Caspian Odyssey October 2016

Caspian Odyssey October 12- October 29, 2016

Postscript- I went into this trip with a lot of misgivings. I had read about the Armenian-Azerbaijan conflict with shots being fired recently. I knew Georgia's relations with Russia had been tense. I had heard about the one man rule in the other "Stans" post the Soviets, and the recent strongman in Uzbekistan just died. To say it was an eye opening trip would be to under describe it. There is a whole other world out there completely different from what we hear from the news. I am happy to say my apprehensions were 180 degrees misplaced. More Americans, especially media types and politicians or would be politicians, should come on a trip like this to learn a bit about people of other persuasions and how we compare to other places.

October 11- Tomorrow we leave for Yerevan, Armenia via Paris. This will be a very "out of my comfort zone" trip- new countries, totally foreign in culture, religion, language, currency, probably climate. I have absolutely no background for the history or the culture, the cuisine, or the customs, and what to expect. Packing has been a problem because of the wide range of expected temperatures- basically 30 to 80. Keeping clean clothes is another worry on these trips. I don't know the elevations of the cities we visit so we have to be ready for rain, and baking, desert heat. So the adventure begins...

Wednesday, Oct. 12- The flights from Ric to Atl and then to Paris CDG and on to Yerevan had no hitches, except Connie's bag went to Vienna instead of Yerevan. On the flight to Paris we sat near two guys with major coughs and in front of two sisters in law who are on our trip thru another company (Zegrahm Expeditions, 32 out of the 80 or so total on the train) and who have giant belly laughs about pretty much anything.

We skipped dinner and got about 4 hours of sleep but the seats did not convert into very comfortable beds.

Thursday, Oct. 13- One interesting thing on the Air France flight into CDG is the dashcam which we could watch as we got back over land.

The flight to Yerevan took off on time. It looked like lots were going to be on our train and getting there a day early. Before we left Paris Natasha Munro found out George was in line at passport control in Yerevan waiting for the computers to come back on before he and everyone else in line could clear. At the same time we don't know where Beth is but assume she is in Armenia or in line with George.

When we landed we had good news and bad news- Beth is here and Connie's bag is in Vienna. As the lost baggage guy said, "Welcome to Armenia".

We had a ride to the Yerevan Marriott (forgot my loyalty card and number) along with another traveler in our group, someone named Countess Ursula from Poland but now living in Australia. The Golden Eagle Luxury Tours (GELT) staff met us, including Tatiana, who was with us in 2013 but not the lecturer from 2013 I have been calling Tatiana.

Friday, Oct. 14- We caught up on sleep but had a sleepless spell from about 3-5 am. After breakfast with Beth, we went with George and Natasha to Echmiatsin, which is the spiritual center of the Armenian Christian Church.

On the way we stopped at a big red arched monument to the battle of Musaler in 1915 which took place 12 miles away in Turkey and started the Armenian genocide via starvation ("eat your dinner and think of the starving Armenians"). The monument is up a lot of steps and it got to be hard breathing- Yerevan is at about 5000 feet, i.e. like Denver, so no wonder.

The next stop was a church at Tsvartnots (same name as the lost baggage office in the airport). This church was built in 650 and marks the place where St. Gregory the Illuminator had his vision in 301 that led to the establishment of Christianity in Armenia, before the Roman Empire adopted it, at a church in Echmiatsin (coming up). The church at Tsvartnots or an earlier version of it inspired Constantine and the shape of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. It was only excavated in 1901. On the site, there are stylized columns and we were serenaded by a couple of very harmonized Armenian professional opera singers. 

In Echmiatsin there are three cathedrals- the first is 16 sided barrel church dedicated to St. Hripsime who was a Christian in the 200s and ran from Rome to escape persecution but was martyred here. The other notable sight here is several hrochkars, which are stone tablets similar to runes in Sweden and what they say or mean is still unknown but often they have Armenian crosses on them.

The second cathedral is St. Shoghakat, built much more recently to honor a third unnamed nun who was martyred here but at the same time as Hripsime. Here we also observed some women making lavash bread and enjoyed some fresh out of the oven. They spread the flour out and then spin it like pizza dough and throw it against the side of an in ground oven. The result comes out in a couple of minutes and is very thin, folded over, and in extra large pizza size- you eat it by ripping off what you want from the folds.

At last we got to Echmiatsin, established in 301, with very interesting columns (probably original, with doves) and then more recent angel reliefs in the entrance. This is the St. Peter's for the Armenian Christians- the head of the church resides here and there is a seminary. The main relic here is one of 5 spears held in various churches around the world that the churches claim the centurion used to stab Jesus. We did not see it (it has a cross carved in the metal, but the metal is said to date from the first century).

