We woke up early again, eager to beat the crowds at the world-famous Pyramids of Giza (Gizeh). They open at seven AM, and we weren’t sure how busy it would get. From our rooftop terrace, we could already see the pyramids, and it was just a 15-minute walk to the entrance from our hotel, the Embrace Elite Pyramids Boutique Hotel.
Be careful with the name, as there are thousands of hotels with the word “Pyramids” in them, and not all are a good choice. We had purchased tickets online to skip any potential queues at the ticket office, and by 7:45 AM, we were inside the pyramid grounds (because we didn’t want to skip breakfast either).
It was a glorious morning! The wind had cleared away all the haze and smog, and for once, we could see all the way to the Sakkara pyramids—a rare and breathtaking sight.
Wanting to take advantage of very few tourists, no busses there yet and wonderful light to take pictures, we set out nearly all by ourselves. Not even the camels and horses for tourists were there yet.
Giza is known for its three gigantic pyramids, all built during the 4th dynasty of pharaohs. Each pyramid is named after the ruler it was built for: Khufu (also known as Cheops), Khafre (Chephren), and Menkaure (Mykerinos).
These monumental structures are essentially massive tombs. Each pyramid had a memorial temple next to it, complete with a ramp connecting it to the pyramid. Two of the pyramids are surrounded by three smaller pyramids, which house the tombs of royal family members.
We started wandering around the oldest and largest pyramid, the Khufu Pyramid, also known as the Cheops Pyramid. Originally built between 2575 BCE and 2465 BCE, these pyramids have endured for over 4,000 years, and that alone is a fascinating and staggering number. What building today would last that long? The pyramids appeared sandblasted and worn until we learned that the sandstone blocks visible today were not part of the original casing but the rougher core stones.
At the top of the Khafre Pyramid, the second-largest of the three at 136 meters in height (originally 143 m), you can still see the original smooth surface of white limestone, rather than the coarser and softer yellow/red limestone used in the interior.
Menkaure is the smallest of the three pyramids, originally measuring 66 meters (217 feet) in height, but now only 62 meters (203 feet) due to the loss of its casing. Unlike the other two pyramids, it was covered in harder-to-break red granite rather than limestone. An interesting fact that highlights the enormity of the task: The Menkaure Pyramid required only 1/10th of the amount of stone used to build the Khufu Pyramid, illustrating the scale of these monumental projects, that are still standing after 4.500 years!
All three pyramids must have glared in bright white at the time, clearly visible from a long distance. It is believed that the original capstone of the Great Pyramid was covered in gold or electrum (a naturally occurring alloy of gold and silver), which would have made it gleam in the sunlight. Sadly all pyramids were plundered inside and outside over the centuries by grave robbers and people needing building materials.
The Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops) is the largest and consists of 2.3 million blocks of limestone, weighing a combined total of 5.75 million tons. It was assembled without a single bit of mortar. This is an amazing feat of engineering and architecture, and the true secret of how it was constructed remains a riddle to this day. If you want to dive deeper into this question, experts are debating three main theories: First, the use of ramps—either straight, zigzagging, or a spiral ramp built from the inside out. Then there’s the lever and rollers theory, as well as the potential use of counterweights or pulleys to lift the stone blocks.
Newer theories also suggest that water might have been used to reduce friction in the sand, making it easier to move the massive stones. Additionally, it’s believed there was a canal from the Nile directly to the pyramid construction site, allowing stones to be transported more easily. New evidence has also emerged suggesting that the workforce might have been highly organized, rather than consisting of just slaves, as traditionally thought.
Archaeological discoveries, such as workers’ tombs near the pyramids, indicate that the builders were likely skilled laborers and craftsmen who worked in rotating shifts. They were probably well-fed, housed, and compensated for their labor. However, the true methods may never be fully known, and the construction of the Great Pyramid remains one of the most remarkable engineering feats in human history.
We didn’t go inside any of the pyramids—Chris because he had been inside before, and Esther because claustrophobia and narrow, hot, confined passages don’t mix well. There isn’t much to see inside, so it’s more about the experience of being inside such a massive structure. Be aware that you need to buy an additional ticket upfront to get inside.
Since we just mentioned that Chris had been inside before, here’s a bit of personal history: In 1987, Chris and his parents visited Egypt together. At that time, tickets to the Giza Pyramids cost just three Egyptian Pounds (compared to 700 today). While many things have changed since then (there are two luxurious restaurants now on the premises f.e.), the Pyramids themselves have not. Interestingly, 1987 was also the year they began constructing the glass pyramid at the Louvre in Paris.
After exploring all three pyramids from ground level (climbing the lower parts of the pyramids was still common in 1987, but the ban is now strictly enforced), we decided to walk to a viewpoint opposite the pyramids, where we noticed a little café nearby.
In the past, the pyramids were located far outside the boundaries of Cairo, but today, the city has grown around the entire site, and wherever you look, you can see housing. The grounds are quite large, so we decided to walk the 1.5 km to the viewpoint.
It was warming up but still pleasant in the sun, and we watched as camels and horses arrived, either carrying carriages or saddles for the day’s tourists. We had heard several troubling stories about how the animals are treated here, so we decided not to ride or take a carriage in Giza. Instead, we walked the short distance to the lookout and, turning around, simply enjoyed the stunning view of all three pyramids together.
If we had known, we could have reserved breakfast table here, with the pyramids view. We still enjoyed an excellent cappuccino (or two) overlooking the whole vista complete with 4.500 year old pyramids, horses and camels arriving to do a days work.
Until about nine AM there were very few tourists out and about, but that started to change and the horse and camel guides found their customers quickly. We saw where they were taking pictures and those were indeed the best angles, the very same ones we had chosen before.
Added bonus was, that since they had brought their clients there, we were not offered rides constantly.
Next we walked in a circle back to the first pyramid and down the hill to THE Sphinx of Sphinxes.
Carved out of limestone, this impressive monument features a man’s head and a lion’s body. It stands approximately 20 meters (66 feet) high and is about 63 meters (207 feet) long. The head is believed to be modeled after King Khafre, and it was likely built at the same time as his pyramid. The Sphinx is a solid monument, with no hidden chambers or doors.
In the Arabic world, the Great Sphinx of Giza is known as Abu al-Hawl (Father of Terror), and there are rumors that it was intended as a symbol of protection for King Khafre aka Cheops.
At the Sphinx, we got a sense of how crowded it usually is. Plenty of tourists milled about, both in groups and individually, taking their Instagram shots. Fortunately, the Sphinx is cordoned off widely, allowing us to see the entire monument relatively well despite the crowds.
Having spent nearly four hours in peace and quiet—first at the pyramids and then walking the grounds to the lookouts and back, with few people around—we decided to try our luck at one of the two restaurants on the grounds. Khufu’s had the last available table at the bar for us. Since we didn’t want to eat as much as we had in the past few days, we initially planned to share one meal. However, we were told we had to order one each, or share a mixed grill for whopping 99 Euros. Chris was a little annoyed since he wanted to skip the main course, but we ended up enjoying a high-class meal, beautifully prepared.
This turned out to be our most expensive meal in Egypt, but the location and the occasion—our last day here—made it well worth it. (Nevertheless, we would recommend the other place at Panorama 2, where we had our coffee. The prices there are much more reasonable, with an à la carte menu. But be sure to make your reservation early!)
As it was a three course meal plus amuse bouche we took our time enjoying our food. When we came out, it was afternoon and the previously sunny and exceptionally clear day had turned into an overcast sky with sand blowing up everywhere. One could not even see the lookout clearly anymore. Also the place was crawling with tourists by now.
Once again, as so many times on this trip, we counted ourselves lucky to have chosen the right time, location, and activities to fully enjoy the sights of Egypt.
We decided to drop off our bags at the hotel, and turn around quickly to visit the newly opened GEM (Grand Egyptian Museum) before it closed at five PM. We decided to walk there , which according to google maps was a 20 min walk. What we hadn‘t counted on was that there is major road works going on and we had to walk alongside a six lane highway for about 10 minutes and even cross it at least once. Not a great feeling, but we had no choice as a car would have forced us to circle very widely around the area.
We were curious, as we had been told that the museum is quite special and super modern. The original Egyptian Museum, which still houses Tutankhamun’s death mask, still exists, but many of the artefacts have already been moved to this new location, which is much closer to the pyramids.
Not all exhibits were open yet (especially the Tutankhamun section), and rumor has it that the official opening will coincide with a special political moment. As of now, the museum is in a so-called “trial opening,” but it has not been officially inaugurated due to ongoing artefacts restoration and setup work. However, speculation is high that, once the work is completed, the official opening will happen quickly and likely coincide with a large global event (e.g., the World Games, a world leaders’ summit, or something similar). President Al-Sisi is known for thinking big.
The museum has a vast and easy-to-navigate layout, with sections ranging from the earliest periods of ancient Egypt to the Roman/Greek period. From displays of everyday life to religious ceremonies, warfare, and science, it offers an extensive range of exhibits. We saw many artifacts from places we had visited before, including statues, reliefs, and valuables from the Abu Simbel, Edfu, and Kom Ombo temples, Habu and Luxor, the Valley of the Kings tombs, and Karnak. We couldn’t help but recall our guide in Luxor, who had complained that all the artefacts seem to travel to Cairo instead of being displayed at their original locations.
It was a bit overwhelming for 1.5 hours, but we were glad we took the time to visit. Back at the hotel, we were exhausted from all the walking (20 km, most of it on sandy ground) and still full from our lunch. We decided to skip dinner, pack our bags, and retire early for some much-needed sleep. Our driver would be waiting for us a 6:30 AM the next day to beat morning traffic and take us to the airport.
This concludes our Egypt blog. In summary, we feel fortunate to have chosen this time of year and route, which allowed us to enjoy fewer tourists, pleasant temperatures, and lower prices than we had expected or would normally experience. The perceived proximity to the war in Gaza seemed to have deterred many tourists, but we found no reason to let it affect our experience. All in all, we were pleasantly surprised by Egypt and are glad we decided to visit, despite some of Chris’ concerns about how touristic and crowded it might be. Even though there were many attempts to sell us services or products, and occasional begging, we were always treated respectfully, and our “no, thank you” was always accepted.
We only have two full days in Cairo, so we had to take our picks of places to see and visit. The first day we decided to tour the city, the second we planned to visit the pyramids and the new Egyptian Grand Museum that recently opened. We splurged on a professional guide and driver for the city but decided to do the pyramids without.
We woke up early on Sunday as our driver was picking us up at 8.30 AM. The Pyramids Elite Boutique Hotel (every second hotel here has the word Pyramids in their name) had a great view on the pyramids and was within easy walking distance, but that meant it was a bit outside of Cairo city.
We headed up to the rooftop terrace for breakfast and were pleasantly surprised that the indicated pyramid view really lived up to the advertised pictures and we got ourselves a corner table overlooking two of the pyramids. From afar they did not look overly tall but the fact that they looked like someone put them together like Lego bricks was clearly visible and a stunning feat.
We started our day with a traditional Egyptian breakfast consisting of boiled eggs, mashed fava beans, a cheese spread similar to tzatziki but without cucumber, falafel, and a sweet tahini dip, all accompanied by various types of local bread. It was absolutely delicious and, to our delight, we finally had some real coffee! For the coffee enthusiasts out there, Egypt offers two main types: the first is a strong black coffee, brewed by pouring boiling water over the grounds and waiting ages for the sediment to settle. The second is Nescafé, the freeze-dried granules that are popular in many former British colonies and communist countries (Obviously neither of us likes that stuff). Fortunately, our hotel served real coffee, setting a perfect tone for the day ahead.
As it was Sunday, the traffic was lighter than usual as we drove into the city. We picked up our guide, Mary Edward, along the way. We always try to support female guides to encourage women working in male-dominated fields. Despite her British-sounding name, Mary was born in Kuwait and moved to Egypt when she was four years old. She is one of the minority Christians with Egyptian parents and spoke English quite well.
We went first to Old Cairo and the Coptic quarter. It houses some of the oldest religious buildings in Egypt. The 9th century hanging Coptic church is the most famous of them. Its called hanging church as it is suspended over the water Gate of Roman Babylon. All that‘s left of Roman Babylon are two round towers which formed part of the western gate. The Coptic church does contain an 8th century painting of the virgin Mary as the Coptic Mona Lisa and displays very fine geometric designs so similar to the Islamic ones that one had to look for the tiny crosses worked into the patterns to spot a difference. The stairs leading up to the church are a fine work of art in wood carving.
The next church, barely a minute walk away, was the Greek Orthodox church of St. George. All the displays in here were of St. George slaying a dragon. Many of the thank you texts inside the church were written in Arabic, despite this being a christian church.
Next we went to the church of St Sergius & Bacchus, the oldest church site in Cairo, dating back to the 5th century. It has been destroyed and rebuilt several times, and so the current church looks quite new and freshly restored. The most memorable visit is the crypt below the altar, which was once a cave where supposedly the holy family used to take refuge from King Herodes for three months.
All religious buildings were within easy walking distance and so on we went through small little passageways to the only synagogue in Cairo. The Ben Ezra Synagogue. Dated back to the 9th century it now does not operate as a synagogue anymore, as there are only around 100 Jews who live in Egypt now (according to Mary Edwards) and most of them in Alexandria.
By now we had our fill of churches, it was pretty amazing to see that so many religions had lived peacefully together for a long time and that Egypt had rulers who fostered that diversity.
Our next stop is the Citadel (Al Qala‘a). It is difficult to say when exactly it has been built, as it‘s form has changed greatly over the years. The older parts were built by the ruler Saladin around 1176, successors added to it and converted it into military barracks, other rulers added a royal residence to it and in 1830 the Mohammad Ali mosque was built there.
The citadel sits on top of a hill and one has to walk up to it . The first thing we saw was dilapidated buildings that once was a palace. Mary Edward said that the renovations had been going on for ages with no end in sight.
Heading higher up we were impressed by the size and grandeur of the Mohammad Ali mosque with its turret towers and silver sparkling roofs. This is now really the heart of the Citadel and we wandered around and barefoot inside.
It‘s a museum now and religious services are only happening once on Fridays.
This fact, that the mosque is viewed as a monument for the rest of the week is a reminder that Mohamed Morsi from the controversial Muslim Brotherhood had actually been ousted by the military, one year after he won the elections. The military coup took place on July 3, 2013, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Since then, al-Sisi has been the President of Egypt, having been officially elected in 2014 and re-elected in subsequent elections.
The sheer size was fascinating.
The citadel houses a second smaller mosque right below which is much older but is dwarfed by it‘s big neighbor. The An Nasir Mohammed mosque was built in 1318 and throughout the years had to serve as a horse stable before being converted back into a mosque and Madrassa. We loved the intricate woodwork on the ceilings. It was well worth a detour that not many tourists made.
Last on our tour before lunch was a trip to Bab Zuweila. This is also a hidden gem as we discovered. Bab Zuweila is one of the remaining original city gates dividing the palace district from the common workers district Fusat.
Each day the workers filed out of that gate to return to their homes (of the five city gates only two remain). Bab Zuweila was also used for public executions at the time. It‘s two towers serve as Minarets to the adjacent Mosque of Al Mu‘ayyad Shaykh which is the only mosque in Egypt where the minarets are not inside the mosque.
We had heard that those minaret towers could be climbed and you had a great view from above. We gave it a try and sure enough, we were able to not only climb up to the top of the city gate, but also way higher onto the minarets highest balcony. We had a great view and it was well worth the stop here.
Mary Edward then brought us to one of her favorite lunch spots and we ate incredibly cheap and well. Chris had the yummiest chicken Kebab in a crêpe.
Afterwards we ambled through the side streets until we entered the souk. Like other Souks, this also was a bustling street, not super touristy but stuffed with all sorts of goods for sale. We found some things to bring home, after some hard but fun bargaining.
The last stop for the day was a coffee stop at a heavily frequented square with hundreds of pigeons flying about constantly and dozens of cats sneaking between people‘s legs while they sat drinking or eating. Again we saw another Russian Blue, just like our cat at home.
On the way, we also stopped at a local bakery to get some delicious pastries.
As the day came to a close, we eagerly anticipated returning to our hotel to relax in the warm water pool and enjoy a delightful dinner on the rooftop terrace, with its stunning view.
The only downside was that the pyramids were not illuminated as we had hoped. It turns out they are only lit for significant events and not on regular evenings.
Exhausted from all the walking and feeling as stuffed as geese, we slept soundly through the night.
We had booked a sunrise balloon trip which meant to get up at 4.15 AM in the pitch dark. Chris was grumpy about the early start but was a good sport about it. Exactly on time, at 4:45 AM, we were picked up by a minibus driver who took us to a meeting point for all the balloon companies. We were transferred to another white minibus, where we joined our fellow passengers for the balloon ride. We got a safety briefing from our guide Waleed, had to sign waivers, got an intro of a videographer who was accompanying our group and finally set off once all had arrived.
We had three English, two Germans, and five Americans on our bus. Since there was no balloon ride on Friday, it seemed that everyone had been rescheduled for Saturday. Each person had to send a copy of their passport prior to the flight, and it was up to the Egyptian military to give the green light for the balloons to take off.
A convoy of about 50 white minibuses set off at exactly the same time, racing to their respective balloons at the airfield. There, the balloons were still flat on the ground, and each group was guided to their balloon.
The baskets can hold anywhere from 15 to 30 people. Ours was for 20, with five people assigned to each corner compartment of the balloon. The center was reserved for the pilot.
It was still pitch black and quite cold, so we even wore woolly hats and extra windproof jackets. Egypt in winter is chillier than one might expect, especially before the sun comes up. We felt a bit like a flock of sheep as our group (remember, you’re number 2!) was guided to our balloon. We couldn’t imagine what would happen if you got lost in this bustling place and had to find the right balloon.
The anticipation all around us was palpable. There were so many balloons and baskets being prepared at the same time, it looked like a busy bee hive. All startled when all of a sudden the big generator powered fans started to blow air into the empty lying balloon envelopes.
The noise was deafening, but the spectacle was incredible. Slowly, the flat hulls began to take shape as the burners were lit, pumping hot air into the expanding envelopes. The sound of the powerful burners igniting was like a hissing, fire-spitting dragon contest, briefly illuminating the surrounding area with wild dancing shadows cast all around.
In the dark the sight was mesmerizing. One by one the balloons righted themselves and the basket were filling up with people. We hopped into our basket into one corner with the three English folks.
Once everyone was settled in the basket, the ropes were loosened, the helping hands stepped back, and off we went, ascending into the sky as dawn slowly broke. We quickly gained altitude, and seeing over 50 balloons rise together within 20 minutes was a truly grand sight.
Esther was so glad we decided to take this ride; for her, it was undoubtedly the highlight of the trip. And even though Chris wasn’t particularly keen on getting up that early, he didn’t regret it one bit.
Up we went, and soon the Temple of Hatshepsut came into full view. After 15 minutes, the sun peeked over the horizon, bathing everything in a golden early morning light.
The Valley of the Nobles, with all its tombs, the Habu, Hatshepsut, and the Ramesseum, the fields, and the Nile—all illuminated by the soft light—made the 50 balloons above look like colorful dots in the sky. It was such a wonderful sight, hard to top.
