Archive for September, 2022


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 (18):  Shakhrisabz in Uzbekistan 

September 19th, 2022 by Roger Darlington

Today (Day 17) was technically a day at leisure but, although I had been there in 2006,  I had previously signed up for an optional excursion to Shakhrisabz for an extra £50.  In fact, but one of the group decided to make the trip (the odd one out had been before) and we made the […]

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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 (11): Bishkek to Osh to Fergana 

September 12th, 2022 by Roger Darlington

It was Day 10 and we are one third into our tour. In Bishkek, we were up at 4 am and out at 5 am for an early morning flight to Osh in the very west of Kyrgyzstan. On the minibus to the airport, it sounded as if another challenge was on the horizon when […]

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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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