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Europe and the 5 stans
  • Tanya Dalziel

Europe and the 5 stans

Europe, Central Asia, Middle East Read more
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  • Tanya DalzielEurope and the 5 stansTanya Dalziel

    Kyrgyzstan (final day road trip)

    September 17, 2024 in Kyrgyzstan ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    My road trip to Kyrgyzstan has come to an end. 😔

    The scenery here is amazing and so varied. I will come back again to hike. 😊

    As it's a road trip I'll finish with something, both sad and a little funny, about some of the cars here.

    There are left-hand and right-hand drive cars in Kyrgyzstan, and both are legal. The 'normal' and most common is left hand drive as they drive on the right-hand side of the road

    The reason there are right-hand drive vehicles is due to Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster. Following this, Japan had a number of brand-new radioactive right-hand drive cars to sell. As they were dirt cheap, Kyrgyzstan people bought them. 😔

    Locations today - Jety Oguz, famous for its two red rock formations called “Seven Bulls” and “The Broken Heart”. Skazka Canyon (Fairytale Canyon) - fantasy-like shapes carved into the red sandstone from centuries of wind and water.    Read more

  • Tanya DalzielEurope and the 5 stansTanya Dalziel

    Charyn Canyon (Kazakhstan)

    September 18, 2024 in Kazakhstan ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    Our first of only two stops in Kazakhstan - Charyn or Sharyn Canyon (it was written both ways in the park!)

    The canyon is 50km long. It is considered to resemble the Grand Canyon, however, on a much smaller scale. We only stayed at one end as we had limited time.

    The park is fantastic! As most of my group didn't want to walk far, I took off alone. I was lucky enough that there were times I felt that I actually did have it all to myself. 😊    Read more

  • Tanya DalzielEurope and the 5 stansTanya Dalziel

    Almaty

    September 19, 2024 in Kazakhstan ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    Amalty, a word meaning 'apples' in the local Kazakh language. It is sometimes translated to 'full of apples' as there are lots of apples around. I can vouch that some of them are delicious!

    It is thought that Kazakhstan is where the modern domesticated apple comes from.

    When I travel, I consider if I could live in each place (mainly the cities). Almaty is the first Asian city that I think I could live in, at least for a while. It's a nice size, very walkable, lots of parks and greenery and everything you need. It has a really nice feel to it. The one thing holding it back is the horrendous traffic!

    Almaty is also known as the Switzerland of Central Asia when it comes to chocolate. So I did my duty and tried some (a lot) of it. My favourite was one that had an apple and banana soft centre. Delicious! I wanted to bring some of this flavour home but it wouldn't travel well. Instead, I bought 20 small plain chocolates with the goal of 15 making it home for people to test. It's been 3 days, and there are still 19. I'm even impressed with myself. 🏅🤣    Read more

  • Tanya DalzielEurope and the 5 stansTanya Dalziel

    Dushanbe (Tajikistan)

    September 21, 2024 in Tajikistan ⋅ 🌙 17 °C

    Dushanbe, the capital with no character. There wasn't much activity/life on the streets. I just didn't feel it.

    They've built lots of flash buildings and monuments and lit it all up. But the rest of the country is totally different and much poorer. Tajikistan is one of Asia's poorest countries, and I think the money spent on flash monuments would have been better spent elsewhere.

    However, the majority of people I met were lovely, and I had a really nice moment with some school children. There was one man who chased us down the street for money after we gave his 'friend' a tip (for serving us). He was very insistent that we should give him money too. I didn't. However, my companion did just to get rid of him!    Read more

  • Tanya DalzielEurope and the 5 stansTanya Dalziel

    Seven lakes (Tajikistan)

    September 22, 2024 in Tajikistan ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    A wonderful day trip visiting all the seven lakes! You start at the first and work your way up all of them. We drove until lake 6, and then I walked to the 7th. You can hike all the way, but we didn't have enough time. 😥

    The seven lakes are in the Fan Mountains, in Tajikistan. Ancient petroglyphs discovered at one of the lakes indicate that the lakes are very old. The lowest lake is at an elevation of 1,640m while the highest is at 2,400m.

    The lakes are all different colours. And apparently, they change day to day.

