts all very well displayed over 13 galleries. The Roman statues are amazing, hundreds of marble and stone ones of Emperors, workers and Gods in very good condition.
On the road east we had another great sightseeing journey as we negotiated around the rocky headlands and bright blue bays with mountains looming just above. The Med looks pristine and it is well used as every small beach has cars and swimming visitors.
We lunched in the forest at a restaurant spanning several levels that houses a trout farm. We had to have the baked trout, a good choice with lots of Turkish bread, dips and salad. The food has been tremendous throughout the holiday, we are now starting to maintain some caution around quantities and we often order something to share because the helpings can be too much. Every meal comes with salad and bread and often we get a few starters like hommus.
Kas (pronounced Karsh) is a small town clinging to the side of a spectacular bay. It overlooks a large island, Kastellorizo, only a few kilometres away, that belongs to Greece. This historical anomaly came about at the end of the Ottoman Empire when the Turks were pressured to give many of the islands off the coast away to the Greeks in an exchange. Our hotel room has the best view we've had on this trip - 4 levels up and one street away from the water with a view across the town, the bay and Kastellorizo.
We enjoyed a great sunset at the Roman amphitheatre on the edge of Kas and then dinner in town in the evening. Then we did some more shopping for gifts, there's plenty of tourist trinket stalls here.

Week three joirneying from the Stans into Turkey

Day 14 Around Bukhara
With a day time temperature of over 40degC and little cooling outside until after 10pm sightseeing at times was a chore. A hot wind did assist somewhat but the lack of shade at many of the sites made it difficult to enjoy the fantastic history we were visiting.
This city is over two and a half thousand years old and during the 9th & 10thC was the intellectual centre of the Islamic world.  Bukhara's location meant it was a major trading centre on the Silk Road from the 2ndC when the Han dynasty in China cleared out competing tribes. Genghis Khan besieged the city in 1220 and Mongols ruled here until the Timurud empire emerged. Later the Emirate of Bukhara ruled and the city was a centre of intrigue between the British and Russian empires in the middle of the 19thC.
In order to beat the heat Zafar started early and we visited quite a number of sites before sneaking back to the hotel about 2o'clock. Initially our luxury bus dropped us at an amusement park at the edge of a large garden where groups of young people were gathering waiting to find out where their entrance exam was to be held. From there we walked to a couple of old mausoleums then on to the Chor-Bakr necropolis. Along the way a couple dropped out and returned to the hotel with 'revolutions in the tummy'!  it appears to be going through the whole group. The Ark fortress in the centre of the city is a huge imposing castle symbolic of old Bukhara.
The highlight of today was undoubtedly visiting a master embroiderer in his home studio near our hotel. He and his team of apprentices produce works of exquisite detail, full of rich colours and patterns and most with an eye to historical Uzbekistan and Zoroastrianism. We bought a cushion cover which we'll probably get framed. We were shown into his showroom and the walls were covered with big and small pieces, some valued over $A100K.
A few of us walked into the square and ate dinner beside the big pond, misting keeping us cool. Plenty of market stalls and little tourist shops, selling camel wool, silk & sheep's wool shawls, miniature painted pictures, copper & brass work and plenty of Chinese produced copies of all the above. But there was little pressure to come into the shops, everyone is relaxed and friendly. This is the quiet season as it is so hot!


Day 15 Bukara and environs
Much of today seemed to be driving between different places to have a look at various activities but at the end of the day none of us were particularly satisfied. We visited a 9thC madrassa in Bukhara and then drove north for a while before getting out of the luxury bus and walking through the dusty roadworks to visit what was the Summer Palace of the last Emir of Bukhara. Built in the 19thC in Tsarist style it was quite interesting to see the dress styles and furnishings and to go into the Emir's harem house.
We had lunch at a ceramic workshop after a demonstration of pottery making, done the same way it has been for seven generations: throwing the clay onto a wheel where a pot was produced in about 2 minutes. He showed us how the glaze was made and ovens where the pots were fired.
By now we were ready for a siesta, however there was one more stop at an ancient minaret at Gijduvan before heading back to Bukhara in the late afternoon.
The economy in Uzbekistan relies wholly on cash, few places accept credit. Many of the ATMs are situated in large hotels and often seem to be out of order. This was the case again today as we traipsed around looking to get our 500,000som or $A85! We sat & had a pot of tea with one of our  fellows and chatted about the tour and life in Uzbekistan.Three other fellow travellers went off late in the afternoon on a side trip to another ancient Silk Rd city, Khiva, another 6 hours west by car. That left  the oldies to go out for dinner in the old square again & return to Tashkent tomorrow.






Day 16 Travelling back to Tashkent
Almost a rest day as the tour winds down and finishes tomorrow morning. We had until 1pm before we had to vacate our hotel rooms and get ready for the bullet train journey to Tashkent. So we  wandered down to the square and visited a carpet museum in an ancient old mosque and then sat in a tea house. Most of us then didn't want to brave the heat again until our luxury bus took us to the railway station.
The train journey went very smoothly, averaging over 160kph, stopping five or six times and arriving in under 4 hours. The Afrosiyob is very popular with locals and tourists and traverses the country easily. It is possible to see so much from trains, you get the lie of the land and appreciate how the landscape changes. From Bukhara the countryside was almost desert-like, dry and flat although a fair amount of water was flowing in irrigation channels. After Samarkand the well-tended fields of the Fergana Valley agricultural lands stretched north to the capital.
Back in Tashkent it was a return to the Hotel Uzbekistan and it's many & varied quirks. Also it was time to say goodbye to Zafar as he left us to return home in Samarkand. Wandering around the corner we found a burger joint which gave everyone who ordered a meal a pair of black rubber gloves to keep the fingers clean, quirky!