All of these churches were well cared for, with beautiful gardens, some different flowers including one that looked like purple brain coral, and very serene places to just walk around. While the girls were shopping, I sat next a shriveled old guy with a chest full of WWII metals from the Russkis but I could not tell whether he was begging or selling his trophies. I learned later in the trip a specific one of these medals would sell for $80 in Uzbekistan and for ten times more in Russia.

Armenia is in a tough spot; still poor (it seems like Russia shipped all the old Lada cars here), no retirement system for the old, surrounded by Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iran, and Georgia. There is a tiny pocket of Azerbaijan surrounded by Armenia where the Armenians threw out all the Azerbaijanis and is a constant source of friction.

I wish we could have gotten a better view of Mount Ararat- 75 degrees but cloudy with a little haze.

 Buffet Dinner with the group was huge in amounts of food but we had a lively table.

Saturday, October 15. It was cooler than yesterday but as the day went on the temperatures varied quite a bit depending on the cloud and wind. We had a very full day ending up boarding the train, having dinner on board and unpacking in our 77 square feet.

The GELT staff includes Tatiana, Anna, Margarita, and Nicholas from our previous trip and Marat, an Uzbek, as the local link.

The goal of the morning was Geghard Monastery, about 45 minutes out of town. Aram is our local guide and he seems to know every building in town along with a lot of Armenian history. 

Yerevan was first settled in 782 BCE and has been part of probably 7 or 8 different empires. Though planned by the Soviets for a city of 250000, it now has 1.25 mm out of the 4 mm people in Armenia.

Geghard is not as old as the churches yesterday but still old enough to be in the cupola style (1215). It was quite amazing since it was carved into the tufa with a larger non church narthex and many niches in the surrounding hills for the monks' cells. The dramatic scenery made it more appealing and quite peaceful. We had a choir recital deep inside the rocks, and on the way out Beth found her next apartment. 
BTW, Geghard is the place where St Thaddeus brought the spear that pierced Christ and it was kept here before being moved to Echmiatsin. The door of the church has a wooden version of the spear on it.

After Geghard we went to Garni where we had more lavash straight from the oven and went to a Hellenistic temple to Mithra, not sure how old. I think 100-200 ad.

Back in town we had a full Armenian meal again for lunch at Yerevan Tavern. Lots and lots of food.

Next was an area called Cascade Plaza where there are many, many whimsical sculptures- some original and some copies of famous ones like the hares at VMFA by Flanagan and Ala Nui by Botero from Maui.
  There also was a huge statue of Tamanyan the Soviet appointed master planner for the city. The plaza is dedicated to him. We walked 400 or so of the 560 steps up the cascade (the last few flights aren't finished yet).

 C and I had our picture taken by a lion sculpture made out of used tires.

The geopolitics of Armenia relative to the super powers and its neighbors is extremely complex. We visited the Genocide Memorial but it is so sensitive even the guide had a hard time talking about it. He said it was done by the government of Turkey rather than the people of Turkey to take some pressure off. One and a half mm people died and on the site in addition to a spire and an eternal flame, there are 1.5 mm evergreens planted in memory. There are also numerous small plaques to recognize the countries etc that have acknowledged the genocide.

While we were at the memorial, the weather cleared with enough sunlight for a good photo of both snow covered peaks of Mt. Ararat, final resting place of the Ark.

Last note before getting on the train- Armenia ships 700mm dollars of Molybdenum to Germany for electronics.

Sunday, October 16- we woke up (well, if we ever went to sleep- the train seems to have more lurches than the TSR did) on the shores of Lake Sevan, a huge (1000 sq. mile) fresh water lake in the middle of Armenia.

 This lake is down about 65 feet from where it used to be because of everyone tapping the water for various uses in the Soviet era, but now is coming back with some conservation and a several kilometer tunnel to gather water from streams not usually draining into Sevan.

The day's excursion took us thru Dilijan (meaning "dear heart" after a mother looking for her son who was fleeing the khan's soldiers because he was in love with the khan's daughter), home to a World College which costs $35000 per year and has modern  buildings with grass on all the roof tops, and up to the end of the road to visit another 10th C. monastery restored with help from a UAE sheik. It was founded on the site where a local threw a chestnut to determine a good building site. The name is Hagartsin monastery which means eagle.

The area looked like the mountains of Virginia, about the same height, with bold streams running thru the valleys- brook trout territory. On the way back we stopped for a panoramic view of the lake. The lake has trout and whitefish, almost fished out but then restored by a moratorium on fishing.

