From Khiva in Uzbekistan, I continued south to its most fierce rival, Bukhara. I chose to take the one hour flight from nearby Urgench to Bukhara instead of the 7 or so hours drive. There is talk that there will be a high-speed train connecting these two cities but at the time of writing the … Continue reading Bukhara, Uzbekistan Part 1 Oct 2019
About 2 hours drive from Khiva in Uzbekistan is Ayaz-Kala which is an archaeological site with the ruins of a Khorezm fortress built in the 2nd century by the Kushan Empire. Khorezm is about 3,000 years old and is the oldest civilization in Central Asia and was called the country of “tens of thousands of … Continue reading Ruins of Ayazkala & Toprak-Kala Oct 2019
Unlike in other ancient cities such as Samarkand and Bukhara, there is only one blue tiled dome in Khiva belonging to the Pahlavan Mahmud Mausoleum. This mausoleum is one of the most beautiful as well as most important pilgrimage sites in Khiva. Pahlavan Mahmud was a furrier, wrestler, poet, and Khiva’s patron saint. He received the … Continue reading Khiva, Uzbekistan Part 2 Oct 2019
Bright and early, I flew from Tashkent to Urgench and then drove to Khiva which is about an hour or so away. Khiva was the former capital of Khwarezmia and the Khanate of Khiva and was the first place in Uzbekistan to be made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1990. Khiva’s development didn’t begin … Continue reading Khiva, Uzbekistan Part 1 Oct 2019
An interesting place to visit in Tashkent, Uzbekistan is the Metro which was the first underground transportation system built in Central Asia. It resembles the metro system in Moscow with large and highly decorated stations. The metro stations were designed for the seismic conditions of the region as most of Tashkent was destroyed in the … Continue reading Tashkent Metro, Uzbekistan Oct 2019
From Shymkent, Kazakhstan, I crossed over to Uzbekistan using the border crossing at Chernaevka. This is a pedestrian-only border crossing so I had to leave the car and driver behind and cross on foot wheeling my luggage. In the parking lot prior to the border crossing, there are many money changers with their wads of … Continue reading Tashkent, Uzbekistan Oct 2019
From Almaty, I flew to Shymkent in the southern part of Kazakhstan close to the border with Uzbekistan. It is the third largest city after the former capital Almaty and the new capital Nur-Sultan and considered one of the most Kazakh city in the country. People here predominantly speak Kazakh while in other cities, most … Continue reading Turkestan, Kazakhstan Sep 2019
