Back to Uzbekistan and the Ferghana Valley

rounds of bread in the bazaar

It's a bit of a slog from Tashkent to the Ferghana Valley, past hundreds of relics that used to be factories employing thousands or workers, and are now windowless, crumbling hulks.  On the barren pass leading to the Valley, small villages remain from the days of open pit mining and donkeys roam wild because they no longer are needed.

mounds of fruit in thebazaar

But, get to the Valley, and you traverse cotton fields left over from Soviet days, great mounds of melons on the roadsides (I've never tasted melons like these--pure honey), orchards of pear, apricot, apple and nut trees, and more fields of grains and vegetables.  Over 40% of Uzbekistan's population lives here, mostly farmers, but also owners of small shops along the roadsides or in the bazaars. 

The main bazaar is full of fruit and mostly women selling foods and handicrafts.  Bread is a staple of hospitality and family fare.  Hospitality is extremely important in Uzbekistan, so bread is both an offering to guests and a gift to one's host.  The bazaar is full of beautifully decorated rounds of bread.

Don and Gail with university students

In Kokand, we visited the last Khan's palace with it's small, but interesting, museum, and chatted with university students who giggled over their vain attempts to speak English.  Girls and boys both attend the universities, though early marriages usually end the girls' educations.  They asked us what age girls married in America and were shocked that many couples are in their 30's before they marry.

The Ferghana Valley has seen a resurgence of handicrafts, with silk weaving being a major activity.  We visited a factory to see the process of making hand woven silks fabrics, starting with the cocoon of the silk worm and ending with an array of beautiful silk products for sale.  Particularly interesting was the process of tie dying the silk threads, which are amassed into bundles of 2000 to 4000 threads, marked with the pattern to be created, carefully tied, dipped in dyes, retied and redipped over and over until the desired pattern has been achieved.

silk threads being put on bobbins

After the dying, a "master" sets up the threads on a loom.  This must be done perfectly so that the dyed patterns on the threads align with the pattern the artist has drawn and the fabric can be woven according to the specified pattern.

marking the bundles of thread

This weaving workshop also had a factory with mechanized looms that churned out silk fabrics for tie dying as opposed to the threads.  The noise was terrible and hurt our ears.  I asked our guide about the women who worked inside with no ear protection.  He said they get used to it, which I assume means that they slowly go deaf, so aren't so bothered by the noise anymore.  Besides, he told us, ear protection is too expensive for Uzbekistan.

tying the bundles of thread before dying

We enjoyed lunch in the home of one of the premier silk designers and weavers in the Ferghana Valley.  He travels to Santa Fe, New Mexico, each year for the International Craft Fair and has clearly done very well since his home is large, with a huge central courtyard, and houses his entire family of sons, daughters-in-law and grandchildren.  Needless to say, we enjoyed buying some more silk textiles from his shop.

tie dying the bundles of thread

setting up the loom

Another lunch was in a pottery workshop.   This potter also takes his beautiful pottery to Santa Fe each year.  He has special canvas bags for carrying the larger pieces, which are about 30 inches in diameter.  They carry these on their shoulders as cabin baggage.  The other, smaller pieces, are carefully packed in huge suitcases and put into the cargo hold.  He always sells out in Santa Fe.

lunch in potter's garden

Late in the afternoon, we visited a family in their home.  There were 4 generations of women (including great-grandbabies) working together on the floor making the thin mattresses families sit on for meals and socializing.  These are about 2 inches thick, made of layers of cotton, and covered with a colorful fabric.  The women were stitching the mattresses like quilts, with tacks every few inches to hold it all together.  When the fabric gets too dirty or has holes, they remove it, carefully clean the cotton and then put it all inside a new cover.

grandmothers making mattresses

One of the mothers told us that they were about to have a wedding.  They had sold their cow the day before for $1000 in order to buy furniture for the newlyweds.  The parents of the bride are responsible for providing furniture.  The newlyweds will then move into the groom's parents' home.  They were busy with preparations.  She told us they would have 1000 guests--yes, 1000.  All their families and neighbors would come.  The women would sit inside and the men outside, eating plov, the somewhat greasy (with mutton fat) rice, beef and vegetable dish that is a staple of entertaining in
Uzbekistan,.  She showed us one of the huge cauldrons they would use to cook the plov.