To anyone who says this is a luxury vacation, so far it is hard to sleep on the train, the shower is on and off, the sink only has cold water, and the toilet situation is different. The top bunk is a rock and the pillows are lumpy- more like camping out. Maybe we will figure how to heat or cool the cabin tonight (there is a switch the cabin attendant has to throw to turn out heat or air and they leave it off when we aren't there- when we ask our guy Roman (Svetlana is the other attendant for us in Coach 5), he replies "I button push". But then the meals are great. BTW one of the guides said they are expecting 4 days of snow starting tomorrow.

Very helpful lecture from George on  understanding the history of the Caucasus relative to Russia this afternoon followed by a delicious dinner of Olivier salad with crawfish and then a veggie quiche.

Monday, October 17- transition from Armenia to Georgia, cold rainy day. Our last contact with the Armenian guide Goro concluded with a plea for us to tell the folks back home about Armenia and to think about coming back. Just as an aside, currency is the dram and the Armenians call themselves Hayks and Haykistan after an old ruler.

We had to give over our passports this morning at the Armenian border and then the Georgian border. Then we went into Tbilisi on a cold, dreary, rainy day.

 The first part of Georgia (from Greek geo, meaning land, and orgos meaning forming or planting) was grassy hills with not much livestock. Then we came into the suburbs which were very dilapidated buildings and old train cars with rust and sections of roof missing. In Tbilisi (currency the lori; both the dram and the lori about 450 to the dollar) the station has several mobile phone stores all together. The section around the station is old soviet run down buildings, with satellite dishes, and the the central downtown is very beautiful in a 19th century way along with a wiry modern Peace Bridge, a spaceship looking, one stop permit hall (pay tax, get a marriage license, start a business all in the same place), and occasional other buildings with modern materials.

 We visited an old church with a name too hard to write down (Metekhi), an area where there are baths using hot sulfur springs, and then an excellent restaurant for lunch, all the while freezing a bit.

Lunch in Armenia and Georgia so far has been consistently filling and the same thing- delicious bread, lavash and loaves, a salad of cukes and tomatoes, eggplant wraps, yogurt or cheese or both, a meat course or two (beef dolmas, lamb chops, beef wrapped in grape leaves, veal stew), then potatoes of one kind or another, and sweets. Today the sweets were walnuts, prunes and apricots with powdered sugar.

This afternoon we went to the national museum and had a little lady docent tell us about gold jewelry from royal digs. Really well done display.

 I learned that the Colchis where Jason went after the Golden Fleece is really Georgia and that these old Georgians were the earliest gold fabricators.

Skipped dinner to watch a DVD about Stalin- a little eery, especially being on his home turf. Georgians of a certain age love him in spite of all the atrocities, maybe because he is a local boy who made it to the top.

PS early in the morning George gave us a quick history of Georgia and, like Armenia, "it's complicated".

Tuesday, October 18- colder and more rain about 45-50 with the sun struggling to emerge but being pushed back. Tbilisi turns out to be a very attractive city (1.2 mm out of the 3 mm in the country). We walked from the Liberty Square, with a column and gold sculpture of St. George and the dragon where Lenin pointing to the "luminous future" had been, along Abkhazia Street to the gondola, rode it across the river to the silver Mother of Georgia statue, wine of friendship in one hand and sword in the other, then thru a park to the Peace Bridge, had a great khachapori lunch on our own and more walking. This would be a lovely place in better weather.

Connie pointed out to me that while the people speak Russian in addition to Georgian there is only Georgian on the street signs. It looks more foreign than Russian to me.

Much, much infrastructure needed- hard for me to see how things like the electric transformers work and how any apartment has an intact roof.

A note about our fellow travelers- mostly Americans from Seattle and elsewhere, a Canadian, a few Brits, Brazilians, one from France, at least two couples from South Africa whom I found out were flat out denied their visas to Turkmenistan and have to fly back to Istanbul and then to the next stop beyond T. to rejoin us. There also is a couple from Israel staying in one of the Imperial class suites, which means they get a private car to drive them to the sites. The total group is 76 in 10 carriages with about 25-30 with the Zegrahm group led by Gary and his sister Teese. At dinner one night we counted at least 12 native languages spoken by the group.

Wednesday, October 19- Overnight we went by train to Gori, Stalin's birthplace, and the first sightseeing stop of the day was his museum at the birthplace. Our cabin attendant Svetlana came with us today. She said some of her relatives died in Siberia, and George's wife, Natasha, said this was a very difficult stop for her because Stalin had had her two grandfathers killed in the camps on the Kola Peninsula. Talk about a personality cult- There was one room dedicated to interrogating and sentencing prisoners and the rest was two stories of massive rooms with memorabilia including the presents the different part of the USSR gave him for his 70th birthday.