Esther had never done a balloon ride and her fear of heights is well known. Nevertheless the solidity of the basket, the professionalism of the pilot, the smoothness of the ride and the breathtaking views put that fear to the back of her mind.
And once again, we were incredibly lucky. The wind from the previous day had blown away all the smog and haze that usually lingers near the ground, leaving the sky crystal clear.
Our pilot sometimes soared high, then descended again, always watching the movement of the other balloons to gauge the wind direction at different altitudes. Using this knowledge, he navigated us right back to our starting point. Fifty minutes later, we landed exactly where we had taken off.
Great navigation! Other balloons had to land in nearby fields or even farther away, like the one we had seen on Thursday morning next to the Habu Temple. The rule is that any damage done by a balloon landing to fields, crop or property needs to be paid for by the balloon operator company. That led to funny scenes we watched where a balloon could not make it on its own back to the air field but threatened to sink down in a nearby field. The respective balloon ground crew dashed madly to their balloon and from a few meters above a rope was let down. The ground crew grabbed the rope, and the pilot’s only task now was to keep the balloon high enough to clear the bushes and trees on the way back to the field. The crew pulled the balloon like a human tugboat, guiding it back to the airfield to avoid any damage that might need to be paid for. Farmers watched like hawks over their crops, carefully monitoring for any potential damage.
We finished our ride by seven AM. Most of the balloons had returned as well, and some were getting ready for a second flight with another group after the sunrise trip. Occasionally, there are even third trips, but by ten AM, everything is usually wrapped up.
Instead of being dropped off at our hotel, we asked our minibus driver to take us to the Habu Temple ticket office on the way back.
The temple opens at six AM but as by seven AM the ticket system had not been powered up ,we knew that we were the first ones today. We bought two tickets (credit card only these days!) and headed a short way down the road to the temple. We were literally the first ones entering that day.
The ticket office is a five-minute walk from the temple, and as we wandered through the fields, a man carrying freshly cut sugar cane crossed our path. After a brief conversation, he told us he owned a coffee shop next to the temple and invited us to stop by. This is something you’ll encounter frequently in Egypt: someone crossing your path and inviting you to their shop, restaurant, or their cousin’s factory, trying to sell you something. While it can be a bit annoying for unseasoned travelers, a polite “no, thank you,” or “lah, shukran” in Arabic, is usually accepted after being repeated a few times. Without exception, we were always wished well in the end. But in this case, since we hadn’t had any coffee or breakfast yet, we promised to drop by his place after the temple visit.
It felt like a privilege to have the entire temple to ourselves. To be able to study the different murals and engravings at leisure and for as long as one wanted. The heavy stone pillars supporting heavy stone blocks on top, thus forming a ceilings of solid rock over a portion of the temple.
A lot of the ceiling still had their original bright blue color with thousands of stars painted on them. The columns still had some of the red and blue stripes on them and the robes of the kings and queens as well as the gods and their wives were intricately painted in different colors and displaying fashion styles of former times that were painted, not engraved.
Here one could see probably the best display of how color was applied to the temples in ancient times. White plaster on the walls that was then engraved to give plasticity and painted all white. Then as a last step artists applied colors to each and everyone of the figures depicted. The temple must have been a display of vivid colors top to bottom, inside and outside.
Habu temple was built to be the memorial temple of Ramses III. The first pylon is the biggest and is like the gateway to splendor. Walking the steps slightly upwards the path opens into a wide square courtyard with large columns on each side supporting large roof blocks made of sandstone thus creating a colonnade on all four sides. Seven columns on the right were shaped like Ramses III.. Others were square, others round. The common people were only allowed in the first court yard to make their sacrifices and donations.
The king could observe his subjects through a hidden window on the left side, which led directly from his ceremonial palace living quarters to the temple. In the second courtyard, originally fully covered with a roof made of large stone blocks, only the nobles of the king’s entourage were allowed to enter. As for the holiest of holies—usually a small chamber with a granite altar and housing golden statues of the gods—only the pharaoh and the high priest were permitted to enter.
Unfortunately at Habu, the last hall and the holy chamber were in ruins and the stone columns taken to build other structures after. It must have been a majestic colonnade hall in ancient times.
Having gotten our fill of Habu temple after 1,5 hrs, we were on our way out when we saw the first tour busses arrive. Happy to have had our time, we kept our promise and had a coffee and delicious mango juice on top of the small cafe Belzoni Alaa El Din opposite the temple. As if on command, a few late balloons were drifting our way and made for some spectacular pictures with the ruins in the foreground.
This was our last day in Luxor. Being booked on an evening flight, we still had plenty of time. We decided to walk back to the hotel on foot. 50 minutes walking in the early morning through some villages and across some fields was very nice and relaxing and we felt good after so much eating the days before.
Back at the hotel by ten AM we just caught breakfast before it closed and then decided to make use of the hotels pool and late check out policy to have a lazy afternoon before our air port pick up at six PM. We packed our bags, put them in storage with the reception and lounged at the pool, which was way too cold to swim in. Nevertheless we soaked up some sun and by three PM we headed on foot to the River banks and had a late lunch/ early dinner at the Nile Freedom restaurant which serves delicious fresh fish for a small price. Sadly, it was also time to say goodbye to the horses, and to Agi and Mohammed, who took such great care of us and made us feel like longtime friends. We wish you all the best for your upcoming business plans, especially for the new place in the Siwa Oasis!
Instead of having the hotel organize our pickup for $30, we booked a ride through Booking.com for just $10. We were a little anxious about whether the driver would be on time or even find the hotel, but ten minutes before the scheduled time, we received a WhatsApp message (a very important tool here in Egypt!) from our driver—he was already waiting in front of the hotel. The driver, Moussa, had just bought a brand-new car— a generic Honda Civic sedan, which had cost him $40,000 here in Egypt. Interestingly, he had already driven one of the minibuses to the balloon rides earlier that morning. He hadn’t slept since, as he told us, and we were his last ride at five PM—followed by another balloon pickup the next morning.
As seems to be the norm here, our flight was delayed again by an hour. We finally landed in Cairo at eleven PM, waited for our luggage, and then endured a long drive to our hotel, which got us there only at 12:30 AM.
We just collapsed into our beds, as we had a full day planned for the next day in Cairo.
Luckily, we were told at ten PM the day before that the balloons wouldn’t fly on Friday due to heavy winds. For us, that meant hoping for Saturday, our last day in Luxor. It also meant we could finally sleep in, which we happily did—we are on holiday, after all! Our alternate program sounded good as well.
At ten AM we made our way to the stables, which are right next door to Mohammads family home. We would help his mom make fresh Egyptian bread. We washed our hands and then proceeded to dive elbow deep into a large tin bowl where Mohammad mom Saida had put about five kg flour, water and a bit of yeast.
We were supposed to mix it all up and then she added another five kg of sourdough that had already risen to it. It was the stickiest dough we ever made. In order to make it airy and light you had to bat it with your own hands, making loud slapping sounds. The whole family watched in amusement how we tried our best.
The dough was barely clinging to Saida‘s hands, while ours clung to our entire forearms. The trickiest thing was to separate a blob of dough the size of a grapefruit from the rest, sling it so it became a ball and then squeeze it as a round shape on a board. We laughed a lot and Mohammads family as well at our pitiful tries. Finally with Saida‘s help we had produced twelve blobs on twelve boards and those were set to the sun to raise some more before being baked in an outside clay oven.
Our mouths were watering once we saw the fresh break being baked and we were looking forward eating some of that bread for lunch. Mohammeas family had done the cooking and we sat down and enjoyed a home cooked meal with self made Egyptian bread.
After lunch, we decided to have one final horse ride across the fields and along the Nile’s riverbanks. Esther chose Jazeera again, the little paint mare, with whom she had such a great connection. Chris, on the other hand, wanted something different and got to ride a stunning white Arabian stallion named Sahib. He was a bit of a character, though—only knowing three speeds: walk, trot, or full-on dance!
Mohammad got him two months ago from someone who had trained him as a dancing horse. This meant that as soon as he was outside and was asked to go a bit faster than a trot, instead of going forward into a canter, Sahib started hopping on the spot like a mad rocking horse. Mohammad has tried his best to teach him that it is OK to go forward, but clearly Sahib has not understood that yet.
So we were agreeing on it being only a walk/trot ride so that Sahib could also participate and Chris would not be thrown out of the saddle by the rocking motion. After a little while trying to find each others buttons it actually worked quite well. They cantered for about ten seconds, but it was obvious that it was hopeless to get him to canter any longer. Hopefully one day Sahib is learning that now it‘s Ok to go forward more.
We finished our ride and had a lovely and very good meal at the Wolf restaurant in walking distance to our hotel. The owner had worked in San Francisco for 23 years as a chef there but preferred to retire in his home country Egypt. He explained to us his philosophy of cooking and indeed the dishes were super tasty. We were glad we had a walk back to the hotel.
Later that evening we got the green light for the balloons on Saturday morning, so we retired early.
Today we mounted our horses for a lovely ride to one of the most stunning temples on the West Bank – Habu Temple.
We took a generous route through fields with lots of sandy paths to canter on.
Farmers were busy tilling their fields, little white egrets were busy picking the worms after tilling, donkeys were dozing in the sun, waiting for their carts to be filled with a days harvest in the afternoon. Very peaceful scenery indeed. After an hour the landscape changed into a desert with rocky and sandy patches and a long stretch for galloping fast.
Lula our dog always at our heels, deftly ducking and navigating the dangerous world of the other dogs territories. Those were not amused at all to have an intruder passing by and often would ferociously bark, threaten and sometimes charge at Lula. The horses and we were ignored totally. Lula always kept close to our mounts and tried to keep them in between her and her enemies. That mostly worked well. One feisty dog came too close to Jazeera, Esthers mounts hind legs and Jazeera expertly tried to kick that dog away. Lula was safe once again.
After a long gallop and some cool down walk, we saw a huge balloon that had just landed in front of us, right next to Habu temple. We were lucky that the balloon was still up, while the basket had just landed on the ground. We were able to snap some nice pictures in front of it.
Once the balloon started to deflate Our horses got a bit nervous. They are totally OK with the balloons being blown up, but hardly see them come down, so this was new to them and made them side step a bit in order to navigate around the balloon to the temple entrance.
We took the bridles off our horses, loosened the girths and tethered them to a stone wall while we went to buy the tickets for Habu.
For our liking, there were far too many people at Habu at that moment—several school groups, numerous large buses with Asian tourists, in short, many more people than we had expected. The schoolgirls, feeling bold, decided to ask Esther for a selfie. Once again, Esther was the star with her blonde hair.
Our guide Saʽid had arrived by car and led us through the temple, explaining many of the scenes and carvings we could see there.
We decided then to return to this temple early morning on one of the next days and look at it in peace and quiet. Hence more about Habu temple in the Day 11 blog entry.
After an hour we joined our horses again and rode back to our stables. Happy and hungry, Agnes and Mohammed invited us for a special lunch. We changed back at the hotel, donned some nicer clothes and were happy that we did when we saw that our hosts also had changed into some finer garb.
They were waiting for us at the hotel with two morotcycles, the normal mode of transport here whenever possible. Chris and I hopped onto the motorcycle that Mohammed drove and Agnes joined Mohameds friend.
Driving three or four on a single motorcycle, is totally common here. Up to five is allowed and we did see some families riding with five people on it. Nowadays all the motorcycles are Chinese made. Helmets are nowhere to be seen and are not mandatory. Luckily we did not see a single road accident so far, but it seems to happen quite often in the countryside. But the roads are generally in OK condition. Only the main roads are paved. All other roads are dirt tracks, with dust flying everywhere, and air pollution is quite high in and around the roads. Most cars don’t have catalytic converters, and their exhausts create a visible and noticeable (smellable) mist. On any of the main roads many sleeping policemen slow down the traffic significantly, so people are forced to drive slower in general. That system works quite well.
The ride was short, only to the harbour of the West Bank. We boarded a private little ferry boat to bring us quickly to the other side, directly in front of the Winter Palace.
The Winter Palace is a wonderful old and charming colonial style building built in 1886 under British Colonial Rule. It always was designed as a hotel and used to be meeting place of the British nobles when traveling to Egypt.
It is now owned by the Sofitel group and room nights cosy upwards of 500 EUR a night. The Winter Palace has five restaurants on the grounds. We enjoyed a drink at the bar first before heading to one of the Restaurants overlooing a beautiful garden and pool, complete with peacocks and flamingoes. We had a very good lunch and certainly felt a bit like royalty ourselves.
After lunch we boarded the same boat back to the West Bank side of Luxor and walked back to our hotel for only a short rest, as by four PM we were picked up again for our sailing trip on the Nile with a little Felucca sail boat.
The bigger sailing boats are called Dahabeiyas, those take up to 30-40 passengers and can do overnight trips. Feluccas are small and nimble sailing boats used to ferry goods from one side of the river to the other. Wide bellied and shallow, they can take a large load, but most have been converted to Tourist boats sailing into the sunste on the river Nile.
We had a boat to ourselves and our crew of two set sails upriver. It was slow going at first. Some boats have loud party music on board, others none at all, just some fresh fruit and tea. We got asked to have our playlist on the boats loud speaker. Chris, not able to control the playlist on his phone, amused us all with the random selection and renditions of Abba, German Rap, French Arabian hits of the 80s, Western and Country music from Montana, Hubert von Goisern and LaBrass Banda as well as the latest Egypt top 10 hits. Our captain and crew of one liked it. It certainly was not what they had expected.
After enjoying a beautiful sunset on the river, we returned to our hotel and skipped dinner, as we were still stuffed from our late lunch.
Tomorrow, Inshallah, we will go on a balloon ride early morning, Esther trying to ditch her fear of heights, Chris his grumpiness of having to get up at 4.15 AM for it.
Today we decided to visit Karnak Temple again during early morning hours as well as Luxor in daylight. We arrived at 8 AM and literally we were the first people there. What a treat to walk the temple with no other visitors there. Big difference from last time.
We strolled slowly through the different sections, discovering things we had overlooked the first time. Sitting down at the small cafe on the holy lake and just enjoying the view was a treat.
We must have missed the temple of Khonsu the first time as it was a bit apart from the main complex and so we explored that temple as well.
Everything in former times revolved around the Nile. We saw Nilometers, ancient water height indicators, predicing either a good harvest or meager harvest. Each temple was accessible by boat at that time. And once a year the Opet festival was celebrated when the god Amon, his wife Mut and their son Khons were celebrated with a procession on foot from the Karnak temple through the alley of Sphinxes to Luxor temple and back to Karnak by boat.
We did the first part of the journey and walked from Karnak to Luxor temples on foot as well along the alley of the Sphinxes. Many Sphinxes had fallen down, broken or were removed to some museum but towards Luxor temple an impressive number still remained and the alley continues to be restored to it‘s original splendor.
Luxor by daylight was also a treat as very few visitors were present and we could explore at leisure.
Last stop on the West side of Luxor was the souk, the local market. As so0n as we left the tourist market section, the real Luxor was showing its face. As expected, small streets were crowded with people doing their daily shopping, we bought some fresh dates and sampled some local cookies that we ended up buying.
Exotic smells everywhere and after so much walking we headed back to our hotel for a simple lunch and a nap before our next horse ride.
At three PM we mounted our horses. Esther got a nice little paint mare this time called Jazeera (Island), who used to pull carriages for tourists.
Chris got Ramses again, and later was allowed to try out Mohammeds beautiful chestnut stallion. We headed out through several villages and fields into the banana plantations. There we had lots of sandy paths where to gallop for long stretches.
We went around a wide circle and ended up on the river banks of the Nile. What a nice ride along the many fields on the river banks, seeing the people return from a days work with their water buffalos, donkey carts or herding goats and sheep who grazed on the river for the day. It was very peaceful and to our surprise we were heading to a nice sandy spot on the river bak and were greeted there by Agnes and some stable hands who had prepared a sundowner drink and fresh fruit for us.
We dismounted and enjoyed the refreshments while watching a spectacular sunset on the river.
Small boats were sailing behind us and a partially cloudy sky made the red and orange of the sky much more dramatic looking. Luckily we were only 20 min from home and so in twilight we found our way back.
For dinner, Agnes and Mohammed took us to a local fish restaurant where we enjoyed a very nice fish dinner, caught freshly from the Nile river.
Today our horse ride was planned to be an afternoon and sunset ride in the desert. So we decided on exploring a few more tombs in the valley of the kings in the morning. Early at eight AM we were already one of the first visitors with Saʽid, our driver and guide for the week. With our entrance ticket we could see three more tombs, Ramses I, III and Meremptah.
Each tomb is unique and it is amazing how different they are. Angle of descent, length, width and height of tunnels, number of chambers, the main tomb chamber itself, the paintings and decorations as well as the Sarcophargus inside.
Beating the crowds by half hour, we headed to a different type of tomb next, where hardly anyone visits. Sure enough we arrived to an empty parking lot of the workers tombs. Here lies the ancient, excavated village formerly housing the workers working on temples and tombs.
Some of the craftsmen so skilled that they created smaller version of the tombs for themselves and their families. It felt like visiting miniature versions of the pharaohs tombs. For sure simpler and less precious, but impressive nevertheless.
Also on the grounds was a small temple, which we found very charming and authentic.
Back in the car we made one last stop at the Ramasseum. The Ramasseum is the memorial temple of Ramses II. Each Pharao is supposed to start three things as soon as he becomes a pharao: Built a temple for his people (or extend an existing one), start building his tomb and build a memorial temple for his afterlife.
The Ramesseum is such a memorial temple and it once housed the largest statue made from a single piece of granite rock in Egypt. Ramses II knew how to impress. The staute has fallen down and broken since, but feet and his shoulders give an indication of the original size.
We liked this temple very much.
We had a yummy local lunch, fantastic mango juice and a lovely nap before heading out for our first horse ride in Egypt.
Esther had Sahib, a feisty white pure Arabian stallion, and Chris had Ramses, a larger version of the same. The tack was impeccable, we rode in nice English saddles with traditional neck decorations.
For three hours we headed out into the desert in a good mix of walk, trot and canter as the sun began to set. The pictures speak for themselves. A beautiful sunset on top of a dune on top of a stunning horse in great company.
Heading back the horses got feistier, bucking a bit and playing up, wanting to run faster than we let them. We had to walk the last half hour in twiight and then after dark on lit roads. Road traffic is quite chaotic here. Cars, trucks, motorcycles, donkey carts everywhere. The honking is constant, the sverving through traffice as well and lights are optional. Mini busses stop at short notice and sometimes people use the other side of the road to make progress. Anything goes it seems. We weaved through the traffic with the horses as best as we could and by and large the drivers were keeping a respectful distance to the horses.
Happy and hungry we arrived back at the stables and had a traditional BBQ of grilled chicken, aubergine and potatoe vegetable dishes and rice there with a very nice French couple from Annecy as the other guests there.
Getting back into our room in the hotel, we found out, that we had company…
Today was a change over day for us. Leaving the boat after another sumptuous breakfast.
Turns out finding a taxi to go from the West side to the East banks of Luxor is not that easy. There are only two bridges, one to the North and one in the South. Most of the traffic between the two banks is still done by little boats. Connecting the two centers together. Taxis usually avoid crossing over as this normally means a long drive when using one of the two bridges. Our taxi driver knew his way on the West bank, but not on the East. Chris Google Maps on his phone was a life saver and it was interesting watching the driver trying to follow the directions, indicating immediately despite the turn being 800m away. Clearly google maps have not made it to this cab driver in Luxor yet. But thanks to the app, we found our hotel immediately.
