Top Uzbekistan hotels
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When you read the names on this road sign just outside Bukhara, you know you really are in the middle of Central Asia - Almaty (Kazakhstan), Bishkek (Kyrgystan) and Uzbekistan's capital, Tashkent, all lie ahead of you. Going the other way, the road will take you to Ashgabat (Turkmenistan) and Tehran (Iran). The romance of the Silk Road is still there.
Time and migration (by invasion in the distant past and forced under the Soviets) combined with the ebb and flow of a nomadic peoples across the the vast spaces of Central Asia have seen the population of Uzbekistan become a complete melting pot of different ethnicities. Ethnic Uzbek, Kazakh, Tajik, Turkmen, Kyrgyz, Russian, Tatar, Korean and more, all are Uzbek citizens and whilst many non-Central Asians have left the country since independence, others have chosen to stay and throw their lot and their future in with the future of the country.
Uzbekistan has been a major producer of cotton for most of the last hundred years. It was brought to the country in the wake of the American Civil War which caused a world-wide shortage of the crop. Under Soviet rule a massive policy of mono-culture was born and still exists today with vast areas under irrigation being used to grow the country's "white gold". However, cotton is extremely demanding of water and the cotton fields have exacted a terrible ecological toll on the country as the irrigation canals draw off the water necessary to keep the crop alive during its short growing season with the result that the rivers now run almost dry before they reach the Aral Sea, and the sea itself has shrunk to half its former size.Planting takes place in May and within a couple of weeks the fields are showing green. The plants then grow at a phenomenal rate and by late August are ready to be...
Whilst only 10 percent of Uzbekistan is arable land, it is nevertheless a highly productive ten percent. Enormous, naturally fertile oases surround the cities of Samarkand and Bukhara, while Taskent lies at the entrance to the wonderfully fertile Fergana Valley. Cotton may be the major commercial crop, but wheat is also grown, silk production has been a tradtion here for centuries, orchards abound and the markets are piled with the fruit and vegetables grown locally. Village houses all have their vegetable and flower gardens and even the streets of Tashkent sprout more vegetable gardens while wild strawberries grow under the trees in the parks. Miles and miles of hollyhocks form lane dividers on the highways and mulberry trees line every country road, canal and field. Tree-lined avenues and shady parks grace the cities and even in dry Khiva wood is used for the intricately carved pillars...
Less than 10 percent of Uzbekistan is arable land. Steppe and mountain cover much of it, but the north-west is true desert - the Kyzul Kum, a baking arid region of red sand and dust. The road from Khiva to Bukhara crosses the desert for hundred of kilometres, a long, hot journey in a an aircondtioned car or bus - it must have seemed endless to the caravans of earlier times. A thin, brittle crust covers the powder-fine deep soft desert sands, Break the crust with footprints or tyre tracks and the marks remain for months - or years - until the next brief rain forms the crust again. You drive off the road at your peril if you don't have a 4-wheel drive - as we discovered when we got into a deep bog when we stopped to take photographs of these yurts. We certainly provided some entertainment for the group of children who stood and watched as we heaved and struggled to get out of it.
There is nowhere I have been that has the same sense of endless horizons as the steppe. It really does seem to go on and on forever. Here in Uzbekistan, although great areas have been put to use growing cotton (at great expense to the mighty rivers that flow down from the mountains) the steppe still covers huge areas of the country in a gently undulating carpet of faded gold. In the south, in the shadow of the Pamir mountains between Samarkand and the Tajik border, small villages of widely scattered houses dot the landscape and herds and sheep are guarded by small boys but the further away from the cities you move, the emptier the horizons become, giving you an amazing sense of the vastness of these Central Asian grasslands that have been home to nomads for thousands of years.
Two great rivers bring water, and life, to land-locked Uzbekistan. The Amu-Darya (the Oxus) rises in the Hindu Kush and, fed by the Pamir mountains melt, flows for nearly 1500 kms before reaching the Aral Sea. Further east, the Syr Dara makes its way from the mountains of Kyrgystan through the lush fastness of the Fergana Valley and on via Kazakstan until it too runs, some 2000km later, into the Aral. For centuries these two rivers marked the boundaries between Transoxiania and the steppe and the desert beyond and fed the oases that allowed cities to survive in this harsh environment.20th century Soviet-controlled farming practices, particularly the growing of cotton, have wreaked havoc on the rivers as huge irrigation sysyems have diverted their waters away from their proper course. The results have been catastrophic - the Aral, the world's largest inland sea, has shrunk to half the...
It was May the first time we visited Uzbekistan, the bazaars were full of the fruits of early summer - sweet white apricots were the standout but everyone kept telling us "You must come in melon time." So we did - October 2009 and there were melons everywhere, mountains of them piles up in bazaars everywhere, pyramids stacked along pavements, cars stuffed so full their bumpers almost scraped the ground. We ate melon every day, sometimes 2 and 3 times a day, and they were so good, we never got bored with them.Russian friends had told us Uzbekistan's melons were the best in the world, their eyes going all dreamy as they said it, remembering the taste. I have to say I must agree.
The language, spoken in Uzbekistan is uzbek and Russian. English is not yet quite popular in the country.However, when going to Uzbekistan, you will be impressed by the number of people, mostly young ones, who speak brillant english, and are honestly happy to help you in anything you need. Accept this, as it is also for them a good opportunity to polish up their english.Nevertheless, it is good to know some basic russian words, not only for very basic communication, but also for identifying “things”, such as exit, entry, toilet (incl. the signs for boys and girls there), pharmacy, etc.So, to learn the cyrillic alphabet is a good idea. It is not that difficult, and a lot of words you can read then. It is fasinating :-) I had this several times, when looking at a cyrillic word, and slowly read the letters to finally have the "oha" effect and knew the meaning :-)And, to give you an idea, I...
"Ten meczet nazywa się Bolo-Chauz. Jest to unikalny zabytek architektury Środkowej Azji XVIII wieku, właściwie jedyny, jaki z tego okresu ocalał. Portal i ściany Bolo-Chauzu zdobi ornament drzewny, którego piękno i precyzja nie mają sobie równych. Każdy musi się tym zachwycać.Zajrzałem do wnętrza. Było tam sześć zielonych stołów, przy każdym stole młodzi chłopcy o rozwichrzanych, jasnych czuprynach grali w bilard. Tłum kibiców dopingował zawodników. Wynajęcie stołu kosztuje 80 kopiejek za godzinę, więc tanio, jest dużo chętnych, przed wejściem stoi kolejka. Nie chciało mi się stać w kolejce, przez to nie mogłem dobrze obejrzeć wnętrza i wróciłem do czajchany."Ryszard Kapuscinski, "Imperium".It is hard to...
Lyabi-House Hotel Bukhara
5 Reviews and 16 Opinions This is where we thought we were staying on our first visit to Bukhara - a charmingly restored old...
Best Eastern Orient Star Samarkand
4 Opinions
InterContinental Tashkent Tashkent
2 Reviews and 68 Opinions As I know, the InterContinental Hotel is less that Europian standart, but it really good one. There...
Reviews and photos of Uzbekistan attractions posted by real travelers and locals. The best tips for Uzbekistan sightseeing.
Q: Myself and my wife are considering combining Uzbekistan and Kyrgystan in a two week plus trip in the summer of 2012. We are well...
A: It would help if you had more info, as opposed to none, in your profile, so that we would know your country of residence. However, I hazard a guess that it is Canada? ...
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