Fergana Valley
Trip Start
May 28, 2006
1
25
162
Trip End
May 17, 2007
Fergana / Margilan,
Uzbekistan
Monday, July 17, 2006
We've been staying in what has to be the nicest hotel on our trip so far - it's even got an open air swimming pool, which we spent a happy afternoon next to, swimming and meeting all the local rich kids who hang out here at the weekend. Time to chill out before all the bushcamping we've going to do in Kyrgyzstan, which as you can imagine Sian is thrilled about - (especially since she still hasn't worked out how she's going to power the hair-drier...).
First night out with the group - all seem fun - 23 year old Russians celebrating a birthday buying us copious amounts of vodka and making us dance to cheesy Russian pop...
MARGILAN
Surprise, surprise - it turns out you can get a hangover from drinking too much vodka!
Making Fergana scarves
We visited a silk factory where they specialise in Fergana scarves to see how they were made and for Sian to do a bit of shopping (well we had to use up our remaining Uzbek Sum somehow!). The way they make them is *very* complicated and far too intricate to describe here - suffice to say they get the silk worms still in the cocoons and one of the less savory elements consisted of a woman filling her mouth with a flour and water mixture and spitting all over the loom! Never did work out what she was doing - but the smell did turn my delicate stomach! Despite this the product is fabulous and Sian didn't have any problems finding something she liked!
