The Cube

Pre-travel
 - Some notes on applying for Uzbekistan visa
 - Getting free accommodation during transit from China Southern Airlines
 - Booking Uzbekistan Airways online
 - Breakdown of travel days and links to accommodation.
 - Uzbekistan's favourite sons and some random tips on travelling around Uzbekistan


China: Urumqi
Day 1 - Layover in Urumqi


Kyrgyzstan: Bishkek
Day 2 - Getting to Bishkek and things to do in Bishkek


Kyrgyzstan: Kochkor/Song Kul
Day 3
 - Getting to Kochkor and organising things with CBT
 - Lunch in Kochkor before travelling to Song Kul


Kyrgyzstan: Song Kul
Day 4 - Yurt stay and things to do at Song Kul


Kyrgyzstan: Bishkek
Day 5 and 6 - Back to Bishkek for Kyrgyzstan's Independence Day, Ala Archa National Park and Osh Bazaar


Day 7 - Mini fright at Manas Airport and errand day in Tashkent.


Uzbekistan: Tashkent
Day 7 and 8 - Things to see/do in Tashkent
Day 9 - Travelling to Khiva


Uzbekistan: Khiva
Day 10 - Day trip to Elliq Qala
Day 11 and 12 - Things to see/do in Khiva


Uzbekistan: Khiva/Bukhara
Day 13 - Wonder if the somsa I didn't get to eat is yummy


Uzbekistan: Bukhara
Day 14 and 15: Things to see/do in Bukhara, complete with a hammam experience


Uzbekistan: Nurata/Kyzyl Kum Desert
Day 16 - Pit stop at Nurata before a yurt overnighting in Kyzyl Kum Desert


Uzbekistan: Nuratau Mountains
Day 17
 - A visit to Lake Aydar and maybe a Kazakh village of Dungalak.
 - Then we had a homestay at Asraf Village


Uzbekistan: Nuratau Mountains/Samarkand
Day 18 - A quick visit to Uhum Bazaar before we were off to Samarkand


Uzbekistan: Samarkand
Day 19 and 20 - Things to see/do in Samarkand.


Kazakhstan: Tashkent/Almaty
Day 21 - Travelling day

Kazakhstan: Almaty
Day 22 and 23: Things to see/do in Almaty and a super sized "small plate chicken" - xiaopanji (小盘鸡).


China: Urumqi
Day 24 - Overnight transit in Urumqi, dashed through Guangzhou before landed home in Melbourne.


Side note: Ok, this is the last of my scheduled posts. I've been staggering on the published date and have to be on a break now... to study again. Got to pass this exam... back soon! ^^

The calm after the chaos

Because Paul asked, here's a very long winded version of what happened at Manas Airport...

This picture was nothing indicating of the chaotic, stressful checked in we endured before getting to this waiting area.

It started out as we waiting for the taxi to come and pick us up from the hostel. Our flight from Bishkek to Tashkent was at 7.00 am. Taking into consideration of checking in time and travelling time to the airport, we requested for the taxi to come at 4:30 am. The taxi came late, not overly late but late enough to make us a little uneasy but we were still ok.

Then, he did what most drivers in Bishkek did (except the driver we went to Ala Archa with) - asking us for payment for him to get some petrol for his taxi. Really, this was at 4ish in the morning. His car needed some petrol. We paid up and he stopped by the petrol station to fuel up. Then he decided that it was a good idea to get some air into the tyres. By this time we are getting really worried and asked him how long it would take. The few more minutes he took felt ages.

After it was all done, he probably get the hint that we were worried of running late. He picked up the speed, I glanced at the speedometer, it went at least 140 km/hr (~gulp). Then on off he would slow all the way down and I caught the speed limitation sign board at the side. This cycle went on for a while till we reached the airport. By this time we had less than 2 hours and we have not yet checked in.

When we sighted the airport building, there was a traffic jam all the way to the departure entrance because there was a car park on the same route. Even if we were willing to carry our heavy backpack and attempt a dash to the entrance, there was not really an option because it was gated all the way. If there was a panic button to make things move faster, we would've hit that many a times already.

Good news was there was a still looong queue at the check in counter and it was still open for check in. Super bad news was there wasn't a proper queue, everybody was squeezing and pushing to the front of the queue. I totally did not expect that in an airport though since then I have heard that it was a norm for certain airports. Ahem. Then I saw one of the airport staff took out his mobile phone and took photo of the crowd, i.e. us... = =""

We were in the crowd for a good one hour before we got to the front. To be exact, sis next in "queue" at one of the check in counter and there was a rather big sized man in between us. He was actually queuing for a different counter to our right though he stood much closer to the counter on the left which we were going for. He was actually taking up a lot of space, with his hand on a trolley with luggage bags which he placed a little further away from himself on purpose, likely to "safe guard" his and his travel mates' space. So the trolley was on his right side. As we were queuing to a different counter, there wasn't any conflict even if he let me passed and to be behind sis. Also, we booked our flight tickets together, so there was only one ticket itinerary and we would need to check in together. Actually, even if he didn't let me pass, I would just need to pass my 13 kg backpack and passport to sis, also show my face to the check in staff.

