20/21 October, a weekend in the desert

20-21 October 2012. Robert and I, joined by Axelle (Roberts' assistant team leader) We went by car from Tashkent to Jizzakh, then parallel to the mountain range near to the Kazach border, to Yanqishlak, on friday afternoon. 

We drove from 1 - 8 pm (with a driver who knew the road) all the way through the cotton fields, then through steppe and finally arrived at the yurt camp. 
Where it was cold!!! But a good meal and friendly people awaited us. 

The next morning we first went for a camel ride through the endlesssteppe landscape... amazing, it really never ends. After that we walked. A beautiful experience, so quiet that you hear only wind in your ears and your own blood. 

 After lunch the driver took us to the desert lake, just as extended and quiet.

 The evening we spent in a small village( 12 families) in the Nuratau mountains. Cold again, but impressive the way they managed to be selfsubstainable. Sunday morning a long walk over the mountains to find the ( not so impressive) Petroglyphs. But the views were fantastic! 

And ' only' 6 hours drive back ;)

26-28 October, beautiful Weekend in Khiva

At the old city walls, built in a square around the city. Three days to discover the area, including desert forts. beautiful weather, midday around 20 degrees celsius. Not too many tourists and sufficient tea houses where we could sit and read and enjoy.

beautiful majolica patterns from around 1820-1840

and the desert castles...

And of course the city of Khiva itself, a Unesco cite.

October 7th, wedding anniversary and thanksgiving

I am here in Tashkent only a week now and it feels very much at home again. It is still lovely autumn weather with a very bright orange-yellow sunshine every day. It is cold in the nights but 20-22 degrees in the daytime. The sun is low, so our street with the 4tier appartment buildings are in the shade very early, around 4 pm. 

On Wednesday it took us the better part of the day to get registered at our new adress. In this country that is a very serious business, as they want to know from everyone where you are, from day to day. We were registered in the Alitravel guesthouse till the 2d, but since we wanted to register in our flat on the 3d, at the registration office which is  about 5 kilometers from the area we live in, we first had to prolongue our registration in the guesthouse till the 3d (for which we had to travel to the other side of town again) otherwise they would not change the registration form one place tot the other- there being an unexplicable gap of  about 10 hours, for which they do not dare take responsibility.  

All this led by our  sweet but tough landlady of 55, with her mother of 77 who is the real owner of the appartment and with help of our taxidriver cum friend Djamsheed, who speaks English good enough to translate between the officers(Russian), the landladies (Russian) and us. When we had finally finished all the paperwork, payments and signatures in the different offices ( passports to be picked up on Saturday, when they were not ready yet) we took the whole group out to the French Cafe, not too far from our  new adress, to treat them  and us to drinks and lunch. We had an interesting exchange, through the translations of Djamsheed of course. The grandfather of our landlady was a famous operasinger; he was the first to be allowed out of Uzbekistan in 1925, then part of the Soviet Republic, to erform in Paris  and  Moscow. He was acquainted with Rachmaninoff. Our landlady herself  was a dancer, also having been on international tours and is now a dance teacher. Not ballet and not folklore, so probably more like Turkish bellydancing. She  invited me to take lessons from her  so I could perform for my husband! Which might be interesting indeed.

During one of my lunch breaks I ‘scored’  a nice winter coat, pullover  and a blouse at the Mango store, a Spanish brand, where they had sales at 30 % off, so real cheap.   It felt as if I was in Europe , with all the ladies grabbing for  hot items, as if there is money enough in this world!

There is artweek here from 4-9th of October, so we tried to find the exhibitions, walking though the parks and treelined lanes, but that didn’t work out. Lack of Russian doesn’t help inquiries!  So instead we climbed the viewpoint, which was nice. We did find the photo-exhibition, which is really of good quality.

Today, to start our wedding anniversary in Paris fashion,  we had breakfast in cafe Bon, with a huge French cappucino , on the terrace in the sun, lovely! Then we were invited for lunch at Maricla’s, together wih Axelle and our Dutch friend Margreet and her (visiting) sister. They are all of the generation of our children , none of them married yet, so despite being married 35 years, we didn’t feel old in their company.  Maricla prepared Duck(very special, from a lady at Aloyski Market),  Axelle brought the wine she carried from France and we brought chocolate-cherry cake. 

 In between we got congratulations from good friends and family by email, emailcard, text message and skype,  which contributed greatly to the festive feeling, knowing to be connected through shared love and friendship. Thank you all!