Archive for the ‘My life & thoughts’ Category
Holiday in Central Asia (21): still Bukhara in Uzbekistan
September 22nd, 2022 by Roger Darlington
As yesterday, it was a slow day (Day 20) in Bukhara instead of an intensive day in Turkmenistan. We started by visiting the workshop of a world renown artist of miniatures. Davlat Toshev has exhibited in the Louvre and hopes to have an exhibition in London sometime soon. His work ranges in price from $50 […]
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Holiday in Central Asia (20): around Bukhara in Uzbekistan
September 21st, 2022 by Roger Darlington
At this stage (Day 19), the whole pace of our intensive holiday changed. Instead of crossing into Turkmenistan, we remained in Bukhara for a leisurely day In the area. First, we drove the short distance out of the city to a place called Sitorai Mohi Hosa. This is popularly known as the Mir’s Summer Palace […]
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Holiday in Central Asia (19): Bukhara in Uzbekistan
September 20th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
Now in Bukhara (Day 18), we had a splendid day on a tour of some of the many sights of the Old City. It was 35C and there was not a cloud in the sky. The name Bukhara means ‘monastery’ in Sanskrit. They say that the 20th century has not yet arrived in Bukhara, yet […]
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Holiday in Central Asia (17): Samarkand in Uzbekistan
September 18th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
We spent the whole of Day 16 in Samarkand and it was the best day yet and arguably it will be the highlight of the entire tour. Samarkand – ‘samar’ means land and ‘kand’ means sweet – is situated in the valley of the river Zarafshan. The first settlement here was constructed in the 6th […]
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Holiday in Central Asia (16): from Tajikistan back to Uzbekistan
September 17th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
On Day 15, it was wonderful to wake up over-looking a glorious lake scene. Before breakfast, I made.a short walk by the lake-side and, after breakfast, the group drove a bit further round the lake for different views. Iskander-Kul, named – according to legend – after Alexander the Great, is a mountain lake of glacial […]
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Holiday in Central Asia (15) Istaravshan in Tajikistan
September 17th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
It was another day (Day 14) in Tajikistan and consisted of a long road journey south-west to Iskander-Kul with a major stop at Istaravshan. In fact, our first (short) stop was to view cotton-picking in roadside fields – a really tough occupation carried out by women and supervised by a man. At Istaravshan, we started […]
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Holiday in Central Asia (14): Khojand in Tajikistan
September 15th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
Another day – Day 13 and the half way point in the trip – and another country – Tajikistan which on its eastern side borders China, Pakistan and Afghanistan. So we took our large coach from Tashkent to a border crossing with Tajikistan some 90 km south – a journey of about two hours – […]
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Holiday in Central Asia (13): Rishton, Kokand & Tashkent in Uzbekistan
September 14th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
It was basically a travelling day (Day 12) as we left the Fergana Valley to journey to Tashkent prior to our venture tomorrow into Tajikistan. The group of eight plus our guide and luggage were allocated to four modern white cars, the LPG-powered Chevrolet Cobalt. I sat in the front of my car with Charles […]
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Holiday in Central Asia (12): Fergana and Margilon in Uzbekistan
September 13th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
On our first full day in Uzbekistan (Day 11), we looked around two of the towns of the Fergana Valley. Our local guide was a woman named Madina who unfortunately had a terribly strong accent, a monotonous tone, and an insistence on reciting a contain stream of detailed information. Yet, when I asked her about […]
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Holiday in Central Asia (10): back to Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan
September 11th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
After two days on the south side of Lake Issyk-Kok, today (Day 9), we were returning to the capital Bishkek. The day did not go according to the programme but it was interesting nevertheless. The programme had us breaking the journey half way round the northern side of the lake to visit a complex called […]
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