Day 17 Relaxing in Tashkent
Everyone in the tour party who was still in the hotel met for breakfast and enjoyed a relaxed meal without any time pressures. We wandered near the hotel with a couple Max & Kate who lived for years in Canberra, now retired. It was another hot day so we stuck to the shade and inside as much as possible. We spent some time in a huge edifice built by the previous strongman  President Karimov, dedicated to Timur and his descendants which had a large number of exhibits copied from objects held in the likes of the British Museum and the NY Metropolitan Museum. Lunch was a comical affair in a book cafe where the menu proved a waste of time as nothing we ordered was available.
In the evening after finding Australia had been knocked out the cricket World Cup by the Poms seven of us went out to dinner in an Indian-style restaurant and really enjoyed each others company. We were all going in different directions tomorrow:  Scandinavia, Russia, Australia and us to Turkey.

Day 18 Flying to Istanbul
Early start and a long wait, as usual, at the airport. I'm never completely surprised by airport security, they're all different: two xrays, take off our shoes and Tony's watch here? The Turkish Airlines plane was packed for the uneventful five hour flight with good service and reasonable movies, all you can ask for really. We had a little boy, about 3 years old, sitting beside us who after an initial chat & play with his airline gifts slept for most of the journey, a real bonus for us and his Mum.
Arrival at the brand new, extremely spacious terminal went pretty smoothly. We must have walked three or four kilometres through the arrivals hall by the time we exited and were handled by three different agents before jumping in a minivan for the journey to our hotel. This new airport is on the other side of the peninsula from the city, the route was mostly by three lane motorway and we were on the outskirts of greater Istanbul in 20 minutes.
Our little hotel is in the area of what's known as the new city, on the European side of the Bosphorus. Greater Istanbul has a population of over 14million and it is packed in all around the hills, overlooking the water. Our room is on a corner of the Haze hotel, above a busy road and is tiny by Australian standards but it has a kettle! We're staying here for 4 nights until our Intrepid Turkey tour commences so there's enough time to explore Istanbul.
In mid-afternoon we went for a wander, got some Turkish Lira from one of the many ATMs and had a look around the area known as Karakoy. Our first impressions were that we wouldn't go hungry as there are literally thousands of restaurants and cafes nearby; it is cheap by Australian/European standards and it is very densely packed with narrow streets and alleys packed with buildings, cars, shops etc. We are only 100 metres from the water and the same distance from the tram stop.
We ate near the ferry terminal and people-watched for ages getting a feel for the city and Turkish people. There are many tourists here but it is also a residential area so has a good mix.
Later, in the evening we strolled around and had a cuppa at a little cafe. Tea is what the Turks drink most of the time - small glass cups of black, fairly strong tea although green tea is readily available too. This area near the hotel is on the go until fairly late, but the 2 hours gained by flying east and good double-glazing meant we were pretty tired.

Day 19 Across the Golden Horn
No hurry to get going today so breakfast on the hotel roof was a leisurely affair. We'd decided that we'd explore on foot today, going as far as we felt comfortable with and having plenty of rests so we headed across what is known as the Golden Horn, on the new Galata Bridge from the area known as  Beyoglu over to Eminonu, where most of the mosques and major attractions are. It's Saturday and a major shopping day so Istanbulians were all out it would seem, plenty of families, well-dressed but not ostentatious, happy and enjoying themselves.
We were actually looking for a tourist office sign but having veered right past the Spice Bazaar and wandered up and down hills for 2 hours through laneways, past toy, hardware, clothes, shoes, home furnishing & homeware markets we still hadn't found it! An icecream, a cuppa and more strolling in the pleasant summer weather past fountains & centuries old mosques to the main railway station and we finally saw the sign. Speaking barely understandable English and with little information except a good map we left & decided to have some lunch and work out our afternoon plan.
We headed up the hill towards the Hagia Sofia and its minarets, saw the entrance to what we thought was a side alley and found ourselves in this huge park. Consulting the map we realised we'd stumbled into Gulhane Park which stretches around Topkapi Palace down to the river and the railway station. Wandering along paths with picnicking families & couples, past rose gardens and amongst huge old plane trees to the river and a poorly maintained parking area and a large statue of Kamal Ataturk, the founder of the modern Turkish state and the man who led Turkish troops on the Gallipoli peninsula in WW1.
There was no path along the river so we returned to Gulhane Park and retraced our way back to the railway station, stopping for more tea. The area around the bridge was crowded, so many people out shopping and relaxing and catching the ferries which transport everyone around this far-flung city. We got back to the Haze hotel, a bit sunburnt and tired after plenty of exploring and now with a good idea of the city layout and it's transport options. Dinner was at a small place around the corner, traditional Turkish/Greek fare, where unfortunately we first felt  we got ripped off on this trip. There was no menu in English but we decided to order anyway, the food was lovely but the final bill seemed out of proportion to what we ate, more like the amount we'd pay in Perth! Another lesson for experienced travellers.