The Embrace hotel was tucked away into small unpaved side roads, but within walking distance to the riding stables.
As our stay with Agnes and Mohammed only started at four PM with a visit to the horses, we had plenty of time relaxing in the sun and having a light lunch at the hotel.
The Embrace is quite quaint, and quiet, complete with a lovely garden and a swimming pool. But super weak internet, and hot showers were also an adventure. Chris ended up fixing the internet issue unbeknownst to them (by reactivating their repeater which was protect by a very simple password), while we were here. We are late with our blog as the coming days as our days were really busy and event filled.
Agnes (Agi) and Mohammed are the two owners of the Desert Dreams (website) stable, the one that we had booked a five day stay with. Half a day riding and half a day sight seeing. They picked us up and we walked five minutes to the stables. We were very impressed how well the horses were kept. One of the darker side of Egypt, besides a lot of trash on the sides of the roads and in the canals, are many badly treated horses and donkeys. Most are bone thin and have old or new sores from badly fitting harnesses. Donkeys are used to pull carts with varying loads and horses to pull coaches for tourists. We refused to board any carriage where the animal did not look healthy.
So when we arrived at Desert Dreams stables, our first look was how the horses looked. All were well fed and shod, of the mares and geldings, some were tethered with a rope on the wall with some room to move and lie down, the stallions had regular size stalls away from the mares.
The tack room was tidy, and the tack was in very good condition. Agnes and Mohammed have several rescue horses that were saved from grim fates as carriage or dancing horses. When they bought them, all were far too thin. Dancing horses, in particular, are kept confined except when saddled up. They are forced to “dance” on the spot by applying pressure from behind, similar to the use of spurs, while not allowing the horse to move forward. Often, their heads are jerked high, causing the horses to step in place, as there is no space for them to move. It’s a very sad fate for these horses. With patience, they must be retrained to walk normally—or even to canter—again.
We ended the day with a delicious local dinner at a restaurant called Africa (after all, Egypt is part of the African continent, even though it is predominantly influenced by Arabic culture). From their terrace, we enjoyed a beautiful view of the Nile, with the cityscape of Luxor on the opposite bank, as a red moon rose in the sky.
We went to bed early, excited for our first ride the next day.
Today, we woke up early to witness another beautiful sunrise and watch many colorful hot air balloons launch into the sky. Esther is torn between booking a balloon ride or not—her fear of heights clashes with her curiosity to see Luxor from a bird’s-eye view. As for Chris, he’s not so keen on getting up really early for the experience. We’ll see.
We set out at 7 AM to drive to the valley of the kings. What was once a a very cumbersome road in bad shape is now an asphalted road, and smooth ride. The bus parking is huge and we could see that apart from a few larger busses, the visitor count must have been down here as well. Hopping on a little electric golf cart, we were driven to the entrance of the valley and deposited there with dozens of others.
The regular entrance ticket allows access to just three tombs. This limitation is in place to help manage the number of visitors and prevent the buildup of humid air from respiration and transpiration inside the tombs.
So far, 63 tombs have been discovered, and it’s believed that two more are still hidden. Of these, only eleven are open for visitation. For the eleventh tomb, that of Tutankhamun, an additional fee is required. If you want to visit more than three tombs, you’ll either need to purchase the Luxor Pass ($ 130) or buy a second ticket. Since our cruise trip and horse riding excursion include visits, we can explore six tombs.
The landscape is a barren rocky desert and hill landscape without a single bit of greenery anywhere. The tombs are built into the ground at an angle, to make it as difficult as possible for grave robbers to detect and pillage them. Unfortunately almost all of them were ransacked before being excavated properly by archeologists.
What we found out is that all those tourists in large groups only visit the three nearest tombs to save time. So we visited the tomb of Ramses the IV, which had some traffic, but then decided to head up to one that was further up the valley and less visited. We had the place to ourselves.
A beautifully colored and carved tomb was the tomb of Tausert & Setnakht, a queens tomb (Tausert) that was reused as a kings tomb (Setnakht) with two sarcophagus on top of each other. The queens sarcophagus below and her kings above. The vivid colours remaining on the walls are amazing after thousands of years.
The valley of the kings graves span a period of roughly 500 years. We will be coming back again for more visits in a few days. Feeling the need to walk back to the car instead of taking the golf cart again, we took a stroll downhill.
Next stop is the Hatshepsut Temple, which is distinctly different from other temples. Built into the hillside, it spans three levels, with a long ramp leading up to the highest terrace. It’s a striking sight when standing in front of it.
Chris recalled a strenuous hike up to the rim of the Hatshepsut Temple over 30 years ago. This area is no longer accessible to tourists due to the tragic events in 1997, when six gunmen attacked the temple, resulting in the deaths of 58 foreign nationals and four Egyptians. At the time when Chris visited the temple in 1987, only two levels had been excavated, and the temple was far less preserved—or rather, less remodeled—than what we see now.
Hatshepsut was the first queen to rule as a pharaoh for many years. Unlike other queens, who were typically only allowed to rule for a short time—either as regents for their sons or in the absence of their husbands—Hatshepsut maintained power until her death. She claimed to be a direct descendant of the sun god Ra, asserting her right to rule as pharaoh for an unlimited time. To emphasize her authority and underline her role as a pharaoh, not just as an interim queen, she adopted the traditional symbols of male pharaohs, including wearing a fake beard. As a result, even her statues depict her with a beard, further reinforcing her masculine presentation of power.
Chris was a bit disappointed by the temple, as his memories were more impressive than what he saw now. For Esther it was a first time, and she enjoyed strolling through the many areas of the temple.
As nearly always when school classes are present, we got asked to pose for pictures with the kids, turning into a tourist attraction ourselves. We gracefully and patiently complied with all the requests to make local kids smile and happy. Fun fact, while it was a nice 20 degrees and sunshine, all of the kids wore thick winter jackets and some even wore woolly hats … strange world, T-shirt weather for us, deep winter weather for locals.
Our last stop before lunch was the Valley of the Queens, where only two tombs were open for visitation: the tomb of Queen Titi and her son. Once again, we had the place to ourselves. The paintings and carvings in these tombs were exquisite—vibrant and colorful, making them well worth the visit. Unfortunately, the tomb of Queen Nefertiti was closed, which is said to be the most beautiful tomb in all of the valleys. When it reopens, an additional fee is required to enter.
After lunch back at the ship and a quick rest, we set out to explore the east side of Luxor where there are two magnificent temples to see: the temple of Karnak and the temple of Luxor.
Both temples used to be linked by a 3 km long alley of sphinxes, of which only a few hundred meters can be walked today. Karnak is not one temple, it‘s a whole temple complex.
This was the most impressive visit so far by the sheer size of the place. Not only are the grounds huge, the biggest hall was home to 134 large stone columns, each at least 20 meters high and carrying huge stone blocks on top.
Originally the entire roof was made from large stone blocks and the pillars were needed to support those. Most of the columns are still standing in their complete height and the sheer size and number is baffling.
Karnak temple was not built by one pharaoh alone. Like many temples here in Egypt one pharaoh started the building phase and others added to it over time.
Walking through a number of pylons (huge gates that are hollow but built with large square rocks) from two sides, one can only imagine how this place must have felt intact and painted with vivid colors everywhere. The way through an alley of ram sphinxes and through four pylons led to an inner temple where the largest granite altar of Egypt is kept. In this inner sanctum, only the pharaoh and the high priest were allowed.
The entire temple complex had bits and pieces of ancient ruins lying all over like a gigantic puzzle that is still waiting to be assembled. We had a leisurely coffee at the sacred lake within the compound and watched the setting sun bathing the ruins in orange and red lights.
As the temple closes at five PM we had to head out at that time and headed to our last stop for the day, the beautifully lit Luxor temple at night.
Unfortunately many other groups had the same idea as it is spectacular to watch and open later than Karnak. Nevertheless it was a breathtaking view with the lights illuminating the statues, walls and columns of Luxor temple.
At least three rulers added additional pieces to Luxor temple. In the 14th century a mosque was taking up one of the adjacent areas and built wall to with the temple. Christian conquerors later on repurposed one of the halls as a christian church by simply plastering over existing Egyptian carvings and covering them with Christian paintings.
We decided that those two temples are worth a second visit while we are staying in Luxor.
We briefly woke up at 4 AM when our ship left the dock in Aswan. Surprisingly smooth our boat, the Jaz Regency, is gliding through the Nile waters downriver. At 6.30 our alarm woke us to a spectacular sunrise over the river. We passed serene and beautiful river banks full of palm trees and banana plantations. Mot many villages or cities could be seen. But plenty of fishermen and water fowl. We had a wonderful breakfast on board, everything the heart desires…. We ditched the idea of losing weight here in Egypt. The food simply is too good and plentiful.
After breakfast we docked at our first temple. Kom Ombo is the temple of Sobek, the crocodile god.
Crocodiles were common in the Nile, and they held both a dangerous and sacred place in Egyptian life. Sobek was seen as the embodiment of the Nile’s power: its life-giving floods and its more destructive potential. In some ways, Sobek’s duality as both a destructive and protective force mirrored the nature of the river itself—beneficial for crops yet capable of causing devastation.
By the time the Temple of Kom Ombo was constructed, many of Egypt’s major gods, like Ra, Amun, Isis, Osiris, and Horus, had already been the focus of large, elaborate temples across Egypt. The reason Sobek was honored with such an important temple during the Ptolemaic period is somewhat tied to regional shifts in power and the cultural dynamics of the time. Kom Ombo was located in Upper Egypt, an area where the crocodile god had significant local importance. Sobek had long been worshiped in regions along the Nile, especially in Crocodilopolis (modern-day Fayum), but the Kom Ombo temple reflects a period when local gods gained prominence, especially in the wake of Egyptian cities’ increasing interactions with foreign influences, like the Greeks and Romans.
It is partially restored and it‘s principal attraction ate the exquisite reliefs and carvings inside the temple. It is amazing with how much attention to detail thousands of reliefs have been hewn into the rocks from bottom to ceiling. Even the ceilings themselves still had remains of color and paintings on them.
Many depictions of crocodiles could be found everywhere. The temple grounds even had basins where crocodiles were bred. In the museum they even showed burial chambers and clay sarcophargus for different sizes of mummified crocodiles.
Back on the boat we cruised a few hours , enjoying the view on deck. For a ship catering normally to 150 passengers, we were barely 12 on this trip. It felt like having the ship to oneself.
Lunch was again a lavish buffet, and after a short journey along the Nile, we arrived at the well-preserved Temple of Edfu. Having decided not to board any horse-drawn carriage if the horse appeared unhealthy, our guide Mahmud carefully selected one where the horse pulling it seemed to be in decent condition. While the horses here are generally thin, we refused to accept those that were emaciated, had open wounds, or were missing shoes. They waited patiently in long lines, fortunately not under the scorching sun.
After a 10 min carriage ride, we arrived at the Edfu Temple site. At 30+ meter height, the entrance to the temple looked very impressive.
Inside like many temples, are a series of chambers indicating the higher the status and rank, the further one was allowed to progress towards the inner sanctum.
To the innermost chamber only the high priest and the Pharao had access to.
Depicting a copy of the royal barge (the original was moved to the Louvre by a French explorer who rediscovered the temple around 1860) all the small chambers surrounding it were carved top to bottom in religious ceremonies involving many gods, but mostly Horus, Sobek and Isis. It was an impressive temple all in all and to imagine that it was originally painted in all vivid colors, this must have looked like a Disney fairy tale building of 1001 nights.
We saw a group of Caucasian people performing rituals, holding an Ankh (Egyptian symbol of life), and touching or kissing the walls. It seemed to be some neo-pagan movement practicing ancient rituals, or perhaps a New York-born cult that worships Egyptian religion. These types of groups clearly blend ancient symbolism with modern ideas of mysticism and personal transformation. A bit weird and unsettling from our point of view.
Back on board we proceeded on our way to Luxor. Sunset is always quick in Africa and so we enjoyed some last rays of sun on deck and enjoying afternoon tea time and biscuits. But bracing a stiff wind and not feeling like wanting to hop into our nice pool on deck, we ventured downstairs quite soon. We had to admit, Egypt can be quite cool at night and we had to bundle up in our wind stopper and GoreTex jackets when on top deck.
At 7 PM we are expected at happy hour in the grand salon, where the crew is outnumbering the guests by 4 to 1. Not great for Egyptian economy but very relaxed for us.
Dinner was at 7:30, and once again, we enjoyed a lavish buffet before retiring early to catch up on much-needed sleep. Chris jokingly wondered if the crew’s goal was to feed us so much that we’d be ready to be eaten, just like the witch tried to do with Hansel and Gretel.
Today we got up early at 5.30 AM. Sunrise was supposed to be at 6.30 and we wanted to make sure we were the first ones to arrive. Sunrise was supposed to bathe the two temples in glowing light.
We set out without breakfast. While it first felt, we would be the only ones around – arriving at the gate we saw a long line of visitors already waiting to be let in. Turns out that two bus loads full of Japanese tourists were there before us. Luckily we had visited the inside of the temples the day before without any tourists.
We kept back to the outside and waited until at 6.35 the sun rose and bathed the two temple facades in glowing orange sunlight. It was a sight to be seen. All of the groups had dispersed by 7.30 AM and so for 30 min until 8 AM we had the place to ourselves again. What a privilege!
Happy and full of memorable pictures in our heads we arrived back at the hotel for a leisurely breakfast. Airport Pick up worked perfectly as well as the flight back to Aswan.
And so by 12 noon we were meeting our greeter from Helios Reisen at Aswan airport for our Nile cruise check in.
Always a dream of Esther’s was a Nile cruise. Ideally on an old steamer, but those were not running at the time and length of trip we needed. So we booked a ship that could take up to 150 passengers which sounded still OK to us. With pool on deck and stops at some temples on the way from Aswan to Luxor. Four days luxury….
After check in at the Jaz Regent cruise ship, we had lunch on board followed by a Helios organized Tour to a nearby temple with an German speaking guide. Everything was perfectly organized. Pick up from the Airport, transfer from the ship to the boat where we set out to explore Philae Temple on a little island in Lake Nasser.
The temple was picturesque, but nowhere near as striking as Abu Simbel.
The most memorable part of our visit was encountering the island’s many cats—two of them looked exactly like our Russian Blue, Blaubär (or Blue, as we call him). Chris didn’t exactly get homesick, but as Esther pointed out, he did get “cat sick.”
While we relaxed and sipped fresh orange juice, we watched as several cats were fed. It made perfect sense: Philae Temple is dedicated to Isis, the goddess of fertility, motherhood, healing, magic, and protection. Cats, revered as demigods in ancient Egypt, were associated with Bastet. Originally depicted as a lioness or a woman with the head of a lioness or domestic cat, Bastet symbolized both the fierce warrior and the gentle protector, linked to home, fertility, childbirth, and women’s secrets. Certainly Chris would worship them.
Back on the boat we watched a beautiful African sunset, enjoying a glass of white wine and looking forward to slowly gliding down river the next day.
We got up to enjoy a rather spartan breakfast, and Chris got his cat fix as three curious kittens joined us for the morning snack. Afterward, we headed to the airport for our flight to Abu Simbel. A quick 35-minute flight beat the tedious four-hour bus ride.
Instead of rushing through the visit, we decided to stay overnight at Abu Simbel, giving us the chance to explore the temples bathed in the warm afternoon light and catch the breathtaking sunrise the next morning.
After a smooth and punctual flight from Aswan to Abu Simbel, we arrived and checked into our hotel, The Tuya, which is just a short walk from the temples. It’s a charming little hotel with clean rooms and a lovely garden. Upon arrival, we were welcomed with a refreshing drink that turned out to be Hibiscus juice – Esther’s new favorite! Since we were the only guests, checking in early was no problem. At noon, our guide, Mohammed (who we had arranged the night before), met us at the reception. (Interestingly, 99% of the men here seem to be named Mohammed, Ahmad, or Mahmud)
We set out after a little lunch to experience the famed temples of Abu Simbel. Expecting bus loads full of day tripper tourists from Aswan, we were surprised to see that after 1 pm not many people were here at all. The big busses had already left and so we nearly had the place to ourselves.
As we walked a few hundred meters around an artificial mountain, we were suddenly face-to-face with an awe-inspiring temple facade. Four colossal statues of Ramses II, each over 20 meters high, stared straight ahead, framing the entrance to the temple.
To the right stood a smaller temple dedicated by Ramses II to his favorite wife, Nefertari.
What’s truly remarkable, though, is that this is not the original location of the temples. Originally built into the mountainside along the banks of the Nile, they had to be relocated in the 1960s when Egypt decided to construct the massive Aswan Dam. The creation of Lake Nasser, a 500 km-long reservoir, threatened to submerge both temples. Over the course of five years, as the dam was being built, the temples were carefully disassembled into large stone blocks and moved—piece by piece—65 meters higher and 250 meters further back.
Instead of being inserted into an existing mountain, they were built up and an artificial mountain was then built around them again mimicking the original set up as closely as possible.
It was late afternoon and hardly anyone was there. Seems that the conflicts in the Middle East are affecting tourism in Egypt as well. We had free reign and could stroll between the two temples unhindered. We had taken a local guide to explain the history and back stories. After two hours he left us to explore on our own.
We had planned on visiting at sunrise again, and so we walked back to the Tuya hotel and had a simple but good tasting dinner there. We slept early as we were planning to get up early too.
Heute war ein weiterer Reisetag. Wir sind relativ spät aufgestanden und ließen es gemütlich angehen. Beim Frühstück verging die Zeit wie im Flug dank lebhafter und lustiger Gespräche mit unseren beiden deutschen Mitreisenden. Sie haben sich über das Internet gefunden, als sie nach Mitreisenden für anspruchsvollere Reiseziele gesucht hatten. Dies war ihre zweite oder dritte Reise zusammen. Für uns war es vor allem auch deswegen unterhaltsam, weil die beiden extrem verschieden waren. Manchmal wirkten die beiden wie ein lange verheiratetes Ehepaar, das sich trotz aller Unterschiede und kleinere Streitereien irgendwie ergänzt und am Ende doch immer wieder zusammenfindet. Später kam die Eigentümerin des Camps vorbei und brachte uns jeweils ein Glas frisch gemolkene Kamelmilch. Da Esther sie noch nie probiert hatte, war sie zunächst skeptisch, aber zu ihrer Überraschung schmeckte die Milch recht mild und ähnelte Kuhmilch mit wenig Fett. Eine weitere Erfahrung für unseren Gaumen.
Wir packten unsere Koffer für den Flug zurück nach Taschkent, was nicht einfach war, da wir einen Liter Wodka für Inom und drei Liter frische Kamelmilch für die Besitzerin des Jurtencamps mitnehmen mussten, für ihre Verwandten in Taschkent. Die Menschen hier helfen sich immer gegenseitig, und so war es für Inom selbstverständlich, ja beinahe verpflichtend ihr diesen Gefallen zu tun. Irgendwie haben wir es geschafft, alles zu verstauen, und hofften nur, dass weder der Wodka noch die Kamelmilch oder der Liter Baumwollsamenöl, den wir gekauft hatten, während des Fluges auslaufen würde.
