Orzu Tashkent Hotel

... as soon as the sun went down. It was not necessary as when you shut the door, it became unbearable warm. But opening the window made it chilly so I spent a good portion of the night opening and closing the window. And I almost lurched out of bed several times on the stops.<br><br> Morning comes and by now, we are all tired of being on the train but we have to go until ...

... a strip and then they would put them all together. You can see where the strips have been joined plus all the people contributing to the embroidered piece did not always have the same skill and not always were even the exact same colors used. Natasha explained how we could tell where the pieces were from but I can only remember Tashkent at this point which often had &#8220;snakes&#8221; which just seemed to ...

... on the top. We will see it better during our city tour. The two birds are either storks or cranes but symbolize unity and prosperity and peace.<br><br> The park was not that busy but several people were playing games of backgammon and other locals were doing the ubiquitous photo essay (taking photos of your boyfriend/girlfriend in front of every conceivable picturesque sight in town). Back to ...

... one more and then told her that was all I had. She went through all of them and picked two but she still wasn&#8217;t happy with them. She consulted with a colleague and held them up to the light and tsk tsked a lot and asked me for more but I said no more. She finally took two and gave me my 60100 Zum. My wallet looks pregnant.

... so tired as it never got quiet, they never turned down the lights, and people were wandering the aisles all the time. <br><br> The airport in Tashkent is very reminiscent of airports I have visited in Moscow and in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. Kind of a very minimally ordered chaos with guards everywhere watching your every move. At least they were not carrying Uzis. I had thought that having a visa before ...

... next destination is Samarqand, a city full of culture and history, as well as many fountains, green parks and space. It feels completely different walking around here. We have seen many Madrassas until now, but the Registan Emsemble is the most beautiful of all! The tile work is amazingly detailed. Ironically all this work is not that old: Many of the restoration have been done in 1994, so only 15 years ago! I included one photo showing the before and after effect, big difference ...

... in het dorp waar we een mooi campplekje vinden naast een katoenveld blijkt 1 band lek. Gessie! Gelukkig zijn er genoeg nieuwsgierige mannen die graag een handje helpen, zo gefixt. Tijdens het koken van een snel avondmaal krijg ik een tweede verrassing waar ik toch zeker een half uur van heb moeten bijkomen! Heerlijk paprikasoeppie staat er op het menu en ik snoep een stukje parika dat naast de pan valt. Hahaaaaaaahhh, fik in de bek!!! Das dus geen paprika maar een joekel van een ...

... Dushanbe. <br><br>Trekking was on the plan for the north. While we had to wait for our Turkmenistan visa, we decided to go north to the Fan mountains. The organization of the transport was easy, but finding a map impossible. Even though we decided to go without guide (what we always do and which is more exciting), having a lot of noodles with us and some vodka for the tough times. It was a wonderful landscape, beautiful mountain lakes and ...

... will come next year!<br><br>Tour duration: 10 days / 9 nights.<br><br>The program of the tour:<br>Day 1. 1) Arrival to Bishkek. Flight to Osh. Meeting, accommodation at hotel.<br>2) Arrival to Osh. Meeting, accommodation at hotel.<br>Day 2. Transfer Osh &#8211; Aphlatun village &#8211; Camp 1 at the confluence of Aphlatun and Utur rivers.<br>Day 3. Preparation to the route. Start of the active part of the route. Riding up along South. Aphlatun river. Camp 2.<br>Day 4. Ride ...

... the Poytaht) was full and the room rate had doubled since the guidebook had been published. Fortunately we found a wonderful woman at the hotel who was a self-employed travel agent. She proceeded to book our hotel and also secured our flight tickets to Urgench for the next day. Once that was done she took us to a little local spot for lunch (I think it was a traders/bankers cafeteria). We sampled our first Uzbek lunch, a cross between Russian and Asian food. It ...