Day 20 Tourists in Istanbul
The weather forecast today was for rain drifting in from Europe later. It was a Sunday, Wimbledon mens tennis singles final day, Cricket World Cup final day & probably no tv!  We topped up an Istanbul Kart, a transport card and headed on the tram back across the Galata Bridge up towards the Hagia Sofia planning to spend the day being tourists. A young Turk approached us and offered to show us where the ancient Roman cistern entrance was and to his family's shop later.
We descended down beneath the city to an amazing underground water catchment area known as the Basilica Cistern, built in the 6thC by Roman Emperor Justinian. There are 336 marble columns, some in highly decorated sculpture art with two Medusa heads as the highlight. The brick walls are nearly 5metres thick and the cistern had a capacity of 100,000 tons of water storage. The light is deliberately dimmed so it was difficult to make out everything and it was of course quite damp.
Ascending back into Istanbul we were surprisingly (or so it seemed to us) met by our young friend Kumarun who escorted us to the aforementioned shop, which turned out to be a complex of carpet, & jewellery shops.
An hour and a half later we left having purchased three beautiful handwoven Anotolian carpets and parted with a substantial amount of money. How did that happen? There was a constant sales pitch, not aggressive at all, with plenty of tea & coffee and some wine and countless carpets, all different designs and patterns and colours. We had planned to buy one perhaps, somewhere, but not three! Oh well as we were told;  they'll last for decades, will out-live both of us and will greatly increase in value out of Turkey.
Still wanting to be tourists we went with Cam (renamed as an Aussie) to a hotel which had a good view from the roof of the entire nearby area where we took a few photos. Then he walked with us to the Hagia Sofia entrance which had a queue a couple of hours long (?), we decided to visit the Topkapi Palace instead. Here he got us "beat the queue" tickets for an extra 25lira ($A6) so we were able to waltz in ahead of another long queue of punters.
Built between1460 &1478 by Sultan Mehmed who conquered Constantinople it has been extended and altered many times. It served the Ottoman sultans and their court until the 1850's although it continued to house Holy relics & imperial archives until Ataturk converted it into a museum in 1924. The palace is centred around courtyards and many gardens with pavilions & other buildings for the sultan and his retinue. The whole complex has an area of 700,000 sqm & there are some great views across the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn.
After a few hours of crowds at the palace we headed back down towards Galata Bridge and more hordes, there seemed to be a special on Turkish fishburgers - maybe it's only on Sundays. We'd decided to see the Bosphorus, so got on a boat that tours around for an hour and a half, basically in a giant circle around the bays. It was crowded too, but we got a reasonable position to start off with. As we progressed the weather turned a bit wet & cold, something we couldn't have contemplated a few days ago in Bukhara! We did see plenty of the bay - along the Europe side and then under a giant single span motorway bridge near the Black Sea and back along the Asia side of Istanbul until we returned to Galata. The size of this city is amazing, far flung hills covered in apartments, people fishing virtually all along the coast on both sides and some impressive historical mosques and palaces.
We wandered back to the Haze in a bit of a daze despite the drizzle, as we were pretty tired. Dinner across the road, cheap & cheerful.

Day 21 Completing Istanbul
A few more showers greeted us at breakfast however although cooler it stayed dry for most of the day. We got on the tram and headed straight to the Hagia Sofia to beat the crowds, wisely as it turned out because today was a public holiday. July 15th 2016, an attempted coup & subsequent purge of many top officials (which incidentally made us cancel a trip here) is now celebrated as Democracy & Unity Day. It was no doubt the reason why so many army units and police were out in force all around Istanbul over the last few days.
The Hagia Sofia is undergoing major renovations externally but inside it was business as usual and we were able to wander everywhere including upstairs in the original Christian cathedral. Much of the huge ceilings are covered with beautiful mosaics and it was interesting to see how the Ottomans utilised a major Christian building and turned it very quickly into what became the biggest mosque in the world. There are many remaining mosaics of Jesus, Mary and even some of Justinian the original Byzantine ruler. It is certainly a very impressive building, although we weren't blown away by it;  the constant stream of tour groups probably put us off.
From there we walked uphill to the Grand Bazaar, an Istanbul institution for centuries which sprawls over the side of a hill like spiders legs. The various alleys were fairly spacious & the stalls sold a huge variety from handbags to jewellery to shoes. We bought a few items, including some sick tea for the suppression of bronchial problems.
Ending up down near the river after a couple of hours wandering, we had a light lunch then decided to go back over the Galata Bridge & take the famous funicular railway up the hill above Karokoy. It was the first built in the world in 1885 by a Frenchman, who realised it would ease the steep climb to the popular shopping and consular area up the hill.
We wandered along Istiklal Street past shopping centres and consulate, had a cuppa and went into  Catholic Church named St Antony of Padua. Tony's great-grandfather was Anton von Padua Loh,  born in the old Austro-Hungarian capital of Vienna so there is some small connection.
From there we headed downhill and back to the hotel for a rest before our 6o'clock Intrepid Adventures meeting. Our guide Ata, a genial young Turk, covered all the salient details in no time so the 8 of us present went out for a meal, meeting 2 more in the lobby. Another couple only arrived in time to join us the next day. All except an elderly Yorkshireman Bob, are Aussies and seem pretty easy to get along with. 

Week two:TheStans Kyrgyzstan into Usbeqistan

Week 2

Into Uzbekistan and the Silk Road cities

Conclusion of Day 6
Our impression of the Toktogul area was not improved by our evening meal, up the road from the hotel, lake fish, a few chips and beer in what could have been a lovely setting overlooking the lake combined with ablution facilities from the middle ages. However back at the hotel we sat and watched a spectacular sunset that lasted for about an hour and a half and improved our mood.

