18 May Cholpan-Ata to Bishkek to Tashkent

We had a good breakfast and started driving toward Bishkek. After an hour we arrived at Tamshi, where we had an hour and a half demonstration of making felt blankets, etc. After another two hours we reached the famous Burana Tower, which was built in the 11th century when it was a landmark of the ancient Silk Road city “Balasagun”, the capital of the ancient state of the Karakanides. It is located on the grounds of an ancient citadel which today only a large earthen mound remains, with remains of surrounding citadel walls.

The  original 45 meter tall tower served as a minaret for a mosque that has disappeared, and the tower itself was reduced to 25 meters by an earthquake about 500 years ago.

Near the tower are a number of 10th century  balbals, the Turkic totem-like stone markers that had been found in many locations in Kyrgyzstan and which had been brought here for display. The nearby museum also contained Christian and Buddhist remnants that had been found in this ancient city, which has yet to be fully excavated due to lack of funds.

earrings, cup & sword

the taller the more important

We stopped for lunch at an outdoor restaurant with good kabobs and which was crowded with families out for Sunday lunch at this popular place with a pond and large fish, then drove another hour passing the capital Bishkek to the airport.

Checkin at the small airport was basic but quick, and we were able to watch a dance troup practice their welcome performance for a VIP  Kazakistan visitor that was expected. The hour flight to Tashkent, Uzbekistan's capital, crossed an impressive snow-capped mountain range.

In Tashkent, however,  there was a rush as we entered the arrival terminal, and we successfully got to the "visa" window, presented our invitation letter and approval stamp, and paid the man his requested $320 in cash, getting the visas stamped in our passports. We then stood in the immigration line for about 20 minutes, entered the luggage retrieval area by climbing over and along the luggage belts because the area was full of people in various levels of confusion and anxiety try to figure out how to get out of the customs area. This was no small task - it took us about an hour and a quarter of standing in various "lines", asking officials, and finally splitting to cover two lines as we could not be certain if the one we had been directed to was functional. In the meantime, we had been approached several times by a con man to "help" us with getting through, and also by the visa officer who said that one of the $100 bills I had given him had been rejected by their bank. I gave him two $50's but had no way of knowing whether I had just been slipped a bad note. We had collected blank customs forms and filled them in duplicate and finally got through a line that moved, found our guide outside, and drove to our Grand Mir hotel, an old hotel being refurbished. Our guide then suggested  I change some money, so I gave him the suspect $100 bill and received back a black bag with 250,000 in 500 Som notes, a wad about four inches high! To buy a car with cash it would take a trunk-full of money!

Anyway, we had a nice suite which even had BBC television, so we set the alarm for 5 AM and got some sleep even though we had no dinner