Stan Bowles? Stan Matthews? Stan Dard? Stan Ford? Stan Za?
Who on earth is Stan?
Well it's not a question of "who", and more of a question of "what?"
As a little kid I used to have a marvellous book about all the countries in the World, which was just magical to me. Okay, I'll come clean; my favourite was "World of Football 1969", but the countries book clearly stirred my imagination more than anything else. Even the Beano!
The said book was laden with photos of magical places, and had names of even more magical sounding places. One such place was Samarkand, in what was then the USSR. My fading memory seems to recall a photo of an awesome swirling looking blue and white building - like something out of the Arabian Nights. Many years later I realised it was a mosque. A beautiful serene, enticing building.
Then about 4 years ago the BBC aired the inaugural series of Race Around The World. In it, the contestants "raced" across numerous countries, and through many cities. A number of the places they went to really grabbed me, but two stood out. Firstly Georgia, and its capital Tbilisi; and secondly Samarkand in Uzbekistan. The latter rekindled the old vision I had in my mind of Samarkand. Then began a yearning to go there. Not long after, Joanna Lumley did her fine series travelling the Silk Road from Turkey to the Chinese border. She too went through Samarkand, amongst many other awesome looking places (especially Iran). I must, at this point, say that I find Joanna's narration a bit too sycophantic for my liking - way too many over-hammed "oh gosh's" for me. Plus, she clearly didn't skimp on the luxury, which in my opinion, isn't the most authentic way to get a sense of a place. Anyway, despite lovely Joanna's (because we all love her really don't we?) commentary, a dream was born! (not a dream of Joanna and I - please!!)
From the above ramble, you'll have put two and two together already worked out that the dream is going to become reality.
Rather than taking in the water's at our local pub to celebrate 34 years of marital bliss (!), we will be boarding the 06.45 flight to Istanbul; from where we'll further enjoy the hospitality of Turkish Airlines on a flight to Bishkek, the capital city of Kyrgyzstan. (pronounced Kier ghis stan).
For the rest of September we'll be travelling around Kyrgyzstan, onto Tajikistan before ending in Uzbekistan. Given the language and terrain challenges we've had to resort to being on a organised tour - not our natural preference, but needs must. At this point, we have no idea how many others will be in the group; but given that we'll be travelling to very remote places in what I'd expect to be 4x4's, I'd estimate c6-8 at the most.
Originally, I hadn't intended to bother "blogging" this trip. Primarily, as I know there'll be a significant number of days (particularly in the first 10 days in the remote areas of eastern Kyrgyzstan) when there'll be no access to a phone signal or the internet. In fact, at times there'll be no electricity either! It'll be like living in the 1970's during the Miner's strikes! So, to consistently post each day is likely to be impossible, hence not bothering to blog. However, yesterday two people said that I ought to do some of my rambling monologues. "Just write it on notes on your phone each day, and then publish whenever you can" was the advice from a learned friend. Then my sister backed up that encouragement; so here I am writing the prequel to our "Silk Road Adventure". If you want to see the official "blurb" on the trip here's where you can find it:-
https://www.wildfrontierstravel.com/en_GB/destination/kyrgyzstan/group-tours/silk-road-central-asian-odyssey-via-son-kul/TRE/2023-09-09
If you're daft enough to want to track our progress, save the link to this blog, and you'll be able to do so.
It's fair to say that we have both been flipping between excitement and nervousness about this trip. However, as we near departure, the excitement is starting to eclipse the concerns. "Why are you nervous?", I hear you ask. Well, firstly we're not getting any younger, so with that comes concerns over various things, such as health, and access to to healthcare. Will the water be safe? What if we get "batsman's disease" (the runs!)? What will the beds/mattresses be like? Night time trips to the powder room? Food? Will we be eating Yak burgers all of the time? If so, will there be a Yakdonalds? What will the weather be like? Will we be able to get the football results? You know the kind of things - important stuff once you get to a certain age!
Tash Rabat, Kyrgyzstan (40km from the Chinese border)
Given that we'll be at c10,000 feet for a number of days in Kyrgyzstan, we do seriously have to plan for cold nights, particularly when we are staying in Yurts. After two nights in Bishkek, we'll then have 6 nights of either Yurt Camps or "home stays", so that is a genuine concern. Conversely, when we get to Samarkand, Khiva and Bukhara in Uzbekistan we're expecting daytime temperatures in the mid 30's, and mid teens at night.
I think that's enough for now. Follow the blog at your peril. And apologies in advance for typos, bad language, bad grammar, repetition etc etc.
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