Trip Report: the STANS (p1)
06-28-2018
, 03:16 AM
POC, How much time I spend on each photo really depends on the photo. But normally in Adobe Camera Raw I adjust the white balance, the contrast, bring back detail in the highlights, lighten the shadows, and add some sharpening. Then in Photoshop I'll add more contrast (which also pumps up the saturation, sometimes too much!) then I'll make some more selective edits like dodging and burning or trying to bring back more detail in the sky, maybe do some light vignetting, and final round of sharpening. It sounds more complicated than it is, and I've got my workflow down pretty good so it's usually about 5 minutes per photo. But sometimes I get neurotic about little stupid stuff and spend quite a bit more than that!
Ok back to the TR! God damn it this thing takes forever to load, sorry!
A few hours east of Samarkand is an ancient city in the middle of the desert called Bukhara. It was one of the trading hubs on the old silk road and for a while it was one of the world leaders in Islamic learning. The whole old town is kind of like a museum, which is pretty neat. You can go in pretty much any direction through city’s narrow alleyways and find all sorts of interesting mosques and madrassas. Most of the buildings are from the 1500’s but you can occasionally find some from before 1200, which is when Genghis Khan sacked the city and destroyed most of it. For someone who enjoys some mindless wandering and appreciates a bit of history, it’s a pretty great place! Although you have to stick to the early morning/late afternoon hours because otherwise it’s just way too hot.
During the middle of the day there isn’t a whole lot to do, I was happy to find an air-conditioned coffee shop and chill out. The problem with Uzbekistan is when you’re not marvelling at the Islamic architecture, you really start running out of things to do! I definitely spent more time in Uzbekistan lounging around than in any other country on this trip, which is fine, but not for everyone. And there’s nothing much to see outside the towns, cuz it’s all desert. But the nice thing is that there aren’t all that many western tourists so everyone you meet is normally really friendly and it’s easier to start up a conversation, as compared to places overrun with tourists where someone wouldn’t necessarily go out of their way to chat up some random. Plus there are only 1 or 2 hostels that are popular so it’s quite common to run into people you’ve met at earlier points on the trip. The whole central Asian region gets a bunch of cyclists and motorcyclists, so those guys usually have some pretty good stories of mishaps along the way!
Two days and two nights was just about all I needed and then it was off to the capital, Tashkent by train. I liked Tashkent! Lots of trees and greenery and of course the usual mix of modern buildings with the conspicuous soviet structures. But what was by far my favorite favorite thing about the city was the underground metro stations. Each one is like it’s own unique piece of art. The first day I was there I literally just rode the metro for hours getting off eat each station to see what it had going on. Some are relatively boring but some are just so ornate and cool and make you feel like you’ve just been transported to a different era. The only problem was that taking photos in the stations is not allowed, so you really had to be sneaky to get in a decent shot without one of the many guards around spotting you and making you delete your photos. And when you’re white they’ve already got their eyes on you!
When I met up with the lady who did my letter of invitation, she wasn’t exactly pleased with me about this! As her company is basically my sponsor, so if I get in trouble, they get in trouble too. Oops. But the guards didn’t seem to really care that much as long as they saw the photos were deleted. A very strange rule though. Uzbekistan has lots of weird rules. It’s kind of a police state, so you have to know what’s allowed and what isn’t!
As for the rest of the city there’s some nice markets, modern shopping malls, a big beautiful mosque etc. Although everything is spread out, so it’s not very good for walking. Two days and two nights was enough for me! The next day I hopped on the bus that would take me to the Kazakh border, which was one of the more interesting border crossings I’ve done!
You show up and there is just this mob of people standing in line between some iron gates. The women get their own sectioned off line to the left, while the main line is just this massive mob of people smashed in together, trudging, sludging and elbowing their way forward. But the line hardly moves! Then you’ve got these guys that people pay to push them to the front of the line! You give them your luggage, which they hand off to someone who will toss it over the gate back to you, once you’re near the front of the line. Then you get in a single file line behind this guy on the far right railing, and he basically just shoves people out of the way to get his clients near the front. It’s one of the weirder border shenanigans I’ve seen! It's hilarious that they all it to happen! I did notice that most of the people who paid for this service were a bit older, so I elected not to go for it, I’d just wait in line like the rest of the commonfolk. Probably a mistake, it was like 2 hours of being in a smelly sardine can, before getting to immigration, which was a breeze.
So this was about the end of the trip! I had one night to spend in Shymkent, Kazakhstan before flying to Georgia for a couple of days, and then it was back to Chicago for me. Lots of people recommended Georgia to me in the Stans, so I decided I could squeeze it in at the end. And I was glad I did! Cool country, friendly people, good food, amazing churches etc! I’ll throw in a few of those photos as well!