Day 7 South into the Fergana Valley
Another day of driving on some indifferent roads with plenty of  traffic especially the nearer we got to the south-eastern sector of Kyrgyzstan. The morning was spent negotiating winding roads around a giant hydroelectric power station and storage lake and then down into the Fergana Valley. This valley has been a giant food bowl for thousands of years, sitting between two huge mountain ranges and it provided the Silk Rd travellers with sustenance and meant civilisations developed all along it for 250 kms.
We lunched in a fantastic restaurant in Jalalabad, on laghman (noodles with beef in a sauce) and some great lamb kebabs. The Islamic influence was readily apparent, women in headscarves, men wearing scull caps and the frequent call to prayer. Much of northern Kyrgyzstan has a strong Russian influence whereas down here in the south it is more central Asia.
On to Uzgen, a town in the hills above Jalalabad where a large 11th Century minaret and three mausoleums were quickly visited and photographed. The heat was intense, so a search for ice creams was instigated successfully.
We headed to Osh, the second city of Kyrgyzstan which was well-known as far back as the 8th Century for its silk production. It was on the main route to China via Kashgar and was very important to Silk Road travellers. Our hotel was in the central business district and pretty organised. We hadn't done any laundry since arriving in the country, our 3kg load cost all of $A15.00! Dinner was in an Italian restaurant, only 6 of us went so it was more intimate and we were able to have a better conversation.

Day 8 Osh
It was hot by the time we began our day, away from the mountains now most days are always at least mid30'sC. The highlight was to be a visit to Sulaiman-Too mountain or Solomon's Throne, a series of steep hills within Osh city visited by Islamic pilgrims for centuries.
Into the city the next few hours were spent at Osh markets, a long rambling 9km long series of covered walkways with the occasional road and car thrown in. We wandered  back & forth, checking out the tshirts, exotic blazers, metalworking, spices, fruit & some,lovely tasty snacks.
In the evening as is tradition with Intrepid tours we all went out for a farewell dinner. It  was a local Kyrgyz restaurant, lots of salads, plenty of beer and a time to say many thanks to Liza & Ivan who have been such great support to us all.
Kyrgyzstan had turned out to be much more than we had ever expected, a country struggling to live with richer powerful neighbours but fairly comfortable with an agricultural, nomad-style based economy and an amazing natural environment. With one in 6 citizens working overseas and remitting their salaries, without expanding tourism, it is difficult to see how else the country can expand its economy.

Day 9  Crossing into Uzbekistan
It's always exciting to move on to another country when travelling however we were sad to be leaving our guide Liza and driver Ivan who had been brilliant throughout our week in Kyrgyzstan.
Stories of border crossings from hell were bandied around our group by those who had come via China as we approached the border and so of course nothing of consequence occurred today; in 20 minutes we had passed through the immigration of both countries and walked the 200 metres of no mans land. There had been some fighting around this area after the breakup of the USSR as both countries were distrustful of the other despite strong ethnic similarities.
Our new guide Zafar met us and proceeded to endear himself to us with his sense of humour and loquacious manner. Our bus was huge so we spread out and enjoyed the journey into the city of  Andijon.  We had about 4 hours before our train left for Tashkent so we wandered the markets, had lunch in a large foodhall and generally got to know Zafar and something of Uzbekistan. Everyone was incredibly friendly, it was much easier to converse in English than in Kyrgyz, we seemed to be constantly asked were we Americans or Ruskies?
The train journey was fantastic, after the long, windy road trips in Kyrgyzstan it was such a pleasure to sit back and enjoy the steady roll of the rails and watch the countryside drift past. We were in a VIP carriage in our own compartments so good conversation amongst the group was easy. The scenery was pretty flat for the first 2 hours in the Fergana Valley, fairly intensive agriculture of wheat, rice, potatoes and other vegetables and a lot of what were collective farms. Zafar is part time farmer and he explained that the state still owned most of the land and rented it out for however long farmers wanted it, something which assisted crop rotation. Water is not an issue, the valley is surrounded on all sides by mountains although snow melt has reduced markedly in the last few years.
We headed into the mountains, northwards and passed some large mining operations. Coal, gold, silver, uranium, lead, zinc and petroleum are exported in huge quantities and the country has recently gone through an economic boom as the government has loosened the rules for imports and finance.
By mid-evening we were in Tashkent, the capital and largest city in the country. Driving to our 16 storey hotel in another huge bus, we were struck by the city's sheer size and how modern it felt. The Hotel Uzbekistan is right in the middle of the city and was built in Soviet times. It's faded opulence had some appeal until we realised our rooms were a deficient in certain aspects like no aircon control and no kettle (which for Sally is sacrilegious).

