Through the Mountains of Kyrgyzstan

May 18th 2008, and the airwaves are filled with the shocking news of the terrible earthquake in China. Twenty thousand dead, and millions made homeless. I send my deepest sympathies to everyone.

I have had a number of emails wondering whether my own journey will be affected. The answer is, no, probably not in the main, though maybe to some small extent. Our actual route, which you can see as usual on my Where is Travelling Tim page, lies far to the north of the earthquake's epicentre in Sichuan province. Click here for a China province map. However, whilst we are unlikely to be driving in that area, such a big event is bound to cast ripples over the rest of the country, and we have just heard that there may be a few days delay getting the truck over the Kyrgyzstan - China border, and that we may have to travel initially on public transport. That's all I know for now - watch this space for further details.

I'm still finding it very hard to select, resize, and post photos on this Blog, so that will just have to wait until later - possibly in Beijing, where we will have about 10 days before the journey continues to Mongolia, Kazakstan, and Russia, or maybe not until I get back to the UK. I was really silly not to have brought my AC power supply for the laptop, with the amount of hotels Dragoman puts us in these days, and the Dragoman truck is STILL waiting for its new batteries so charging is strictly limited to when we are actually moving. We *had* been expecting them in Tashkent, but have now been told that it won't be until China, which is very frustrating. I am used to Overland trucks where the battery allows us to use reading lights etc in the evenings. Not this time. The current battery is so bad that we have to turn the fridge off when parked up. We haven't had to get a jump start recently, which is a positive step, but that is only because Jay, our excellent driver, takes extreme care to see that the battery gets minimum useage. Cook lights are allowed, but that's about all.

Well, you'll just have to wait to see the photos. I've been taking quite a few, as you might expect, and have been enjoying the results that I get with the Nikon D300. Its an excellent camera, but takes some getting used to. I started off by leaving it on the standard settings, but as time has gone on I am starting to explore some of its other capabilities, and getting used to changing settings between shots, as conditions and requirements change. As mentioned before, saving and burning the large images to DVD takes a long time, and lots of battery-use for the laptop. I hadn't expected this as last year (with a 4 MP camera) everything took place so quickly, but am pleased with the superior results that this camera and its great lenses produce.

Getting back to my journey - we are currently in Bishkek, the capital city, and getting near the end of our time in Kyrgyzstan. What a fascinating country it has proved to be. I had NO idea just how mountainous it was before I came here, but as it turned out, mountains are the one thing that I will remember in the future. Not just any mountains, either. The ones here are huge, and really spectacular. Generally snow-covered at this time of year, which makes for some great photographs. We have climbed a number of high passes, and spent time trekking in beautiful Alpine valleys. Camped by some chilly mountain streams, trekked to some glaciers, and even had time for a little horse riding. This time the horse did what I wanted it to do - I must be getting better at it! The horse did have a go at knocking me off though, by walking under every low-hanging branch that he could spot, but didn't seem surprised or concerned to be reined off as each branch was approached - its obviously all a wonderful game.

We've enjoyed lots of clear nights, so I have been sleeping out, under the stars whenever possible. Not too much to bother us - very few snakes, and the Marmots that can be seen everywhere in the mountains are quite shy, and certainly leave us alone - they just whistle from a distance, like wayward builders. The other night, camped by the shores of Lake Issyk Kol, I had the delighful experience of being sung to sleep by nightingales, then waking up later to count stars and watch the Milky Way. Overlanding doesn't get much better than that.

I didn't say much about Uzbekistan in my last Blog, but that's not because I didn't enjoy it. Quite the opposite is true: Uzbekistan was one of the major highlights of this trip so far, and I hope that the photos, when they eventually appear, will speak volumes by themselves. At the moment, I don't want to bore you with a long list of superlatives, but safe to say that the Silk Road cities that we spent time in more than came up to my expectations. They were all quite different, so don't get the idea that once you've seen one, you've seen them all. Khiva, where we started, is more like a museum than a living city, though its architecture is in great condition, having been wonderfully preserved or restored. This was the case, too, in Bukhara, though it definitely didn't have the feel of a museum, and took much longer to explore. What am excitement it was to wander through such ancient streets and markets, and to think of how the city might have been in the time of the camel caravans that journied across the deserts of China, to halt here on their way to the markets of Europe and the Middle East. I climbed to the top of the big minaret, making VERY sure that there were no slip-ups of the type that broke my ankle back in 2006! Samarkand was different again - a busy, vibrant city with its rebuilt centrepieces of the Registan and the Bibi-Khanym Mosque. I particularly enjoyed the City Museum, too, which had a enthralling range of exhibits, encompassing fabric, metalwork, wood and pottery, plus some lovely paintings of local scenes.

Tashkent, in comparison, was entirely different to the previous three. Its a large, modern, city with wide tree-lined boulevards, very spread out, and takes a long time to walk anywhere. There are very few old buildings to be seen, as the city has been extensively re-modelled over the years by Genghis Khan, earthquake, and the Soviet Union. I enjoyed the city museum, which attempted to make sense of all this history, and the Fine Art Museum, which had an astonishing range of wonderful exhibits spread over 4 large floors. Even more astonishing was the fact that I was the afternoon's only visitor!

I'll end with an update on truck-life. We currently have 19 passengers on board: Brits, Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians, and Americans. They are a great bunch, on the whole, though I miss the kind of diversity brought by other Europeans encountered in the past. Exodus always used to attract a good mix of nationalities: Germans, Dutch, Danes, etc. Dragoman, on the other hand, doesn't sem to be casting its advertising net as wide. There had been great anticipation on board to meet an Indian lady who was supposed to be joining the truck here in Bishkek, but it appears that she has cancelled her booking for some reason. Five passengers will be leaving in Bishkek, which means that the truck will continue on to Xian with just 14 passengers - actually a nice number to have on board. Cook groups have been changed accordingly, and are mainly composed of 2 people now.

Thanks to all for the Birthday wishes, sent through a variety of means. I had a great day, which was marked with my special shirt - the blue one with all the printed fishes - there's a photo of it somewhere in the African pages, I think. In the evening we had a bush-camp, away from it all, but somehow a birthday cake and lots of beer had ben purchased, so a great evening was had by all.

To all my Friends on Facebook - please don't be upset if you haven't received an answer to your Facebook messages recently. Here in Central Asia, it takes AGES and AGES to get my Facebook page to refresh, and doing any more than changing the 'Status Update' can be a major pain. I DO know when you've written on my Wall, as I get one of those automatic email thingys, but to try and reply via Facebook can often take ages, and still not result in a message sent! I'll say 'Hi' as soon as possible, but if you'd like something quicker, then send me an Email - the address is on the Contact Page.