Flat landscape, arid desert, dust and sand filling the space in between marvelous ancient Silk Road towns. Cheering local Uzbek and delicious laghman. Uzbekistan does not have the scenic mountains of its neighboring Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. But it does have the means to make you feel like a real Silk Road traveler. At least I felt like one after battling my way through wind and heat as I visited the cities of Khiva, Bukhara and Samarkand on my way to Kyrgyzstan. Uzbekistan, for me, was all about Silk Road old towns.
Recap of week 102 to 107I crossed the flat desert landscape of Karakalpakstan, once home to the Aral Sea which was the fourth largest lake in the world. It was some long days of cycling on probably the worst asphalt road in the world battling the immense heat and in ever search of shade. For my effort I was rewarded with some well restored old Silk Road towns in Khiva, Bukhara and Samarkand.
I postponed touring Tajikistan and the Pamir Highway due to the still closed borders between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. I will do that another time. Instead I took the easy way to Fergana avoiding the mountains of the Fergana Valley in Tajikistan. From Samarkand I cycled towards Bekobod and did a two day transit through Tajikistan via Khujand before I again entered Uzbekistan to make a quick stop in Fergana.
From Fergana I headed straight for the border crossing and Osh in Kyrgyzstan. My last part of Uzbekistan was a sprint towards the mountains. I long for something else than flat desert and steppe landscape.
Karakalpakstan and the worst asphalt roads in the worldI started in Uzbekistan where I left off in Kazakhstan. More flat and straight roads through a landscape that seemed as endless as the ocean. The immense heat in June was an added challenge but by now I had the recipe down. Ten liters of water every day and tequila shots without the lemon and tequila. I told myself to cherish every moment of these open landscapes. It’s not that often you get to cycle days on end in empty nature. The only traces of civilization were the roadside cafeterias and a few sparsely populated towns. I kept my strategy simple and plotted a route from one cafeteria to the next only focusing on when I could replenish my water bottles and get some shade. My next city, Kungrad, was several days away.
The border crossing into Uzbekistan was a breeze. Once the armed military at the border saw me and my bicycle they pushed me upfront in the queue yelling ‘tourist, tourist’. The locals queuing up in the blazing sun were not happy. I’m not the one to jump the line but I accepted this as a one time compensation for all the future times locals would cut in front of me in the queue. I did the standard X-ray of my panniers on the Uzbek side and got asked a couple of questions from the border patrol officers regarding banned items such as drones, drugs and medicine. In less than an hour I was cycling on Uzbek roads.
Speaking of roads. I had been warned about the road conditions. And I can only agree. Nightmarishly bad. A real horror story unfolded ahead of me. Big deep potholes and large cracks. So bad I decided it was not worth cycling. I took turns pushing my bike in a zigzag pattern between the potholes and going for the parallel gravel road where it was possible. It was a very slow progress. Covered in dust all over after cycling 40 km on gravel roads I parked my bicycle at a roadside cafeteria and collapsed at the sitting platform with wet wipes to dust off my face and three liters of water to rehydrate. As I was lying there a local drunk happened to stop by and keep me with company. He was both entertaining and a bit annoying because I really just wanted to quietly relax. I’m glad I didn’t dismiss him because he had a golden piece of information. With some advanced charades he convinced me that a much better road was being built a kilometer to the side of the main road. As I was leaving my roadside oasis I went to check out if the guy was making a practical joke sending me off into the desert. What would you know? He was correct. A new concrete road is being built parallel to the main road and it will eventually connect Jasliq with the border. Only a smaller section was paved with concrete but the rest was hard stamped fine gravel without any large stones. I could follow this new carless road all the way to Jasliq. Sometimes road karma is on my side.
After Jasliq I continued onwards to Kungrad. This would be my first real city in Uzbekistan and the place to get a SIM card so I could send a message back home. Also I needed to get to an ATM. There should be an ATM at the border but I exchanged money to last me for a week. On my way to Kungrad I had to search for water in Qirqqiz after +100 km of nothing but road. It was early morning and I had camped a few kilometers away. I was thirsty and dreaming of cold ice tea. Quickly I started to take down camp and as I was rolling up the tent a yellow cheeky bastard was escaping from its hiding place underneath my tent. I was shocked. It was a scorpion. In all honesty I did not shriek as a girl. Scout’s honor and pinkie promises and all that. I just stood there and watched it run away in search of a rock to crawl under. Then my inner Bear Grylls flicked on and I pulled out my camera and managed to snap a photo to have proof for the mates back at the pub in Denmark. That also made me able to Google Lens the scorpion and it turned out to be a Deathstalker. Only the sixth most poisonous animal in the world. Yaiks!