Update: New York Times article from June 2019 on Gori-
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/30/world/europe/stalin-museum-georgia-russia.html

Next was the Uplistsikhe cave settlement on some very steep and windy sandstone cliffs dating back to preChristian times.

After lunch at a beautiful restaurant with sculpture gardens owned by the man who makes Georgian brandy (khachapori even better than yesterday's- crescent rolls with melted cheese cooked on a kebab), we all went to the equivalent of St. Peter's for the Georgian Church. It is called Svetitskkhorveli Cathedral and is located in Georgia's first capital city called Mtskheta- these words are impossible to sort out to my ear.

 Last stop was the Jvari monastery, then back to the train for dinner and to clear Georgian customs and enter Azerbaijan. We had to hide anything we bought in Armenia because the two countries don't get along over that bit of territory separated from the rest of Azer.

This is about the halfway point and as Connie said last time we went on the train trip- half my clothes are dirty and half are half dirty and I don't know which is which.

Thursday, October 20- Baku, Azerbaijan. This was a pretty relaxed day in that we did not get to Baku until about 10:30, had a walking tour around the old town, a long lunch and then the rest of the day off to catch up on the third debate.

First impressions of Azerbaijan- Azerbaijan is at the end of the Caucasus Mountains where they become rolling hills down to the Caspian Sea. The hills are green and there are very few people until we get closer to Baku. Then it becomes rural with goats, sheep and a few cows wandering all over and feeding including right up to the rail bed. As we rode thru the rural areas I started seeing birds in ones and twos and then in larger groups and finally in real flocks. We had not been seeing any birds in Armenia and Georgia except sparrows. These here are mynahs, pied crows, and magpies I think. Even closer to the city, it has the fairly typical former soviet look- rundown shacks with pools of mud, wrecked or abandoned vehicles and rubbish everywhere, then changing to 1960s soviet style housing. There also were gas flares and old wells slowly pumping with a lot of scrap metal strewn about until the suburbs began. Once in the city it is neat, clean and safe according to our guide. The old town (2000 years old) has very few people, no trash, actual trash cans on the street, no stray dogs wandering, no beggars, and is very attractive.

Azerbaijan has 10 mm people with 3.5 mm of them living in Baku, which is situated on the end of a peninsula. The country is shaped like an eagle with Baku at the beak end. Baku is 28 meters below sea level, as is the Caspian. The country has no established religion but is 98.5 % Muslim, with 70% being Shia from Iranian influence and 30% being Sunni from Turkish influence. The nation's economy is about 85% dependent on oil and gas, with the gas going into 2 major pipelines, and putting out 750m barrels per day of oil. 

Azerbaijan's first oil boom was in the 1860s and lasted until 1914, and it is now in the second oil boom.

The city was founded by worshipers of the flame, caused by natural gas close to the surface, and the symbol now is still the flame. This pagan religion morphed into Zoroastrianism. The distinctive 3 flame towers in Baku reflect this history. 

The tour took us first to Shirvanshah's Palace from the 12-15th century. Although shelled by Peter the Great's fleet, attacked in innumerable wars, strafed by the Armenians in 1918, and shaken by earthquakes, significant parts have survived and the oil has allowed a beautiful and well thought out renovation using some technological tricks to give a true feel- you can hear servants and see their shadows below where you walk, and the dome has tiles that look real and then fall off due to old age and lack of care. The Throne room is particularly interesting in that you see where the prisoners were held in the dark for anonymity and stand where the judge stood in trying the case.

Just outside the wall there is a statue to a famous Azer poet who was especially adept at extemporaneous rhyme. The hair in his sculpture shows him doing improvisational poetry. 

We continued to walk thru the old town to the Maiden's Tower with 8 floors and 145 steps.

 Nearby there is the base of a church said to be founded by St. Bartholomew who came to Azer and died here in 72 ad. The church is also near some  old baths.

After the walk we arrived at the Four Seasons, our very spacious, comfortable, warm and wonderful home for the next two nights while the train crosses the Caspian on a ferry (some of our group opted to ride the ferry- I didn't know that was an option until too late, but it would have been an added adventure). We had a little rest and then walked to touch the Caspian Sea on the 8 km waterfront promenade but it was visibly oily (makes sense). A walk back thru the old town on our own, buffet dinner at the hotel, and a good night's sleep!!!

The three Flame Towers in the back

Friday, October 21- Still really liking Azerbaijan. One interesting note- geography would say the Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan are in Asia but they and the VPN thinks they are in Europe.

