August 10, 2011
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The Silk Road (Sort Of) Overland
Monday 8 August 2011
Today, I was finally able to see the capital of Uzbekistan, Tashkent. I spent the whole day with Bahrom and Sevara – and Bahrom had put together a full city tour. It was wonderful not having to look at the map every ten minutes!The highlights of today were:
- The Railway Museum (super fun climbing up these old train engines)
- Seeing the Uthman Quran (the oldest Koran in the world)
- The Old Town (especially the spartan Telyashayakh Mosque)
- The Chorsu Bazaar (extremely colourful place)
- The Kulkedash Medressa (I took maybe 50 pictures here)
- Visiting lots of fountains around sunset
After today, I feel I have a really good idea of what Tashkent is all about.
While the sightseeing was in full swing, I was having my own private Silk Road crisis. My plan is to follow the ancient Silk Road route through Osh in Kyrgyzstan and then go to Kashgar in China via the Irkeshtam Pass. However, since the brief civil war and all the killings in Osh in June 2010, I’ve been aware that the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border might be closed. Today, as I’ve tried to find out exactly what the situation is at the border, I’ve been swinging between mild optimism and semi-despair about my Silk Road project: “The Kyrgyz Embassy does not take calls” (the border is probably closed); “It seems like the border is open” (pessimism slowly turning into optimism); “Bad news. Russians can pass, but you will probably have to bribe someone because you’re not Russian” (what??!); “Good news. The border is open and the son of a friend of a friend of can meet you in Osh and show you around” (feeling more optimistic); “Sorry, the mother of this son does not want him to have any contact with foreigners” (What IS really going in in Osh?); “Someone has offered to drive you to Osh and put you up there for USD200, but we don’t really know anything about this guy” (hmm, doesn’t really inspire confidence).
By sunset I feel extremely anxious about the whole thing, and very concerned about the fact that I don’t seem to be able to get any clear information on the border-crossing issue or what the situation in Osh might really look like. Also, the prospect of sitting in a shared taxi for six hours doesn’t really thrill me. What if the driver turns out to be a maniac racing driver?
It’s a toss up. Should I press on according to my plan? Or should I curtail my Silk Road project further and just take the train back to Almaty and then go into China that way (and skip Kyrgyzstan entirely)? And during my lowest point today: Or should I even curtail it further and fly from Almaty to Dubai and skip China a well (and spend the last ten days if my holiday relaxing on the beach in Fujairah)?
In situations like these, very small things can make a big difference for me, and when Bahrom says, “You can always fly back to Tashkent if the border is closed”, I feel I’ve invested too much in this project to give up before I know for sure I can’t proceed according to my plan.
So tomorrow I’m taking a shared taxi for six hours to a border that might be closed. Yippee (not).