Anyway, I tapped on his shoulder and asked if he could let me passed, at the same time pointed to the left where sis stood. He said something in a foreign language to me (sounds like Russian) and stood still. It was not "No" because I at least understand нет but definitely along the lines of no. So I continued to stand on my spot behind him. At one point he left a little too much space between himself and the trolley of luggage bags so I inched in between. Just trying to be cheeky :P

Ha! This was when all three of his travel mates and him started saying something to me loudly, probably making a point that I was trying to cut queue. I got a little annoyed because we were not even going for the same counter and I hardly had any space to stand since he was hogging more and more space. Mind you, I had a 13 kg backpack on my back this whole time due to lack of space (and one wonders why I am so short.. ok, lame joke). At this time, I told them I wasn't even going to the same line as them and he (referring to the big man) was hogging both lines, including the one he wasn't queuing for. I was speaking in English and they in Russian probably. LOL but apparently now they understood me and even looked a little apologetic, also the big man moved to let me pass.

Sis also had issues where the check in staff would let anyone who speaks Kyrgyz language or Russian to cut queue even though sis was right in front of her!

For some reason this reminded me of Calvin & Hobbes comic which said, "If you can’t win by reason …go for volume." = ="

Of course, with me able to document this and complete our 3 weeks holidays, we were successful in getting ourselves checked in albeit it was very stressful. So if you ever going to fly out of Manas International Airport, please allocate a huge time buffer!


Side note: 

Source: http://thecuriousbrain.com/?p=20313

I find the non (bread) fascinating... aren't they pretty?

Osh Bazaar is one of the largest bazaars in Bishkek. It is on the west side of the town. I've read that people cautioning on avoiding "undercover policemen" in Osh Bazaar and to be careful of belongings. Fortunately for us, we were not approached by any and people basically just left us alone, though there were many staring eyes. Mmm.. the people we met who chatted with us were rather surprised to learn that we are Malaysians, maybe not too many Malaysians travel to Kyrgyzstan, so the staring is probably unavoidable.

It was scorching hot so we didn't linger too long, bought some fruits and took another marshrutka back to the hostel. Public transports in Central Asia are driven without switching on the air conditioner, shared taxi included. So I was the sticky and smelly foreigner.

See the toilet rolls on the most left? That's the infamous toilet paper you find in public toilet.. there are good ones but BYO on the safe side ;)

Side note: Any plans for Christmas? 

Ala Archa National Park is an alpine national park in the Tian Shan mountains about 40 km south of Bishkek. This nature reserve spans about 20,000 hectares. Mountains, rivers and pine forests pretty much sum it up.


We initially approached the hostel for the cost of getting to Ala Archa, from memory they were charging about KGS4,000 to ferry us there and back, including waiting time. We read that sometimes taxi organised by hostel could be a little more expensive comparatively so we decided to try out luck to find one on the street.

We walked out of the hostel and found a taxi driver cleaning his taxi and asked for a price for back and forth trip to Ala Archa and travelling time. After bringing out the map and confirming where we are going (no Russian or Kyrgyz language skill, remember?) We managed to negotiate it to KGS3,000. I am not entirely sure how much is the going price to be honest but we felt comfortable and he definitely did not come across as will ditch us  up in the mountains.. lol..

Mr Taxi Driver's name is Miran. Miran was the only taxi driver that did not ask for any payment half way through the drive. One thing we find interesting was that all the taxi we been on had to stop by the petrol station on the way. This would be the time where they ask for the payment so that they could pay for the petrol. Every single time. Miran included. However the difference was Miran did not ask us to pay him at this point. In fact he came back with Snickers bars and Coke bottles, one of each of us. Pretty cool taxi driver huh? :)

Entrance fee to Ala-Archa isn't cheap, we paid KGS440 including car to get up to the hilly bits. Miran dropped us off and we start our little walk.

There are two basic trails that run through Ala Archa. There are other many more if you are doing proper trek but these are basic walks.


Trail 1: Ala Archa River Trail
Distance: 1.3 km
Difficulty: Suitable for beginners, walkers, families and children.

Trail 2: Waterfall & Racek Hut
Distance: 3.75 km to waterfall; 5.75 to Racek Hut.
Difficulty: Low to medium. General hikers able to pass some ascents. Continuing to Racek Hut is more difficult and should be approached by experienced hikers and climbers. Suitable for horses, not for mountain bikes.

