Uzbekistan

Welcome to Uzbekistan

Home to the economical heart of the Silk Road, Uzbekistan is a little-known destination in the center of Central Asia. It boasts incredible ancient architecture and unforgettable human experiences.

It borders Kazakhstan to the North, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the East, Turkmenistan to the West and finally Afghanistan to the South.

Fuji C200 charvak uzbekistan — *Charvak lake (low season) next to the Kazakh border.*

Uzbekistan is a double-landlocked country, which means it doesn’t border any oceans or whose coastlines lie on drainage basins (formally called an endorheic basin, that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water) and that its bordering countries are also landlocked. Herewith, this country possesses some unfortunate political and economical handicaps. It is not without surprise then that many wars have been waged for the right of access to international waters. The only other double landlocked country is Liechtenstein.

Because of its location, it possesses a continental climate, with little precipitation and temperatures ranging from subzero to tropically hot. The Aral Sea once provided water and humidity to the surrounding regions, unfortunately because of excessive irrigation during Soviet occupation, this Sea has now almost entirely disappeared. What once used to be sea is now called the Aralkum desert.

It’s fairly unknown and apart from the obvious Silk Road architecture, I couldn’t find much about it on tourism forums. This is exactly what excited us: it felt untouched by tourism and Western influences.
You might already know that I’ve fallen in love with analog photography. It therefore made sense to take my Canon A1 with me on this trip. However, also carrying a digital camera would result in much too heavy luggage. I therefore challenged myself to shoot this trip entirely with the old Canon A1.

Fuji C200 film and Canon A1 — Never-ending construction works inside the capital.

Hotel Uzbekistan - a relic of the Soviet Era. Tashkent Fuji C200 film and Canon A1 — Hotel Uzbekistan - a relic of the Soviet Era.

Colorplus 200 Kodak Timur Tashkent — Tashkent

After a brief lay-over in **Istanbul** (where we noticed that half of our first flight consisted of Russians on their way back to Moscow) our plane finally landed in Tashkent. Passport control immediately taught us an interesting fact about life in Uzbekistan: they like to take their time. We then took a Taxi towards our first *hostel* (Topchan Hostel, cfr. link). There, the owner took what felt like an eternity to validate our paperwork so that we could finally discover the capital city. We were hungry for adventure and definitely not in the mood for patience.
*(photo: Timur square - Tashkent)*

Tashkent Metro Stations

Although this next thing might seem odd to read, our first stop was Tashkent’s metro system. For those of you who’ve already visited Moscow, the grandiose soviet metro stations will seem familiar. They aren’t called palaces of the people for nothing. It is interesting to observe that, contrary to most metro systems around the world, the Tashkent Metro isn’t all that deep underground. Every station has his own specific design, one is even dedicated to the brave Cosmonauts of the Soviet Republic (Kosmonavtlar, Космонавтлар). As such, it gets rather easy to know which station you’re at just by looking at the decorations. Fun Fact: An alternative - and even more elegant method for this was developed in Tokyo: almost every single station has its own jingle. You can trust me when I say you get to recognize the tunes quickly - just ask my siblings or my parents.

metro tashkent colorplus — Alisher Navoi station (Tashkent) - shot on Kodak Colorplus 200.

Mustakillik Maydoni Tashkent Kodak Colorplus 200 — Mustakillik Maydoni station (Tashkent) - shot on Kodak Colorplus 200.

Kosmonavtlar station (Tashkent) - shot on Kodak Ultramax 400.