8 pedal silk weaving

grandmother and grandchild

We were welcomed warmly.  Everyone wanted to chat and asked us to stay.  The great grandmother with no teeth worked and smiled and directed everyone while the bride's mother was busy making wedding arrangements.  Neighbors dropped in to talk and ask about us and the wedding.  A whole community in one family's courtyard.

Kyrgyzstan: falconer and Golden Eagle

Golden Eagle and friend

Before we hiked in Djety Oguz Gorge, we spent an hour with a magnificent Golden Eagle and his falconer.  The eagle was in the back of the falconer's car when we arrived and chirped eagerly when the back was opened.  He was hooded until the falconer had put on his glove.  Then the eagle hopped onto his arm, nuzzled against the falconer's neck and eagerly awaited his hunting adventure (not much of an adventure since his prize was also in the car awaiting the hunting demonstration).

eagle with his (now dead) rabbit

The falconer's sons plucked a luckless gray rabbit out of the car, purchased that morning at the market for this hunting demonstration.  I felt terrible for the rabbit, but, as our guide pointed out, the eagle had to eat anyway and this little rabbit would be his food no matter what.

Meanwhile, we each put on the huge glove and had the chance to hold the eagle on our wrists--quite a thrill as this was a magnificent animal.  The falconer hiked up the mountainside while one of his sons put the rabbit on the ground.  Perplexed, the rabbit didn't move, but once released, the eagle knew right where to go.  It was all over in moments as the gorgeous bird swooped down about 1/4 mile to its prey.

falconer releasing his eagle

Gail and Golden Eagle

Falconers take eagle chicks from their nests and train them in their homes.  These are prized birds and worth a lot to the falconers and their families.  They hunt for their owners and also for hunter tourists who want to hunt with an eagle.  These birds live to be 50 or 60 years old.  When they are about 25, their owners slowly release them into the wild.  Over a period of several weeks, the birds roam farther and farther away from home.  One day, they simply do not return.  Then, the owners know they have returned to the wild for good and they are happy (both eagle and owner, I presume).  Since the eagles have been taught to hunt in the wild during their captivity, they are able to care for themselves.  I don't know about the mating part of their new freedom, however.  Don't think they were taught much about that, so maybe Mother Nature fills in.


Don and Golden Eagle
 

Kyrgyzstan: hiking in Djety Orguz Gorge

Djety Oguz Gorge

Many gorges course down from the towering Tian Shan Mountains to the valleys surrounding Issyk Kul Lake.  We had a beautiful hike in one of those gorges, the Djety Oguz Gorge, starting with a picnic lunch in a high meadow.

picnic in meadow

Our first trek was to a pretty waterfall over a ridge and into the next valley.  There was a busload of Russian tourists, many in "ballet" shoes and sandals, struggling down some steep slopes and across a few muddy patches.  We helped about a dozen of them get up one steep spot before continuing on to the waterfall.  Not a difficult hike if you're slightly in shape, which they weren't, and have reasonable shoes, which they didn't.

Since this was a pretty short hike and the area was so beautiful, we hiked through a forest, across a pretty meadow full of sheep, goats and yurts, and up a river valley.  Although this is late in the season, there were still quite a few nomadic families in their yurts with their horses and herds. 

herd of goats and sheep in high meadow

Most of the nomads live in the towns during the winter, so we watched several families packing up their yurts, blankets, felt carpets and gear to move into town for the winter.  All of them had horses, but they were loading their belongings into 4 wheel drive vehicles instead of onto horses, a much more efficient means of moving.  I imagine it takes several trips over rough roads to move everything.

yurt in meadow

A couple of the yurt camps are for tourists and trekkers.  These camps have small pumps in the river, attached to hoses that run to toilets and showers (very rudimentary, but functional) higher up the meadows.  There are yurts available for these tourists to stay.  While the accommodations may not be 5 star, they are certainly located in one of the most beautiful valleys imaginable, settled high on grassy meadows amidst snow-covered peaks and herds of sheep and goats.  I imagine the flowers are spectacular in the spring and early summer months.

