Silk Road, Samarkand to Fergana

Graptolite's Sailing Log
Martyn Pickup & Heike Richter
Fri 22 Apr 2011 16:48
44:04.61N 012:34.35E Rimini, Italy, Friday 22nd April 2011. The skipper is
in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Samarkand has some of the biggest and best mosques, medrassas and mausoleums
on the Silk Road and we stayed there for four nights losing only one day
because of intestinal irregularity despite frequent internal disinfection
with vodka.

Then it was another drive to Tashkent where the trip was supposed to end but
we decided to carry on eastwards for a couple of days into the Fergana
Valley as we had heard it was not as dangerous as we had been originally
told. The drive into the valley was spectacular with the Pamir Alay Range to
the south and the Tian Shan Mountains to the north.

There were stops at a ceramics factory in Rishton and a silk works in
Margilon and several bazaar stops where we stocked up on the usual Silk Road
goods. Our driver was persuaded with dollars to also take us to Andijon in
the far east. Andijon being the site of a recent government massacre of
Islamic fundamentalists was likely the worst place but everything turned out
alright. Later on the 22nd we flew back to Tashkent. Our arranged driver
there never showed up but we haggled for a cheap rusty Lada taxi to our
hotel for a short nap before returning to Berlin. There is to be a lunch
stopover in our old stamping ground of Istanbul.

M