Day 10 Touring Tashkent
Breakfast in the Hotel Uzbekistan is in the ballroom, chandeliers & dance floor and the scene of epic wedding feasts we were told. Our friendly Uzbek bus driver Ramzan was waiting to take us across the city to wander around with Zafar. As Tashkent was virtually flattened by an earthquake in 1966 there are few older buildings left, so it is either Soviet apartment blocks or modern Uzbek concrete edifices. Wide boulevards, plenty of trees, locally-made Chrysler cars everywhere (even what to us look like Holden Commodores) and an almost western European feel.
Except around the markets and the madrassas. They are large purpose built market buildings in the round with distinct areas for fruit and  vegetable sellers, spice traders, butchers, bakers and there were lots of smiling happy faces, most willing to be photographed and bartered with.  We were offered packets of saffron at a price, which were normally kept under lock and key! We saw one of the oldest Korans in existence written on animal hide in 900AD at the Koran Museum and we looked around the giant Khast Imon Islamic complex where many students were preparing for university and institute entrance exams in August.
After lunch, it was off to the Natural History Museum for an hour or so. By now the heat and travel had caught up with Sally who rested near the childcare area while we were assailed by Zafar's knowledgeable commentary. Uzbekistan has been settled for tens of thousands of years and artefacts are displayed detailing life here from the stone age through to Persians, Alexander the Great, Arab traders and thus Islam, Genghis Khan, Tamerlane and his descendants, Tsarist Russia and the great Soviet Socialist Republic. The modern Uzbekistan Republic has taken advantage of it's vast natural resources including gas and coal, they grow huge quantities of cotton for export and interestingly within the political sphere have legislated that the Ecological Party must have 10% of all seats in the Parliament.
 Tony rode off with the farmers on the Tashkent metro. It was a voyage of discovery, we stopped at about 6 stations, took a few photos and ended up in the outer suburbs before returning to Amir Temur station beside the hotel. The stations have individual decor, ranging from chandeliers in one (a la Joanna Lumley) and Cosmonauts in another.




For dinner we all walked down through a large park to an area where lots of local kids and families gathered to play street games, listen to music and have fun. In the west it probably wouldn't be as unpoliced and free and easy, however we didn't ever feel unsafe. Alcohol is available -beer and some good local wines and of course vodka! - but many people don't drink and it doesn't play the problem role on the street that it does sometimes at home.


Day 11 Bullet train to Samarkand
Our earliest start of the trip so far and we were at the modern  Koxval (railway station) of Tashkent at 7.10 ready for our 8am departure. Another modern railway, averaging over 150kph and getting up to 220kph, this bullet train took only just over 2 hours to travel the 283kms journey through the Fergana Valley. It  was like business class on a plane, leg room, great view, free tea, coffee & snacks and very comfortable.
Samarkand is a very hot, dry and bustling trading city of about half a million people and it was a major part of the old Silk Road. We were packed onto a huge luxurious bus - all 11 of us - which will be our transport for the next 5 days until we return to Tashkent. For the next few hours we wandered around Registan Square which was the heart of Timur's Samarkand and into the three huge madrassas. These were all rebuilt by the Soviets in varying degree of success.
We lunched in a pleasant local restaurant beside a fountain with a nice breeze to cool us. Then it off to see our hotel in the Russian quarter and rest out of the heat for a while. On a stroll in the late afternoon we happened upon a Russian Orthodox Church where the priest was chanting the service and two ladies up in the choir loft were singing in answer to him. It was brightly decorated with large colourful icons and religious paintings.
For dinner we simply walked next door and had a quiet cheap meal of lamb chops and chicken kebabs before returning and surfing the hundreds of satellite tv channels; Iranian, Algerian, French, Uzbek, Chinese, Russian but little English.

Day 12 Around Samarkand's treasures
Hotel Ahbri has been the best of our trip so far. Helpful staff with a non-stop flow of hot water for tea-making, brilliant shower and wifi, good bed and almost a boutique feel and it has all we need.  Zafar had us out into our luxury bus early and with a full days itinerary it was just as well. Although Zafar's commentary can become far too over-zealous at times he has a very caring attitude towards all of us and his concern for our well-being today was appreciated by all.
We drove through the back streets of Samarkand to Guri-Amir mausoleum where the famous Tamerlane or Timur was buried. He founded the Timurid Empire in the 14thC in this region and it   extended to Delhi in India, Istanbul in Turkey & Persia and lasted for 200 years. This memorial was the model for his descendants who built the Taj Mahal and ruled northern India as the Mughal dynasty. His mausoleum like many others in Samarkand has been renovated extensively, first by the Tsarist then the Soviet Russians and latterly by Unesco.
On our return journey to the bus an enjoyable bargaining session resulted in a new hat . The proprietors are somewhat difficult to budge in price, they have enough customers I think. A short drive later we arrived at Shakh-l-Zinda, an ensemble of mausoleums directly beside a large Jewish cemetery reflecting the religious tolerance of past centuries. We had plenty of time to wander around the various mausoleums and wonder at the beauty & magnificence of the mosaic. There were many local & overseas visitors here as befits Samarkand's reputation of historical importance.
A visit to a paper-making workshop was very interesting as we had learnt from Zafar the importance of mulberry tree papermaking to the construction of the inner walls of the mausoleums. The century's old techniques have been resurrected, using waterwheels and tree trunks set up to rotate as grinding batteries.
Timur's grandson Ulug Beg was a brilliant astronomer who developed a comprehensive map of outer space in the 15thC and was much admired in Europe. We visited his observatory and saw first-hand his amazing  achievements including a 90 degree sextant built into the hill top.  unfortunately religious zealotry meant he came to a bad ending, guillotined!
On the edge of the city was the archaeological remains of ancient Samarkand, dating back to the 10thC when traders began trekking across Middle Asia from China to Europe. Most of us were monumentally over-touristed by now so we relaxed on the luxury bus.
The oldies, three over 60's couples decided to dine together at a local venue set up for weddings. Because they were so busy with a big event outside, the service to our table was slower than normal which meant more beer and wine. The urinal humour was particularly good.



