After 16+ hours of being stuffed like a sardine in a can (but with free German beer!), I landed in Tashkent around 10pm. It took two hours to clear passport control and customs, so I didn’t arrive to my hotel until around midnight. Instead of going directly to bed, like any sane person would, I spent some time Tweeting/Facebooking/whatever and finally crashed at 2:30am.

And before I knew it, I was awake again at 6am and headed to the Fergana Valley, a five hour drive away. Uzbekistan has interesting radio stations, by the way. One minute they’ll be playing the Beatles’ “Back in the USSR” (ironic, no?) and the next minute MC Hammer’s “Too Legit to Quit”. Yes, MC Hammer.

Tashkent itself appeared to be like every other post-Soviet city I had previously traveled to, with plenty of communist block apartments, wide boulevards, and grandiose monuments. Although I didn’t see sheep grazing in the medians of Kiev and Moscow, so that was something new. But those were just cursory observations; I would return to Tashkent a few days later to explore further.

Outside the city limits of Tashkent, the scenery changed to cotton fields and herders driving their cattle along the roadside. In the small towns along the highway, old men gathered at dilapidated chaikhanas to sip tea and trade stories. Dozens of cars waited patiently at the entrances of palatial gas stations that have no gas to dispense; it reminded me of scenes from the Energy Crisis in the 1970s.

We began to climb the winding roads leading higher into the mountainous terrain. The views from up there were spectacular, interrupted only by the occasional police checkpoint and massive tunnels bored through the mountains, guarded at each end by Kevlar clad, Kalashnikov toting soldiers.

Finally through the mountains, we arrived in the Fergana Valley, the cotton and bread basket of Uzbekistan. Pull up the region on Google Maps and you’ll see an oasis of green surrounded by the dry, desert Tien-Shan and Gissar-Alai mountain ranges. On our way to Rishtan, where I was rendezvousing with my company’s tour group (oh yeah, did I mention this was a work trip?) we passed miles of cotton fields being picked by (mostly) women workers. There is no mechanical harvesting in Uzbekistan, so these women endure hours of back-breaking work to provide for their families. Driving further, we passed barren fields where dozens of large seismic trucks idled. Yes, the Chinese oil companies are here, eagerly searching for that black gold. My eyes began to sting – we traded our fresh mountain air for the dust and smoke of the valley. It smelled of burning trash and agricultural waste.

I’m embarrassed to admit that prior to this trip I had little knowledge of this region of Central Asia. Up until now, the only things I associated it with were ethnic conflict and Islamic fundamentalism. One of my grad school professors was slightly obsessed with these topics, so we spent a lot of class time covering them. Thankfully this visit would give me a chance to learn a bit more about the region.

The Fergana Valley encompasses portions of three countries – Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan – but in reality the entire region is a jumble of ethnicities, rather than clearly delineated by borders. You’ve got some Uzbeks living in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, some Kyrgyz living in Uzbekistan, Tajiks in Kyrgyzstan, and well, you get the idea. The ethnic conflicts that erupted as the Soviet Union collapsed, and which continue to this day, have their origins in the 1920s, when Josef Stalin arbitrarily divided Central Asia into Soviet Republics without any regard for ethnicity.

Source: The Economist

I met up with our tour group and we headed to Kokand, a city of 192,000 that has existed since the 10th century, and, like most things in Central Asia, was razed to the ground by the Mongols in the 13th century. This would be a recurring theme of our travels throughout the region.

Here we visited the Palace of Khudáyár Khán, home of the last ruler of the Khanate of Kokand. The Khanate of Kokand was a Central Asian state that was established in 1709. But in the 1870s the Russians arrived and abolished the Khanate, declaring it part of Russian Turkestan.

Yes, finally, pictures:

Entrance to the palace

These guys asked me to take their picture, so I did.

After visiting the palace we had a few hours to rest at the hotel before dining at the home of a local family. They served the Fergana version of plov, which is the national dish of Uzbekistan and incredibly tasty. Seriously, it is one of my favorite comfort foods and I would eat it every day if I could. Lamb, rice, carrots, onions, and spices – how can you go wrong?

It was early to bed that evening, as we were departing early that morning for the portion of the Fergana Valley located in Tajikistan. Yes, I had been in Uzbekistan for barely 36 hours and was already leaving. But this trip to Tajikistan was just a quick jaunt, I’d be back in Uzbekistan the following day.

More photos here.

Working on a longer write up of this trip (and boy, is it taking a while) but in the meantime here is one photo I took of the Panjshanbe Market in Khujand (formerly Leninabad), Tajikistan. The market’s name, Panjshanbe, means “Thursday” in Farsi, a leftover moniker from the Silk Route era when Khujand was a major staging point for the northern Silk Road.