A clean city, a clean country

Another interesting observation was definitely how immaculately clean the whole city felt. Truth be told, I expected a filthy and smelly country (especially after my adventures in Egypt) but turned out to be very pleasantly surprised, indeed. Everywhere, people were cleaning up, repainting concrete barriers (jerseys), restoring buildings, watering plants, mowing grass,… It felt as if every soul was working towards a better and prosperous country. It needs to be stated as well that Uzbekistan has a relatively unemployment rate of 5,97%, this can also be attributed to the creation of small jobs requiring little management or training. (such as cleaning streets, painting walls,…) Also, Uzbekistan is still ruled by a rather autocratic regime doing its best to show the world what it’s capable of. Therefore, a lot of work is put in creating gorgeous facades. These facades were truly omnipresent in Uzbekistan. Indeed, most mosques and madarasah’s were stunningly beautiful from the outside but rather sober inside (with a few exceptions such as the Registan in Samarakand). Speaking of which: in this city, the government literally built gigantic walls around its monuments to hide the poor neighborhoods adjacent to them.

Hazrati Imam complex (Tashkent) - shot on Kodak Ultramax 400.

Nonetheless, despite all these efforts and despite having more recycling bins on the street than I have seen anywhere else, there’s still a fundamental disregard for nature and animal life deeply ingrained in some of Uzbekistan’s inhabitants. As you will read later on in this blog, we also visited an isolated village in the Ugam-Chatkal National Park. There, plastic was littering the streets and the hedges. Behind the houses, we sometimes saw huge plastic/glass garbage dumps, their inhabitants apparently not even bothering to hide them.

Appreciate how incredibly tidy the Minor Mosque is (Tashkent) - Ultramax 400. — Appreciate how ultra tidy the Minor Mosque is (Tashkent) - Ultramax 400.

Chorsu Bazaar (Чорсу бозор)

Our next attraction was the Chorsu Bazaar. One of the larger buildings from this bazaar is a gigantic white concrete dome (1966) underneath which hundreds of merchants sell various types of meat. Once again, I expected the pungent smell of rotten flesh yet I turned out to be wrong, again. Even though merchants chanted various slogans, the place was pleasantly peaceful. Next to the Chorsu Bazaar Dome, we saw other shops selling various other goods - such as nuts, dried fruits, bread,… Whimsically, every single stand sold exactly the same products. It was impossible for us to notice a difference in quality or tastes between different stands as they were truly identical. A very odd business model, if I might be honest.

Chorsu Bazaar (Tashkent) shot on Kodak Colorplus 200.

Next, we tried our first local meal: Shashlik. These brochettes were prepared by men, but the women were clearly running the business, managing orders and money. Shashlik is similar (if not the same) as Shish Kebab and basically consists of cubes of meat on brochettes. In Uzbekistan, it is invariably served with complementary chopped onions - and that’s it. At first, we were delighted by the delicious meat. Unfortunately, the amount of meat got tiring and after a few weeks I was ravenous for a good salad…

Ready for the food inspection! (n.b., nobody got any form of food poisoning during this trip).

After strolling through the streets and waiting 45 minutes for our SIM cards to be processed (10gb for 4,5€) we headed towards the statue of Amir Temur.

Timur

A significant part of Uzbek history revolves around Timur (a.k.a Tamerlane). Born on the 9th of April 1336, he grew to become one of the world’s most feared and deadly nomadic conquerors history has ever seen. It is because of his conquests that the region evolved to become an economical and cultural hub for the many centuries to come. He is also responsible for over 17 million deaths (5% of the World’s population at that time!). It comes as no surprise then that Timur often viewed himself as the heir of Genghis Khan. The latter still beat Timur by killing between 37 and 60 millions souls - close to 11% of world’s population. (source: The Great Big Book of Horrible Things, Matthew White). There are several explanations for Timur’s rather oppressive tactics. His army was relatively small compared to the gigantic territory he needed to control. Therefore, when Timur wanted to conquer another city, he could leave troops garrisoned in the town he had just invaded. By using fear for total anihilation and setting a few bloody examples, he could be assured that those city’s would rebel behind his back.

Despite this unimaginable hunger for blood, Timur is seen as a national Hero of Uzbekistan. Indeed, this ruler set the groundwork for what would soon become the most prosperous era of this region. Most architectural treasures from Bukhara or Samarkand can be attributed to Timur or one of his heirs (Urgund-Esh being the most influential).

