Sunday, July 5th - Samarkand to Tashkent

We were up, packed, had breakfast and were out of the hotel by 8:30 a.m. and it was already 27 degrees Celsius and sunny.  Because of my stomach problems I had the front seat again which meant a great view all through the trip - that is unless you'd rather not see the way some of the people drive.

There was a big river near the city but I can't remember it's name.  As we drove away we saw law lots of beautiful farmland and the area was very green.   We passed an apple orchard with a new Turkish variety on dwarf trees.  There were fields of orn and wheat, and even a mill for the wheat.  Unlike in other places, the fields are divided by trees, which add a bit of green to every picture regardless of the crop or stage of growth.  Grapes were also being grown - a variety called lady finger or long finger because they are longer and skinnier than what we have for grapes.  These seem to be the grape of choice for people to have around their homes too.

The Parmir Mountains are to our right and about 2,600 metres in height and looking quite impressive.  There are lower hills to the left and the valley between is very wide.  At some point along he way we were only 400 km from Afghanistan and that was close enough for most of us.

Our guide was telling us that 70% of the population is under 40 years of age.  That statistic is quite different than in Kelowna or probably in Canada as a whole.  The Turkish government believes it is important to educate all of the youth as they will be the future of the country.  In Soviet times, the teachers were the richest of all people because they were so corrupt and took so many bribes.  Only the rich kids passed and were allowed to get a higher education.  At one point the Turkish school system included 11 years of free primary, secondary and high school for everyone.  The education was revised a few years ago.  It is still free but only for 9 years.  They have systems in place to ensure all students attend school during these years.  

After the compulsory 9 years, they attend an academic lyceum for upper high school and only those who want to go on to college or university have to attend.  This portion is also free and from Colleges or Vocational Schools you get a vocational diploma for your career and another diploma for university purposes..  Then from the universities you get a degree, but there is a 5-hour entrance exam that is written all across the country on August 1st and closely controlled by the Ministry of Education.  The tests are flown out in the morning to the various centres and they are flown back in the afternoon after the exam is written.  If  student gets less than 160 points they fail.  If they get 160 to 180, they get in but have to pay a fee.  If they get over 180 they get in on a scholarship and don't have to pay.  Before writing the exam the students pick their universities of choice and their preferred area of study.  Then they each get an individual exam met to test them on the aspects they should know before entering that university and that discipline.  Some of the material is common for all students but some of it is also specialized by student and someone in the Ministry of Education keeps this all straight and everyone gets the right exam..  The guide said full fees for a year of university were $1,000, which sounded pretty good to us, but to them that is a lot of money and they would really have to save or borrow to afford it.  Typical salaries here are only between $150 and $200 per month.  Most of the jobs for young people are in tourism so that is a big area of study.  History, economics and foreign languages are other popular areas of study.

People are still selling things along hte side of the road.  Some have tiny wood stalls, some have carts and some just have a blanket or a bench on the ground.  I've seen apples, watermelon, honey and yogurt balls so far.  And at one point we passed a very busy intersection where they always have a Sunday market for used cars.  Around the same point there were people out on the side of the highway trying to flag people in to have lunch.  We didn't stop.

There is a pass we have to go through and there are two different routes.  If you are a car you get to go on the one that is straight through.  If you are a bus or truck you have to go the other way and it was a long winding road.  We stopped part way through the pass at Timur's Gate.  There were high walls on both sides of the road and soldiers would be stationed here to make sure no unwanted people got through.  

We just passed a sign that said 168 km to Tashkent but our guide says that is an old sign and it's now about 35 km longer.  That's because of a border change with Kazakstan.  Apparently the road used to go through some of that country and then back into Uzbekistan but that is no longer allowed so it has to go an extra 35 km.

Today seems to be haying day as we've seen several fields with people out baling or picking bales up from the fields and loading them onto trucks or wagons.  A lot of the loads look very lopsided and overloaded so hopefully they make it to their destination.

We stopped for a quick break - mainly as a washroom stop, but some food and drink was available.  They were cooking samosas by the roadside in a clay oven and it was interesting to see the samosas stuck to the side of the oven.  The baker just gently placed them there and they stayed while they cooked, then he gently pulled them off when they were done.  

Uzbekistan has checkpoints at each provincial border crossing.  Luckily there are only about 12 provinces so we didn't have to cross many of the checkpoints.  The ones we did cross were pretty easy for us.  Other vehicles were being pulled over and checked but we were generally just waived through.  I think tourists are generally considered okay and it is more the local drug dealers they are trying to stop.  perhaps Afghanistan's poppy fields are just a bit too close.

We stopped a couple times just at the roadside for pictures.  The storks had built huge nests on the power poles and the whole family of storks was either sitting on the nest or flying nearby.  I don't think I've ever seen a stork nest before so it was amazing to see how big they are.  

The highway has generally been good today, ecept for a couple of rough construction sites or detours.  The road is four lanes and divided so we are making pretty good time.  And there is extra room, almost an extra lane, at all of the U-turn spots.

We are now back to cotton fields and irrigation ditches and water between all the rows.  It feels cooler and windier today but I think it's still about 30 degrees Celsius around 1 p.m.  when we passed the road to Tajikistan.  

Now there's a first.  They have holly hocks growing on the highway divider.  You don't see that just anywhere.  There are more horses int he fileds now, and the farmers are also burning off field stubble in some areas.  The rolling hillsides and the trees and fields of green and yellow are still beautiful though.

There are a lot of smaller cars in Uzbekistan and many of them are Chevs.  Apparently they have a Chevrolet plant here in the country so it makes sense they are the popular ones.  However, they also still have their donkey carts.

We went to the hotel in Tashkent and discovered we had the same not-so-lovely room with no air conditioning, cold water only, and no room to move around the beds to get to the closet.  The others once again had lovely large rooms with hot water, air conditioning and even balconies.  Oh well, we weren't going to be there long.  We did make sure that some one else hosted happy hour though.

For our farewell dinner we went by van to a large restaurant - a bit fancier than we were used to but not really fancy.  There was a large room and then smaller private rooms around the outside.  We were just in the bigger room and for quite a while had it all to ourselves as we were a bit earlier than their normal eating time.  The food was good but I don't think it was any better than the food we ate at the cheaper places.  The company was of course great and we had a few toasts to our great trip.  Part way through dinner the entertainment came on and they were definitely not what we were expecting and not traditional Uzbek.  They were a country group and they were all old - really old.  They did play happy birthday a couple of times to people throughout the room but otherwise they played music that was from musicals or popular through the past many decades - definitely not current, and sometimes quite hard to identify.

We got back to our hotel and had an hour or so to shower (in cold water!), pack and rest before heading to the airport just before midnight.  Then we sat at the airport for three hours before we flew to Istanbul and that is the subject of yet another blog.  At this point, the Silk Road Tour is officially finished and it was a wonderful experience.  I would highly recommend it for anyone and I'd also recommend further travel in the "stan" countries as they are beautiful.