Day 13 Across the Qarshi to Bukhara
An epic day's drive from one historic city via another to arrive in a third, travelling across 500 kms of irrigated agricultural land, desert and the Mubarak gasfield. Heading south from Samarkand in 2 hours we were in Shahrizabs, birthplace of Timur where we visited a number of sites and had lunch during our stop.
It was the hottest day so far, about 41-42C and it was blasting off the paving too.  Trees have been planted but are still small.  Here and in Tashkent, large heritage areas have been pedestrianised  and you can either walk or catch small electric buses from place to place across the sites - great idea.
The summer palace or Ak Saray must have been an impressive sight when built in 1380 by artisans imported from far western Uzbekistan near the Aral Sea. Unfortunately now it has collapsed to half it's original size, due to erosion of the brickwork and from fighting between Tsarist and Communist fighters in the early 20thC. Timur's eldest and much loved son Jehangir has a tomb Dorus-Saodat (Seat of Power & Might) and an 8thC mosque that we visited.
After lunching we were back on the bus for the rest of our journey across miles and miles of cotton and wheat fields. This area was opened up by the Tsarists during the American Civil War when they couldn't get their cotton supplies from the southern states. Forcefully clearing the land and digging huge irrigation ditches they effectively started the drying of the Aral Sea, an epic environmental disaster. Cotton requires extreme heat and plenty of water, Uzbekistan supplies 5% of the world's cotton and it accounts for 15% of the country's exports.
We finally arrived in Bukhara at 6pm where we are staying in an old Jewish merchants residence converted to a small hotel. Much of it is over 200 years old - lots of character and comfortable beds and aircon but alas no kettle!

Week One Kyrgistan 2019

Our Silk Road adventure began when we were given a book by Peter Frankopan. We knew little about its enthralling history or how the people of this part of the world populated many other parts of the world. So we decided to find out by visiting the Stans or more particularly Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

Day 1 Arrived in Bishkek at 5am to bright sun and our first view of the snow capped mountains which surround the city.  Copious amounts of food is grown around here with plentiful water - stone fruit, vegies, wheat, corn and plenty of sheep, cows & many horses.
Bishkek is the capital of Kyrgyzstan and most of the buildings date from the Soviet era, fairly brutal architecture with some important buildings marble clad. The city is only 150 years old, settled by Russians and built in a grid pattern. It is easy to navigate if you can understand the Cyrillic script that all street signs and advertising is written in. We did get a bit lost but thankfully a Kyrgyz gent helped us find our way back to the hotel.
Because we're on an Intrepid Adventures organised tour we stayed at a hotel used by the tour company. The tour didn't start until the evening which gave us the opportunity to catch up on some sleep and to walk to the bank and acquaint ourselves with the city. After meeting our fellow travellers, our guide and driver we went out to a wonderful meal. We got to know our friends, all fellow-Aussies and taste the Kyrgyz cuisine which consists of a lot of meat, salads, tandoor baked bread, soft cheeses.


Day 2 The first real day of our tour we walked around the central city in the morning, through some lovely parks, acquainting ourselves with each other and Lisa our guide. The weather was pretty warm, low 30'sC and as it is mid-summer the snow-capped mountains didn't afford any cooling. After a lovely lunch Sally & I headed to the market for a look. More for locals than anything tourist-orientated once we got away from the mass produced Chinese household goods and toys to the food section it became quite interesting. Mountains of spices, plenty of stone fruit and a large variety of different flours. Another great meal in the evening in a local Georgian restaurant recommended by guide books with plenty of local wine and beer to wash it down.

Day 3 Hea

ding east out of Bishkek we stopped initially at an 11th century Burana tower near Chuy for an hour or so. The tower which is now half it's original size after an earthquake in the 18th century is all that is left of a huge ancient city that was destroyed by floods.
Next we were spectators at some horse games held nearby. Traditional Kyrgyz life was nomadic which relied on horses for transport and sport. We saw horse wrestling, that is the riders wrestled each other off the saddle. Buzkashi, a form of polo played with a dead goat was particuarly entertaining as the teams had to race in and pick up the goat from the ground and then head to the goals at full tilt and chuck the goat on a raised platform.  A few of the tour group had a canter on the horse before we went to their village and had a nice lunch of lentil soup and a traditional beef and vegetable dish.
Then it was onto the road again in our trusty Mercedes bus with Ivan, our ex-trucky driver. We drove to Issy Kul a huge lake, 178 kms long and the second biggest alpine lake in the world after Titicaca. The road leading to the lake is bordered by endless shops and there is a huge concrete batching plant on the lakeshore at Balykchy. According to Lisa, Issy Kul was a popular spot for the Soviets back in the 1970's & 80's and it has that faded seaside town look.

Onwards we drove to an appointment with an eagle! Hunting with eagles has always been popular in these parts of the world and we were given a demonstration of their capability. Until you see an eagle in full flight beside a human it is hard to visualise their immense wing span. We all had a chance to "put on the glove" and hold the big bird before heading off on the road again.
A large service town used by traders on the Silk Road, Kochkor was our destination for today. We stayed in a guest house in the centre of town and ate a pleasant meal in a restaurant run by a women's cooperative. We had a demonstration of felting, with some beautiful handmade carpets, bags and other crafts. The womans cooperative has 200 members, who sell their work.