Today's first touring site was Gobustan National Park, but before we get to that, there is more about the Azerbaijan economy from our guide Yasin:

Oil was known and used here in the 7th. century bce and was exported on camels by the 4th century bce. The first well in more recent times was in 1848, i.e. before the Pennsylvania oil was known. The Nobel brothers of dynamite and Nobel Prize fame came here in the 1860s looking for wood for gun stocks and invested in a kerosene refinery in 1876. Their house here was named Villa Petrolea. The first tanker was called Zoroaster after the prophet. The first boom lasted until the communists came in 1920 and then interest waned as the Russians focused on their own oil and gas resource. The land based oil wells are called "nodding donkeys".

Now 90% of the oil reserves are offshore and the reserves are expected to last 60 years. Low grade gas here, 92 octane, costs about 40 cents per liter.

The Caspian Sea occupies 370000 sq kilometers with an average depth of 200 meters, and a maximum depth of 1000 meters. It is 3x less salty than the ocean with more fresh water in the north where the Volga runs into it. Five countries border the Caspian. There are three kinds of sturgeon in the sea producing caviar but after nearly being extinct the beluga is protected and farmed now.

The average income in Baku is $800 per month while outside of Baku it is closer to $400. These figures may not be accurate since there is a 23% payroll tax so people employed by big companies receive a w-2 wage and then cash.

The flag has blue for the Turkic peoples, red for democracy, and green for Islam. Currency is the manat.

Gobustan continues the Azerbaijan museum streak of great technical displays. This one highlights the petroglyphs in this area from as long ago as 15000 bce. The museum explains the different ones and then we went about 3 minutes away to visit them in the wild. It was a windswept moderately cold day but enjoyable seeing the drawings. The museum keeps you on the path and away from the grass by drawing a picture of a poisonous snake with the signs to keep off the grass.

After the park we went back toward Baku to a fish restaurant for lunch. Lots of good food similar in dishes to the other lunch- bread, eggplant, lamb kebab, fish soup, fried whole fish with teeth and head on, but for desert we had jellies that you eat straight up, many different fruits and olive.

After lunch we went to the carpet museum which was amazing in the explanations of the rugs and in the beautiful rugs on display. I took way too many photos of the carpets and other things here.

For dinner we skipped the group meal and ate in the bar in the Four Seasons. We had a great waiter named Mahammad who spent a lot of time with us telling us about all aspects of life in Azerbaijan. I think he might like us to come back.

Saturday, October 22- Transit from Azerbaijan to Turkmenistan. We are very sad to leave Azerbaijan where the environment is comfortable and the people are kind. 
Our group is noticeably smaller now  since the South Africans, Uzbek girl, the 2 Kuwaitis, and a few others for unknown reasons were denied visas, and then there was another handful of real adventurers who opted to ride the ferry across the Caspian (10 hours of a true Caspian Odyssey).

We had an easy flight over to Ashgabat and then a 2 1/2 hour wait to clear passport control. Turkmenistan takes passports very seriously for a country that wants to attract tourists.

As we came out of the airport (totally empty, just opened one month ago, terminals shaped like birds- fuzzy photo on the internet, but Connie got one thru the bus window), in this desert country we saw gleaming white tile buildings and dozens of fountains.

 Some of the buildings date from soviet times and have been remodeled into white facades but most others are brand new. They do not appear to be occupied- a Potemkin village.

Turkmenistan has 6.5 mm people with 750 m in Ashgabat but we could see very few of them. There was almost no one walking on the street, few cars on the road, and the apartment buildings looked empty. Turkmenistan is another benevolent (?, and with that question mark, if this were published in the press, Americans would possibly be banned from getting visas) dictatorship with emphasis on the second word. 

From our hotel TV CSpan channel

Right now the country is preparing for its 25th anniversary on October 27. Economically the government controls the big corporate efforts thru its bureaus; housing is subsidized; the city is perfectly planned by the government to show off the real or imagined wonderful aspects of life here- gleaming white buildings, manicured gardens, fountains everywhere. Average pay is about $250 per month. 

I really can't describe it and the photos won't do it justice- imagine a whole city planned by someone with Donald Trump's ego and unlimited money.

Actually the driver is natural gas (50% of the economy) and oil (another 15-20 %). 

The Russians arrived in 1881 and in 1948 the city was leveled by an earthquake.

On today's driving tour we saw the neutrality arch, the president's palace,  liberty square with its statues of notable Turkmen and a column with repeating themes of 27 and 91 for the day and year of freedom from the soviets. But still no people to speak of. Last stop was the wedding banquet hall and a side view of the desert and the mountains over toward Iran.