tourist camp by river



red rocks in gorge

The nearby town is small, but has a school.  Surrounding the town are beautiful red rocks.  There are still a couple of Soviet-era spas that Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and Russians like to visit to relax in the sulphur springs and heal their ills in the strict hospital-like environment of these spas (which are more like old-style Russian sanitariums than spas that we know).

village in Djety Oguz Gorge
 

Karakol, Kyrgyzstan's Sunday animal market, major sights, and home-cooked meal

Tian Shan Mountains above Karakol

Every Sunday morning, Karakol hosts an animal market, not unlike the very large one we've visited in Kashgar, China.  Many of the local people in Karakol are Uighers, as they are in Kashgar, as well as Chinese, Kyrgyz, Tajik and Uzbek. 

Sunday market, Karakol

It had rained all night before we visited the market, so we waded through mud and muck, enjoying the animals and the fervent negotiations underway as animals changed owners.  The animals weren't always as pleased as the owners were by their new circumstances.

We watched a father and son shoeing a hapless horse.  Here, the horse is led into a wooden chute and has both legs on one side tied tightly to a wooden brace.  His owner holds his head and talks quietly to him to keep him calm.  Unlike our farriers, these horseshoers cut the hoof down very substantially so that, when they hammer nails into the hoof to hold on the horseshoe, it is quite painful.  This particular horse struggled and lunged, but was held fast in place.  I hated to see it, but he finally calmed down and endured his misery.  Poor, beautiful creature.


unhappy horse being shod

shoeing a horse

The sheep have large pads of fat on their rear ends, a prized attribute because this fat flavors most of the local food, from pilaf to shish kebab.  Each skewer of shish kebab, for example, has chunks of this fat interspersed among the pieces of meat.

fatty butts of the sheep

Karakol was initially a Russian settlement in a territory frequented by nomads.  Most of the Russians are gone now, but they left behind the tiny houses they built, white with blue windows and shutters, made small so they could be heated in the harsh winters.



The Russian heritage is best seen in the charming wooden Russian Orthodox church.  There are still Sunday services.  The main mosque was built by the Chinese who settled here in the early 19th century, so it reflects Chinese architecture.

Russian Orthodox Church
 

Chinese mosque

We had dinner one night at the home of a Chinese/Uigher woman, an excellent cook.  Her father had been a Chinese trader who moved between Kashgar and the eastern steppes of the Soviet Union, now Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.  He had a wife and children in Kashgar.  On one of his trips in the 1950's, at a time when the USSR and China had particularly bad relations, he reached the border high on one of the passes in the Tian Shan Mountains to find it closed.  He was never able to return to China.  So, he settled in Karakol, married again, and had 10 children.  Our hostess was the youngest child.

Olga, our guide, our hostess, Gail

We asked our hostess to talk about the differences between the Soviet period and now.  She said during the Soviet era, everyone had a job and job security so they knew they would have money, even if it weren't a lot.  They had schools and health care and improving conditions for women.  But, she added, while we don't have the security, we can start our own businesses, which we couldn't under the Soviet regime, and make good lives for ourselves.

She had been "wifenapped" when she was 17.  That means that a young man picks a girl he likes and kidnaps her.  He "has sexual relations with her", which could hardly be anything but rape in this culture, and then goes to her parents and says they can either have her back or let her marry him.  In this conservative Muslim society, the parents virtually always make their daughters marry their kidnappers.