Day 4 After a great nights sleep, not surprising after yesterdays full itinerary we ate breakfast of local bread, fruit, eggs before going to another handicraft shop run by the cooperative. Some wonderful craft, mainly felted and at ridiculously cheap prices when you know how much work has gone into making them. After looking at floor mats the previous evening we decided to buy one here. Will it fit in our bags: no, but somehow we'll work it out.

Today's driving was south then east to reach the high alpine lake of Song Kol, at an altitude of 3016 d metres above sea level. It was only 130kms but it took about 4 hours on some pretty atrocious roads. Mind you the scenery was fantastic as we climbed up through a pass at 3446 metres before descending down and skirting around the lake. The weather as you can imagine chilled down considerably quickly and we were putting on extra layers as soon as we arrived.
The meadows surrounding Song Kol are used as grazing land by farmers who migrate up in June with their families for 3 months. These are large flocks of 6 or 7 hundred sheep, a few dozen horses, a few goats, chooks and sheepdogs. The amazing part of it is that they bring everything with them: their houses and flocks are all transported up every summer and dismantled and transported home in autumn. They live in yurts, made of timber and felt mats which can be built in a matter of hours and they live off the land. We stayed in a yurt and ate in a yurt and the family in whose group of yurts we stayed in entertained us with singing in the evening after dinner. There are a growing number of community based and family businesses like the yurts and other guest houses and restaurants catering to tourists, where the money goes direct to the people rather than a middle man.
In the afternoon a group of us went climbing up the hills behind the lake to search for 2000 year old petroglyphs, carved into the rocks by visiting nomads. We found a few petroglyphs but the views of the lake and surrounding mountains was what really aroused us.
We also visited one of the farmers to find out a bit about their lifestyle as we had an ex-farmer from New England in NSW in our group; lots of talk was about the care of sheep.

Day 5 Sally was quite poorly with altitude sickness this morning and took a while to come right as we descended back down to about 2000 metres on our way to Kyzyl-Oi. Once again the scenery was breathtaking, driving through high mountain passes and along beside swollen rivers on pretty ordinary gravel roads.
We stopped to take some photos of a coal mine way below in the valley and then ended up driving right through the middle of it as it was the only road. Kyrgyzstan has few natural resources apart from copious quantities of water and in turn food, some gold and coal. This mine provides low quality cheap heating for the very cold winters when snow covers most of the country. There are central heating plants in major towns which provide winter heating for homes but at a price. Low grade coal is cheaper.
Once we'd passed the mine the road improved as the only way to get the coal out is by road. The surrounding hills were all colours and shades and very reminiscent of Otago. We stopped for a picnic beside the Jungal River near Aral then drove onto our destination of Kizil-Oy.
A pretty village nestled in a valley it has a lot of Community Based Tourism guesthouses. It was a relief of sorts to have our own room and to be able to have a shower after the yurts last night. Lisa took some of us for a wander around town which enabled us to see how a small settlement lives and what people do for a living. Kizil-Oy has a population of approximately 1000 inhabitants, probably 15-20% of whom work overseas (Russia, Turkey, Uzbekistan), the same percentage are subsistence farmers, it has one school (from ages 7-18) and a couple of shops.
We made bushbul together, a Kyrgyz deep fried bread and then had a hearty meal of soup, beef & veg stew, beer & local cognac.

Day 6 Another hearty breakfast of Kyrgyz porridge, fresh bread & jam and we were back on the gravel road driving through gorges and beside swollen rivers. A procession of cars driving at high speed towards us to visit a famous Krygyz peasant who was 2.36m tall and was able to heave a cow onto his shoulders, slowed us down.
We climbed onto the Suusamyr Valley, a high steppe plateau at about 2,200m altitude and saw a group of Kazakh bikies on Harleys at a petrol stop. The scenery was breathtaking, high peaks, snow capped, green valleys, and thousands of yurts spread out along the road with families and animals. Stalls were selling dried cheese, a Kyrgyz speciality eaten for centuries by Silk Road travellers but definitely an acquired taste!  We travelled across Ala Bel, 3184m high where we met a German couple cycling from Beijing to Istanbul at a picturesque photo opportunity.
Our lunch stop beside the Chichkan River was in a wood panelled restaurant where we had borscht soup and tasty Chinese style beef & potato dumplings. The road was the best we had encountered, all sealed now as befits the main highway between the country's biggest cities, Osh & Bishkek. With no other means of transporting goods this road is used by all the trucks servicing the Kyrgyzstan. A little further on we reached Lake Toktogul, a colossal water reservoir built by the Soviets, one of the many reasons the Aral Sea has now effectively dried up. All the rivers in Kyrgyzstan flow towards the west, through Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and to the Aral Sea.
We drove around Tokogul until we reached our destination today, a run-down Soviet-era hotel on the lake's edge. Not much has been done to the infrastructure of the place in last 30 years and sadly it doesn't seem to have too many guests. Fox & lynx pelts hanging in the bar, swans lighting the corridors, three swimming pools empty and weed grown.

The next adventure!!

Well its only three hours till we leave for the airport and I haven't finished packing yet.... but we are off again to Kyrgistan, Uzbekistan and Turkey -  warm temps, lots of history and new food... will keep you posted.

The final couple of weeks through Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands

Seemingly a whirlwind trip over the last sixteen days, we have spent nearly two of those weeks in Copenhagen, Amsterdam and Singapore combined. That said, we are edging ever closer to the flight home after five months of travels which has coloured our enthusiasm for sightseeing just a little! 