Wir machten uns gegen Mittag auf den Weg nach Urgench, dem nächstgelegenen Flughafen (auch für Reisen nach Khiwa, wenn man den Zug oder die Straße meiden möchte). Da wir noch etwas Zeit hatten, bevor unser Flug ging, beschlossen wir, am örtlichen Markt von Urgench für einige letzte Einkäufe und ein schnelles Mittagessen anzuhalten. In der Stadt bemerkten wir viele Autos mit kleinen Stücken Papier oder Stoff, die Teile ihrer Nummernschilder bedeckten. Offenbar verwenden Polizeiautos Kameras verwenden, um im Vorbeifahren geparkte Autos aufzunehmen und dann Bußgelder für falsches Parken verhängen. Wenn jedoch die Nummernschilder teilweise verdeckt sind, können die Kameras nicht die vollständige Nummer erfassen, was die Behörden daran hindert, Bußgelder zu verhängen.
Wir lieben lokale Märkte. So viele Gerüche und Eindrücke. Alte, klapprige Einkaufswagen, die durch die Gänge geschoben werden, Säcke mit Gewürzen, die herumstehen, viele verschiedene Süßigkeiten, die uns zum Probieren verführten, und der Viehsektor, der lebende Hühner und Kaninchen verkaufte. Da hatten wir allerdings kein Bedarf – wir kauften lieber verschiedene Teesorten und Gewürze.
Nachdem wir mit dem Einkaufen fertig waren, machten wir uns auf die Suche nach einem Ort, um einen schnellen Happen zu essen.
Immer der Nase nach entdeckten wir frisch gegrilltes Hähnchen, also setzten wir uns in das entsprechende, kleine, aber sehr geschäftiges Restaurant voller Einheimischer.
Wir fielen auf wie bunte Hunde, weil wir die einzigen Ausländer hier waren. Wir verspeisten sechs köstliche Hähnchenspieße und etwas Salat für nur 100.000 Soms (~7,50 EUR) für drei Personen, einschließlich drei Flaschen Cola. Unschlagbar.
Bis zu unserem Flug um 15:30 Uhr von Urgench nach Taschkent blieb uns genug Zeit für unser Mittagsmahl.
Der Flug war unsere erste Gelegenheit, mit Uzbekistan Airways zu fliegen.
Wer denkt, dass Uzbekistan Airways eine ‘never-come-back airline’ ist, mit alten Ilyushin-Flugzeugen, liegt komplett falsch.
Wir bestiegen einen brandneuen, gut ausgestatteten Airbus, komplett mit Bildschirmen und USB-Ladeanschlüssen – viel mehr als Lufthansa (Hallo Herr Spohr?!) auf Inlandsflügen bietet. Außerdem erhält man ein Sandwich und kostenlose Getränke. Uzbekistan Airways haben ausserdem ein sehr unterhaltsames Sicherheitsvideo, das alle touristischen Highlights des Landes zeigt.
Da dies das Ende unserer Reise war, erkannten wir alle Sehenswürdigkeiten wieder, da wir jede einzelne besucht hatten. Lufthansa hat endlich auch ein neues Sicherheitsvideo veröffentlicht – allerdings ist es komplett humorfrei. Passt wohl nicht zum deutschen Image.
Inom bat seine Sitznachbarn, sich ihm für ein schnelles Gebet anzuschließen, und so hoben wir mit Allahs Segen ab, zurück zum Ausgangspunkt unserer Reise, nach Tashkent.
An unserem letzten Abend reservierten wir ein sehr schönes Restaurant und wollten Inom und seine Frau zu unserem Abschiedsessen hier in Usbekistan einladen. Lustigerweise war eine Reisebekantschaft, die wir in Myanmar getroffen hatten, Amish aus Indien, zur gleichen Zeit in der Stadt, und so vereinbarten wir, gemeinsam zu Abend zu essen. Da Amish ein Reisebüro in Indien betreibt und Inom Reisen in Uzbekistan organisiert, weiß man nie, was die Erweiterung seines Netzwerks bringen kann.
Es war ein schöner Abend, und wieder geht ein schöner Urlaub zu Ende. Morgen früh geht unser Flug zurück nach München via Istanbul, und Inom bestand darauf, uns selbst zum Flughafen zu fahren.
Wir hätten uns keinen netteren und besseren Reiseführer als Inom wünschen können. Zusammenfassend war dies ein sehr interessanter Urlaub. Eine gute Mischung aus Natur, Kultur und Aktivitäten sowie dem Besuch verschiedener Städte. Uns haben Samarkand und Taschkent am besten gefallen, da diese Städte eine gute Mischung aus Geschichte und authentischen Alltag bieten.
Khiva und Buchara waren auch großartig, aber nicht so belebt wie die anderen Städte. Damit hatten sie einen eher musealen Charakter. Das Essen war eher – sagen wir mal – herausfordernd. Während einfache Gerichte wie Suppen, Gemüse und Salate durchaus lecker waren, waren die meisten anderen Speisen nicht nach unserem Geschmack, insbesondere solche mit Ziegen- oder Lammfleisch, was letzten Ende auch Hammelfleisch einschließt. Die größte Herausforderung war das Plov, das für den ‘besseren’ Geschmack mit dem Hammelfett des Fettschwanzschafs zubereitet wird.
Damit kommt unser Reiseblog aus Usbekistan zu seinem Ende. Solltet Ihr noch Fragen haben oder weitere Details über Usbekistan wissen wollt… einfach schreiben oder uns fragen.
Today was another travel day. Getting up fairly late we started the day out slowly. Having animated and funny conversations with our fellow travelers from Germany at breakfast time flew by. They searched for fellow travelers for more challenging destinations through the internet. This was their second or third trip together. Despite their huge differences, which made it enjoyable to listen to their stories and experiences, they complemented each other well in some ways. The women owner came by and brought us each a glass of freshly milked camel milk. Having never tried it Esther was very sceptic at first, but to her surprise it tasted quite mild and very similar to rich cows milk. Another experience to add to our plate.
We packed our bags for the flight back to Tashkent, which was not easy as we had to fit in a liter of Vodka for Inom and three liters of fresh camel milk for the yurt camp owner to take to her relatives in Tashkent. People always help each other out here and so Inom did that lady a favor. We managed fit everything in and just hoped that neithr the Vodka, nor the camel milk or our liter of cotton seed oil we bought will be running out during our flight.
We set out mid morning to drive to Urgench, the closest airport. As we had some time left before taking our flight we decided to stop the the local Urgench market for some last minute shopping and light lunch. In the city, we noticed many cars with small pieces of paper or cloth covering parts of their license plates. It turns out that police cars use cameras to record parked cars while they drive by and issue fines for illegal parking. However, with the license plates partially obscured, the cameras can’t capture the full plate number, preventing the authorities from issuing fines.
We love the local markets. So many smells and sights. Old rickety shopping carts being pushed through the aisles, bags of spices standing around, lots of different sweets tempting us to be tried , the live stock section selling chickens and rabbits. We bought diferent types of teas and also decided to take home some cotton seed oil.
After being done with the shopping part we looked for a place to have a quick bite.
The noses smelled grilled chicken and so we went to sit in a small but very busy restaurant full with locals.
We stuck out as being the only foreigners here. We had delicious chicken kebaps and some salad for a mere 100.000 Soms (~7.50 EUR) for three people including three bottles of Coca-Cola. Can‘t beat that.
We had enough time to catch our 3:30 PM flight from Urgench to Tashkent, our first opportunity to fly with Uzbekistan Airways.
For those who might think that Uzbekistan Airways is some ‘never-come-back airline’ flying old Ilyushin planes, you couldn’t be more wrong.
We boarded a brand-new, well-equipped Airbus, complete with screens and USB charging ports—much more than Lufthansa offers on local flights. Plus, you get a sandwich and complimentary drinks. They even have a very entertaining safety video showcasing all the tourist highlights of the country.
Since this was the end of our journey, we recognized all the landmarks, having visited each one. Lufthansa has finally released a new safety video as well—needless to say, it is not funny at all. Inom asked his seat neighbors to join him for a quick prayer, and so we took off, safely protected by Allah’s hands, back to the starting point of our journey.
On our last evening we reserved a very nice restaurant and wanted to invite Inom and his wife for our final dinner here in Uzbekistan. Funny enough an aquaintance we met in Myanmar, Amish from India, happend to be in town at the same time and we agreed to have dinner together. Amish being a travel agent in india and Inom one in Uzbekistan, one never knows what extending ones network may bring.
It was a lovely evening and again a nice vacation comes to an end. Tomorrow morning our flight back to Munich via Istanbul leaves early and Inom insisted on driving us to the airport himself.
We could not have wished for a nicer and better guide then Inom. In summary this was a very interesting vacation. A good mix of nature and activity as well as visiting different cities. We liked Samarkand and Tashkent best as those cities have a good mix between history and real life.
Khiva and Bukhara were great too, but not as bustling with everyday life as the other cities. Food-wise, it was a bit challenging—while simple dishes like soups, vegetables, and salads were nice, most other foods weren’t to our taste, especially those involving goat or lamb, which includes all ages of mutton.
This concludes our travel blog from Uzbekistan. Feel free to ask any questions or if you need more details about Uzbekistan.
Heute haben wir einen letzten frühen Spaziergang durch Chiwa gemacht. Die Sonne bahnte sich ihren Weg durch die Wolken, und vor acht Uhr morgens war die Stadt leer, abgesehen von ein paar Händlern, die ihre Stände für den Tag vorbereiteten, und Frauen, die die Straßen fegten. Wir ließen uns durch die jahrhundertealte Stadt treiben und dachten darüber nach, wie anders diese Straßen und Gebäude im 16. Jahrhundert ausgesehen haben müssen.
Die Architektur und Fassaden haben uns sehr gefallen, dennoch fanden wir Chiwa als Stadt nicht so lebendig wie Samarkand oder Taschkent, wo Tradition und alltägliches Leben viel stärker miteinander verschmelzen.
Nach einem herzhaften Frühstück verließen wir unser gemütliches Hotel in Chiwa gegen zehn Uhr morgens und machten uns auf den Weg in die Wüste von Karakalpakistan, der autonomen Republik innerhalb Usbekistans. Karakalpakistan war einst eine blühende Region, die im großen Flussdelta des Amudarja-Flusses lag. Der Fluss, der in Tadschikistan entspringt, fließt auch durch Afghanistan und Turkmenistan und mündete einst in das Aralsee. Heutzutage erreicht nur noch ein Drittel des ursprünglichen Wasservolumens Usbekistan, da die Nachbarländer bereits zwei Drittel für die Landwirtschaft abzweigen. Von dem verbleibenden Drittel benötigt Usbekistan den Großteil für seine Baumwollindustrie. Heute fließt nichts mehr in den Aralsee, der große Fluss versiegt jetzt im Wüstensand.
Während der zweistündigen Fahrt sahen wir die gigantischen Kanäle, die gegraben wurden, um die enormen Wassermengen sicherzustellen, die für die Baumwollfelder benötigt werden. Baumwolle ist eine Pflanze, die kurz vor der Ernte, in den trockensten Zeiten des Jahres, riesige Mengen Wasser benötigt.
Dies ist eines der Umweltkatastrophen, die die Sowjets verursacht haben. In den 1940er Jahren wurden riesige Kanäle und Wasserreservoirs gebaut, um sicherzustellen, dass die Baumwollfelder im September rechtzeitig geflutet werden können, damit die Baumwollknospen aufplatzen und geerntet werden können.
Die Sowjets und später die usbekische Regierung konzentrierten sich auf Baumwolle als das Hauptexportgut, unbeeindruckt davon, wie schädlich diese Pflanze für die raue usbekische Umwelt war. Baumwolle benötigt nicht nur enorme Wassermengen in einem Wüstenstaat, sondern laugt auch den Boden aus und erfordert große Mengen an Düngemitteln sowie Pestiziden. Selbst heute noch ist die Bodenqualität in Usbekistan durch die toxischen Substanzen, die für den Baumwollanbau verwendet wurden, stark geschädigt. Langsam ändert sich die Situation, und das Land ist weniger abhängig vom Baumwollanbau, sondern setzt vermehrt auf Obst und Gemüse, das höhere Preise erzielt, sowie andere Rohstoffe wie Öl, Gas und Mineralien. Auch der Tourismus beginnt einen wesentlichen Beitrag zum BIP zu leisten.
Der Wassermangel hat die einst blühende Fischergemeinde in Karakalpakistan im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes austrocknen lassen, und die Städte wurden zunehmend verlassen. Heute ist es ein recht deprimierender Ort. Der Aralsee ist nahezu verschwunden. Die Grundwasserstände sind gesunken, und der Salzgehalt der verbleibenden Brunnen und Bäche ist hoch.
Je weiter wir in die Wüste fuhren, desto schlechter wurden die Straßen zu unserem letzten Ziel. Obwohl sie nicht so schlecht wie in Simbabwe waren, waren sie teilweise ziemlich holprig. Wir hatten den Eindruck, dass unser Fahrer schneller fuhr, um zu vermeiden, dass seine Reifen in ein Schlagloch fallen. Fun fact: Auf dem Weg nach Elliq Qala, was fünfzig Burgen bedeutet, fuhren wir durch eine Stadt namens Bo‘ston.
Zwischen dem einst grünen Flussdelta und den Wüstengebieten gab es eine große Anzahl von verlassenen Burgen, die bis ins Jahr 200 v. Chr. zurückreichen. Wir hielten an einem Hügel auf dem die Ruinen einer Burg mit Lehmmauern zu sehen waren.
Als wir einen steilen Pfad hinaufgingen, sahen wir einen Schwarm wunderschöner, leuchtend grüner Vögel mit roten Unterflügeln und einem schwarz-weißen Streifen auf dem Kopf sowie einem spitzen schwarzen Schnabel. Wir identifizierten sie als Grüne Bienenfresser.
Diese Festungen, die von den frühen Siedlern und Herrschern der Oase erbaut wurden, um sich gegen marodierende Nomadenstämme zu schützen, sind ziemlich groß (etwas mehr als 10×10 Meter) aber von den inneren Wänden sind nur noch vage Umrisse zu erkennen.
Der Regen und der ständig wehende Sand nagen jedes Jahr an ihnen. Tuprak Qala war eine solche Festung, die von 200 v. Chr. bis 600 n. Chr. zurückreicht, aber seitdem verlassen ist. Viele Mauern sind eingestürzt oder wurden weggeschwemmt. Wir wären fast selbst weggespült worden, als uns mitten während unseres Besuchs auf der Spitze ein schnell herannahendes Gewitter überraschte.
Wir machten uns so schnell wie möglich auf den Weg nach unten und retteten uns ins Auto, bevor der große Regen auf uns einprasselte. Andere Besucher hatten nicht so viel Glück und wurden nicht nur durchnässt, sondern rutschten auf den immer schlammiger werdenden Wegen aus.
Während des Gewitters fuhren wir weiter und erreichten schließlich das Ayaz Qala Jurtenlager, das sich direkt am Fuß von zwei ehemaligen Festungen, Ayaz Qala Eins und Zwei, befindet.
Wir hatten ein nettes Mittagessen in unserer Jurte, das von der Besitzerin des Lagers serviert wurde. Es parkten auch noch eine Reihe von Reisebussen und Autos, und so beschlossen wir zu warten, bis alle bis auf die Übernachtungsgäste gegangen waren. Um 17 Uhr hatten wir den Ort für uns alleine, und wie durch ein Wunder klarte das Wetter auf, und die Sonne kam heraus.
Wir machten uns auf den Weg zur ersten Festung, und ähnlich wie bei Tuplak Qala bestand Ayaz Qala eins aus einem großen Platz, der von hohen Mauern umgeben war.
Einige Teile waren noch sichtbar, andere waren verschwunden oder eingestürzt. Die Mauern mussten hohl gewesen sein, da Bögen einen überdachten Gang stützten. Einige davon sind noch erhalten. Nach der Tour durch die obere Festung machten wir uns auf den Weg zur unteren.
Wir sahen einen merkwürdig aussehenden kleinen Baum, der aus dem sandigen und felsigen Boden wuchs. Diese Pflanze wird von Einheimischen zur Behandlung von Diabetes verwendet. Nach den Frühlingsregen kann sie an einem Tag bis zu einem Meter wachsen, viel Wasser in ihrem Stamm speichern und ihr Fruchtfleisch kann auch gegessen werden, wenn es noch nicht vertrocknet ist. Wir sahen keine Pflanze, die größer als eineinhalb Meter war.
Die untere Festung war viel kleiner und beherbergte ursprünglich die Soldaten, die die Festung bewachten. Von dort aus war die Aussicht auf die obere Festung großartig.
Auf dem Rückweg zum Jurtenlager sahen wir niedliche kleine Erdhörnchen und kleine Eidechsen, die vor uns davonhuschten. Das Abendessen wurde auf einer großen, mit Teppichen ausgelegten Plattform serviert, und wir trafen unsere Mitreisenden, die auch über Nacht im Lager blieben.
Der Sonnenuntergang tauchte die Festung in goldenes Licht, und ein gekühltes Glas Wein und gutes Essen rundeten einen sehr angenehmen Abend in der Wüste ab.
Weiter geht es hier mit Tag 17, dem letzten Tag unserer Reise.
Today we went for an early last stroll through Khiva. The sun was making her way through the clouds and before eight in the morning the city is empty besides a handful of merchants readying their stalls for the day and women sweeping the streets. We let ourselves drift through the centuries old town, thinkig how different those very streets and buildings must have looked in the 16th century.
We liked the architecture and fassades very much, still Khiva as a city we found not as vibrant as Samarkand or Tashkent where tradition and normal life is mixing much more.
After a hearty breakfast we left our lovely hotel in Khiva around ten AM and set out to drive into the desert in Karakalpakstan or Republic of Karakalpakstan. Karakalpakstan is an autonomous province inside Uzbekistan and was a thriving area living in a great river delta of the Amudarja river that orinigated in Tajikistan but also flows through Afghanistan and Turkmenistan and ended in the Aral sea. Nowadays only a third of the original water level still flows into Uzbekistan, as their neighbours already siphon off 2/3 for agriculture. Of the remaining third, Uzbekistan needs most of it for their cotton industry. Today nothing flows into the Aral sea anymore, the great river nowadays ends in the desert sand.
During the two hour drive we saw all the gigantic canals that were dug to ensure the enormous quantities of water that were needed for the cotton fields. Cotton is a plant that needs huge quantities of water exactly right before the harvest, in the driest times of the year.
This is one of the environmental desasters that the Soviets have created. Huge canals and water reservoirs were built in the 1940 to ensure that in September the cotton fields can be flooded in time to make the cotton buds burst open so they can be picked.
The soviets and then later the Uzbek government forced the concentration on cotton as the number one export good regardless how harmful this plant for the harsh Uzbek environment. Cotton not only needs huge quantities of water in a desert state, it also depletes the soil and needs large quantities of fertilizer and pesticides. Even today the soil quality in Uzbekistan is damaged by the toxic substances that were used to grow cotton. Slowly things are changing and the country is less dependent on cotton, but grows more fruit and vegetables as well as other raw materials like oil, gas and minerals. And tourism is starting to make a difference.