The Museum of Victory / Glory

This impressive museum is currently being renovated and as such not open to the public yet. However, I didn’t know this so I suggested we visit this museum. When we finally arrived at the large park and museum complex, we noticed that there were a lot of works going on inside of the park. Nonetheless, I decided to walk through the construction site and opened one of the doors of the big glass museum building. There, I found an atrium with a lady sitting at an information point. After a bit of google-translating, I understood that the museum was closed to the public until later this spring. (Don’t ask me why the lady was sitting at the information desk). I didn’t want to take “no” for an answer so I asked her to phone her boss to give us permission to visit the finished rooms. When he doubted, we asked him to ask his boss. When he also hesitated, we asked him to ask his boss. After long and painstaking negotiations, the painful verdict fell… It was impossible to visit the exhibition, we had to leave the compound. I thanked them for their patience and left the building. Just as we arrived at the gates of the park, two workers ran towards us, shouting frantically. They pulled us back to the museum - by force and against our will. There, the Big (Government) Boss had been summoned and ceremonially granted us official access to the museum. We then spent the next two hours inside, with an escort of officials slowly walking behind us and observing our every move or thought. We weren’t allowed to take photos inside of the exhibition for understandable reasons.

This museum promises to become one of Uzbekistan’s best: brilliant objects, all information was also provided in English (some grammatical errors), clean, modern, innovative. One gigantic side-note: there is a clear tendency to glorify Uzbek’s and the Soviet’s military actions, lacking impartiality and therefore containing a clear political agenda. (We already expected this before entering the museum, based on the statues in the park around the museum). If you want to view some brilliant Soviet propaganda, this is museum is meant for you!

*We didn't use one of these locomotives (unfortunately) but they were used for other purposes, nonetheless.*

The next day, we headed for the train station and caught the train for Samarkand. The train station woke the child in me: old-school diesel locomotives with carriages containing very luxurious seats. The Russians always had elaborate railway systems (cfr. Trans-Siberian Express) and this clearly showed in Uzbekistan, too.

train conductors uzbekistan ultramax 400 kodak travel — *It was whimsical to see how uzbek uniforms resemble those of earlier Soviet ones.*

During our first train trip, I enjoyed watching the countryside and tried to compare it to the train ride from Cairo to Alexandria. What a worldly difference that was. Villages seemed cleaner and peaceful. Houses were finished and rather beautiful. Recall that in Egypt houses are almost invariably unfinished to avoid taxation. I saw a lot of life and a lot of activity. The view quickly changed from grassy steppes to harsher deserts as we arrived in Samarkand…

Samarkand (Самарқанд)

Besieged in 1220 by the Mongols, this city (one of the oldest of Central Asia), received a second breath under the rule of Timur, making Samarkand one of the main hotspots of the Silk Road.
This city is worth the visit for several reasons. It’s rather modern, containing a few new buildings and neighborhoods but it’s also home to the most beautiful mosques and madrasah’s we’ve encountered during our two weeks in Uzbekistan.

Shah-i-Zinda Ensemble

On our way to this complex of mausoleum’s, we decided to walk through the graveyard first. It is interesting to note that most tombstones contain an engraved image of the deceased, something that is rather unusual in Europe. Thanks to this small detour, we found a small open gate West from the Shah-i-Zinda complex.

These mausoleums (14th-15th century) were absolutely stunning, containing impressive stonework and tilework like I had never seen before. Shah-i-Zinda, or “Tomb of the Living King”, refers to the tomb of Qusam ibn-Abbas who is said to be the founder of Islam in Asia in the 7th century. It is therefore a center of worship for many Muslims. According to the Lonely Planet, most of this beautiful tilework survived the decay of time relatively well. Unfortunately in 2005 these buildings were aggressively restored, the result being that most of what you see there isn’t original anymore. We had an exchange of thoughts about this very issue: is it better to keep the monuments untouched or is it better to try and restore the buildings to their original form? For example: should we leave the many roman temples like we found them (a big pile of stone) or should we reconstruct them?