Yes, as predicted when we hit Germany again, suddenly autumn/winter arrived with a vengeance with daytime temperatures dropping dramatically from the almost balmy 18 degree summer days in the UK, to the coldest 9 degree days spent in Copenhagen, with freezing winds sweeping in from Siberia and places cold. Coats, scarves, beanies and cranked-up central heating were all required to maintain our comfort levels.

The German leg of the journey continued up through the middle of the old GDR mostly on auto-bahns which afford reasonable views (for passengers) visiting Naumburg with its magnificent Lutheran cathedral, Quedlinburg  a town of beautifully restored half-timbered architecture and on to the old Hanseatic port of Lȕbeck on the Baltic coast. One of the pleasures of this trip has undoubtedly been historical education and Lȕbeck gave us the opportunity to visit a wonderful museum full of interactivedisplays dedicated to Hanseatic traders and the northern European region. The colossal St Marys Church, whose bells are lying where Allied bombers felled them, is also worth a visit.

Half timbered town Quedlinburg

Old Gate, Lubeck

The bells of St Mary's left where they fell after bombing.

Some of the lovely old Hanseatic warehouses in Lubeck

After Lȕbeck, we hopped on a ferry from Puttgarden for a twenty kilometre journey to Rodby in Denmark; it must be the most expensive ferry in the world (100 euros each way for two people and a small car) although the organisation and speed of travel were very impressive with up to 48 departures a day across this narrow stretch of water.

Copenhagen didn’t excite us as much as we’d hoped; the weather was wet and freezing and one rare moment of blue sky and sunshine gave us an inkling of how much nicer it might be on a summer’s day! Public transport is excellent and, of course, the population make great use of bicycles – pedestrians and drivers have to be constantly on alert!   There’s certainly plenty to offer, it’s encircled by water, has a rich history and the Danes are extremely hospitable with everyone having an almost perfect command of English.

Copenhagen, old stock exchange

Lots of building in the city including the new city metro project

As a Scandi-crime fan, Sally wanted to travel across The Bridge from Copenhagen to Malmo in Sweden.  Again, the prospect of $75 to do a return trip by car for just a few hours was a bit daunting to the budget, so we went over The Bridge by train, or should I say under the bridge as it runs below the road level so we didn’t get much scenery to look at! It was a Monday too, so much was closed in Malmo (as in France, Denmark and Germany) and we found ourselves eating lunch in a Vietnamese restaurant (getting ready for spicy food again at home) and sheltering from the rain. 

  

Another day, we were reminded of our early history lessons at the Viking museum in Roskilde. The Vikings were virtually invincible and ruled Britain, Scandinavia and Northern Germany for over 300 years. The museum has excavated five of their boats and there are woodworkers making wooden boats with the old tools too.  Louisiana is an art gallery on the shores of the Niva Bugt fiord overlooking Sweden. We rounded out an enjoyable day there viewing a couple of exhibitions of post-modern art and Danish design.

what a difference some sunshine makes! Copenhagen Neuhavn.

Viking Museum

Copenhagan waterways

The last lengthy journey in our trusty Peugeot 2008 was back into Germany, stopping in  Bremen for a thorough shampoo and vacuum and on down into the Netherlands again where we finally bid farewell in Den Haag after 18,150 kms and 141days. Apart from a few GPS tantrums, the car performed relatively smoothly, although we did decline the opportunity to purchase post-lease and ship it back home. We recommend leasing a car from Peugeot or Renault as you can take the car all over Europe including the UK (for now!) and it is very reasonable compared to hire cars, even for a short stay.

We clocked up our 34th Airbnb stay in Amsterdam, with a gorgeous two storey light and bright apartment in walking distance to the city and our wonderful hosts, Silvia and Richard who live downstairs. Overall, we found great accommodation across Europe and hosts and would recommend AirBnB to anyone who wants their own space, real life not hotel life and enjoys meeting the locals. Just make sure you use the right filters for self-contained accommodation, parking, double bed, kitchen etc etc and communicate with your hosts before you arrive.  The only glitches being the occasional absence of a kettle and toaster in some spots and a few steep staircases – not the end of the world really!

Three days in Amsterdam in somewhat milder weather was spent in the company of Sally’s brother  and his wife who trained it over from St Malo. We walked the length and breadth of the old city - along canals, cobbled streets, around markets, across bridges, through parks, into shops, hopping on and off trams and a boat and we had a ball. There is no doubt we needed some company, our own was getting somewhat jaded after 5 months together!  The city was full of visitors, cafes were bursting and we were never bored. Van Gogh and the Rijksmuseum were duly ticked off as well; Vincent’s ten years of prolific work has been well and truly consumed on this trip, this was the fourth exhibition dedicated to him we had seen.

Amsterdam looking through the bridge tunnel!

Amsterdam houseboats and canals

Our last stop is Singapore where we have caught up with Tony’s cousin and his family who are visiting from Phuket, relaxed by the hotel pool and tried a local restaurant or two. We sweated our way around Singapore’s famed Botanical Gardens this morning, another UNESCO World Heritage site with its amazing orchid garden, frangipanis and bromeliads.

Sleep is a little disjointed and we hope to have our biorhythms back in the right time zone by the end of this weekend! It has been an amazing trip and well worth making it happen!  We have seen so many different places and landscapes and caught up with old friends and family (and cadged beds off them all too!) What’s next?  Probably a part time job for both of us so we can save up for the next adventure!

Leaving you with some of my favourite flowers!  Thanks for keeping up with our journey and look forward to seeing many of you soon!