Tonight we went on another drive around town to see the lights. All the buildings- wedding hall, Liberty monument, Neutrality monument, all the government agencies (lots of them), streets, everything is lit with changing colors on the bigger buildings and monuments. There also is an indoor Ferris wheel all lit up but with no one in line to ride it on a Saturday night. This city is a mix of Vegas, Disney World, Atlantis in the Bahamas, what I imagine North Korea to be, and Trump Taj Mahal.

Turkmenbashi as Peter the Great

 I took way too many photos again. Seeing all the lights, we asked about the electric bills and found out that a certain amount, based on the number in the family, is free, but then, if over, like in summer when the AC is running, it might be $10 per month for a family of four.

Currency is the Turkmenistan manat.

Sunday, October 23- Ashgabat, Turkmenistan 

Last night we stayed at the Oguzkent Hotel, formerly a Sofitel, here in Oz. The hotel was staggering in its apparent grandeur until you pay attention to details- the water from the faucet flowed red at first, the shower door made no allowance for a bathmat, the TV worked at night but not in the morning, the toilet paper in the lobby was about 50% wood chips, the minibar was empty, and the room thermometer was about 5 degrees centigrade off (on the cold side). We were told Turkmenistan really wants tourists but you would not know it from the difficulty of clearing our passports. We were the only guests in probably a 500 room hotel. I think the annual number of tourists is 25000.

Our guide showed us individual houses being built and said foreigners could only rent, not own. If they could own, he said they would all belong to Chinese.

On the other hand all these empty buildings would make a great place to let the Syrian, Iraqi, and Afghan immigrants live. Turkmenistan could take all of them.

Breakfast today included the best coffee on this trip!!

As we finished breakfast, Connie went outside to check the temperature and was shooed back in. The street in front of the hotel was closed and filled with soldiers, missile launching trucks, troops and troop carriers and other military vehicles rehearsing for the independence parade (for this neutral country). When I went out to take a picture I was sent back in, so I went upstairs to take the picture thru the window.

Today we visited the national museum which was another huge building with no visitors and these huge paintings of the leader in various poses (inside yurts- making tea, reading a book etc). Then we saw Old Nisa a fort from the Parthian era 200 bce. Our last stop before the station was the grand mosque built at the site where the first president and his family is buried. Grand it was.

Biography on the leaders- The first president was the son of a carpet weaver. His father died in WWII and his mom and brothers died in the 1948 earthquake so he grew up in an orphanage. He rose thru the ranks of the communist party to head of the local  party at the time of independence. The people never saw his own family- they lived in Russia or Europe. As he got older, his doctors told him to quit smoking. He figured that if he had to quit the the whole country would have to quit too, so no smoking is allowed. Tourists are allowed 2 cigarettes per day. When he died in 2006 the ministers elected the current leader who is a dentist by training. This leader has served two terms and there is an election in February to pick a new president. There are at least three parties. However the legislature decided to change the constitution so the current leader can be elected again.

Update from 2019: In the news regarding the current leader-
 

https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/06/asia/turkmenistan-president-gateway-to-hell-intl/index.html

You can't smoke here but beards are now allowed

Right now we are riding thru Kara Kum Desert (the esteemed leader seems to have forgotten that his country is a desert with all those fountains in public places evaporating away), dunes and scrub brush, on our way to Darvasa, the door to hell, which is a gas hole that has been burning for 45 years. The door to hell is, as I understand it, a kind of sink hole that fell in at a minor construction site, and the officials noticed that there were foul odors coming out of it. They asked for an opinion from geologists who said it was natural gas but might harm the nearby residents (the nearest 4 hours away by car). The geologists recommended lighting it, expecting it to burn out in a couple of days. Forty five years later it is still burning. 

We approached the Darvasa door to hell at night with very cold temperatures and a bitter wind blowing (5 layers for me). The train comes within 8 km of it. When we stopped we all got on Soviet vintage jeeps seating about 8 and set off for 20 minutes across very loose sand following a myriad of different tracks. The total was 8 vehicles. You could see a faint glow from the start. When we got there, it was a moonless night but the glow from the hole (about 70 by 70 yards) lit the area, except on the ground so walking was very deliberate. There were no ropes or viewing area so we all could walk right up to the edge and peer in at the flames.

Note the people and headlights behind us

I tried to insert Connie's video of the door to hell but Blogspot won't show it- better look on Connie's Facebook post.

 It reminded me of the burning lava you see on TV from active volcanoes in Hawaii along with the bubbling fumaroles at Yellowstone. Every so often the wind would blow a very warm breath of air to ease the wind and cold. The other startling thing about the hell hole is that there were birds flying over it. Some seemed to be sparrow to robin sized and then there was a flock of about 10 bigger birds that would ride the hot air aloft and then fly off only to come back. At first I thought they were some sort of goose because of the way they stuck together; then I thought they were Caspian gulls but the sea is far far away. At the end I think they were doves or pigeons but can't think of why they would be there other than to get warm. Totally amazing all around.