Our hostess had 3 daughters before her husband died.  She must have become very fond of him because talking about his death last year made her cry.  With no skills and only 9 years of school, she had to find a way to support herself and her remaining daughter (the other 2 were married), so she worked with a Swiss NGO that helped her set up her house to serve meals to tourists.  She has been so successful that now she also has 4 rooms that she rents to tourists or to their guides and drivers.  They are immaculate, as is her tourist dining room.  And her food is delicious.

view from our guest house window

Bishkek to Karakol, Kyrgyzstan

village beside Issyk Kul Lake en route to Karakol, Kyrgyzstan

Driving from Bishkek to Karakol is entering a different world, from modern city to remote villages, from urban conveniences (some) to yurts in high meadows.  Although even Bishkek turns off its hot water supply in the summer, leaving urbanites with only cold water in their taps, many homes in rural Kyrgyzstan must go to the central village fountain for any water at all.  While Bishkek is full of Toyotas, Mercedes and BMW's, villagers sometimes use donkey carts and beaten up tractors for transportation.  Nonetheless, we've found wifi in the villages we've visited and a surprising awareness of the opportunities of the internet.

granddaughter of women's workshop founder

Yesterday, we drove from Bishkek to Karakol, along the southern side of Lake Ishtakol, a very large lake formed by the uplifting of the Tian Shan mountains.  These mountains are gorgeous, with many peaks over 15,000 feet, snow capped and glaciated. 

wool waiting to be carded

We stopped at one village to visit a women's workshop that makes felt from sheep's wool and turns it into beautifully embroidered felt rugs.  This particular workshop has a contract with a Netherlands company to market their products in Europe.  They employ 30 women, 20 who work in their homes and 10 in the workshop itself.  First they must take the sheared wool and comb it, which they do in a filthy machine that kicks up so much dust you can't breathe.  The wool, obviously, is very dirty, but doesn't get washed yet.

layers of wool

Next step is layering the carded wool into 8 or 10 layers about 20 feet by 8 feet.  This is layered on top of a reed mat, rolled and covered in canvas and put into a machine that repeatedly presses it under considerable pressure until the fibers have fused.  The local farmers devised the machine.  Once firmly packed, the package is unrolled from the canvas and matting, formed into a compact roll and washed with cold water to remove the dirt.

The final product is cut into appropriate sizes for rugs, died, embroidered and marketed.  These rugs are sturdy and warm.  They sell in the shop for $150 and in Europe for $1500, so the hard work of the women, while very important and profitable to them, does far more good for the sellers in Europe.

felt pressing machine

washing the felt



Leaving the workshop, we had lunch at the home of one of the women who is part of the felt rug cooperative.  Several years ago, a Swiss NGO came to Kyrgyzstan to teach local families how to provide services for tourists, as there was (and still is) little tourist infrastructure here.  These families were taught how to provide a clean and attractive environment in their homes, including Western toilets and amenities, and how to prepare meals for tourists.  Many also learned how to provide basic but clean and comfortable lodging for travelers.  We had lunch at one of these homes.  The program has changed the life of this family, as you can see from the large dish outside their home.

our hostess with granddaughter

home where we had lunch, with satellite dish 

Our guest house is one of these projects also.  The Swiss taught the owners how to build a home that would be clean and welcoming for tourists.  They inspect these guest houses frequently and continue to advise the owners.  We stayed in the Green Yard Guest House, which looks like a Swiss chalet in the midst of the mountains (as this guest house is).  It is spotless, has very comfortable rooms, good bathrooms, excellent food and comfortable common areas.  This family also has prospered.  They added 4 bedrooms to their first 4 and are now building 8 more.

Kyrgyzstan's beautiful Ala Arsha National Park

Ala Arsha National Park from afar

Just outside Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, the mountains rise sharply to snow capped peaks that are over 15,000 feet high and still covered with glaciers.  Kyrgyzstan has become a trekkers' paradise with 93% of its land covered by mountains and 3% by snowfields and glaciers.  Rivers that run through its gorges are milky from glacial melting.  Its many mountain trails provide opportunities for day hikes and multi-day treks.

View from our hiking trail

Yesterday, we started hiking up a river valley in Ala Arsha National Park, a half hour's drive from Bishkek, but couldn't find a way across the rising river, so took a different trail up a steep gorge to a waterfall.  At the end of the valley is a beautiful glacier-covered and very craggy mountain, so the entire hike was incredibly beautiful.  The waterfall was a bit sparse since it is fall and the snow melt is mostly over.  The grasses and trees are turning yellow and orange, so pretty amidst the green conifers and black and white peaks.