Afrasiyab Settlement

Right next to the Shah-i-Zinda Ensemble, a large ocean of green grassland stretches for more than 1km either way. Afrasiyab was a settlement of Sogdian tribes and was founded around the 7th century BC. Alexander the Great annexed this earlier version of Samarkand in 329 BC, thus introducing Greek crafts and skills to this part of Central-Asia. Today, there aren’t any visible traces of these ancient civilizations. It is nonetheless rather interesting to walk around there: on top of the hills, you are greeted with a beautiful view on the city but also the snowy mountains of Tajikistan to the East.

kodak TMax 100 — *peaking behind the hills of the Afrasiyab, parts of the Bibi-Khanym and Registan are visible.*

Bibi-Khanym Mosque

Built in the 14th century by Timur - and financed by the massive spoils of war from conquests in India, this Mosque was the crown jewel of contemporary architecture. I wouldn’t recommend you to go inside of the mosque as it is fairly empty: go to the Registan instead and just watch the nice facade of Bibi-Khanym from the outside. The inside doesn’t offer anything extra.

*Can you find the detail that proves that this picture was indeed taken in the 21st century? ;)*

Most guides talk about the 9-pillar stand on which the Quran could be put down, granting women with fertility when crawling beneath it; it’s locked behind a glass casing so you won’t be able to see anyone going through these pillars either.

Amir Temur Mausoleum - Gur-i-Amir Сomplex

This is the mausoleum where Timur and his famous grandson Ulugbek have their final resting place. It is absolutely worth the visit as the inside of the dome is just as beautiful (if not more) than the outside. According to the Lonely Planet, the mausoleum is “surprisingly modest” because it was meant for his son who died the year before. Timur died unexpectedly because of pneumonia in 1405 and was thus put to rest in this mausoleum instead.

inside of the Amir Temur Mausoleum — *photo credit: Matthias.*

Registan

The crême de la crême of Samarkand is of course the Registan. It is huge, magnificent and definitely worth a visit around late afternoon, when the golden Sun illuminates the facades. Registan, meaning “plain of sand” used to be the hotspot for trade. After being destroyed by Genghis Khan in the 13th century, Ulugbek built a great Medrassa there in 1420. (a Medrassa can be considered as a sort of school where pupils ranging 15-45 years received a religious and scientific education)

Hidden behind the Tillya-Kori Medrassa, a dome with exceptional decorations demands to be visited.

The Afrosiyob high-speed train from Samarkand to Bukhara - which we were supposed to take but which we missed, unfortunately…

Waiting for Godot… at the impressive Samarkand railway station. (Kodak TMax 100)

Bukhara

When planning your trip to Uzbekistan, it would be wise to follow the same order of cities as we did. By starting in “unspectacular” Tashkent, working your way down towards Samarkand, then heading West to Bukhara and finally Khiva, the trip’s authenticity evolves like a glorious crescendo. Indeed, Bukhara felt even more amazing than Samarkand. The rare tourists that we did cross (we counted them on two hands perhaps) did the opposite sequence and I believe this actually creates wrong expectations. We arrived in Bukhara train station late in the afternoon, the sun already slowly descending towards a beautiful golden hour. The neighborhood around the train station was pretty dull, but as our taxi approached the inner “old” city, the scenery quickly changed to become an awesome authentic Central-Asian town.

Lyabi Khaum / Khause

Bukhara was once famous for its 200 water pools (called khaum’s), used by the city for relaxation and washing. Alas, because the water was stagnant, water-borne diseases were a common headache. It is believed that the average life expectancy in Bukhara used to be around 32 years old, and this during the 19th century! The Soviets drained most of the pools to fight these diseases, only the Lyabi Khaum remains. It is the perfect place to start your expedition around Bukhara. Go there, sit down and enjoy some nice tea whilst contemplating the mulberry trees, who have been there since the creation of this Khaum in 1620!