Monday, October 24, on the way to Uzbekistan. As I write this at 10:30 am we have been stuck at the border for about 3 hours or so. The Turkmenistan authorities are having as hard a time letting us leave as they did letting us in. Next we have to go a little farther and clear entry into Uzbekistan. 

Actually now we have just been told we are hung up here on the border because of a "technical issue"- no locomotive.

We filled the wait time with a lecture by George on Tamerlane and then got on our way. After clearing Uzbek control, we proceeded to Khiva. Uzbekistan looks so different from Turkmenistan. Very rural, many more plants (less rain but canals from the Amu Darya River).

It is sunny but 32 with wind. Every layer I had on at once was not enough.

We had a very informative guide Inez for the surroundings and old Khiva itself. Algebra inventor statue, Silk Road map, Khiva walls, place, harem mosque, climbing the wall.

 Wall hanging (susani) negotiation, short of cash. Uzbekistan is very secular Moslem country, 30 mm people, size of England. I was more interested in warmth than noting a lot about what we saw. Then back for caviar dinner.

Tuesday, October 25, Bokhara (the fulcrum of Islam)- the mosques are all beginning to look alike, lots more blue tiles. Less cold than yesterday although it started off  at 32. It was so clear I started to worry about a sunburn except I had my stocking cap and a buff on. 

The first stop was the Emir's summer palace, built to Nicholas II's specs in 1911 but Nick never visited. We learned a lot about susanis, which are silk or cotton sheets used as wall coverings or table cloths. We had bought one yesterday in Khiva which I thought was good looking but expensive and I think the prices moved up when we got here.

Notes on Uzbekistan- Marat, our asst tour leader from GELT and Uzbek native, said that the number one car here is a white Chevy since Chevy bought out Daewoo and Daewoo had a plant here in Uzbekistan; Uzbekistan has rights to 30% of the oil and gas from the Caspian but is not spending the revenue profligately like Turkmenistan; there is one province here where every element of the periodic table can be mined. The currency is the sum, with about 6000-6500 to the dollar. Purchases for tourists are in dollars; local purchasers use bags of bills- there are no coins.

After the summer palace, we went into town along the real Silk Road to the Bokhara Registon Square (the one in Samarkand is more famous).

Mosque of 40 columns if you count reflection

 The name just means a place where things are announced to the people. After a couple of mosques and madrassahs (basically a moslem university for boys 16-25 or so), we visited the mausoleum of a 9th century emir that escaped the leveling and burning of everything here by Genghis Khan because it had become a sand dune three or four centuries later by the time Genghis came thru. Imagine the delight of the archaeologist who found it.

After a delicious lunch in an airy but sheltered restaurant that was very similar to the other lunches we have been having, we walked thru the bazaar and were somewhat aggressively approached by little girl beggars and boys selling post cards. After getting thru that maze we came to another mosque with the capacity for 20000 worshipers at once.

 

Then it was shopping time.

 Somehow  C and I ended up the last people in the Unesco carpet factory with Sabina very anxious to sell us a carpet. Miraculously, C and I at separate times picked the same one which we found was a Zoroastrian pattern and tres expensive for us. We enlisted the guide's help, Marat's Uzbek connections, and Visa to acquire a new carpet (Visa turned the charge down but we got that straight). Note the carpet flippers T shirt- try to figure out what it really says.

The next problem with the rug and susani is going to be packing, and then US customs.

On to Samarkand tonight, but no money to spend, thank goodness.

Wednesday, October 26- Samarkand. About 35 degrees, clear, some wind. The sun is very low in the sky all day for this trip so the angle for taking photos is not optimal. A name out of the Arabian Nights, a little mysterious, a lot exotic:

Our guide today is Susana and her English is great, knowledge thorough. Beth says she sounds like the voice at the other end if you called an escort service in London, but I think she sounds exactly like Martin Short in Father of the Bride.

Details here as elsewhere will be sketchy on the mausoleums and mosques because I have never heard of the names and they all pretty much look the same.

Samarkand is about 2500 years old. It was the base of the Sogdhian religion and culture, a pagan people who also served as intermediaries for the Chinese silk trade- we learned last night via DVD that it was silk flags that turned back the Romans when they first took on the Parthians in the Near East just pre ad.

In the Sogdhian days a newborn was given a spoon of honey so he would be a smooth talker and a gold coin so he would be a good merchant.

