Down from the mountains

We've now entered Tajikistan and, more significantly, left the hills and mountains of Kyrgyzstan behind. Both Khojand, where we are now, and Osh are on the southern edge of the Fergana Valley, the richest and most fertile part of Central Asia, crossed by a multitude of rivers from the Altai, Tien-Shan and Pamir mountains that either gang-up to push through to the Aral Sea and the Caspian as the Amu-Darya and Syr-Darya rivers or, more often, disappear in the deserts of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. You can see this on the map below (last post) - Osh is in the top right and the 'and' of Khojand on the far left, on the West side of the lake.

The culture here is also a long way from traditional Kyrgyz culture. The Fergana is the centre of Uzbek culture and the people have long been settled farmers, rather than the nomadic shepherds of the mountains. As Gemma mentioned, the valley was carved up somewhat randomly in soviet times between the Tajik, Kyrgyz and Uzbek Socialist Republics, but the population is largely Uzbek whichever side of the border you're on. The Fergana is also the centre of Islam in the region. Many more women here cover their heads and western dress has become rarer. The towns feel much more 'eastern' than the more russified towns further North - there are more old buildings and more old men in traditional dress lounging in tea houses. The food is now more consistently mutton kebabs and noodles rather than Russian-style salads and meat with sauce, which is overall a good thing.

(Chess playing in the park, Osh)

(Traditional Kyrgyz hats, Osh bazaar)

Less pleasantly, it is MUCH hotter than we've been used to, and with the heat have come mosquitoes. I got bitten all down my back in our particularly scruffy homestay in Osh (bucket of water to flush the loo, bucket of water to shower - thankfully, two labelled buckets provided). I guess Kyrgystan and Pakistan were too cold for mosquitoes, and China too politically repressive.

(Main square and theatre, Khojand)

(Woman with cheeky son and gold teeth selling bread, Khojand)

We haven't seen a big difference between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan so far, or at least between Osh and Khojand. We expected a bigger contrast given that Tajikistan is much poorer (roughly half the GDP per capita of Kyrgyzstan, and the 25th poorest country in the world) and only emerged from a decade of civil war 7 or 8 years ago, but I think a lot of this poverty is in the mountains to the South and East of the country rather than up where we are. There is certainly more soviet stuff left around, including a ten foot hammer and sickle on the main street and the biggest Lenin in central Asia. The biggest difference for us is that we're staying in the best room in town. We have a suite of three rooms overlooking the main square and both the hotel's balconies. It's roughly 4 times our recent accommodation budget at $60 a night.

(Syr-Darya River, Khojand)

(Main bazaar, Khojand)

Khojand is most famous as the furthest point in Central Asia that Alexander the Great reached before turning South East towards India. He fought a famous battle at the river here (where Gemma is standing in the picture below) against the Scythians, his men floating across on inflated cow hides to establish a beach head, and founded the city as 'Alexandria the Furthest'.

(Gemma recreating Alexander the Great's victory over the Scythians, Khojand)

Tomorrow we're heading further South, stopping in the town of Istaravshan for a couple of days before crossing the two mountain ranges that separate the North of Tajikistan from Dushanbe and the rest of the country.

T.