These days, though, the market is open and thriving every day. Inside you can find a wide variety of foods for sale here: freshly butchered meat, naan bread, dried fruits and nuts, milk and yogurt, honey, produce, and giant mounds of cream cheese. Yes, cream cheese. The merchants here are incredibly friendly, offering samples of their products while inquiring were you are from and what you are doing in Tajikistan. As you can imagine, it is not everyday that a busload of American tourists rolls through Khujand. Tajikistan is not exactly at the top of the vacation bucket list for most Americans. Or Europeans. Or anyone, really.

This was the first market we visited on our three week tour of the Silk Route, and really my first experience interacting with the locals (as it was only my third day into the tour, the majority of which had been spent driving, driving, driving). As I mentioned, the people are incredibly friendly – probably the friendliest I’ve ever met, in fact, and I was overwhelmed by their hospitality and interest in these random foreigners visiting their country. Tajikistan is well worth a visit if you have the time and inclination to visit these types of “off the beaten path” destinations. But more on that later, of course…

Just a super quick note before I head off to the airport. For the next three weeks I will be traveling around Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. So after a few years of being stuck stateside, I will finally have some new content and photos for this blog.

(Courtesy WikiTravel)

When it comes to traveling to North Korea, most, if not all, roads lead to Beijing. The majority of flights to Pyongyang leave out of Beijing, and it is likely that your tour operator will require you to attend an orientation briefing the day prior to departure. Since I had never been to China prior to this trip, I added a few extra days in Beijing to the itinerary and basically had three full days to do some sightseeing. Granted, this was nowhere near enough time to even scratch the surface of Beijing, but it was all I could do with my limited vacation time.

Arrival
My flight landed a little after 10:30 on a Saturday morning. We arrived at Terminal 3, which was built to handle increased air traffic for the 2008 Olympics. It was a beautiful and impressive terminal, especially compared to the one we had departed from in Newark. Not so impressive, however, was the smog that was so thick it obscured the hangars located just across the tarmac. I remember hearing a lot about the pollution in Beijing during the run up to the 2008 Olympics, but I never imagined it would be this bad.

Passport control was severely understaffed when we arrived; the majority of booths were left empty while long lines formed. A few minutes later, a platoon of immigration officers marched in – literally marched in – and went to their assigned booths. They were all wearing surgical masks – the major health concern at the time was H1N1, and because of this we had to fill out extra paperwork about possible symptoms as well as pass through a thermal body scanner that measured our temperature. The passport and visa check was quick and painless, and I was amused to see that each booth was outfitted with a small box containing four buttons ranging from a sad face to a very happy face. It was a rating device – you were supposed to push the button that best expressed your satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) with the service you received from the passport control officer. I was astounded by this. They felt so out of place. Could you imagine the US government installing these at passport control booths in US airports?

After waiting about an hour for my luggage and catching a taxi into the city center, I checked into my hotel and promptly fell asleep (because I can’t sleep on airplanes) even though it was 4pm. I woke up a few hours later in a complete daze, and wandered around the neighborhood. All I really remember was going to a grocery store, buying some pastry and Coke, and then falling back asleep.

I stayed at the Marriott Courtyard in central Beijing, just a 15-20 minute walk to Tienanmen Square. This was a bit unusual for me, as I am used to staying at cheap hotels, but I received an excellent “friends & family” rate from a friend who worked for Marriott, so it was hard to pass up.

The China North International Shooting Range & the Great Wall

I didn’t really do that much planning for my short time in Beijing. I only had a vague idea of what I wanted to see. Obviously, Tienanmen Square, the Forbidden City, etc etc. I also wanted to visit the Great Wall, but didn’t really care to see the Ming Tombs or Summer Palace, sights that are typically packaged with a guided tour of the Great Wall. So I opted to do something a bit more unusual – visit a shooting range. So I spent my first morning in Beijing sampling the firearms of the People’s Liberation Army (which I wrote about in detail here) followed by a hike up the Juyongguan section of the Great Wall (detailed here).

Tiananmen Square & the Forbidden City
My next day in Beijing was dedicated solely to Tiananmen Square & the Forbidden City. In order to enter Tiananmen Square I first had to pass through a security checkpoint where you walk through a metal detector and have your bags x-rayed, in case you happen to be carrying weapons or, more than likely, anti-government signs or materials.

After successfully passing the checkpoint (I had left all my weapons at home, thankfully) I entered the southern end of Tiananmen Square near the Zhengyangmen Gate.

The square itself is massive. Measuring 880m by 500m, it is the third largest square in the world. Moscow’s Red Square, at 330m by 70m, seems tiny by comparison. Tienanmen is also the location of the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong (more on that later).

Socialist realism statues in front of the mausoleum

Since Tiananmen Square has been the site of important, and sometimes bloody, demonstrations, the authorities continue to keep a watchful eye on any activities taking place there (exhibit any political activity and you will be quickly whisked away). You can find large lampposts with these cameras all over Tiananmen Square (these particular cameras are situated near the mausoleum) along with numerous uniformed and plainclothes police officers.

Monument to the People’s Heroes erected to honor those who died for the revolutionary cause.

Tiananmen Gate

Chinese flag with honor guard.