A three ladies group pointed out the route to river for us, probably we very much look like we couldn't cope with anything more challenging. :P

Along the way going in, we met the above said 3 ladies group on their way out and another group of family visiting from Germany, one of them was born in Bishkek. That's all, so technically we pretty much have this part of national park to ourselves.






Miran waited for us for 3 hours (I think) so we had some spare time and decided to have a look at trail no 2: Waterfall & Racek Hut, 3.75 km to waterfall and 5.75 km to Racek Hut as well. Of course, we were nowhere near the waterfall. The ascents were quite significant comparatively to trail 1.

Perfect for a lunch break

On our way back to Bishkek, Miran stopped and told us about a mountain goat. This mountain goat, not a real one, of course.



Side note: Best thing today? Woke up in the morning and then realised it is a Sunday, so I can continue sleeping!  ^^

We got back to Kochkor from Song Kul on 31st August, Kyrgyzstan's Independence Day, low in funds and the money chargers were closed! Well, Kochkor is a small town but anyway, thank goodness for working ATM machine. ^^

Getting back to Bishkek is pretty much the same way - find a shared taxi (read: van) back to Bishkek from Kochkor. Yup, we were back to hot city of Bishkek from the cold weather. By the end of second day in Song Kul, the batteries in our cameras were flat and there was no charging point. So all the photos taken on this day were taken with a similarly low in juice seasoned iPhone 4.

By the time we got back to the hostel, it was late afternoon and hot (or course). So the balance of the day were spent doing some souvenir shopping and checked out the carnivals for Independence Day celebration.



Dinner was at the same national food restaurant near hostel. We had guero ganfan and jarenniy manty under the recommendation from the hostel receptionist.




Side note: Niece is learning a song on North America and I am looking forward to learn it from her soon! ^^

Kyrgyzstan is the first country we travelled to in Central Asia and rightly so as we want to fit in this yurt stay in Song Kul before the shepherds pack up to leave before it gets too cold. So we have fitted this rest & relax time at the beginning of our trip.


It hailed the first night we were at Song Kul. It was getting dark and sis and I thought we would do a quick run to the toilet before get comfortable in the bed. It is extra (x100) hard to get off the bed when it is cold. As we get out of the "door" (which is a layer of wool felt), ice started to pelt down on us. We didn't know how long it would last so we ran all the way to the toilet anyway. It is always located a little further away from any yurt for obvious reason. We woke up the next morning to see snow on the ground, just outside of the yurts.

Anyway, what do one do at Song Kul? When we reached the day before (day 1), it was already evening since we departed from Kochkor after lunch time and it was a 3 hours car ride. A little stroll around and it was dinner time and thereafter rained and hailed.

Most people only stay one night but we did two with plans to do a little trek. We decided to explore a little bit more around the lake before having an earlier lunch and start our way towards the mountains. If you do a little reading on Central Asia, one of the mountains that you would come across is Tian Shan mountains. We have initially thought since we are not going anywhere near the mountains, we have given up hopes on seeing the majestic mountains. However it turns out that the mountains we see around the lake are actually Tian Shan mountains.

People who ignore signs are everywhere...

As we approaching another row of yurts away from ours, we saw a couple of children chased after some chickens. Sis had a brilliant idea that she wanted to film the chickens run and decided to get me to chase after them too. = ="


One thing led to another and I was chasing after those chickens together with the kids. Haha.

Free range chooks

We lingered around and watched how shepherds' daily life and then caught sight of 2 shepherds leading a herd of horses (is it herd?) and we stood around to see them for a bit. They were saddling the horses for riding and let us helped.




It turned out that the family with kids (the ones chasing chickens earlier) booked these horse for riding but they were having a late breakfast. So it translates to we could do some horse riding if we wanted to and we thought, why not? We have never ridden a horse before so one of the shepherds came along with us, of course we needed to pay for this time. Due to some miscommunication which was obvious (he can't speak English and we can't speak either Russian or Kyrgyz language), we only found out about this after the ride. Prior to the ride, a lady from Romania (I think) assisted with the translation.

And so, I had my first horse ride (not the ones where someone hold the rein and guide the horse) and it wasn't as intimidating as I thought. However I am still hopeless in getting on and off a horse.

Taking a photos of us

After lunch, we make a start towards the mountains. After an hour or so into walking, we noticed grey clouds were gathering quickly especially at the mountains. Whilst we really wanted to continue further, we were warned of the rapid weather change and it probably wasn't the wisest decision to press on so we turned back.

When we started out...

After a while...

By the time we reached the yurt, it started to rain but it wasn't heavy... not too sure how it was up at the mountains though.

My verdict? This is absolutely beautiful place but to make the most of the time there definitely include a little trek. ^^

The setting sun changes the landscape into golden colour...

Side note: ♬ "Continents, continents, do you know your continents? Asia, Africa, North and South America, Antarctica, Australia, and Europe too."