The lack of water dried up the thriving fishing community in Karalpakstan and citys became more and more deserted. It‘s quite a depressing place nowadays. The Aral sea has all but disappeared. Ground water levels have sunken and salt content of the remaining wells and streams is high.
The roads to our final destination in the desert deteriorated the further we drove. Although not as bad as in Zimbabwe, they became quite rough at a certain point. We had the impression that our driver sped up just to avoid his tires falling into a pothole. Fun fact, we drove through a town called Bo‘ston on our way to Elliq Qala, meaning fifty castles.
Between the once green river delta and the desert areas were a large number of now abandoned castles dating back to 200 BC. We stopped at a hill that had ruins of a mud walled castle on top.
Going up a steep path we saw a flock of beautiful bright green birds with red underwings and a black and white stripe on their face. They had a pointy black beak We identified them as the green bee eaters.
Built by the early settlers and rulers of the Oasis to protect themselves against marauding nomad tribes those fortresses are fairly large in size ( easily 10×10 meters square) but only a vague outline of the inner walls could be made out.
The rain and constantly blowing sand are eating away at them every year. Tuprak Qala was one such fortress dating back to 200 BC until 600 AD but lies abandoned since. Many walls had fallen down or been washed away. We nearly were washed away too when a fast moving thunderstorm caught us by surprise in the middle of our visit on top.
Making our way down as fast as we could we saved ourselves into the car before the big deluge started. Other visitors weren‘t that lucky and literally got not only drenched but also slid down the fast developing mud slides due to the torrential rain.
Heading on through the thunderstorm we made our way to the Ayaz Qala yurt camp, right on the foot of two former fortresses Ayaz Qala one and two.
We had a nice lunch in our yurt served by the woman owner of the camp. We still saw a number of tour busses and cars despatching their passengers onto the forts and decided to wait until all but the camp overnighters had left. By 5 PM we had the place to ourselves and magically the weather had cleared up and the sun came out.
We made our way up the first fortress and similar to Tuplak Qala, Ayaz Qala one consisted of a large square surrounded by high walls. Some still visible, other parts had vanished or fallen down. The walls must have been hollow as arches supported a covered walkway originally. Some were still preserved, after a tour through the upper fortress, we made our way down to the lower one.
We saw a strange looking little tree that grew out of the sandy and rocky soil. This plant is used by locals to treat diabetes. After spring rains, it can grow up to a meter in a day, store a lot of water in its trunk and it‘s flesh can also be eaten when still growing. We saw no plant taller than a meter.
The lower fortress was much smaller and originally housed the soldiers that protected the fortress. From there the view onto the upper fortress was great.
Making our way back to the yurt camp we saw cute littel ground squirrels and little lizzards dashing away from us. Dinner was served on a large carpeted platform and we met our fellow travelers who also stayed overnight at the camp.
The sunset bathed the fortress in golden light and a chilled glass of wine and good food rounded off a very pleasant evening in the desert.
Khiva hat so viele erstaunliche Sehenswürdigkeiten zu bieten, dass es sich anfühlt, als würde man durch eine Museumsstadt spazieren, in der sich ein beeindruckendes Gebäude an das nächste reiht. Die Stadt ist für allen rund um die Uhr offen, wer die vielen Gebäude im Inneren besichtigen möchte, muss aber ein 2-Tages-Sammelticket kaufen. Khiva war einst von zwei Mauern geschützt, aber die äußere Mauer ist inzwischen verschwunden. Die inneren Mauern, die das Herz der Stadt schützen, wurden restauriert und ziehen sich in einem beeindruckenden Band um die gesamte Stadt.
Diese Mauer mit ihren Wehrgängen ist gute 15-20 Meter hoch und massiv gebaut. Sie umfasst die Altstadt vollständig. Der Zugang ist nur durch vier Tore möglich, in jeder Himmelsrichtung eines.
Von unserem sehr schönen Hotel aus sind es keine 100 Meter zum Haupttor. Es gibt einen Hauptweg vom westlichsten Tor bis zum östlichen Tor. Er ist mit kleinen Souvenirständen gesäumt, die grösstenteils lokale Kunst- und Handwerksartikel verkaufen.
Die gesamte Stadt ist im Wesentlichen mit Stein gepflastert, Bäume wachsen in speziellen Blumenbeeten und in den Innenhofgärten. Khiva ist äußerst sauber und ordentlich. Wie üblich ist der Palast das zentrale Objekt der alten Stadt und wird Kuhna Ark genannt.
Der Ark beherbergte nicht nur den regierenden Khan (König) mit seinem Thronsaal, seiner privaten Moschee und seinen Empfangsräumen, sondern auch seinen Harem, seine Ställe, Ehrenquartiere für Gäste, Kasernen für seine Wache, die Münze, das Waffenarsenal und ein Gefängnis.
Fast alles ist auf Neuzustand restauriert und zeigt einige schöne blaue Fliesenarbeiten und bemalte Decken. Der Ark hat auch einen hohen Wachturm, von dem aus man die gesamte Stadt in alle Richtungen überblicken kann. Kurz vor Sonnenuntergang bot sich uns ein großartiger Rundumblick.
Über die Stadt verstreut gibt es eine Reihe größerer und kleinerer Medressen, also religiöser Schulen. Die meisten sind jetzt in kleine Museen umgewandelt. Es gibt Museen für alte Kunst, Musikinstrumente, Wissenschaft, Medizin, traditionelle Kleidung, Schmuck und Teppiche.
Wir besuchten ein kleines Teppichgeschäft, in dem drei Frauen jeweils ihren Seidenteppichen knüpften. Es ist jedes Mal aufs neue faszinierend zu sehen, wie viel Handarbeit erforderlich ist, um einen einzigen Seidenteppich herzustellen. Eine Teppichmacherin benötigt etwa ein Jahr, um einen Seidenteppich mit den Maßen 1,20 m x 2 m herzustellen. Dafür muss man dann – je nachdem wie dicht die Knotenzahl pro Quadratzentimeter ist – 6.000 Euro und mehr hinblättern.
atürlich gibt es eine Reihe von Mausoleen, einige größere, einige sehr kleine, die hoch angesehene religiöse Führer ehren, und es ist üblich, dass alle Frauen angemessene Kleidung tragen, einschließlich eines Kopftuchs, und dass Männer ihre Knie und Schultern bedecken und die Schuhe vor der Tür lassen bevor sie die Innenräume des Heiligtums betreten.
Jeder größere Komplex hat hohe Außenmauern und einen hübschen Innenhof, meist mit einem großen Maulbeerbaum, der einen schattigen Platze zum Sitzen und Entspannen bietet.
Die ikonischsten Sehenswürdigkeiten der Stadt sind jedoch ihre Minarette. Es gibt vier große und eine Reihe kleinerer. Jedes ist an eine Moschee angeschlossen, aber besonders die beiden größten übertreffen ihre Moscheen in ihrer prachtvollen Erscheinung.
Das Kalta Minor Minarett ist kurz und dick. Es ist vollständig mit verschiedenen türkisfarbenen Fliesen und unterschiedlichen Mustern bedeckt. Es ist wirklich ein Anblick, den man gesehen haben muss. Es sieht aus, als hätte jemand geplant, dies zum höchsten Minarett der Welt zu machen, aber nach einem Drittel aufgehört und es nicht vollendet. Genau das ist passiert. Der Herrscher Amin Khan begann 1851 mit dem Bau, starb jedoch 1855, bevor das Minarett vollendet werden konnte. Sein Sohn hatte offenbar kein Interesse den Bau abzuschließen.
Das andere große Minarett ist das der Islom-Hoja-Medresse-Moschee. Es wurde 1910 erbaut. Mit 57 Metern Höhe ist es das höchste Minarett Usbekistans und hat mit seiner eleganten Form ein bisschen etwas von einem Leuchtturm. Hierfür war ein gesondertes Ticket notwenig, was Gnom ein wenig verärgerte, weil es früher offenbar im 2-Tages-Pass eingeschlossen war. Wir erklommen das Minarett über eine ziemlich steile Wendeltreppe (stellenweise sogar auf allen Vieren). Ganz oben wurden wir mit einer grandiose Aussicht belohnt. Islom Hoja selbst war ein wohltätiger Großwesir und gründete auch das erste Krankenhaus in Khiva, direkt neben dem Minarett.
Da Khiva der letzte Stadtstopp unserer Reise ist, konnte Esther nicht widerstehen, einige der Waren zu kaufen, die in der alten Karawanserei angeboten wurden. Wunderschön weiche Seidenschals, elegante Wickelhosen, farbenfrohe Tischläufer – wir hätten viel mehr kaufen können, aber wählten nur einige ausgewählte Stücke aus. Die Preise werden von den Verkäufern meist willkürlich festgelegt weswegen feilschen angesagt ist. Wer den Preis nicht mindestens um die Hälfte drückt kann davon ausgehen, dass er übers Ohr gehauen wurde.
Als wir unsere Beute im Hotel ablegen wollten, sahen wir, wie ein Tandoori Ofen mit trockenen Baumwollzweigen angeheizt wurde. Auf dem Tisch warteten verschiedene Sorten Samsa Teigtaschen darauf ausgebacken zu werden. Zwei Damen hatten drei Sorten vorbereitet, mit Kartoffel-, Kürbis- und Fleischfüllung. Wir sicherten uns unsere Portion frischer Samsas und verschlangen die köstlichen Samsas, nachdem wir unsere Taschen im Hotel abgelegt hatten. Das Mittagessen konnten wir damit ausfallen lassen und stattdessen den zweiten Teil des Tages mit einem Abendessen auf der Dachterrasse abzuschließen, und bei einem leckeren Mahl den Sonnenuntergang beobachten, der Khiva in ein sanftes, warmes Licht tauchte.
Ein schöner Abschluss unserer Stadtführungen durch Usbekistan, die voller Geschichte und einigen Überraschungen waren. Letztlich wurde uns wieder mal bewusst, wie hart das Leben früher gewesen sein muss und wie gesegnet wir sind, in unserer Zeit zu leben.
Für den nächsten Tag steht unser letzter Ausflug an. Ziel sind einigen alten Wüstenfestungen und eine Nacht im Jurtencamp am Rande der Wüste an, bevor es mit Uzbekistan Airways zurück in die Hauptstadt nach Taschkent geht.
Hier geht es zu Tag 16
Where to start? Khiva has so many amazing sites to offer, it‘s like walking in a museum town with one stunning building next to another. Khiva had two walls protecting it, but the outer wall has since disappeared.
The inner walls protecting the heart of the city have been restored and are running in an impressive band around the entire town. The wall with it‘s ramparts is easily 15-20 meters high and of a massive build. They surround the city completely. Access is only possible through four gates, one in each direction.
From our very lovely hotel one had to simply walk 100 meters to the main gate. There is one main throughfare from the Western most gate to the Eastern gate lined with little souvenir stalls that also sold local arts & crafts items.
Basically all of the town has a stone floor and trees are reserved for dedicated flower beds and inner courtyard gardens. Khiva is extremely clean and tidy. As customary the palace is a central piece of the ancient town and called the Kuhna Ark.
The Ark not only housed the residing Khan with his throne room, private mosque and receiving chambers but also of his harem, his stables, honorary guest quarters, barracks for his guard, the mint, the arsenal of weapons and a jail.
Nearly all has been well preserved and restored and it shows some beautiful blue tilework and painted ceilings. The ark also has a high watch tower where one could see in al directions. We had a very nice pre sunset view from the top.
Scattered across town are a number of larger and smaller Medrassas, religious schools. Most are now converted into small museums. There are museums for ancient art, musical instruments, science, medical, traditional clothing, jewelry and carpets.
We visited a smal carpet shop where they showed how real silk carpets are still being made. It is mind boggling to see how much manual labor it is to produce one single silk carpet. One carpet maker needs about one year to make a silk carpet of 1.20m x 2 m dimension. It then is sold for about 6000 EUR.
There are of course a number of mausoleums, some larger, some very small that honors some highly respected religious leaders and it is customary for all women to wear proper attire, incl. A head scarf and for men to cover their knees and shoulders and leave the shoes outside.
Each larger complex has high outer walls and a pretty inner courtyard, mosyly with a large Mulbery tree and provide some shaded spots to sit down and relax.
The most iconic sights of Khiva though are it‘s minarets. There are four large ones, and numbr of smaller ones. Each is attached to a mosque but especially the two major ones eclipse their mosques in impressiveness.
The Kalta Minor Minaret is short and fat. It is covered all over with a variety of turquoise tiles and different shapes. It is truly a sight to be seen. It looks as if someone had planned to make this the highest Minaret in the whole world but stopped half way and could not finish it. That‘s exactly what happened. The ruler Amin Khan started to build it in 1851 but dropped dead in 1855 unable to finish the minaret.
The other major minaret is the one attached to the Islom Hoja Medrassa‘s mosque. It was built in 1910. At 57 meters height it is Uzbekistans highest Minaret and has a little bit of a light house with it‘s elegant shape. This one we could climb up a steep spiral staircase and had a grandiose view from up top. Islom Hoja himself was a benevolent grand vizir and also created the first hospital in Khiva, right next to the minaret.
Khiva being the last city stop on our journey, we could not resist buying a few of the wares that were offered in the old Caravanseray. Beautifully soft silk scarfes, elegant wrap around trousers, colorful table runners , we could have bought much more but we hand picked just a few items.
Pricing is random by the sellers and you always have to haggle.
Having the hotel so close by is a clear advantage as one can have a light lunch and then drop ones shopping bags in the hotel at lunchtime. As we had eaten some delicious hot Samsas (dough with potato, pumpkin or meat filling, baked in a round clay oven) we decided to skip lunch and instead finish out our second half of the day with a roof top terrace dinner overlooking the central square and watching the sunset bathe Khiva in a soft warm light.
A nice way to end our Uzbekistan city tours so full of history and surprises. We imagined how hard the life then must have been and how blessed we are to live in our times.
Tomorrow is our last excursion to some old desert fortresses and a night in the yurt camp before flying back to Tashkent.
Wir mussten um 2:40 Uhr morgens aufstehen, um unseren Zug nach Chiwa zu erwischen. Es ist eine nette Abwechslung verschiedene Transportmittel zu kombinieren, um eine Vielzahl von Erfahrungen zu sammeln und den Menschen in ihrem Alltag nahezukommen. Nachdem wir mit dem Auto, auf dem Pferderücken, zu Fuß und auf Kamelen unterwegs gewesen sind, wollten wir die Strecke von Buchara nach Chiwa mit dem Zug zurücklegen. Chiwa ist (geographisch) die westlichste Stadt, die wir in Usbekistan besuchen. Dort sollen sich weniger Touristen als in Buchara oder Samarkand herumtreiben. Zum einen, weil sie kleiner ist – vor allem aber weil sie weitab von den anderen touristischen Hotspots liegt. Mit dem Zug sollten es etwas mehr als sechs Stunden sein. Es wird allerdings bereits an einer Strecke für den Bullet-Train, den Schnellzug gebaut.
Ein Taxi holte uns um 3:00 Uhr morgens ab, da der Hauptbahnhof rätselhafterweise 25 km außerhalb von Buchara liegt.
Dort machten sich noch weitere verschlafen wirkende Touristen und etliche Einheimische auf den Weg zum Bahnsteig. Es gibt keine Über- oder Unterführungen, um zu den anderen Bahnsteigen zu gelangen, daher mussten wir alle die Gleise überqueren. Inom hatte für uns einen Schlafwagen gebucht, da zur Zeit alle Tickets für den Tageszug ausverkauft sind, und so mussten wir mit einem Nachtzug fahren.
Der Zug war enorm lang, 14 Waggons plus ein Bordrestaurant. Unser Waggon war die Nummer 14, also gingen wir bis ans Ende des Zuges und hievten unsere schweren Taschen in den Waggon.
Es war ein alter sowjetischer Wagen, und als wir im Dunkeln einstiegen, tasteten wir uns langsam durch einen schmalen, schwach beleuchteten Gang, mit schlafenden Menschen rechts und links. Füße hingen in den Gang, Leute schnarchten, andere unterhielten sich leise. Ein Schlafwagen bedeutete nicht, dass man ein eigenes Abteil bekam, es bedeutete lediglich, dass die Sitze zu einfachen Liegen mit Matratzen umgeklappt wurden, zwei unten, zwei oben und zwei auf der anderen Seite des Ganges.
Es war sehr stickig und heiß dort, und man konnte die Fenster nicht öffnen. Etwas ratlos standen wir vor unseren drei reservierten Betten mit unseren großen Taschen und wussten nicht, was wir als nächstes tun sollten. Wir hatten unsere Schlafsäcke in Taschkent gelassen, und es wäre ohnehin viel zu heiß für sie gewesen. Eines unserer Betten war von jemand anderem belegt, und Inom ließ ihn umziehen. Dann verschwand er und tauchte mit drei Plastiktüten auf, die frisch gewaschene Bettwäsche enthielten. Ein Kissenbezug, ein Bettlaken und ein Oberlaken, alle frisch gestärkt und gebleicht. Sie rochen sauber, und so machten wir jeweils unsere Betten, verstauten unser Gepäck darunter oder oben und legten uns für ein paar Stunden unruhigen Schlafs hin. Trotz des sanften Schwankens und Rhythmus des fahrenden Zuges wurden wir nicht in einen langen Schlaf gewiegt, es war zu heiß, und das Schnarchen war erheblich. Der Tagesanbruch begann um 5:00 Uhr, und um 5:30 Uhr war es bereits hell. Die Fahrt sollte etwa 6 Stunden dauern.
Also waren um 8:00 Uhr fast alle wach und machten sich so gut wie möglich frisch. Zum Glück haben die olten Sowjetwaggons einen integrierterten Samovar mit heißem Wasser, dazu gibt es für jeden Teegläser und -beutel.
Zwei Frauen in ihren Vierzigern saßen auf der anderen Seite des Ganges, und wir begannen ein nettes übersetztes Gespräch mit ihnen mit Inoms Hilfe.
Kontakte zu knüpfen ist hier in Usbekistan einfach, sich verständlich zu machen ist jedoch eine größere Herausforderung. In der Schlange vor der Toilette wurde Chris auf Russisch angesprochen, da jemand dachte, er sei Russe. Das führte zu einem interessanten, aber kurzen Gespräch. Denn auch wenn Chris ein paar Brocken Russisch beherscht, reicht es nicht für eine vertiefendes Gespräch. Die beiden Frauen hingegen fragten Inom nach uns, da wir die einzigen Touristen in unserem Waggon waren und es wohl eher untypisch ist hier Leute anzutreffen die sich auch die deutlich bequemere Anreise im Flugzeug hätten leisten können.
Bald lachten wir und tauschten Frühstückssnacks und Bilder unserer Familien aus. Besonders Ticktack-Omi (Die Urgroßmutter) mit ihrem rosa Haarbüschel und ihrem stolzen Alter von 101 Jahren erhielt jede Menge bewundernde Ahs und Ohs. Die Zeit bis zu unserer Ankunft in Chiwa verging dank diesem Smalltalk wie im Fluge, zumal die Landschaft draußen nur aus Wüste bestand, soweit das Auge reichte. Obwohl wir nicht viele Nächte in solchen Zügen verbringen möchten, fühlte es sich gut und richtig an, mitten unter normalen Usbeken zu reisen.