    The driving was a bit dicey. Often, the roads were one-way, and the corners were blind. A few times, you'd meet up with other cars. One car would need to reverse back - on the edge of a cliff. I had to close my eyes and pretend I wasn't there! One of my biggest fears is going off a cliff in a vehicle... maybe that's how I died in my past life!    Read more

  • Tanya DalzielEurope and the 5 stansTanya Dalziel

    Samarkand (Uzbekistan)

    September 27, 2024 in Uzbekistan ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    It's been really nice the last couple of weeks to see very few tourists... but that time has come to an end!
    For good reason, Uzbekistan is the most touristy country in the 'stans'.

    The Islamic architecture is out of this world. I just love it! I think it's mostly the blues and greens as they are my faves.

    Get ready for an onslaught!    Read more

  • Tanya DalzielEurope and the 5 stansTanya Dalziel
    2

    The Door to Hell

    October 1, 2024 in Turkmenistan ⋅ 🌙 17 °C

    Darvaza crater (Door to Hell)

    Today, we had a 6-hour land border crossing. What a mess!! I'll talk more about Turkmenistan in general when I do my Ashgabat post. For the moment, just know that we were so late, we didn't get to the crater until 11:55pm - way past my bedtime!

    It was both amazing but also a little anticlimactic. It's been burning for over 50 years. It's now only burning at 40% of what it used to. It must have been totally amazing in the past.

    It's quite surreal to see a crater 70 metres wide, 30 metres deep in the middle of the desert with flames coming out!

    We warned not to go too close to the edge as the edges keep collapsing. However, as it was dark, a few of us didn't realise we were standing on a spot with a huge crack and will probably be the next spot to collapse. We only realised when we went back in the daylight. (I have marked where we were standing in the daytime photos)

    The fires started as an accident and have now come somewhat of a tourist attraction known as the 'Door to Hell'. The government has been trying to work out how to stop it for years. You can see all the cranes and equipment where they've been working. Our guide told us that they've worked out how to stop it. And so, they are stopping the gas on 10 October, and expect it to be out by the 15 October.

    If this is true, I was very lucky to get there when I did. This was the main reason for many people to come to Turkmenistan, it would have been incredibly disappointing to arrive and it was gone.

    *photos also of the yurt we stayed in and a second crater now filled with water.    Read more

  • Tanya DalzielEurope and the 5 stansTanya Dalziel
    1

    Ashgabat (Turkmenistan)

    October 2, 2024 in Turkmenistan ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    Ashgabat is one weird place. I describe it as (cold) beauty with no substance. And it's totally different from the rest of the country.

    Most of Turkmenistan is rough and underdeveloped. The roads are absolutely disgraceful. People live in very humble homes.

    Whereas Ashgabat is an immaculate city. It is full of white marble buildings and manicured gardens. In fact, Ashgabat has the most monuments in the city than I've ever seen. Ridiculous, over the top monuments. Their president/s have the urge to have the most world records they can. Our guide would just point and say something like 'that has a world record for...blah blah blah'. It's all just for show. It is all very grand but unappealing. To be honest, I wouldn't want to spend too much time there (even though the people are lovely).

    It's hard to reconcile the money spent, when 10 minutes out of the city, everything is a shambles.

    Both the entry (via land) and the exit (via plane) were the most ridiculous, unorganised systems I've come across.  (I guess it's good preparation for Africa!! 🤣)

    We stayed in a beautiful hotel - probably the most beautiful I've ever stayed in. But under the surface, things were unorganised (reception and checking into rooms that haven't been cleaned, passports just sit freely on counter for anyone to take) and broken (I almost got electrocuted, air conditioning not working). As I said, beautiful on the outside, no substance on the inside.

    In advance, we were given a list on how to behave while there. You also can't go there independently; you have to go with a registered guide.  Your details are government registered so they know where you are every night. You can't use your credit/debit cards, and there are no money exchange bureaus. You need to get money via the black market ( the rate online for $1US is $3.50 manat. The black market was $19 manat. Huge difference!

    Social media, emails, chat programs, and vpns are all banned. I was expecting no connection, but I was more connected than expected. (I seemed to have more connection than others.) I didn't expect to walk alone in the streets, but I was able to a couple of times.

    Other interesting things are that the streets are mostly empty. And, the cars you do see are all white, with some light silver.

    It's such an unusual place that I'm very glad to have experienced. However, I'm not in a hurry to go back.

    * The first photo is the view from my room    Read more

    Trip end
    October 5, 2024
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