5 Stans of the Silk Road

 (Translated mostly by Google)

I did a 3,5 week long overland trip in the so-called 'stans' of Central Asia: Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

I flew on a Turkish flight via Istanbul to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, from where I started my tour along the mythical Silk Road. The formalities upon arrival went like clockwork - I can't remember when I've been on my way from the airport to the hotel less than 30 minutes after landing. Kyrgyzstan is the only one of the old Soviet republics in Central Asia where the people have put bad heads of state on the sidelines and brought about the change they want. In other countries, the strong man policy is still very much in action.

In Bishkek there is always refreshing horse milk available

Our tour started in the capital Bishkek, and after a short introduction to the capital, we headed towards the highlands and the small village of Chong-Kemin. On the way, we briefly visited the historical Burana Tower, which has its roots about a thousand years ago in the ancient city of Balasagun. The place would have deserved more than a visit of less than an hour. In Chong-Kemin, we stayed at an inn run by the local community, where everything worked perfectly except for the poorly greased doors. We took a short morning walk to the nearby hills - there would have been much more potential in the area, but the beginning of the trip was characterized by a mysterious rush that seemed to be present all the time, and I don't quite know why.

Chong-Kemin scenery

Our tour guide clearly did not value the nature and countryside destinations very highly. After Chong-Kemin, we headed higher into the highlands, located on the banks of Song Kul, the largest lake in the country, at an altitude of about 3000 meters. As is typical for Kyrgyzstan, the drive offered great scenery and bad roads.

Horses, goats and yaks graze in the highlands – horses are the majority in Central Asia, unlike many other regions where goats or sheep typically dominate. In Song Kul, we stayed in traditional yurts that were used by tourists, and there were probably hundreds of them on Song Kul's edges. In the evening, they were heated to sauna temperature with the help of coal stoves - sleeping was challenging. I'd say this is where you have the best chance of taking pictures of the stars on this trip if the sky is clear - there's quite a lot of light pollution everywhere else.

Our Yurt Camp at Song Kul

In the morning, we went up to the top of the neighboring hill to about 3500 meters, which had a great view of the lake. We continued our rapid march through Kyrgyzstan to Tamga, where the breakfast omelette turned out to be a very bad choice for me. We were in Ak-Orgo to hear about traditional yurt making, when my stomach started twisting ominously. The next couple of days in Karakol were spent in bed, first removing the omelet and then refueling. This time, I missed the Karakol city tour and the Jety-Oguz cliffs.

Kyrgyz Yurt Master

After lying down for a couple of days, I was weak on my feet when our group headed towards the border and Kazakhstan, which is the most prosperous and most russofied of the countries in the region. Crossing the border was easy and soon we were already in the village of Saty at the gates of the Kolsay Lakes National Park. In the afternoon we headed to the popular Kaindy Lake for a short walk. Again, we felt like we were in a rush, even though we really weren't in a hurry even for dinner, which we made it to just fine, even though our lake walk was ten minutes longer than the planned two hours. Our guide got extremely angry about it for some reason and totally embarrassed herself by blaming the group in a really unprofessional way after dinner. I had never experienced anything similar in my travels before. The next morning, she apologized for it, but the credibility was pretty much gone.

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Kaindy Lake

We continued in our hectic style to the Charyn canyon, where we again had an hour to explore the canyon. In my opinion, Kazakhstan would also have significantly more potential, especially in nature destinations. Of course, the country is so huge that you could easily organize tours in Kazakhstan alone.

Charyn Canyon

After surviving the canyon, we drove to the green and modern metropolis of Almaty, where we took a long city tour led by a local boss lady and enjoyed dinner before the next morning's transfer first to the airport and then on the smooth wings of Air Almaty to Dusanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, from where we headed the very next morning to the mountains and the idyllic village of Gazza, where we there was a little time to catch our breath during the relentless pace of the tour. The drive to the Varzob region and Gazza was probably the most enjoyable part of the trip with its wonderful mountain scenery. The landscapes reminded me of views from Crete, Norway and Patagonia. We made a couple of enjoyable day trips from the village of Gazza to the nearby village of Voru and to the snake lake, the real name of which I did not find out. Without a doubt, Tajikistan was the most to my taste in terms of the program and I could have easily imagined myself here in the mountains for a longer hike.

'Snake Lake'

What was not to human taste was the crossing from Tajikistan to Uzbekistan. I am not terribly exaggerating when I say that Tajik border authorities are violating on human rights on that border without any apparent need. About three hours of Greco-roman wrestling (and I'm not exaggerating at all) while carrying bags to passport control in the midday sun was something completely unimaginable for the 2020s. The situation reminded me of some news broadcasts from conflict zones where people are trying to evacuate away from the path of war. The situation here was entirely the result of incompetent and inept border guards. Fortunately, nothing worse happened to anyone, only a few were close to losing consciousness.

In Uzbekistan, our pace of progress slowed down and we spent up to two nights in almost all places. Unfortunately, I have to say that I would have preferred to spend those extra nights in the earlier countries of the trip than in Tashkent, Samarkand and Bukhara. You probably have to stop in Samarkand and Bukhara, because they are, in a way, the stars of the Silk Road tourism with their exquisite illuminated mosques, minarets, large squares and evening illuminations. Unfortunately, only the tourist crowds are starting to be such that I myself would not go to these places except very early in the morning or late at night. Shah-i-Zinda is an intimate ancient necropolis full of exquisitely decorated mausoleums and especially in the soft morning light it looks really good. I recommend being the first in line at 7am - arriving any later will cause you to get stuck behind all the dressed up Insta-ladies.

Shah-i-Zinda in night lights

The visit to Uzbekistan also included Khiva as the last stop, which resembles Samarkand and Bukhara, but is a little more pleasant and offers in miniature what Samarkand and Bukhara have to offer.