Don the trail

Kyrgyzstan has very few tourists and a tiny tourist infrastructure, but is beginning to attract hikers and mountain climbers to its Alpine training center and many trekking options.  There are huts along the trails for overnight hikers and yurts in some valleys for those preparing to depart on their excursions. 

rugged ridge across valley

After our hike, we enjoyed a delicious lunch at the park entrance of barbecued duck and vegetables, bread, cheese, sausage, melon and cakes.  All was prepared by a Kyrgyz chef.  Barbecue is a particular specialty.

The valleys are full of sheep, cattle, goats and horses (these destined mostly for the dinner table).  Right now, most of the mares have young colts tagging along.  Many are hobbled so they can't go far, but maneuver pretty well to get from one grassy spot to the next.  I told our guide that I rode horses and loved them and would not eat them. 

view up valley from Park entrance

Glacier covering peak in Ala Arsha National Park

Uzbekistan border crossing again--and on to magnificent Kyrgyzstan

view of Tian Shan mountains from our hotel room

Travel lightly when you come to Central Asia.  Unless you fly across borders, you will be dragging your suitcases at least a kilometer from one country to the next.  We have learned to travel pretty minimally, so didn't find the dragging part too onerous.  It was the border guards in Uzbekistan who filled that category.

The first really creepy guard checked our passports, looking at each page to see where we had traveled in the past (many places), then waved his wand over our backpacks and suitcases, pointing and grunting when he wanted something opened.  He spent about 5 minutes examining 3 tiny paper ornaments I had bought and ignored my camera, thank goodness, since I have over 600 photos on it so far.  That could have been an hour's entertainment for all of us.

Next he looked at every page of Don's book and magazines, which he couldn't read, before passing them back and sending us on our way.  Then to the guard outside the border and customs building who also looked at our passports in detail.  The border officials (remember that we were leaving, not entering, the country) stamped our passports fairly quickly, but then proceeded to inspect everything in our bags, including every bottle of medications we had.  This time I only pulled out 2, but Don had a long discussion about half a dozen items with the guard who had no idea what Don was saying.

Two guards looked at every photo and video on our phones.  I think they were just bored because the guy looking at Don's photos got quite excited about his video of Victoria Falls in Zambia and really seemed to like the one of the mist from the Falls which Don had taken by mistake.  He was fascinated by a video of Don's son's graduation and asked lots of questions in Uzbek and a few words of English about that.  All fine except that this entire operation took over an hour.

carved door of mosque in Osh

On the Kyrgyzstan side of the border, we were through in 2 minutes.

carpenters near the bazaar in Osh

The economic activity as soon as we crossed into Kyrgyzstan was lively, compared to Uzbekistan.  The economy here is a bit freer--Uzbekistan's government controls its economy completely--and with high unemployment, most people in Kyrgyzstan need to start a little business such as a shop in order to support their families.  Our guide told us that teachers and doctors are at the bottom of the pay scale because they work for the government.  They earn between $100 and $200/month.  Most hope to find a job in a private school or clinic, which pays better.

We started in Osh, the border town, one of the great Silk Road cities, but dusty and not as interesting now as it must have been 1500 years ago.  The town does have a good bazaar, much more like the crowded and chaotic bazaars we've seen throughout Asia and the Middle East.  Uzbekistan's bazaars are organized, orderly and clean in contrast.  Lunch was in an Uzbek home, pilaf (plov), and delightful.  This is a very conservative family, so the women are basically secluded at home and rarely go out, though both daughters are going to school.  Their school, unlike most, requires girls to wear head scarves.  We saw the daughters walking home.  One had removed her head scarf and her grandfather, outside to greet us, was not pleased.

lunch in Uzbek home

We flew to Bishkek last night on a late flight because you never know how long the border crossing will take.  Bishkek is a pretty city of about 2 million people, set between the Pamir and Tian Shan mountains, with peaks over 18,000 feet shimmering in the haze.  It has wide streets, lots of trees and beautiful parks.  Coming to Kyrgyzstan is mostly about the mountains--most of the country--with hiking a major activity. 

Kyrgyzstan Parliament

Bishkek opera house with roses

changing of the guard outside Lenin Museum, Bishkek