Aleikum Salaam,
This "short" newsletter is about my journey from Bukhara to the legendary city of Samarkand. I assume my words will never be sufficient to relate properly the beauty of those days, but I hope they may be suggestive enough for your imagination to wave around next to me for a while... I also describe my plans for the coming months... Thanks for following me there as well !
****
... Behold, for this is Samarkand !!
... More than the city itself, it is to get to the Myth, the oriental Legend, which makes one so happy and so proud to reach its walls !
Blue mosques and tall minarets are obviously astonishing. Madrasas are well outstanding... Samarkand would look beautiful to any eye. Samarkand is a beautiful city.
But the important point - may be the essential one - lays beyond those postcards, doesn't it ?
Samarkand is both a city and a legend... And the traveler who reaches it from the desert seeks and reaches both of them.
I arrived at sunset in a quiet Samarkand after ten days struggling a bit through the Turkmen then the Uzbek Desert. The bright white moon crescent was rising in the still clear blue sky, and the turquoises of the mosques were getting irridescent because of the sun's reds, oranges and purples... Samarkand was for a minute the most beautiful place of the universe (at least).
It is greener than any other city I have been since Iran. Bukhara is an oasis of beauty and calm. A shrine of history. Samarkand is bigger than Bukhara, and visitors often dislike it a bit or are disappointed. Expectations may be too high.
Personally, I like Samarkand may be better as a city. First because it is out of the desert, out of where men struggle to survive and where they try to only travel through. In Bukhara, you are still surrounded by the sands. In Samarkand you are beyond it, you are safe.
Second, Samarkand is not prisoner of its brilliant past, but it is also a lively place.
Magnificient monuments are dilluted into the city movements. Tourism is only a part of the economy.
Between Bukhara and Samarkand, there is little water except irrigation canals and some artificial lakes for the cotton industry. Distances are long between villages and maps are not correct any longer. It was necessary to rely upon my compass(-es) and intuition... and only on my own strenghts because there were not many cars to assist me in case of breakdown!
But I tell you, this way was so much better than to ride main stream ! Nights in the deserts are well worth these efforts; sunrises and sunsets are pure moments of beauty and peace, silence has no equivalent and landscapes are unique...
The desert is the same flat or little hilly as 400 km's before, but it is may be drier as vegetation is even lower and desertic.
Wind blows over it continuously and always from where you want to go ! I made the test : I went 30km's South, and the wind was SE. I went then 45 km's NE, the wind turned NNE. And later I went 90km E, and it obvioulsy blew from the East as well ! Not a funny joke at all and an exhausting game.
Soon after arriving in Samarkand, I realised how near China now is. 9000km's have gone since Munich. I have been beyond my initial hopes. Further Samarkand, what ?
Plans had to be drawn. Where to go next ? How ? ...Winter is near too. High in the mountains, it is already snowing. Passes close. Roads do close too. Where to go next then ? How ? Some borders are forbidden to foreigners. Some visas are impossible to get. The region's geopolitics is tricky and possibilities are not plenty. Where to go next ? How ?
Nights were not peaceful : the subject was serious.
First, Tajikistan and Kyrghistan are the key to China, to Kaxgar.
I left my bike in Samarkand and I went by train to Tashkent to get both a Tadjic and a Kyrghiz visa. I now have them, the way is clear.
This is going to be approximately a 1500km-long ride at 3500-4000m above sea-level average altitude. Weather is a big big question mark. Temperatures may (will?) be awfully cold. Days are getting shorter. And I may well change all my plans tomorrow again. But this is going to be a GREAT journey in any case ! (Then, keep reading the coming newletters !!)
I shall try to go first through the Pamir Highway in Tajikistan. Then, make a short loop North in Khyrgistan, where I'll turn East to the Chinese border and... down to the city of Kaxgar, which - if all works well - I plan to reach mid-november.
From Kaxgar, I shall try to go South, along the legendary Karakorum Higway for a few hundreds km's. Then I am planning to get back South-East onto the Ali Highway which leads to Tibet... And from there ??...
Well. First, let's try to cast off from Samarkand, where I feel very good, which makes me very lazy ;-)
And that's all folks !
Tomorrow, I shall leave for Tajikistan. Again, I hope you'll follow me there ! ... 'Also hope you're fine & happy and sound !
A tres bientot !
Barth
- Last minute - Last minute - Last minute - Last minute -
1- My route on Google Earth has now been fully updated - up to Samarkand ;
Simply open the following link under Google Earth :
http://www.les-cobra.com/bartrouer/bartrouer.kmz
2- Photographs : I have now 5 CD-Rom's of pictures in my panniers (that is : all I have shot since Baku, in Azerbaijan), which I plan to send back to France from Duchambe in Tajikistan in 10 days from now... They will be on PixVillage very soon after!
Please, accept my apologies. I am very sorry for the gap there is between what you can access and see today, and the content of today's newsletter ; Traveling still means to be away and somehow disconnected from people!
- Last minute - Last minute - Last minute - Last minute - |
Photos Ouzbékistan
Carnets de voyage Ouzbékistan
Vidéos Ouzbékistan
Carte Ouzbékistan
Guide de voyage Ouzbékistan
Santé Ouzbékistan
Billets d'avion Ouzbékistan