In Chiwa angekommen, nahmen wir ein Taxi für die kurze Fahrt zu unserem Boutique-Hotel direkt gegenüber dem Haupttor der Stadt. Die Seidenstraßen-Karawanserei war eine umgebaute kleine Medresse mit nur 12 Zimmern, alle schön renoviert, aber die kuppelförmigen Räume und der Innenhof sind original erhalten geblieben, auch wenn später Dinge wie fließendes Wasser, Elektrizität, Air Condition und eine Dusche hinzugefügt wurden. Ein echtes Kleinod und genau der richtige Ort, um die heißen Mittagsstunden im Schatten oder bei einem Nickerchen im Zimmer zu verbringen.
Nach einer kühlen Dusche, die wir nach Stunden im heißen Zug alle dringend brauchten, genossen wir einen Cappuccino und machten uns dann auf, die Stadt zu erkunden.
Chiwa wurde um das 8. Jahrhundert gegründet, entwickelte sich aber erst im 16. Jahrhundert zu einem wichtigen Handelszentrum und zur Hauptstadt der Region. Diese Wüstenstadt hatte einige Brunnen, die durstigen Wüstenreisenden Wasser bereitstellten, daher war sie ein sehr wichtiger Anlaufpunkt für die Karawanen. Aber lange Zeit hatte sie auch einen sehr zweifelhaften Ruhm. Chiwa war die Hauptstadt des Sklavenhandels (bis zum Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts wurden hier Sklaven gehandelt), Synonym für barbarische Grausamkeit, schreckliche und gefährliche Wüstenreisen sowie für Banden gesetzloser Stämme, die unter den Reisenden und Kaufleuten Angst und Schrecken verbreiteten.
Das heutige Chiwa ist wirklich ein Schritt zurück in die Zeit, da alle originalen Gebäude, die gesamte innere Stadt erhalten und restauriert wurden. Es fühlt sich mehr wie eine Aladdin-Filmkulisse oder ein Freilichtmuseum an als eine lebendige und geschäftige echte Stadt. Es ist viel los, aber alles kommt von den Touristen, die die Stadt besuchen. Etwa 6.000 Einheimische leben noch innerhalb der alten Stadtmauern, wir schätzten, dass etwa 90 % von ihnen in irgendeiner Weise vom Tourismus leben.
Die wunderschön restaurierten Gebäude sind wirklich atemberaubend, besonders die Minarette. Und davon gibt es viele. Wir werden diese in unserem nächsten Blogeintrag ausführlich beschreiben, da wir den ganzen Tag mit der Erkundung von Chiwa verbringen werden. Wir ließen uns ein wenig durch die Stadt treiben, wo nach 15:00 Uhr überraschend wenige Touristen unterwegs waren. Das warme Licht bot sich für ein paar Fotos an.
Wir hatten einen Platz auf der Dachterrasse für den Sonnenuntergang und das Abendessen reserviert und ließen den Tag mit gutem Essen und einem Glas gekühltem Weißwein ausklingen. Leider hatte eine Gruppe deutscher Touristen einen Teil der Dachterrasse für ihr Glas ‘Champanskoje’ reserviert. Später begann eine weitere deutsche Gruppe zu beliebten internationalen Gassenhauer, live auf Oboe gespielt, ausgelassen zu tanzen. Aber hey, wir waren ja im Urlaub, also lachten wir über die Absurdität der Situation. Wir waren nur froh, dass Inom das nicht miterleben musste. Er hätte sicher Himmel und Hölle in Bewegung gesetzt uns entweder einen neuen Platz zu finden oder alle von der Dachteressae zu verbannen.
Am Ende des Tages freuten wir uns auf den Nächten und waren gespannt darauf, alles noch ausführlicher zu erkunden.
Weiter zu Tag 15
We had to get up at 2.40 AM in the early morning in order to catch our train to Khiva. We always like to combine different modes of transport on our travels for a variety of experiences. After cars, horses, on foot trekking and camel, we decided that the easiest route to get from Bukhara to Khiva is by train. Khiva is the most western city we are visiting while in Uzbekistan. It has less tourists than Bukhara or Samarkand but also is a smaller area. Being the westernmost city in Uzbekistan, its geographical location makes access for travellers more challenging.
Inom and his taxi driver picked us up at 3 AM, as the train station, for whatever reason, is located 25 km on the outskirts of Bukhara.
Sleepily a few other tourists and a lot of locals headed the same way, rolling our travel bags across the cobblestones to our platform. There are no underpaths to cross over to a different platorm, so we all had to cross over the rails. Inom said he booked a sleeper coach for us and that there were no tickets for a day train, so he had to book us an overnight train.
The train was enormously long, 14 wagons plus an on board restaurant. Our waggon was number 14 so we walked all the way to the end of the train and hieved our heavy bags into the waggon. It was an old Soviet style coach and as we boarded in the near dark, we made our way slowly through a narrow, dimly lit isle with people sleeeping right and left.
Feet hanging into the aisle, people snoring, others quietly talking. Sleeper coach did not get you an own compartement, it simply meant that the seats are folded down to a simple cot like bed with mattress two below, two above and two across the aisle on the other side.
It was very stuffy and hot in there and one could not open the locked windows. A bit clueless we stood in front of our three reserved beds with our big bags not knowing what to do next. We had left our sleeping bags in Tashkent and it would have been much to hot for them anyway. One of our beds was occupied by someone else and Inom made him move. Then he disappeared and reappeared with three plastic bags which had freshly washed linens in there. A pillow case, a bottom sheet and a top sheet, alle freshly starched and bleached white. They smelled clean and so we each made our cots stored our luggage underneath or on top and settled down for a few hours of fitfull sleep. Despite the gentle swaying and rhythm of the moving train, it did not lull us into a long sleep, it was too hot and the snoring level was considerably high. The day break started at 5 AM and by 5.30 it is full daylight. The journey was supposed to take about 6 hrs.
So by 8 AM pretty much everyone was awake and cleaned up as best as possible. Good thing about those old russian trains: there is always a samovar with hot water and you get glases & tea bags.
Two women in their mid forties sat across the aisle from us and we stroke up a nice translated conversation between them and us with Inoms help. Making contact is easy here in Uzbekistan, getting understood is more challenging. In line for the toilet Chris got chatted up in Russian by someone thinking he was Russian. It was an interesting, yet short conversation as Chris’ Russian is rather limited. The two ladies asked Inom about us as we were the only tourists in our waggon and an unusual sight for someone that should be able to afford more comfortable transport.
We soon laughted and exchanged breaksfast snacks and pictures of our families. Specially Tick Tack Omi with her pink whiff of hair and her age got the most astounded comments. The time until we arrived in Khiva flew by with small talk especially as the outside landscape consisted only of desert as far as the eye could see. While we would not want to spend many nights in trains like that, the experience to be in the middle of just normal Uzbek people traveling their way was something that felt right.
Arrived in Khiva, we took a shot taxi ride to our boutique hotel right opposite the main Khiva city gate. The Silk Road Caravansaray was a converted small Medrassa that only had 12 rooms, all nicely renovated but the domed room shapes and inner courtyard remained original, even though other things like running water, electricity and a shower were added later. A real find and super pleasant to spend the hot lunchtime hours in the shade or napping.
After a cool shower that we all craved bwing in the hot train for hours, we enjoyed a coffee and then headed out to explore the city.
Khiva was founded around the 8th century, but did not become a major trading hub and capital of the region until the 16th century. This desert town did have some wells to provide for water during desert travel, so it was an important life saving stop for the caravans, but in the beginning it did have a very somber claim to fame. Khiva was the capital of the slave trade, synonomous of barbaric cruelty, horrible and risk desert journeys and bands of lawless tribesmen that struck fear in all the travelers and merchants.
Today’s Khiva truly feels like a step back in time. All the original buildings and the entire inner city have been preserved and restored. It feels more like the backdrop of an Aladdin movie or an open-air museum than a living, bustling city. There is indeed a lot of activity, but it primarily comes from tourists. About 6,000 locals still live within the old town’s walls, and we estimated that around 90% of them are involved in tourism in some capacity.
The beautifully restored buildings are truly stunning. Especially the minarets. And there are plenty of them. We‘ll describe those in detail in our next days blog entry as we‘ll be spending a whole day exploring Khiva. Today, we just wandered around the city, which had surprisingly few tourists after 3 PM but a beautiful light for photography. Enjoy some of Chris‘ pictures.
Having reserved a roof top terrace spot for sunset and dinner we let our day phase out with some good food and a glass of chilled white wine. Unfortunately, a group of German tourists had reserved a section of the rooftop for their glass of ‘Champanskoje.’ Later, another German group started dancing to popular international songs played on an oboe. But hey, we were on holiday, so we laughed at the absurdity of the situation. We were just glad that Inom didn’t have to witness it.
At the end of the day, we were looking forward to tomorrow, eager to explore in much more detail.
Buchara, von den Einheimischen Buxoro genannt, war einst eine der größten Städte Zentralasiens. Eine ehemalige Hauptstadt, bekannt für ihre Medressen (islamische Religionsschulen) und die vielen Kanäle und Becken, die durch die Stadt verliefen. Viele der alten Gebäude aus dem 16. Jahrhundert sind erhalten geblieben, aber viele der Kanäle und Becken sind verschwunden.
Wie in Samarkand vereinen sich in Buchara die nördliche und südliche Route der Seidenstraße. Es war ein bedeutendes Handelszentrum mit einer großen Festung, die es bewachte und auch als Residenz des herrschenden Emirs diente.
Nachdem wir bei unserem abendlichen Spaziergang am Vorabend gesehen hatten, wie viele Touristen sich in der Stadt herumtreiben, beschlossen wir, früh aufzubrechen und erst im Anschluss zu frühstücken. So konnten wir die Stadt in der morgendlichen Ruhe erkunden.
Die Sonne war schon seit 5:30 Uhr aufgegangen und tauchte die Stadt in ein sanftes gelbes Licht. Es war so schön, die leeren Straßen entlangzugehen. Die Händler begannen gerade, einige Stände zu öffnen, und es waren keine Touristen in Sicht. Es fühlte sich an, als hätten wir die Stadt für uns allein.
Wir klapperten alle bekannten Sehenswürdigkeiten ab, und Chris konnte einige gute Fotos machen, ohne das Heerscharen von Touris drauf waren. Als wir beim Kalon-Komplex ankamen, sahen wir, dass die Tore bereits geöffnet waren.
Wir zahlten die kleine Eintrittsgebühr und hatten den Innenhof und die Kalon-Moschee für uns allein. Es finden gerade etliche Renovierungsarbeiten im Inneren statt, und wir sahen, dass der Weg zum ikonischen Kalon-Minarett, das beeindruckende 47 Meter hoch ist, abgesperrt war. Schade, die Aussicht von oben wäre sicher großartig gewesen.
Wir wussten, dass Inom uns später am Tag alles über die Geschichte der einzelnen Orte erzählen würde, also ließen wir einfach die ruhige Morgenatmosphäre auf uns wirken. Und Chris konnte auf Fotopirsch durch die Stadt streifen.
Nach anderthalb Stunden waren wir zurück in unserem netten kleinen Hotel und trafen dort Inom zum Frühstück. Wir probierten einige neue Dinge, Blini mit einer Spinat- und Kürbisfüllung, hartgekochte Wachtel-Eier, und Chris hatte ein Déjà-vu, als er eine der lokalen Frühstücksspezialitäten sah: Pfannkuchen mit einer Art Bröselquark und Kirschmarmelade obendrauf. Er erzählte, dass seine Mutter diese Art von harten Quark als typisch tschechische Zutat zu ihren Erdbeerknödeln liebte.
Um Antizyklisch zu den Busgruppen unterwegs zu sein, war unser erster Halt auf dem Stadtrundgang die Festung des Emirs, die „Ark“ genannt wird. Dies ist das älteste Gebäude der Stadt und war vom 5. Jahrhundert bis 1920, als die Rote Armee sie bombardierte, durchgehend bewohnt.
Die Festung hat beeindruckende Außenmauern, aber heute liegen 80% davon in Ruinen. Die anderen 20% wurden restauriert und dienen heute als Freilichtmuseum. Eine alte Moschee, der Krönungs- und Empfangshof des Königs und einige kleinere Gebäude existieren noch, aber der Rest ist ein Erdhügel, allerdings mit einem fantastischen Blick über die gesamte Stadt.
Nachdem wir die Ark verlassen hatten, gingen wir zur nahegelegenen Bolo-Hauz-Moschee, dem offiziellen Gebetsort des Emirs. Bemerkenswert sind die Holzsäulen, die zu den feinsten in Zentralasien gehören.
Wir nahmen uns Zeit, die Moschee aus verschiedenen Blickwinkeln zu erkunden. Auf dem Weg zurück ins Stadtzentrum waren wir bereit für eine Kaffeepause auf einer schönen Terrasse mit Blick auf den Kalon-Platz und sein gigantisches Minarett.
Interessante Tatsache: Alle Tische hatten eingelassene Hufeisen für Glück
Dann betraten wir den Kalon-Komplex. Das Erste, was alle Blicke auf sich zieht, ist das Minarett. Es wurde 1129 von einem der herrschenden Khans erbaut und war damals das höchste Gebäude in Zentralasien mit einer fast zehn Meter breiten Basis und sogar Schilfrohren, um es erdbebensicher zu machen. Es hat 106 Stufen im Inneren, ist aber nur über eine kleine Brücke vom Hauptkomplex der Kalon-Moschee aus zugänglich und ist seit Jahren für Touristen geschlossen – dachten wir zumindest. Es sollte sich noch herausstellen, dass Inom eine Überraschung für uns in petto hatte.
Im Inneren des großen Eingangsportal der Kalon-Moschee befindet sich ein Innenhof, der von einem zweistöckigen Ring von Balkonen und Zimmern umgeben ist, die größtenteils aufgrund laufender Umbauarbeiten abgesperrt sind. Die Moschee selbst war geöffnet und wie in Samarkand mit wunderschönen blauen Fliesen verziert und hatte zwei Türme mit glänzenden türkisfarbenen Fliesen rechts und links. Sie wurde im 16. Jahrhundert erbaut und bietet Platz für bis zu 10.000 Menschen. Sie ist heute noch eine aktive Moschee.
Gegenüber der Moschee und dem Minarett befindet sich die Mir-i-Arab-Medresse, ein beeindruckendes Gebäude, das jedoch als noch aktive Schule für Touristen geschlossen ist.
Beim Durchwandern der drei alten Basargebäude waren wir überrascht, dass immer eine leichte Brise herrschte, die die 33°C Grad angenehmer machte. Bevor wir zum Mittagessen pausierten, machten wir noch einen weiteren Halt an einem Paar älterer Gebäude, die sich gegenüberstanden, beides Medressen. Die Uglugbek-Medresse sahen wir nur von außen, während die Abdul Aziz Khan Medresse eine der wenigen Gebäude ist, die nicht viel renoviert wurden. Die meisten Gebäude in der Stadt sehen frisch renoviert aus, fast wie eine Kulisse eines Films und nicht wie Gebäude aus dem 16. Jahrhundert.
In der Abdul Aziz Khan Medresse fanden wir auch wunderbare handgefertigte Tischläufer, etwas, das wir gerne von unseren verschiedenen Reisen mitbringen.
Wir hatten ein kurzes Mittagessen mit Hühnchen-Kebap, frischem Brot und Salaten, bevor wir zurück zum Hotel gingen, um uns frisch zu machen, am Blog zu schreiben und zu duschen.
Um 16 Uhr machten wir uns erneut auf den Weg, und Inom führte uns durch ein Labyrinth von kleinen Straßen, weg vom Stadtzentrum.
Während wir uns fragten, wo wir landen würden, öffnete sich plötzlich ein kleiner Platz vor uns, und in der Mitte stand ein sehr malerisches Gebäude namens Char Minar.
Ursprünglich war das ein Eingangsgebäude zu einer längst verschwundenen großen Medresse. Char Minar hat vier kleine Türme, die die Toleranz der damaligen großen Religionen symbolisieren, bzw. dessen Symbole integriert haben: Ein Fisch für das Christentum, den fünfzack für den Islam, den Davidstern für das Judentum und Schildkröten für den Zoroastrismus (eine an den Buddhismus angelehnte Religion). Wir stiegen auf das Dach, um die Türme aus der Nähe zu betrachten.
Danach schlenderten wir durch das jüdische Viertel, enge Gassen mit Häusern, die hinter großen geschlossenen Metalltoren versteckt waren. An einem Ort wurden die Häuser von drei jüdischen Familien, die gemeinsame Räume teilten, in ein Hotel umgewandelt und hatten einen sehr charmanten Innenhof und einen gemeinsamen Frühstücksraum aus dem 16. Jahrhundert.
Wir machten uns auf den Rückweg zum Zentrum und standen vor dem Lyabi-Hauz, einem großen ursprünglichen Wasserbecken, das von alten Maulbeerbäumen beschattet wurde, die mit reifen Früchten beladen waren. Wir hatten noch nie Maulbeeren gegessen. Sie kommen in weißen und schwarzen Früchten vor und schmecken sehr süß, und lecker. Es gibt so viele Früchte an diesen Bäumen, dass sie einfach auf den Boden fallen und die Gehwege darunter klebrig machen. Kleine Kaffee- und Imbissstände säumen den Pool, und jeder genießt es, hier zu sitzen und der Sonne zu entfliehen. Der Platz stammt aus dem 16. Jahrhundert, ebenso wie einige der Bäume.
Der Platz wird auf einer Seite von der Nadir Divanbegi Medresse eingerahmt, wo heute zweimal täglich usbekische Folkloretänze und Modenschauen präsentiert werden. Ursprünglich war es ein Karawanserei für die Handelskaufleute, bevor es in eine Medresse umgewandelt wurde. Sie hat einen schönen Innenhof und einen umlaufenden Balkon mit einer Reihe von Studierzimmer im zweiten Stock.
Auf der anderen Seite des Lyabi-Hauz befindet sich die Kukeldash-Medresse. Eines der wenigen nicht renovierten Gebäude. Sie stammt aus dem Jahr 1569 und war damals die größte islamische Schule in Zentralasien. Wir stiegen einige sehr enge und alte Treppen bis zum zweiten Stock hinauf und machten uns durch eine Reihe von Treppen und niedrigen Durchgängen bis zur Vorderseite der Medresse auf einen kleinen Balkon, der den Platz überblickte. Nicht viele Touristen kommen in den Genuss dieser Aussicht, da der Ort normalerweise übersehen wird. Wieder einmal waren wir dankbar, Inom bei uns zu haben, der scheinbar jede Ecke kannte.
Auf der dritten Seite des Lyabi-Hauz sahen wir die Nadir Divanbegi Khanaka, einen Sufi-Klosterhof, der damals für religiöse Zeremonien und wissenschaftliche Debatten genutzt wurde.
Inzwischen hatten wir etwas Appetit bekommen und machten uns langsam auf den Weg zu unserem Abendessen, das direkt über dem Poi Kalon (Kalon-Platz) lag. Das Abendlicht war sanft und gelblich. Als wir uns auf den Poi Kalon begaben, mit seinem atemberaubenden Kalon-Minarett, bat uns Inom, einen Moment zu warten, und verschwand im Eingang der Moschee. Nach einer Weile kam er zurück und winkte uns mit Verschwörermine herbei. Auf irgendeine Weise war es ihm gelungen, einen der Wächter zu überzeugen, uns den Minaretturm hinaufsteigen zu lassen.