The town was captured by Alexander the Great and made a capital. His wife Roxane came from Samarkand. After Alexander died in Babylon, the Seleucids ruled, then the Kushans. In 712 Islam and the Arabs reach Samarkand. This killed off what was left of the Sogdhian influence but started an Arab renaissance.

Genghis came in the 1200s and destroyed the town (like he did pretty much everything else in Uzbekistan cities) by destroying the aqueduct.

Then in the 14th century it was Tamurlane or Timur who ruled. He was a local and actually was buried here. His grandson Ulegbek was more interested in scholarship and started a madrassah for women and built a gigantic sexton.

Now Samarkand is the second capital of Uzbekistan (600 m people compared to 200m in Bokhara, out of 30mm Uzbekistanis.

I can't believe all the colorful outfits on the women here.

Timur's mausoleum, Registon Square, Bibi Khanym; Ulegbek madrassah on the west of RS, Tiger on east, and Golden on North, a trip to the bazaar, and lastly the sextant.

 

Tonight we all ate dinner off the train at the Astoria Restaurant and had a very colorful and enthusiastic fashion show afterwards.

I suspect any reader can also tell from the longer descriptions of the last two days that the temperature has improved.

Thursday October 27- Tashkent. The weather is in the 50s and clear!!

Today we split up with C and Betty going with the brother in law Kamol of a J Sarge student Connie knows and B going on the GE tour.

 

A little bit of an inflation problem

My guide was Lilia. Tashkent is big, maybe 2 or 3 million out of 30mm Uzbekistanis, 2200 years old, and at an elevation of 1500 feet. You can see mountains with snow behind the city. As usual the Arabs first bring Islam and then the Mongols destroyed the city but due to a system of canals it hung on. It has been the capital of Uzbekistan since 1930, and it seems to me the most Russified of the cities in Uzbekistan that we have visited. This is another secular Moslem country- freedom of religion is written into the constitution.

There was a big earthquake here in 1966 and we visited the very impressive monument to it and how the other republics helped out.

Earthquake protection- mud and wood in different directions

After another couple of mosques and madrassahs with blue tile named after people I can't remember, we went to a small madrassah which has the oldest copy of the Uthman Koran, on gazelle skin from 644 ad. Only about 300 out of the original 1000 pages are there- others have disappeared over time.
I hope I can remember the minaret joke.

Our last stop was the museum of applied arts housed in the home of a Russian diplomat from the 19th century. The pictures tell the story.

Friday, October 28- Kazakhstan. Long rail ride last night and today, reaching Almaty at 1pm for a city tour and then a gondola ride up the Sian Khan Mountains after saying goodbye to the train and crew.

As we go across the steppe there is nothing but fields, maybe summer and winter wheat, with some snow on the ground and distant snowy mountains. It looks like the big sky country of Montana except the mountains are further away. 32 degrees at breakfast.

Kazakhstan (KZ) is the 9th largest country in the world- who knew? I can name about 5 ahead of it. It has about 17 mm people with about 1mm in the capital city which is Astana not Almaty where we will be. It declared independence from Russia in 1991 and was chomping at the bit to go. About 60% of the people are native Kazakhs with 23% Russians and a smattering of others like Chinese, Ukrainians, Koreans, Uighurs. It is a very tolerant place for religions, freedom of choice like the other 'Stans. About 40% are Muslim. I can't spell the currency- something like tzengdu. The elevation of the city is about 2200 feet.

The language on the street signs is mostly written in Cyrillic but that is changing to Roman in a year or so. Most people speak 3 languages- Russian, English and Kazakh.

Almaty refers to apples which are large and abundant here.

 Almaty has wide boulevards, soviet housing, modern office buildings, a gigantic Presidential residence, and the inherited beautiful and meaningful monuments celebrating national history and heroes now. Lenin and Stalin are long gone.

We mostly drove around the city and then up to the winter sports complex (Shymbulak Ski Resort) including a 23 minute gondola ride. 

Now resting prior to dinner (and later finding that someone from Iran tried to get into Connie's Facebook account when her iPad was open) and then off to the airport at about 2am.

I just added up the distance we have traveled- 3800 km or 2400 miles.

One last note on how enjoyable it has been to have Beth along on this trip. She has kept us laughing all along the way. The others on the trip including the cabin attendants have delighted in her eclectic fashions and her acquisitions along the way. The Asian Indian American woman in the group and at least one of the Brits has said she reminds them of their daughters and has loved being with her. Two of the natives along the way have expressed interest (in the form of a number of camels offered), both named Moussa, and one South African man has offered his son (which I am kind of interested in pursuing).

Other than little sleep and early and long flights, we got home without problems.