*A local man on his way to the mosque for midday prayer.*

Mir-i-Arab Medrassa

Next, walk up North through the Toqi Telpak Furushon (some sort of Bazaar) towards this medrassa, built in the early 16th century. Under Soviet occupation, this was the only islamic school allowed to operate and until now, it is still used for teaching.

Kalan Mosque

Now comes the magical part of this tour: right in front of the medrassa lies another mosque. It is famous for the immense minaret (1127 AD) standing proud at 47m. However, later in the afternoon, the central square from this mosque is bathed in golden light. Since few people wander there, it’s a unique and mystical experience.

Minorai Kalon

Appreciate this gigantic monument of stone, bathed in beautiful sunlight! At night, it is also beautifully well lit.

Ark of Bukhara

Built in the 5th century AD, this fortress is one of the highlights of your trip to Uzbekistan. The walls are mindbogglingly massive, the fort feels impenetrable (to tackle this problem, the Soviets just bombed it). You can visit the inside of this fortress but I must admit that neither the views were formidable, nor the museums inside of it.

umi 800 bukahra ark — *Shot with Umi 800 (FilmNeverDie).*

Samanid Mausoleum

Talipach Gate

A remnant of the old city wall.

*The squad (ltr: Maxence, Cédric, Matthias)*

Khiva

The last city we visited was Khiva. It is a charming town with an “untouched'“ feeling. Indeed, the insides of the city walls feel like an open air museum as all the houses and buildings are authentic.

Kalta Minor Minaret

This minaret was supposed to be larger than 70m. After 29m, however, the Khan died upon which construction was halted. Hence, the chopped-off appearance of the minaret.

a photo from Matthias to show you the Minaret’s true colors.

Nurullaboy Saroyi

Final stop: Urunghach Lake

The last few days, we hired a small car to drive towards the upper most part of Uzbekistan, squeezed between the borders of Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. The road was in a terrible state and it felt almost irresponsible to drive with such a small and unfit car. After a few hours of driving, we stopped for a hike towards the Urunghach Lake, containing pristine turquoise icy water.

*It’s in the mountains that VdVisuals is the happiest ;-)*

As the night fell, we asked a local villager if we could sleep in a barn instead of driving a few hours towards the closest hotel. Instead of a barn, we were greeted with amazing hospitality, food and friendships. We spent all night playing ping-pong, chess and celebrating at the dining table.

From left to right: Sarbon (the only man we met in Uzbekistan that actually spoke a bit of English!), the school teacher, the farmer (Sarbon’s uncle).

Solar Furnace

On our way back to the airport, we drove past the Paskent Solar Furnace. A complex system of 50m² mirrors, reflecting sunlight on a parabolic dish, itself concentrating light onto a small surface. By doing this, scientists are able to achieve very high temperatures (>3000°C), thus allowing to melt metals and special ceramics without compromising the chemical purity (remember that gas produces fumes).

To be honest, it felt a bit worn-out and out-dated, even though the information boards described it as being very scientific and exceptional (truth be told, there are only 2 solar furnaces in the world, the other one being located in France).

Conclusion

Uzbekistan was a phenomenal country, worthy of your visit (in fact do it soon as I expect tourism to boom there pretty soon). It felt cleaner, safer and way more beautiful than we had imagined. Even though I believe a lot of this is facade, the country and its people do a far better job hiding it than those of Egypt did (cfr. my travel blog for Egypt). I often told my friends that if I were a banker, I would never invest in Egypt as it feels corrupt and hopeless. I don’t have the same feeling about Uzbekistan. On the contrary, when visiting it, we clearly experienced a country that was ready to grow and glow.

Only using one single analog camera during the trip was also quite a challenge for me. Lacking the liberty of quickly switching between color and black and white, being unable to review my photos, not having the possibility to toggle ISO for each photo… In the end, I’m extremely satisfied about the results, the analog texture really suited the trip as a whole. It might be a good incentive to invest in a more modern analog camera (with auto-focus and auto-exposure). Indeed, manual is good fun until you want to take portraits of people on the streets or need to capture something quickly. Nonetheless, I’m definitely considering doing this more often. It is with this happy serendipity that it is time to end this blog. Thank you very much for reading and see you soon for another blog!