Esther hatte nicht das passende Schuhwerk an, aber Chris machte sich mit Inom und einem Wärter auf den Weg, um die 106 Stufen zum Gipfel des Turms zu erklimmen.
Wir sind uns nicht sicher, wie viele Touristen die schnelle Bewegung von drei Personen über den kleinen Brückenzugang bemerkten oder anschließend die Köpfe oben auf dem Minarett sahen, aber wir fühlten uns wirklich privilegiert, diese Gelegenheit bekommen zu haben, den Platz aus der Vogelperspektive zu betrachten.
Nach diesem unerwarteten Bonusausflug gingen wir zu unserem Restaurant auf der Dachterrasse mit Blick auf den Kalon-Platz, von dem aus wir einen ausgezeichneten Blick auf das Minarett und die Mir-i-Arab-Medresse bei Sonnenuntergang hatten.
Wir genossen den wunderbar lauen Abend, das bislang beste Essen unserer gesammten Reise, sowie guten Wein, angenehme Gesellschaft und eine grandiose Aussicht.
Da wir in dieser Nacht um 2:40 Uhr aufstehen mussten, um unseren Schlafwagenzug nach Buchara zu erwischen, zogen wir uns früh zurück, um wenigstens ein paar Stunden Schlaf zu bekommen.
Zusammenfassend ist Buchara eine beeindruckende, alte Stadt, die reich an Geschichte ist. Wenn man die richtige Zeit und die richten Spots wählt, kann man jede Menge entdecken, und die Stadt einem ans Herz wachsen. Wer tagsüber durch die Stadt schlendert kann aber auf ein Touristan stoßen, das vielleicht nicht jedermanns Sache ist.
Weiter zu Tag 14
Bukhara, which the locals call Buxoro, was one of the greatest citys in Central Asia. A capital once, renowned for it‘s Medrassas (Islamic religious schools) and many canals and pools that ran through the city. Many of the old buildings dating back to the 16th century remain, many of the canals and pools disappeared.
Like in Samarkand, in Bukhara the northern and southern route of the silk roads come together. It was a major trading hub with a huge fortress guarding it which also serves as the residence of the ruling Emir.
Having seen how many tourists are in town on our evening walk the night before, we decided to head out early and have breakfast later just to explore the city in the morning calm.
The sun was already up since 5.30 in the morning and bathed the city in a soft yellow light. It was so nice to walk the empty streets. Merchants started just to open a few stalls, No tourist in sight. We it felt like we had the place to ourselves.
We walked past all the known landmarks and Chris was able to shoot some good photos without many people in them. When we arrived at the Kalon Complex and saw that the doors were already open.
We paid the small entrance fee and had the Courtyard and Kalon Mosque to ourselves. A lot of renovations were going on and we saw that the way to the Iconic Kalon Minaret, an impressive 47 meters high, was roped off and under construction. Too bad, the view from up above would have been great.
We know that Inom will tell us all about the history of each place later duting the day, so we just let the serene early morning atmosphere sink in and Chris went photo hunting through town.
After 1,5 hours we were back at our nice little hotel and met Inom there for breakfast. We tried some new things, blini with a spinach and pumpkin filling. Hard boiled Quail eggs, and Chris had a dejà – vu as one of the local breakfast specialty is pancake with a quark like filling and cherry jam on top. He said that his mom loved those in Prague.
Our first stop on our walking city tour was the Emir‘s forteress, called the Ark. This is the oldest building in town and was consecutively lived in from the 5th centruy until 1920 when the Red Army bombed it.
It has impressive outer walls and today 80% are in ruins. The other 20% were restored and serve as an open air museum today. An old Mosque, the kings coronation and reception court and some smaller buildings still exist but the rest is a dirt mound, albeit one with a fantastic view across the entire city.
Leaving the Ark, we headed to the nearby Bolo Hauz Mosque, the Emir‘s official place of worship. Noteworthy are the wood carved pillars that are one of hte finest in Central Asia.
We took some time to explore all the different angles. Heading back towards the city center, we were ready for a coffee break on a nice terrace overlooking the Kalon square with it‘s gigantic minaret.
Fun fact: all the tables had used horse shoes inlaid in them for good luck.
We then went into the Kalon complex. The first think that draws all eyes is the Minaret. Built in 1129 by one of the ruing Khans, it was the tallest building in Central Asia at the time with a nearly 10 meter wide base and even reeds to make it earthquake proof. It has 106 steps inside but is only accessible through a small bridge from the main Kalon Mosque complex but has been closed to tourists for years – so we thought. Turns out Inom had a surprise in his pocket for us.
Inside the great entrance portal of the Kalon mosque is an inner courtyard ringed with a two storey series of balconies and rooms, most of the roped off due to reconstruction work going on. The mosque itself was open and like in Samarkand, tiled with beautiful blue tiles and had two towers with shiny turquoise tiles right and left. It was built in the 16th century and is big enough for up to 10.000 people. It is still an active mosque today.
Opposite the mosque and minaret is the Mir-i-Arab Medressa an astounding building but as it is still an active school, it is closed to tourists.
Wandering through the three ancient bazaar buildings we were surprised how always a small air flow was going on that made the 33°C degrees more pleasant. We had one more stop before breaking for lunch and that was a pair of older buildings oppsite each other, both Medrassas. The Uglugbek Medrassa we just saw from the outside, while the Abdul Aziz Khan Medrassa is one of the few buildings that havn’t been renovated much. Most of the buildings in town look newly renovated, nearly like a backdrop of a movie scene rather than stemming from the 16h century.
In the Abdul Aziz Khan Medrassa we fund also some wonderful hand crafted table runners, one thing that we find easy and useful to bring from our various travels.
We had a quick and yummy Chicken Kebap lunch with fresh bread and salads before heading back to the hotel for a quick fresh up, blog writing and shower session.
At 4 PM we headed out again and Inom led us through a maze of smaller streets, away from the city center.
Wondering where we would end up, all of a sudden a small square opened up in front of us and in the middle stood a very picturesque building called Char Minar.
Originally that was an entrance building to a long gone large medrassa. Char Minar has four small towers to symbolize the tolerance of each of the major religions at the time. Christianity, Islam, Judaeism and Zoroastrism (similar to Bhuddism). We climbed up to the top roof to see the towers close up.
Afterwards we ambled through the jewish quarter, small alleys with houses hidden behind big closed metag gates. In one place homes of three jewish families sharing some common space, was converted into a hotel and had a very charming interior courtyard and a common breakfast room dated back to the 16th century.
We headed back to the center and stood before Lyabi Hauz, a large origial pool of water shaded by old Mulbery trees ripe with fruit. We hadn‘t eaten Mulberries before. They come in white and black fruits and taste very sweet but good. There is so much fruit on those trees that is simply drops to the floor making for a sticky affair crossing the walkways underneath them. Small coffee and snack shops line the pool and everyone enjoys sitting here and esacpe the sun. The plaza dates back to the 16th century as do the trees.
The square is framed on one side by the Nadir Divanbegi Medrassa, now converted into a enter for Uzbek folklore dancing and fashion show twice a day. Originally it was a caravanserai for the trading merchants before it was converted into a Medressa. It has a lovely courtyard and a surround balcony with a number of study rooms on the second floor.
On the other side of the Lyabi Hauz is the Kukeldash Medressa. One of the few non renovated buildings. It dates back to 1569 and was the biggest Islamic school in Central Asia at that time. We climbed up some very narrow and old stairs to the second floor and made our way through a series of stair cases and low ceilinged passages to the front of the Medrassa onto a little balcony overlooking the square. Not many tourists get to enjoy that view as we normally would never have ventured that far. Again we were grateful to have Inom with us who seemed to know every nook and cranny.
On the third side of Lyabi Hauz we saw the Nadir Divanbegi Khanaka, a Sufi cloister used in religious ceremonies and scientific debates at the time.
We worked up some appetite by now and slowly headed to our dinner place right overlooking the Poi Kalon (Kalon square). The evening light was soft and yelow. Wandering onto Poi Kalon with it‘s stunning Kalon Minaret, Inom asked us to wait a bit and disappeared in the entrance of the Mosque. After a while he came back and motioned to us to follow him. He somehow managed to convince one of the guards to let us to climb the minaret tower.
Esther did not have the suitable footwear on but Chris happily went with inom and a guard to climb up 106 steps to the top of the tower.
We are not sure how many tourists neoticed a quick dash of 3 people across a little bridge or some faces on top of the Minaret, but we felt really proviledged to have been given that opportunity to look onto the square from the birds perspective.
Chris in person and Esther in form of his pictures. After this unexpected bonus excursion, we went to our roof top terrace restaurant overlooking the Kalon square with an excellent view onto the Minaret and Mir i Arab Medrassa at sunset.
We had a wonderful balmy evening, good food, nice wine, nice company and a grandiose view.
As we needed to get up at 2.40 AM that night to catch our sleeper car train to Bukhara, we retired early to get a few hours of sleep.
Summarizing Bukhara, it is am ancient, impressive city steeped in history and if you pick the right times and spots, you can see so much more and it grows on you, as long as you avoid the crowds that can transform the whole place into some kind of Touristan which can easily put a damper on everything.
Nach einem typischen Wüstensonnenuntergang und etwas lokaler Musik am Lagerfeuer am Abend zuvor hatten wir eine kurze Nacht auf extrem harten Matratzen im Qizilkum Jurtenlager. In der Folge schmerzten unsere Knochen – oder ist es doch das Alter? Vielleicht sollten wir das nächste Mal doch unsere aufblasbaren Therm-a-Rest-Matratzen mitnehmen?
Wir hatten entschieden, dass es für einen richtigen Wüstenausflug einen ordentlichen Kamelritt bräuchte. Wir bestiegen also unsere Kamele Nr. 12 und 25 (der Kamelführer erklärte uns, dass die Kamele nur Nummern, keine Namen, hatten).
Chris taufte seines Fuchur (es hatte dieselben weißen Haarspitzen auf dem Kopf wie der Drache aus dem Film “Die unendliche Geschichte”), und Esther nannte ihres Vokuhila, da es vorne kurz geschnittenes und hinten langes Haar hatte.
Beide waren ziemlich groß und mitten im Fellwechsel, daher sahen sie etwas struppig aus, wirkten aber gut genährt und zufrieden. Auf ihnen zu sitzen, wenn sie aufstehen oder sich hinlegen, ist eine wackelige Angelegenheit, aber wir haben es gut gemeistert.
Auf ging’s zu unserem Halbtagesausflug zum nahegelegenen Aydarkul-See. In gemächlichem Tempo schunkelten wir mit unserem Kamelführer los, um etwa 12 km durch die wüstenartige, trockene Gegend zu reiten. Es war sehr friedlich und ruhig. Wir sahen eine Reihe von Vögeln, hauptsächlich Insektenfresser, Erdhörnchen, die in der Gegend herumflitzten, eine neugierige Schildkröte, einen ängstlichen Hasen und einige freche Eidechsen.
Als wir am See ankamen, wartete Inom bereits mit unserem Gepäck aus dem Jurtenlager auf uns. Er hatte es vorgezogen mit dem Auto zu fahren satt auf einem Kamel zu reiten. Gemeinsam mit etlichen lokalen Familien machten wir eine Pause in einem Gebäude auf einer Klippe oberhalb des Sees – offenbar der ideale Ort für einen Sonntagsausflug.
Es stellte sich heraus, dass die Einheimischen sonntags gerne ihre gesamte Familie mitnehmen und einen Tisch mit Kochgelegenheit an diesem Aussichtspunkt reservieren. Unser Jurtenlager-Team kochte hier ebenfalls, und so saßen wir oben auf den Klippen, in einer angenehmen Brise, zufrieden und erfreuten uns an unseren köstlichen Salaten und gefüllten Paprika.
Wir schlenderten dann zum Sandstrand hinunter. Zu unserer Überraschung war das Wasser ziemlich warm. Der Aydarkul-See ist ein riesiger Süßwassersee mit leicht erhöhtem Salzanteil, ideal zum Schwimmen und Bootfahren. Da er etwas abseits der üblichen Touristenrouten lag, waren wir im Grunde die einzigen Nicht-Usbeken. Wir machten einen schönen Spaziergang am Strand, bevor wir uns auf den Weg nach Buchara machten.
Chris konnte Inom überzeugen ihn eine Weile fahren zu lassen. Da die Straße kerzengerade und von guter Qualität war, war das einfach. Sobald die Straße schlechter wurde, wollte Inom dann doch lieber selber das Steuer übernehmen.
Ein paar Mal mussten wir um Schildkröten herumfahren, die versuchten, die Straße zu überqueren. Einmal hielten wir an und halfen zwei Schildkröten auf die andere Seite, nachdem wir gesehen hatten, wie ein großes Auto beinahe über eine drübergefahren wäre. Das arme Dinge machte dabei drei Saltos, bevor Chris sie auf die sichere Seite brachte.
Nach einer Weile kamen wir in Nurata City an, ein kurzer Zwischenstop auf dem Weg nach Buchara.
Hier gibt es zwar nicht viel zu sehen, aber wir wollten uns ein wenig die Beine vertreten. Es gibt eine Ruinen einer einst mächtigen Festung, die von Alexander dem Großen erbaut wurde und von der nur noch Lehmmauern übrig sind.
Die andere Sehenswürdigkeit ist die heilige Quelle von Cashma, zu der Pilger kommen, um Behälter mit heiligem Wasser aus der Quelle zu füllen.
Das Wasser ist sehr sauber, und viele heilige Forellen schwimmen darin. Für ein paar Cent kaufen die Menschen leere 5-Liter-Behälter, um so viel heiliges Wasser mit nach Hause zu nehmen, wie sie tragen können. Ein interessanter Anblick.
Unser nächster Zwischenstopp war bei einigen wenig bekannten Felsen, die einige tausend Jahre alte Petroglyphen zeigten, darunter Kamele, Schafe und einige Menschen. Leider ritzen Vandalen aufgrund fehlenden Schutzes in die Felsen hinein, ignorieren oder zerstören dabei sogar die alten Bilder.
Schließlich kamen wir am frühen Abend in Buchara an, einer weiteren dualen Seidenstraßenstadt. Mehr dazu in unserem nächsten Beitrag.
Wir checkten in unser nettes kleines Gästehaus am Rande der Altstadt ein und machten uns auf, einen Abend auf einer Dachterrasse mit wunderschöner Aussicht und einem sehr schönen Sonnenuntergang zu genießen, während wir einen kalten weißen Wein schlürften und einem überraschend guten Quartett lauschten, das usbekische traditionelle Lieder sowie einige bekannte Klassiker spielte.
Wir sind neugierig darauf, mehr zu erkunden, aber es war ein langer Tag, und wir wollten ein wenig Schlaf auf einer angenehmeren – weicheren Matratze nacholen.
Weiter zu Tag 13
After a nice desert sunset and some local music on the camp fire the evening before, we had a short night on extremely hard yurt matresses, our bones were aching but a good breakfast at the Qizilkum Yurt camp. Maybe we should start taking our thermarest blow up matresses next time after all?
We decided that it would not be a desert vacation without a proper camel ride. We mounted our camels Nr. 12 and 25 (the camel guide told us the camels only had numbers not names).
Chris called his Fuchur (had the same white shock of hair on top of his head like the dragon from the movie: The Neverending Story) and I called mine Vokuhila as he had his fringe short in the front (VOrne KUrz) and hair long on his neck (HInten LAng).
Both were quite tall an in the middle of shedding their winter coat. So they looked a bit shaggy, but well fed and content. To sit on them when they get up or down ist a wobbly affair, but we managed just fine.
We booked a half day trek to the nearby Aydarkul Lake. In sedate pace we set out with our camel guide to ride through the deserty, dry areas for about 12 km. It was very peaceful and quiet. We saw a number of birds, bee eaters mostly, ground squirels that chased each other into their burrows, a turtoise looking curiously at us, a scared rabbit and some cheeky lizards.
Once arrived at the lake, Inom already waited for us with our luggage from the yurt camp. We were on top of a cliff overlooking the lake together with many local families as it was Sunday.
Turns out that on Sundays locals love taking out their entire family and book a table with a cooking space at this lookout spot. Our yurt camp also provided food and so we at on top of the cliffs, in a nice breeze, happily munching on some great salads and stuffed peppers.
We then wandered down to the beach which was Sandy and to our surpsise the water was fairly warm. Aydarkul Lake is a huge sweet water lake ideal for swimming and boating. As it was a bit out of the way of the normal tourist routes, we basically the only non Uzbek people here. We had a nice stroll on the beach before heading out on our way to Buchara.
Chris weasled his way to have Inom let him drive a while. As the road was dead straight and good quality, that was easy. As soon as the road got worse, Inom wanted to take the wheel again.
A couple of times we sverved around turtles trying to cross the road. We stopped once and helped two turtles to the other side after we saw that a big car nearly ran over one and made it spin on his shell. The poor creature.
After a little while we arrived in Nurata City on our way to Bukhara.
There are only a few things to see here so we stopped to strech our legs. One is the ruins of a once mighty fotress built by Alexander the Great of which only mud walls remain.
The other is the holy spring of Cashma where arrive on their pilgrimage to fill containers with holy water from the spring.
The water is very clean and many holy trout swim in it. For a few cents people buy empty 5 liter containers to take home as much holy water as they can carry. Quite a sight.
Our next road stop was some little known rocks that depicted again some tousands of years old petroglyphs showing camels, sheep and some people. Unfortunately due to zero protection, vanadals just scratch into the rocks as well, ignoring or even destroying the old images.
Finally in early evening we arrived in Bukhara. Another dual silk road city. More in our next days post.
We checked into our nice little guest house at the edges of the inner city and set out to enjoy an evening on a roof top terrace with beautiful views and a very nice sunset while sipping some cold white wine and listening to a surprisingly good quartett playing Uzbek traditional songs as well as some well known classics.
We are curious to explore more but it was a long day and we need the sleep on a nicer = softer matress.
Nach dem üblichen reichhaltigen Frühstück freuten wir uns darüber, dass der Regen aufgehört hatte und der Himmel langsam aufklarte. Wir packten also unseren kleinen Rucksack mit etwas Wasser und Müsliriegeln und begannen, in eine andere Richtung als am Vortag bergauf zu wandern.
Unser Ziel war eine Felswand mit 3.000 Jahre alten Petroglyphen im Nationalpark. Wir wanderten durch kleine Dörfer und sahen, wie sorgfältig die Menschen ihre kleinen Gemüsegärten pflegten. In kleinen aquäduktartigen ausgehobenen Pfaden floß Wasser und bildete kleine Bäche, die manchmal kilometerlang von oberhalb der Dörfer in einem gleichmäßigen Gefälle von 5% abwärts flossen. Eine jahrhundertealte Technik um noch heute im Sommer die Felder zu bewässern. Diese Aquädukte müssen jedes Jahr gereinigt und repariert werden. Oft fließt das Wasser nur bis Juli in den Bächen, sodass bis dahin die runden, steinernen Zisternen der Dorfbewohner aufgefüllt werden müssen. Für Trinkwasser gibt es heutzutage Plastikrohre, aber die alten Aquäduktwege werden immer noch zur Bewässerung der Felder genutzt.