I had looked death in the eyes and told it to go stalk somewhere else. Taking a deep breather I packed up my bike and cycled into Qirqqiz to get some water. This town is constructed to accommodate a large gas factory nearby. It has a strange fake feel to it and I had to pass a guard to get in. Once in, I started to ask around for a shop selling water and ended up talking to an English teacher. She told me that all markets were closed but that she would call the owner of a mini-market. While I was waiting for the owner to come she invited me into her English class to talk about my travels. We discussed everything from polar bears in Denmark to my single status and of course my encounter with the Deathstalker. Actually it turns out that it probably was a much less poisonous scorpion but that’s not what I’m going to say when I tell the story back at the pub. Ahaha….
In the end I had a really good chat with the English students. They were very eager to ask questions. And I got my water from the shop together with a heartwarming gift - a fresh pair of socks which I really needed. Yeah, the generosity of the Uzbeks is amazing. With new socks on my feet I approached Kungrad and was surprised to see so much green. Kungrad looked like the Amazon rainforest compared to the arid landscape from the last couple of weeks. After many hot days in my tent I was happy to get a room with air conditioning.
On my way through Karakalpakstan I heard talks about the Aral Sea. It was once the fourth largest lake in the world. A disastrous decision to make Uzbekistan into the world leading cotton producer was the beginning of the end of the Aral Sea. Large rivers from the mountains to the east were diverted to irrigate large areas of farm fields. As a result the lake has been shrinking since the 1960s leaving the Aral Sea on the brink of extinction. It has been dubbed an environmental disaster with great consequences for the people of Karakalpakstan. The ghost town of Muynak is a proof of what happens when people interfere with the natural balance of nature. I decided to come back to tour Muynak and the former lake shores of the Aral Sea on a lighter setup in a summer shoulder month when the more human temperatures allows for a lower level of water consumption. For now I was quite happy to just cross Uzbekistan and visit the old Silk Road towns. At least I figured as much as I was dozing off in my cooled air conditioned room in Kungrad.
Visiting the old towns of Khiva, Bukhara and Samarkand making me feel like a real Silk Road travelerKungrad was only a destination for me to set up my SIM card and get some cash from an ATM. Next day I was off to Nukus to finalize the notorious Aktau-Nukus slug, which some describe as the most boring road in the world. For me it was the opposite and that just proves that sometimes you gotta try out the roads for yourself instead of listening to others opinion.
All it took was one long day to Nukus and I was sitting at the hostel common area and enjoying a cold beer to mark the unofficial end of a long stretch taking me across some very empty roads in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Looking back at the last several weeks I slowly realized I had cherished every moment despite the dust, heat, wind and bad roads. It’s all part of what makes touring so diverse and in the end the greatest way of traveling in my opinion - you get to deserve your highlights and rewards. And up the road I had lined up several rewarding highlights.
First highlight was Khiva, a very well restored Silk Road old town. Madrasas, mosques, mausoleums and unique minarets all packed into a walled city. I spent two days walking around and being amazed by the high entry walls of the madrasas and the detailed decorated insides of the mausoleums. It must have taken so many man hours and some very steady hands to complete the intricate and repetitive patterns that’s so unique to the architecture of the ancient Silk Road towns.
From Khiva another long bleak desert stretch to Bukhara which just meant more of the same lonesome riding which I love so much. On my second day I battled with some watery diarrhea. Yeah, I’ll spare you the details but a rumbly tummy is a common occurrence when you spend some time in Uzbekistan. Losing body fluids fast in the desert with high temperatures and limited amounts of water is not a good thing but I managed to deal with it in a day by taking some stopper pills. Needless to say it was a struggle but I kept going and reached a cafeteria where I flattened out on a sitting platform and didn’t come any further that day. The very kind cafeteria owner let me sleep there for the night.
It’s like I’m destined to not be allowed to complete my desert distances. First I had to cut short in Sudan due to the war and 200 km from Bukhara I heard a pinging sound and immediately knew it was a broken spoke. My wheel started to wobble and there was no way I could cycle the rest of the way to Bukhara. The broken spoke was on the cassette side so repairing it on the side of the road was not doable. I took off my panniers and put out my thumb. After only a few minutes I had secured myself a ride in a mini truck just big enough to fit my bicycle. One accident rarely comes alone. The mini truck was struggling in the heat. It was 43 degrees in the shade and it was boiling hot in the brutal sun showing no mercy. Every 30 minutes or so we had to stop the mini truck and cool off the engine by pouring liters of water on it. We did so a couple of times but then it wouldn’t start at all. I wanted to hitchhike another ride but my driver really wanted to help and told me to wait in the car until a friend would come. For three hours I waited. I drank all my water and then decided I couldn’t wait any longer. Hope I didn’t offend my driver but I had to reach a market to get some shade and water. A minute later I was on another mini truck with destination Bukhara. This was the first time I didn’t cycle a distance due to a broken bicycle.