Additional travel tips

Hostels/Hotels

They are pretty cheap in Uzbekistan. A hostel will cost about 6€ (~7$) per night (often with a small breakfast included). Real hotels will cost a little more but except for the extra privacy and space, the comfort didn’t really differ al that much from cheaper hostels. We didn’t go to western international hotels such as Hilton/Hyatt because they didn’t suit the scenery.

Tashkent:

Topchan Hostel: 3/5. Cheap, slow service and no English. No breakfast. 6€

Budget Hostel: 4/5. Just as cheap as Topchan, a little further away from the city center than Topchan but definitely more comfortable. 8€

Samarkand:

Amir Hostel: 5/5. Excellent and friendly service (a bit of English). Good breakfast. Costs about 7$. Might get a little hot if you don’t open windows. 6€

Bukhara:

Diyor Hostel: 5/5. Very friendly older couple manages this property. They don’t speak English but are adorable and will do everything to make your stay comfortable. Cost 6€ as well, breakfast included.

Khiva:

Guest House Orzu: 5/5. A bit more expensive at 12€ per night, but excellent location in the heart of historic Khiva. Good breakfast, nice rooms with clean facilities. Do note that the address isn’t that easy to find: it’s on the North-Eastern side of the inner city, right next to the city wall. The best way to get there is to enter through the Northern city gate, go left and stay next to the wall. Follow that wall until you arrive at the guest house; it’s about 3-4 minutes by foot from the gate.

Public Transport

Trains

Trains are excellent and dirty cheap. From Tashkent to Samarkand takes approximatively 3 hours, the “VIP” cabins (as they call the the tourist coaches) are large and comfortable. We paid 15€ each. I guess you can get even cheaper seats, we were automatically given these VIP tickets without asking and without knowing. There’s a choice between high speed trains and “average speed” ones, fares don’t differ all that much.

To buy tickets, the best option is to go to the ticket office the day before your trip (or try their website, we didn’t use it though). The ticket office is NOT inside of the train station hall but invariably on one of its sides (through a different enterance, the one without X-ray control).

Tashkent Metro

at 10c a ticket (14 dollar cent), these are very cheap as well. Since the metro stations are worth a visit as well, these metro tickets offer an extremely impressive value for money.

Taxi

Not available everywhere (for example, not on iPhone), YandexGo is used by locals to book taxis. A 15 minute ride costs about 70c! If you take the taxi without YandexGo (for example after arriving in Uzbekistan on day 1, without SIM card) expect to pay much more - like 10€ after haggling.

Airplane

We flew from Nukus (2 hours taxi drive from Khiva) to Tashkent to save some time. Flights were 40€ each. The airport of Nukus is relatively small so don’t come too early either as there isn’t much to do there.

Car Rental

We used www.RentCar.uz to rent a small Chevrolet Lacetti. It cost about 25€/day, 300€ bail (We lost half of it because we broke one shock absorber and two wheel rims lol) and 30€ of fuel (0,9€/L)

Food

Unfortunately, Uzbekistan isn’t very vegetarian friendly - although there always are vegetarian options. Meat is the main food there and we got really bored by it after a few days already. It’s not very expensive but compared to taxi’s and hostels, it wasn’t cheap. 6€ on the streets, 15-20€ in real restaurants.

Analog Photography in Uzbekistan

They don’t know the concept of analog photography so don’t expect to find film rolls there. Furthermore, you’ve got to have a little note in Russian explaining why you’d prefer these rolls to be hand-checked instead of x-rayed. However, I must say my film rolls survived the several x-rays pretty well so maybe it’s all just a myth ;-).

A special thanks to Mori Film Lab (Brussels) for developing these photos!

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