I arrived late last night at the airport which was small and really quite quiet. I found a taxi right away, a rather insistent young man and got a ride to the hotel for 3000 teng or about 8 euros. the Astra hotel has changed its name to something I can’t quite pronounce in Cyrillic but it’s a no-nonsense business hotel right in the center of town. Breakfast this morning was rather mediocre but I did enjoy the noodle salad which apparently is a specialty of Uzbekistan. So then it was on to my main mission of the day which was to replace my sports shoes which got a hole in them before I left home. A nearby shopping mall within walking distance did not have shoe stores but at least it did allow me to get my SIM card setup with kind and generous help from the local sales people. Help is something that I needed and will need a lot of because very few people speak English and everything is written in the Cyrillic alphabet. Almaty is a clean and modern town with lots of wide tree-lined boulevards but everything is quite spread out. since it’s a rainy  … Continue reading →

The manager of the Hotel Khanaka informed  me sadly when I walked in that the electricity was cut off but it should be on in 10 or 15 minutes. Anyway, I checked in and headed down to the hotel restaurant for lunch. I was delighted to find that I had a three-course meal for the equivalent of 2 Euros. The Caesar salad at the beginning was perfectly acceptable and then I had noodle soup and then some kind of Chinese noodle dish. It was just what I needed after an overnight train ride. I’m I chose this hotel because it was right on the edge of the Yasawi Mausoleum that I had come here to see. Kozha Akhmed Yasawi was the first great Turkic Muslim holy man. In fact he founded the Turkic Sufi order. Sufism is the mystical branch of Islam and is popular throughout the region.  This mausoleum was built by Timur in the 14th century. I was to see much Timurid architecture in Uzbeckistan but this is the only one in Kazakhstan. As the Kazakhs were nomadic until  a century ago monuments are few and far between here. It was a much larger estate than I had … Continue reading →

Money hassles, food issues and a stressful border crossing. So many questions and who was that mysterious Korean?

Train from Tashkent to Samarkand from the new train station. A first look at legendary Samarkand.

A glimpse of ancient Samarkand and a stroll through Samarkand’s old Jewish quarter.