And overall it was very nice trip and fun to get off the beaten path a little bit! Kyrgyzstan especially was a real diamond in the rough. So if you've got some time on your hands, like a bit more adventurous travel, friendly people, not so many tourists, and enjoy some hiking and the mountains, the Stans are a good option! I hope you enjoyed the writeup. My bad about the photo sizes
Georgia:
Ok back to the TR! God damn it this thing takes forever to load, sorry!
A few hours east of Samarkand is an ancient city in the middle of the desert called Bukhara. It was one of the trading hubs on the old silk road and for a while it was one of the world leaders in Islamic learning. The whole old town is kind of like a museum, which is pretty neat. You can go in pretty much any direction through city’s narrow alleyways and find all sorts of interesting mosques and madrassas. Most of the buildings are from the 1500’s but you can occasionally find some from before 1200, which is when Genghis Khan sacked the city and destroyed most of it. For someone who enjoys some mindless wandering and appreciates a bit of history, it’s a pretty great place! Although you have to stick to the early morning/late afternoon hours because otherwise it’s just way too hot.
During the middle of the day there isn’t a whole lot to do, I was happy to find an air-conditioned coffee shop and chill out. The problem with Uzbekistan is when you’re not marvelling at the Islamic architecture, you really start running out of things to do! I definitely spent more time in Uzbekistan lounging around than in any other country on this trip, which is fine, but not for everyone. And there’s nothing much to see outside the towns, cuz it’s all desert. But the nice thing is that there aren’t all that many western tourists so everyone you meet is normally really friendly and it’s easier to start up a conversation, as compared to places overrun with tourists where someone wouldn’t necessarily go out of their way to chat up some random. Plus there are only 1 or 2 hostels that are popular so it’s quite common to run into people you’ve met at earlier points on the trip. The whole central Asian region gets a bunch of cyclists and motorcyclists, so those guys usually have some pretty good stories of mishaps along the way!
Two days and two nights was just about all I needed and then it was off to the capital, Tashkent by train. I liked Tashkent! Lots of trees and greenery and of course the usual mix of modern buildings with the conspicuous soviet structures. But what was by far my favorite favorite thing about the city was the underground metro stations. Each one is like it’s own unique piece of art. The first day I was there I literally just rode the metro for hours getting off eat each station to see what it had going on. Some are relatively boring but some are just so ornate and cool and make you feel like you’ve just been transported to a different era. The only problem was that taking photos in the stations is not allowed, so you really had to be sneaky to get in a decent shot without one of the many guards around spotting you and making you delete your photos. And when you’re white they’ve already got their eyes on you!
When I met up with the lady who did my letter of invitation, she wasn’t exactly pleased with me about this! As her company is basically my sponsor, so if I get in trouble, they get in trouble too. Oops. But the guards didn’t seem to really care that much as long as they saw the photos were deleted. A very strange rule though. Uzbekistan has lots of weird rules. It’s kind of a police state, so you have to know what’s allowed and what isn’t!
As for the rest of the city there’s some nice markets, modern shopping malls, a big beautiful mosque etc. Although everything is spread out, so it’s not very good for walking. Two days and two nights was enough for me! The next day I hopped on the bus that would take me to the Kazakh border, which was one of the more interesting border crossings I’ve done!
You show up and there is just this mob of people standing in line between some iron gates. The women get their own sectioned off line to the left, while the main line is just this massive mob of people smashed in together, trudging, sludging and elbowing their way forward. But the line hardly moves! Then you’ve got these guys that people pay to push them to the front of the line! You give them your luggage, which they hand off to someone who will toss it over the gate back to you, once you’re near the front of the line. Then you get in a single file line behind this guy on the far right railing, and he basically just shoves people out of the way to get his clients near the front. It’s one of the weirder border shenanigans I’ve seen! It's hilarious that they all it to happen! I did notice that most of the people who paid for this service were a bit older, so I elected not to go for it, I’d just wait in line like the rest of the commonfolk. Probably a mistake, it was like 2 hours of being in a smelly sardine can, before getting to immigration, which was a breeze.
So this was about the end of the trip! I had one night to spend in Shymkent, Kazakhstan before flying to Georgia for a couple of days, and then it was back to Chicago for me. Lots of people recommended Georgia to me in the Stans, so I decided I could squeeze it in at the end. And I was glad I did! Cool country, friendly people, good food, amazing churches etc! I’ll throw in a few of those photos as well!
And overall it was very nice trip and fun to get off the beaten path a little bit! Kyrgyzstan especially was a real diamond in the rough. So if you've got some time on your hands, like a bit more adventurous travel, friendly people, not so many tourists, and enjoy some hiking and the mountains, the Stans are a good option! I hope you enjoyed the writeup. My bad about the photo sizes
Georgia:
