Uzbekistan

One of my most vivid memories is that of Tashkent airport in 1987 - stepping outside the plane, and being hit by a wave of fragrant dry air and sun. It's taken a while to finally come here, and the place has so far overstepped expectations - green, modern and cosmopolitan with an efficient public transport and wide uncongested roads, it's somehow reminds me of Moscow, but is much, much more pleasant and interesting. Maybe two nights (just to get a Kazakh visa, buy Mp3 CDs and courier stuff home), and we're (Ollie and I) off to Kazakhstan.

Travelling in this country has been incredibly easy and comfortable, if more pricey than I had hoped. My travelling companion Adam is mostly to blame for this, due to his time constraints and travel ethic that is diametrically opposed to mine. Transport-wise, busses are overpriced and leave at inconvenient times, arriving at inconvenient times, trains are virtually non-existent between the provincial towns. Hence, shared taxi were our main mode of transport. Accommodation wise, there is a network of homestays ($5-10, breakfast included), where you can usually get huge dinners ($1-2.5).

Some places we went:

Bukhara - the largest preserved old town in Uzbekistan. Known for it's repressive khanate, which even had some unfortunate British envoys imprisoned in a 'bug-pit', then beheaded in the main square. I hated it. With no economy to speak of, the citizens have focussed almost exclusively on sucking out as many tourist dollars from the bus-loads of fat Germans and French that get out of huge tour busses. A surreal theme-park atmosphere - souveneir stalls everywhere; the tourists often seem to outnumber the locals. The highlights were an old guy who showed us around a ruined medressa, and the babushka who cooked us amazing 5-course meals every night.

Khiva - famous for slave-trading and a khan who used to have people impaled and thrown from minarets. It's a similar story to Bukhara, but smaller and hence less menancing. More interesting after dark - we saw a guy walking his sheep on a lead. Still, the area outside the old town was better than the clean and polished interior of the town walls. We stayed at a 200yo place next to a medressa and got incredibly drunk with the highly-amusing owner, having our arses beaten at chess in the process.

Nukus - isolated, soviet-esque capital of Karakalpakstan, much warmer than the rest of the country, with the people much more 'asiatic' in appearance. Excellent art museum, featuring works smuggled out of gulags. Also a great display on traditional Karakalpak life.

Monyaq - once Uzbekistan's main port on the Aral sea. Now, a bio-weapon-contaminated dust-swept decrepid hole in the middle of a desert, with some rusting boats stuck in the sand dunes around it.

Samarkand - one of my favourite places in the world. Bustling, colourful bazaar, not directed at tourists. Huge graveyards and mausoleums. The architectual jewel of the Registan complex. Winding streets of the old town filled with Tajiks in traditional dress. Straight tree-lined avenues of the new town, bustling with young people of many ethnicities - Koreans, Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Russians. Oh, and Bahodir B&B - friendly owner, leafy courtyard, tasty $1 dinners.

Travelling like a tourist has really put me in a bubble though (that's why I hate to travel as a tourist). Life is damn hard here. The cotton-farmers riding on donkey carts must make next to nothing. Petrol is cheap 30 cents/pl, but in Turkmenistan it's 7 cents (we actually did a backyard smuggled Turkmen petrol deal at one stage) and a monthly pension is $20. No one seems to be concerned with the politics here - the events of Andijan seemed to raise hardly a reaction. Yet everyone says that life in the USSR was much, much better - even the old man whose brother died in a gulag.