Even though Uzbekistan's star destinations can already be fully classified as mass tourism, what is pleasant is the very low level of harassment in practice. Here, tourists are not subjected to offers from different salespeople at all in the same way as in many popular spots nowadays. The prices are also reasonable - the tourist price is not astronomical, but usually quite a reasonable offer. Only at Bukhara Hammam did we get ripped off - that place is definitely not worth 400k, I'd say 100k is closer to the right price. Another characteristic of Uzbekistan is that everywhere you have to play the same music, which is a hard-to-describe mix of old beats and disco rhythms - it doesn't make it to the top of my own playlist.

We said goodbye to part of our group at the end of a delicious last dinner in Khiva's darkening but warm evening, on the dance roof of the Terrassa restaurant, where the tastiest skewers of the trip were served.

Khiva blue hour

The next morning, we drove to Shavat to the border and were only a few minutes short of our guide's border crossing record as our group cleared all the formalities in about two and a half hours. Our record was ruined by system problems at the Turkmen side of the border.

Right after the formalities, we were already on the bus on our way to nearby Dashoguz. International credit cards do not work in Turkmenistan, where you can officially exchange currency at a bank at a ratio of 1:3.5 (USD) or on the black market at a ratio of 1:15 – we also got the money on our bus in a plastic bag from a man who was waiting for our arrival in a bush. In Dashoguz, we had lunch at the excellent Seyran restaurant before heading two hours northwest to the UNESCO site of Kunya Urgench, which in the midday heat was a real scorcher. After the splendor of Uzbekistan, the temple area of ​​Kunya Urgench didn't really do anything. What surprised me, instead, was that this place had been on UNESCO's lists for almost two decades, but still the condition of the buildings was not improving.

Kunya Urgench, Turkmenistan

We returned to Dashoguz for the evening and the next morning, with a slightly later start, we headed towards the next UNESCO site, the craters of Darvaza, i.e. the so-called gates of hell. The journey to Darvaza was long and the roads were in very variable condition as we drove through the Karakum desert. We arrived at Darvaza just before sunset and immediately visited the gas crater, which has been burning for several decades since it was ignited. In my opinion, the crater is at its best after dark, when the orange glow is visible above the crater. The wind was strong throughout our visit and kicked up a lot of sand and dust, which made photography difficult for many reasons. We stayed only a few hundred meters from the crater, which was excellent - this way we were able to visit the destination completely freely for once.

Majoitus parhaalla paikalla

At the end of the whole trip, we drove through the desert to the surreal capital of Ashgabat, where everything is megalomaniacally big. Yes, there are many big buildings and monuments in the world, but nowhere else with this density. In addition, all buildings and monuments are illuminated after dark without saving on costs. In Ashgabat, the country's prosperity is visible, not so much in the rest of the country. It is also special that almost all the cars in the capital are white (partly for practical reasons, because the sun is so harsh). Silver and gold are other allowed colors, but they are in the clear minority.

In the central areas of the capital, tourists can move quite freely, although of course the atmosphere in Ashgabat is somehow different from that in cities of this size in general – perhaps it is influenced by the fact that there are relatively few people on the move and on the other hand all the stories about how limited life would be in Turkmenistan. After a couple of days of walking around the UNESCO sites, I can't really make any kind of educated assessment about it. A special experience, though.

Ashgabatin keskuspuiston ravintola iltavalaistuksessa

It was also special that the level of service in Turkmenistan, for example in restaurants, was clearly the best of the trip. In terms of price, the whole of Central Asia is so far a really wallet-friendly travel destination, and as I already wrote above, there are very few clear scams. A small exception to low cost level is the price of laundry, which, especially in Uzbekistan, is pretty much the most expensive in the world. The price of laundry can easily be 20-30USD, which is due to the scarcity of water. The lack of water is a big problem, especially in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, but in the bubble of tourism it is really only visible in the pricing of laundry.

One cannot get by with English in Central Asia except for Uzbekistan, and with rare exceptions, service situations are mainly handled with hand signals. Russian is the lingua franca of the region. I would say that the nature traveler focuses on Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan at the beginning of the trip and naturally heads to the mountains and canyons. The appreciation of nature is not very high here, and therefore there would probably still be a lot of potential in nature tourism. Culture and package tourists, on the other hand, enjoy Uzbekistan's famous destinations, shopping opportunities and services. Turkmenistan is a separate story, and at the moment the situation is that practically all tourists visit the exactly the same places in the country.

This trip was organized by Canadian G Adventures and I have been on many of their trips over the past 15 years. I would say that the price-quality ratio is usually quite good. Group travel has its pros and cons. The good thing is that you don’t have to organize much by yourself. On the other hand, the bad thing is that the pace is usually quite fast. On this trip, in my opinion, the balance of urban and nature attractions was not right, and that's why I would have moved a few days from the cities of Uzbekistan to the mountain highlands at the beginning of the trip. Of course, I already knew from the itinerary that this is a potential risk, but somehow the haste with which the first week and a half progressed still managed to surprise me a little.

Bukhara

For a traveler who enjoys photography, such group trips work poorly because of the rush and because the places are often visited at noon or at peak hours. Trips focused on photography have indeed become more common and I have been on a couple of them myself. The advantage is, of course, that the programs there are structured in such a way that the aim is to be at the venues when the lights are at their best, and then there is no rush for anything. The downside is the price level, which is at least 2,000-3,000 euros higher due to the different tourist profile and generally higher service level. I'm still struggling a bit in this middle ground - the price of tourism has risen much more than my own income in the aftermath of the covid. But that's how it goes - in a person's life cycle, there is rarely time and money optimally at the same time.