In einem Dorf sahen wir, wie Briketts aus Tierdung hergestellt und an der Seite der Ställe getrocknet werden. Sobald sie trocken genug sind, werden sie eingesammelt und für den Winter in einem Schuppen gelagert.
Alte Traktorreifen dienen aufgeschnitten als Futtertröge, alte Autoreifen als Schubkarrenräder. Hier wird nichts verschwendet und möglichst viel recycelt. Und erneut waren wir erstaunt, wie wenig Müll herumlag.
Wir wanderten etwa sieben Kilometer flussaufwärts, als wir zu einer seltsamen Anordnung kamen. Das Schild gab uns einen ersten Hinweis, aber erst dank Inoms erklärung wurde uns klar, dass dieses Set an Werkzeugen für die Brandbekämpfung gedacht ist. Es besteht aus fünf größeren mit Wasser gefüllten Plastikflaschen. Dazu zwei große Stöcke mit dicken Filzenden, offenbar um das Feuer auszutreten, und noch eine Schaufel und zwei Besen. Wir waren uns nicht sicher, wie viel Feuer sich damit bekämpfen lässt.
Im Nationalpark kletterten wir einen felsigen Hang hinauf. Alle Felsen hier bestehen aus Schiefer, der leicht bricht. Ohne Inom, der uns den Weg zeigte, hätten wir die Petroglyphen nie gefunden, da es keinen ausgeschilderten Pfad gibt. Wir waren die einzigen Besucher hier, abgesehen von ein paar Einheimischen, die wir auf dem Weg dorthin getroffen haben. Englisch spricht hier niemand, gelegentlich kommt man mit Russisch weiter.
Unter den Petroglyphen konnten wir eingeritzte Darstellungen eines Mannes und einiger Mufflonschafe in der Felswand eines schwärzlichen Schiefergesteins erkennen. Das frühzeitliche Kunstwerk muss einst größer gewesen sein, da einige Felsen drumherum abgbrochen sind. Es gibt keinerlei Schutz vor Touristen oder dem Wetter. Trotzdem haben die Reliefs die Jahrtausenden gut überdauert.
Nach einer kurzen Pause nahmen wir flußabwärts einen anderen Weg und stießen zufällig auf einige große, fußballgroße weiße Pilze. Sie sahen aus wie gigantische Boviste und schienen sehr selten zu sein. Inom konnte sich nicht erinnern, jemals so große Pilze gesehen zu haben.
Auf dem Heimweg zum Mittagessen begegneten wir einigen Einheimischen auf ihren Pferden, Eseln oder zu Fuß. Inom begrüßte jeden einzelnen von ihnen per Handschlag und führte mit allen ein kurzes Gespräch. Die Menschen hier sind sehr freundlich, sobald man sie in ihrer Sprache anspricht.
Im allgemeinen hatten wir den Eindruck, wenn wir alleine unterwegs waren, dass die Menschen hier nie lächelten oder gar lachten. Ob das daran liegt, weil das Leben hier in den Bergen so hart ist, oder ob sie von Natur aus eher zurückhaltend sind weil unser Usbekisch auf eine handvoll Worte beschränkt ist und sie hier nahezu kein Englisch sprechen? Inom, unser Alleinunterhalter, quatschte jeden so lange voll, bis ein paar Goldzähne aufblitzten.
Nach einer gut vierstündigen Wanderung erreichten wir wieder unser Gästehaus, um ein letztes Mittagessen hier zu uns zu nehmen. Dann packten wir unsere Taschen und machten uns auf den Weg zu einem Jurtenlager für unsere nächste Nacht.
Wir erreichten unser neues Zuhause gegen fünf Uhr Nachmittags. Die Fahrt verlief wieder ereignislos, die bergige, grünliche Landschaft wich einer gelblichen, wüstenartigen und flachen Landschaft.
Unsere Jurte ist sehr geräumig und bietet Platz für vier Personen, daher ist es ein Luxus, so viel Platz für uns zwei alleine zu haben. Und zum Glück war für morgen wieder Sonnenschein angekündigt.
Weiter zu Tag 12
After the usual filling breakfast we were happy to see that the rain had stopped and the weather even looked brighter than we had hoped. We prepared our little backpack with some water and muesli bars and started hiking uphill into a different diretion from the day before.
Our goal was a rock face with 3.000 years old petroglyphs inside a national park. We hiked through small villages and saw how meticulously peple were maintaining their small vegetable gardens. All water was flowing in little aqueduct style excavated paths creating little streams frowing sometimes kilometers long from upstream in a steady decline of 5% downhill to each village. This was a centuries old tradition and those aqueducts have to be cleaned and repaired each year. Often water only flows in the stream until July, so until then the round stone walled cisterns of the villagers need to be filled up. For drinking water there are plastic pipes nowadays, but the old aqueduct paths are still in use today for watering the fields.
In one village we saw how fire briquets were made out of animal dung and dried on the side of the stables until they were dry enough to be collected and stored in a shed for the winter.
Old tractor tyres served as mangers, old car tyres as wheelbarrow wheels. Nothing goes to waste here. And again we were amazed at how little trash was lying around.
We hiked upstream for about seven kilometers, when we came to a strange looking display. A sign clearly indicated that this set of tools is for fire fighting. It consisted of five larger bottles filled wiyth Water, ready to be used. Two large sticks with thick felt ends seemingly to put out the fire, a shovel and two brooms. Not sure how much fire you can fight with that.
Inside the nation park, we climbed up a rocky slope. All rocks here consist of slate and that breaks easily. So scrambling up a hill without a path, we would have never found the petroglyphs without Inom. No sing posting all the way and we were the only ones here other than a few locals that we saw.
The petroglyphs were etched depictions of a man and some mufflon sheep in the rockface of a blackish sheet rock. It must have been larger at one time as some rock has cumbled around it. It is not protected in any way from tourists or the weather. The etchings were still clearly visible.
After a short rest we took a slightly different path downstream, and happened to stumble over a few large, football size white mushrooms. They looked like gigantic bovists and seemed to be very rare. Inom did not recall having ever seen something as big as those.
Heading back home for lunch, we passed a few locals on their horses, donkeys or on foot. Inom greeted everyone by shaking their hand and having a small chat. People here are very friendly as soon as they were adressed in their language.
In general when it was only Chris and me, people here seemed to smile or laugh a lot less. They are naturally reserved, maybe because our Uzbek is so rudimentary and they do not speak English well here.
After a good four hours hike we arrived back in our guest house for a last lunch, packed our bags and headed out to dive to a yurt camp for our next night, where we arrived at around five PM that afternoon. The drive was uneventful, the mountainous, greenish landscape gave way to a yellowish, deserty and flat landscape.
Our Yurt is very spaceous and sleeps four, so it’s a luxury to have so much space to ourselves. Luckily the weather is supposed to be even better tomorrow.
Wir sind im Nieselregen aufgewacht. Es hatte die ganze Nacht geregnet. Tief hängende Wolken verdeckten die Aussicht. Unser Gästehaus wird von einer Familie betrieben, bei der alle Familienmitglieder, einschließlich der Kinder, mithelfen müssen um die Gäste zu bekochen, zu bedienen und aufzuräumen.
Die Zimmer sind einfach, aber sauber. Die Duschen sind im Wohnkomplex, aber die Toiletten sind draußen hinter dem Haus. Überraschenderweise gibt es ein gutes WLAN. Damit hatten wir nicht gerechnet. Orte, an denen man sich vollständig von der digitalen Welt abschotten kann, scheinen immer seltener zu werden. Vom Gastgeber haben wir erfahren, dass das Internet erst vor einem Jahr installiert worden ist. Natürlich klagte er darüber, wie schnell seine Kinder süchtig nach sozialen Medien geworden sind. Trotzdem gilt im Haus eine strikte Regel: Sie müssen den Gästen zu jeder Zeit zur Hand sein – solange muss jegliches Surfen ruhen.
Nach einem typischen Frühstück bestehend aus grünem Tee, Brot, Eiern, etwas Honig, Marmelade und hausgemachter Butter schlug Inom vor, dass wir uns auf den Weg machen, um uns die einheimischen Mufflon-Schafe anzusehen. Gleich in der Nähe von unserem Gästehaus leben ein paar Exemplare in einem eingezäunten Gehege, wo sie von Wissenschaftlern besser studiert werden können.
Wir zogen also unsere Regenkleidung an und machten uns in Begleitung des Familienhundes auf, die Umgebung zu erkunden.
Angekommen an einem großen Gehege, suchten wir den Hügel ab, bis wir einige Mufflon-Weibchen mit ihren Jungen entdecken konnten. Da wir wussten, dass die Männchen mit ihren beeindruckenden großen Hörnern nicht weit sein konnten, machten wir uns auf den Weg zur anderen Seite. Und da waren sie. Hoch auf einem Felsvorsprung standen die männlichen Schaf mit ihren beeindruckenden, spiralförmigen Hörnern. Die Nurata-Berge sind das größte Naturschutzgebiet in Usbekistan und beherbergen mehr als 10.000 Mufflon-Schafe. Sie dürfen in nur sehr begrenzte Kontingenten gejagt werden, um sie nicht weiter zu gefährden.
Als wir die Berge weiter erklommen, folgten wir einem Bach in ein Tal hinauf. Da der Bach gerade sehr viel Wasser führte konnten wir nicht verhindern, dass unsere Füße dabei klatschnass wurden. Dazu wurde der Regen heftiger, und so waren wir nach einer Weile trotz unserer Regenjacken ein wenig durchnässt.
Der Familienhund folgte uns treu auf dem ganzen Weg. Unterwegs kamen wir an mehreren Bauernhöfen vorbei, und Esther bemerkte, dass einige Hunde kupierte Ohren und Schwänze hatten, andere jedoch nicht. Es stellte sich heraus, dass männliche Hunde, die den Hof und in den Bergen die Schafe vor Wölfen schützen müssen, die Ohren und Schwänze abgeschnitten werden. Die Erklärung der Einheimischen: So können die Wölfe sie nicht an ihren Ohren packen und festhalten und riskieren dann auch keine Infektion. Weibliche Hunde hingegen bleiben zu Hause, daher werden ihre Schwänze und Ohren nicht kupiert.
Wir waren rechtzeitig zum Mittagessen in der Pension zurück wo ein einfaches Mahl auf uns wartete. Wie immer mit zwei Arten von Salaten dazu etwas Gemüse-Reis mit Fleisch obendrauf, alles wieder mal in sehr viel Öl gekocht.
Da die Wettervorhersage Regen für den Rest des Tages voraussagte und unsere Ausrüstung bereits nass war, entschieden wir uns für ein Nickerchen. Im Anschluss haben wir dann in der Küche bei der Zubereitung unseres Abendessens ausgeholfen und uns mit Inoms Hilfe über unsere Famillien ausgetauscht.
Auf dem Menü standen usbekische Teigtaschen namens Manti. Der Teig, bestehend aus Wasser, Salz und Mehl, wird sehr dünn ausgerollt und in zehn cm große Quadrate geschnitten. Dann wird eine kleine Handvoll Füllung in die Mitte gelegt und die Ecken so zusammengelegt, sodass eine Teigtasche entsteht, die wie ein kleines Boot aussieht. Die Füllung besteht aus klein gehackten Zwiebeln, Kartoffeln, Dill und einigen kleinen Stücken Rindfleisch. Sobald die Bötchen geformt sind, kommen die Manti in einen Dampfgarer mit mehreren Ebenen, um im Anschluss im Wasserdampf zu garen.
Wir brauchten ein paar Anläufe, um die Teigtaschen richtig zu formen, aber wir hatten den Dreh schnell raus.
Es war eine nette Art, einen regnerischen Nachmittag zu verbringen und dabei das eigene Essen zuzubereiten. Die Manti waren lecker. Inom zauberte eine Flasche Weißwein und Wodka hervor, und so verbrachten wir einen unterhaltsamen Abend und quatschten bis spät in die Nacht.
Am folgenden Tag sollte es zumindest trocken bleiben, und so planten wir für den Morgen eine Wanderung zu Petroglyphen im Nationalpark.
Weiter zu Tag 11
We woke up to a drizzle. It had rained all night. Low hanging clouds obscured the view. Our guest house was family run, everyone including the kids were helping to cook, serve the guests and clean up.
Our room was basic but clean. Shared showers were in the house, but the toilets outside, behind the house. But surprisingly it had a good wireless network. We hadn’t expected that. The places where we can escape completely from the digital world become far and few between it seems. The owner informed us that they had recently installed internet connection, just a year ago. However, his children swiftly became addicted to social media. Despite this, the father maintains a strict rule: they must attend to the guests whenever required.
After a typlical breakfast consisting of green tea, bread, eggs, some honey, jam and home made butter Inom proposed that we head out and see the native mufflon sheep that are being kept for a while to be studied, then the animals get exchanged for others.
We donned our rain gear and set out in company of the family dog to explore the surroundings.
Arrived at a large enclosure, we searched the hillside until we found a few mufflon females with their little ones. Knowing that the males with their big impressive horns can’t be far away we made our way to the other side. And here they were. Standing tall on a rocky outcrop was the biggest male sheep with impressive spiralled horns. The nurata mountains are the largest nature reserve and more than 10.000 mufflon sheep live here. They can only be shot in select quantities as to not endanger them.
Heading up to the larger mountains we followed a stream up into a valley. As we needed to cross it with a good amount of water we could not manage without getting soaking wet feet. To top that it started raining in earnest and as we made our way back to the guest house we got pretty wet, despite our rain jackets.
The family dog has followed us faithfully all the way. We had passed several farm houses on our way and Esther noticed that some dogs had their ears cut and tails docked, others did not. Turns out that male dogs, supposedly as they may have to fight off wolves when hearding sheep in the mountains, have their tails and ears cut off (explenation by the locals: that way the wolves are unable to bite and hold onto their ears). Female dogs are staying at home, so their tails and ears ar not cut.
Arriving back in time for lunch we enjoyed a simple lunch, always with two types of salads and some veggie rice cooked with a lot of oil.
As the weather forecast was predicting rain for the remainder of the day and with our gear already being wet, we decided to take a nap and then help a bit in the kitchen to prepare our evening meal.
On the menu were Uzbek dumplings called Manti. Dough made from water, salt and flour gets rolled out very thinly and cut into 10 cm squares. Then a small hand full of filling is placed in the middle and the corners closed a certain way to form a dumpling that looked like a little boat. The filling consisted of small chopped onions, potatoes, dill and some pieces of beef cut into small pieces. Once the boat shape was formed, they were placed in a multi rack steamer to be cooked.
It took a bit of trial and error to close the dumpling properly but we got the hang of it quite quickly.
It was a nice way to spend a rainy day and prepare ones own food. It tasted very nice when we had dinner. Inom magically produced a bottle of white wine and vodka and so we had an amusing evening chatting until late into the night. The next day the weather looked to be at least dry and so we had planned on doing our trek to the petroglyphs in the morning.
Wir machten uns früh auf den Weg, denn vor uns lag eine vierstündige Fahrt von Samarkand nach Hayat in den Nuratau-Bergen. Die Fahrt verlief ziemlich ereignislos. Die Straße ist zu Beginn gut. Die versprenkelten Dörfer auf dem Weg sind unscheinbar und eher funktional und nicht sonderlich hübsch. Die bevorzugte Dacheindeckung besteht aus Sandwichpanelen aus Blech oder Wellblech, die Hauswände sind entweder aus grauen Ytong-Blöcken oder weiß gestrichen. Viele Gebäude machen einen unfertigen Eindruck, als hätte der Besitzer die Arbeit eingestellt, sobald er eingezogen ist.
Wohin wir auch schauten, überall sind jede Menge Neubauten zu sehen. Industrie-, Gewerbe- und Wohngebäude. Wir fuhren auch durch einige kleinere Städte, und wieder fiel uns auf, wie sauber alles hier ist. Kein Müll am Straßenrand, keine herumtreibenden Plastiktüten in der Steppe. Kein Glas oder Dosen, die über die Straßen rollen, wie es in so viel anderen Ländern zu sehen ist. Die Usbeken geben sich wirklich auffallend Mühe ihr Land sauber und ordentlich zu halten.
Die Landschaft die wir durchqueren, ist komplett flach, und während zu Beginn noch einige Felder die Straße säumten, wurde die Landschaft umso trockener und steiniger, je weiter wir nach Norden kamen. Die Landwirtschaft ging von Feldfrüchten auf Viehzucht über.
Herden brauner und schwarzer Schafe und Ziegen, einige Rinder, sehr viel mehr war nicht zu sehen. Je weiter wir uns von den größeren Städten entfernten, desto schlechter wurde die Straße, bis sie fast so schlecht war wie in Simbabwe, mit so vielen Schlaglöchern, dass unser Fahrer ständig ausweichen musste, um die größeren Löcher zu umfahren.
Langsam tauchte links von uns eine Bergkette auf. Die Nurata-Berge sind Usbekistans erster Versuch das Feld des Ökotourismus aufzumachen. Es gibt hier viele Wanderwege mit hübschen Tälern und Gipfeln. Leider fing es bei unserer Ankunft an zu regnen, der Panoramablick hielt sich für uns also in Grenzen. Nach vier Stunden Fahrt hatten wir unser Ziel erreichte: eine kleine Familien Pension in Hyat, einem kleinen Bergdorf mitten in den Bergen.
Wir kamen genau zur Mittagszeit an und bekamen ein einfaches Mittagessen mit frischem Salat und gefüllten Teigtaschen serviert. Eine Gruppe Schweizer Reisender war bereits dort, und kurz nach uns kam eine größere Gruppe Russen an. Die Pension wirkte damit ziemlich belebt. Wir bekamen ein einfaches Zimmer mit zwei Betten zugeteilt, eine grelle, bläulich leuchtende LED-Glühbirne erhellte den Raum. Eine Steckdose suchten wir zunächst vergeblich, entdeckten sie dann aber neben der Tür, versteckt hinter den Handtüchern. Der Handyempfang in den Bergen ist mit unserem Provider Beeline (normalerweise besser als Uztelecom) null, aber zu unserer Überraschung gibt es Internet über WLAN.
Nach dieser langen Fahrt und dem Mittagessen hatten wir das Gefühl, dass wir unsere Beine vertreten müssten, also zogen wir unsere Wanderkleidung und die Regenmäntel über, und folgten einfach dem Weg bergauf zur linken der Pension. Der Weg führte uns vorbei an ein paar Bauernhäusern, bis wir zu einer Aussichtsplattform kamen. Von hier aus war die Aussicht trotz des Regens großartig. Viele grüne Hügel, kleine Bauernhöfe und viele weidende Tiere.
Das Eselgeschrei und das Blöken kleiner Ziegen, die nach ihren Müttern rufen, sind allgegenwärtig. Nach etwa 45 Minuten waren wir zurück in unserer Pension. Nach dieser kleinen Wanderung fühlten wir uns deutlich besser. Ein bisschen Bewegung war nach der langen Fahrt eine Wohltat.
Aufgrund des Wetters und der Tatsache, dass unser Guide Inom erst zum Abendessen wieder zu uns stoßen sollte, beschlossen wir, den restlichen regnerischen Nachmittag mit Schreiben, Lesen und Dösen zu verbringen.
Weiter zu Tag 10