5-STANS | FindPenguins

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Trip start
March 30, 2024
5-STANS Traveler
Ashgabat
April 2, 2024 in Turkmenistan ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C
Fairyland city made out of marble. All apartment buildings and government buildings, even the side of the freeway has marble.
Bus stations have a/c and TV. Also made of marble. Cars can only be white, gold or silver colors. Busses are blue or green.
At night all buildings have moving lights like Vegas.
Stayed at the sports hotel that was build in 2018 when they had their 'Olympic games' which turn out to be the pan Asian games but our guide and driver insisted it was the olympic games.
They also had a Farris wheel that was inside to get a Guinness world record.

At night at the restaurant we met a group of college students celebrating a birthday, dancing in their traditional costumes.Read more
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Hell hole (darvaz) Turkmenistan
Apr 3–4, 2024 in Turkmenistan ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C
Camped in a yurt. It went in the 30s at night. Slept with my clothes and jacket on
The road here was the bumpiest. We visited 2 other holes along the way one with mud, the other with water. The soviets were looking for oil, run into natural gas, set it aflame in the 70s and it's still goingRead more
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Khiva
Apr 6–8, 2024 in Uzbekistan ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C
Visited the same day the president of Kazakhstan was visiting. The old town was a lot more vibrant now than 2004
It was dead back then. Visited madrassas, palaces and mosques with the traditional carved wooden columns. The whole city inside the walls is made of stone budi.gs with wooden roofs painted underneath. Stayed in a hotel that was an old house.
I walked outside the walls, and the old houses looked the same but they were mixed with some newer buildings.Read more
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Bukhara
Apr 7–10, 2024 in Uzbekistan ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C
Stayed in the old Jewish quarter. This is the city that makes the bukhara rugs with the famous 'elephant' footprints

1st we visited the Ismail Samani Mausoleum. Then visited various mosques, madrassas, palaces and the castle. Amazing places I lost track of all the names. BUT I'm so glad I went back to see it again so touristy. Also amazing to walk around at night with all the old buildings lit up.
The next day we took the train to Samarkand after visiting a local Russian palace.

PS. This is where I saw a camel with deflated humps!Read more
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Samarkand
Apr 9–11, 2024 in Uzbekistan ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C
When I told our local guide I was in Samarkand in 2004 she said I was probably one of only 50 foreign tourist they had that year. In 2023 they had 7 million.
Visited a place where they showed us how they make paper out of mulberry tree bark. Also visited the Amir Temur mausoleum and the largest mosque in Uzbekistan. And the burial sites of other people with amazing majolica decor.
And of course the Registan Square-with its three Madrassas-during the day and later for the lazer light show in the evening.Read more
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Tashkent
April 11, 2024 in Uzbekistan ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C
Amazing how much it improved.
Very modern and very cosmopolitan. Brand new modern apartment buildings European style.
We walked around the city, the old market and the Pepsi festival in the park. Also visited the train and various decorated stations.Read more
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Khurjand TJ
Apr 12–13, 2024 in Tajikistan ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C
Drove from Tashkent and stayed overnight at a new hotel that still needed a lot of fixes. I had a suite with 2 rooms but the bedroom was small.
We had trouble at the restaurant with no english menu. Went to the city museum that had a big exhibit on Alexander the Great. Visited the city market and local mosque. We ran into a Tajikistani that worked as a truck driver in the US 9 months of the year

In the evening we went to Gem's family home where we cooked plov. Gem lives in town, but his brothers family live with their parents.Read more
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Tj drive to Sary Tag village
April 13, 2024 in Tajikistan ⋅ ☁️ 4 °C
We drove on a Chinese build road that goes through the mountains to a Chinese mine.
On the way, we hiked to a waterfall and visited a local lake. Stayed at a guest house
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Tj drive to Dushanbe the capital
April 14, 2024 in Tajikistan ⋅ ☁️ -1 °C
Drove from Sary Tag to Dushanbe and visited Hisson fort on the way.
The villages we passed looked very deserted. There are estimated 2-3 million Tajis working in Russia because there is no work in the countryside.Read more
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Dushanbe
April 15, 2024 in Tajikistan ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C
Walked around the city and visited the local market, which was in a Russian style new building. Had lots of interesting stuff, very nicely displayed.
There were tulips everywhare we walked around the city and various trees blooming.
For lunch we had kurutov-a traditional soup, made with yogurt balls and bread topped with fresh veggies on top like shredded carrots or greens. At the national museum we saw a huge reclining Buda.Read more
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Almity KZ
Apr 17–18, 2024 in Kazakhstan ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C
Flew here from Dushanbe TJ because there disputes between TJ and Kazak border and can't drive through.
Stayed at the Kazzhol Hotel.
Almity is supposed to be where apple trees originated. Toured with Nazeera all day. This is her home town
Went to a Russian church, Monument to the 28 of Moscow-WWII heros, the Music museum. The Local bath looked amazing and had all kinds/types of baths.
The metro with the longest escalator 160m underground. We also visited the National museum. The gondola was out so we shuttled to the gondola top for overview of the city and the Beatles statuesRead more
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Charyn Canyon KZ
April 18, 2024 in Kazakhstan ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C
After hiking the canyon we stayed overnight at a village guest house and Nazeera made her famous hot chocolate
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Karakol KG
Apr 20–21, 2024 in Kyrgyzstan ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C
Toured the local mosque of Chinese tripe that believe they are descendants of the 1st Arabs in China and they are Muslims.
Visited a Russian church .ade out of wood and the market.
Stayed overnight at Green Yard. Great German like hotelRead more
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Issyl -kul lake and waterfall hike
April 21, 2024 in Kyrgyzstan ⋅ ☀️ 10 °C
Hike to a waterfall with gorgeous views. Walked around fairy tale canyon and saw 7 Bulls Valley.

Camped in a yurt- lot better than Turkmenistan yurts. I got tired of the pumpy roads and drove with the OR couple to Bistkek ahead of the restRead more
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Bishkek KY
April 23, 2024 in Kyrgyzstan ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C
Amazing traffic lights with counters of how many seconds left.
Market with compost juices of various flavors.
Still had a Lenin statue because he saved 15K Kyrgyzstan men that fled to Chine to avoid fights for the Tzar.
Rainy day tour of the city by a historian guide with a Ph D. She was proud of the 3 million Kyrgyzstan people working in Russia because unlike the TJ people they "don't do gardens"Read more
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Trip end
April 24, 2024