Yussuf turned out to be a savior. He has a bike shop at the local bazaar in Bukhara. It didn’t look like much but never judge a book by its cover. He did what a fancy bike shop in Dubai was not able to do, which was a proper and lasting wheel build. And he did so for 17 US dollars. In Dubai I didn’t even get 17 spokes for that price. Yussuf deserves a big thanks and he reminds me that touring the world is not possible without the skills and knowledge of trusted bike mechanics. So thanks again.
Bukhara was a great stop as well. The old towns look alike but they are all worth a visit. It takes a lot more Silk Road architecture for me to get tired of looking at it. It’s so very different from anything I’ve seen in Europe and other places in the world. I had one more Silk Road town to do. The famous Samarkand with its grand public scare also called The Registan. The square in Samarkand is framed by three impressive Madrasas and showcases one of the pinnacles of Islamic architecture.
The road to Bukhara signaled a change in scenery. Mountains appeared and a green farming belt slowly started to dominate more. I took the road south of Tudakul Lake and had almost car-free roads. It was weird to look to my right and see desert and then look to my left and see lush green vegetation. On my first night from Bukhara I found a great desolate spot for my tent but it would be my last as I would enter the farm fields and what must be the bread basket of Uzbekistan. On my second day I zig zagged in between the villages that make up the suburbs of Samarkand. Getting close to local Uzbeks is super cool. They cheer you on with a lot of honking car horns and waving and thumbs up. This just gets amplified as you visit their villages. That night I managed to find some nice soft grass on a football field where I was allowed to pitch my tent. Urban camping at its finest. I befriended the green keeper of the stadium and we ate both dinner and breakfast together.
Samarkand was my last highlight of Uzbekistan. I took some rest days there, walking around town and watching the light show at night which illuminates the three majestic Madrasas that frames this public square. Translated from Uzbek, “registan” means a sand place probably named so because the central square was covered by sand. The purpose of the Registan changed over time serving purposes such as announcing royal order, holding celebrations and public executions to name a few. One thing is sure, this central square has always been noisy, lively and the center of the city’s social life
A quick transit through Tajikistan on my way to KyrgyzstanThe situation between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan is apparently tense. A disputed border region and clashes means that the borders between these two countries are closed. That’s a big hit to the famous Pamir Highway which is a classic biketouring route. Back in the days you could cross Tajikistan and enter Kyrgyzstan at the beautiful Karakul Lake. Now, or in July 2023 at least, you need to backtrack all the way back to Dushanbe and enter Kyrgyzstan from Uzbekistan. After my big backtrack from Sudan to Dubai, my backtracking days were done. I have an idea for a great route from Tajikistan into Kyrgyzstan and then down through China to Pakistan on the Karakoram Highway and ending in the Kashmir region of India. A full blown mountain theme. So when borders and visas permit it, I’ll be back. For now, I’ll bypass the mountains of Tajikistan as much as possible.
From Samarkand I cycled towards the border with Tajikistan close to Khujand. I was running out of free visa days in Uzbekistan and I had to do a visa run. Also, I was saving myself for the mountains of Kyrgyzstan and picked the flattest route to Osh in Kyrgyzstan. If I do Tajikistan it’s going to be properly done.
I did a quick transit through Tajikistan. Two days and one night with a pit stop in Khujand. There is not much to see here in terms of scenery along the roads. A few mountains signaling what to come in Kyrgyzstan. I did pass Kairakum Reservoir which did give some scenic views just before the border to Uzbekistan. Back in Uzbekistan I was cycling along fruit trees and cotton fields and did some more urban camping and hanging out with Uzbeks. I used three days to pass this small pocket of a densely populated part of the country visiting modern Fergana on my way. Most people in Uzbekistan live in this region and it shows. There’s few open and empty landscapes. Fergana also seems like the least Uzbek city with its very modern look.
I was longing for some mountains. The last several months, since mid November actually, I’ve been in a dry desert landscape with very few mountains. It’s been a fantastic time but I’m also ready to change it up and put on my mountain legs. Kyrgyzstan is up next. Stay tuned.
2023-06-03 | blog
Biketouring blog covering Kazakhstan and the roads from Kuryk to Beyneu. I cycle across the Ustyurt Plateau via the underground Mosque and pilgrimage place of Beket Ata before heading for the Tazhen border crossing between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan
2023-07-22 | itinerary
Biketouring route for Kyrgyzstan covering the roads from Osh to Bishkek. I cycled over the Kaldama Pass to Kazarman and continued Son-Kul going over the Kara-Keche Pass and Kalmam-Ashuu Pass before doing a long downhill section to Kochkor and on...
Hi, I am Dani Kainoa. Summer of 2021, I set out on a journey to explore the world on a bicycle. Join my world biketour and follow my travel blog for stories, reviews, guides and more. Visit my photo journal on Instagram to keep up with more of my adventures.