Heading to the Forbidden City

View from the Tienanmen Gate

The Forbidden City
The Forbidden City served as the home of the Chinese Imperial family from the Ming Dyanasty to the end of the Qing Dyansty (roughly 1420-1912). The place is massive, consisting of 980 buildings (and those are the ones that survived through the destruction that accompanies occupation and revolution).

The dragon turtle sculpture

The thick surrounding walls

Wangfujing
After wandering around Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City, I headed over to the Wangfujing Snack Street. There is a wide variety of street food for sale here, including scorpions and starfish on a stick.

I am willing to try a lot of different foods when I travel, but poisonous insects on sticks were just a bit too much for me. Instead I opted for a snack of noodles and veggies wrapped in a moo shoo pancake (like a Chinese burrito) and for dessert, green tea ice cream.

Mausoleum of Mao Zedong

At the top of my “to do” list was paying a visit to Mao Zedong’s embalmed corpse. You see, since visiting Lenin in 2002 I have made it my goal to see all of the embalmed communist leaders who are still on display (Lenin, Kim Il-Sung, Mao, and Ho Chi Minh). And yes, I realize that is ridiculously weird. Anyways, this trip to China and North Korea presented me with an opportunity to cross two off of my list (only Ho Chi Minh remains!) so on my last day in Beijing, I was up early and headed straight to the mausoleum. As expected, the line was long, but moved at a good pace. I neglected to bring my passport, however, which was apparently required for entry, and was wearing flip-flops, which was also frowned upon, according to one of the posted signs. When I finally arrived to the security checkpoint, this apparently didn’t matter much, because I played the stupid American tourist and the guards let me through. Most visitors were Chinese citizens; in fact, I seemed to be the only Westerner there. Upon entering the mausoleum I encountered a huge pile of flowers, which was growing substantially. I was one of the few visitors who had failed to purchase flowers to honor the Chairman. We moved on to the actual room that displays Mao’s body, which was draped in a red hammer and sickle flag and enclosed in a glass coffin. You don’t have much time to gawk, as the guards move you along quickly into the next room, which, I kid you not, was lined with souvenir stands selling a variety of Mao memorabilia. It reminded me of Disneyland, when you are forced to exit through the gift shop after finishing a ride. I bought a kitschy ornament with Mao portrait that you are supposed to hang from your rearview mirror, like a Beijing taxi driver.

The Temple of Heaven
My last stop on my sightseeing itinerary was the Temple of Heaven. Built in the early 1400s, Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties came to this Taoist temple to pray for good harvests.

My embarrassing last meal
I am not proud to admit this, but for my last meal in Beijing I had a Marriott Burger delivered via room service. I know, I know, I should have gone out for Peking Duck or hot pot, but after five days of North Korean food, and several days of Chinese food, I was craving American food like crazy. So here it is, my burger and waffle fries, which I devoured quickly and washed down with a Chinese beer:

Goodbye, Beijing!
Overall, I was rather overwhelmed by Beijing. There was so much to see, and too little time to see it. I would love to go back to China someday and explore more of the country.

The rest of the photos are here.

On the morning of our fifth day in Pyongyang, we were back on the bus headed to the Pyongyang Airport to catch our return flight to Beijing. Of course, we were running late. The majority of our group was typically on time but there were always a few laggards, so we arrived at Sunan International Airport shortly before 8:30am for a 9:00am flight.

Despite the fact that there were only three flights that day, check-in was a bit chaotic; we hurriedly filled out the customs forms and waited for the guards to return our cell phones, which had been kept under lock and key at the airport since we had arrived in Pyongyang. We also waited for our guides to return our passports, which we were required to surrender to them when we arrived in North Korea.

After finally checking-in and receiving our boarding passes, we headed straight to the security check, which meant we had zero time to enjoy the airport’s only restaurant or make last minute purchases of books by the Dear Leader and Great Leader (basically the only souvenirs for sale) at the small gift shop. As to be expected, there was a long line at security and 9am was quickly approaching. Surely our plane wouldn’t leave without our group and leave us stranded in Pyongyang for a few more days?

The Kims are, of course, inescapable.

The security check actually went by rather quickly, as the North Koreans don’t make you take your shoes off or put all of your liquids in a little baggie like the TSA does. I guess if you are a member of the “Axis of Evil” you don’t really have to worry about all that stuff.

After the security check came passport control. Typically, if you enter a country on a visa, this is when you would receive an exit stamp, but we were on a group visa that was in the possession of our tour leader, so there was no visa in our passport to stamp, and thus no coveted DPRK passport stamp. Some of our group members politely asked, or begged the officers to stamp their passport, but their pleas were met by a head shake. So, I exited North Korea with absolutely no official record of having visited the country, just 1,500 photos and a copy of “The Eternal Sun of Mankind”.

Our ride back to Beijing

Air Koryo fleet

Heading to the runway

The in-flight meal – the infamous Air Koryo burger. Yes, it tastes as awful as it looks.

The flight back was uneventful, although quite uncomfortable. The seating was incredibly cramped and the cabin temperature seemed to be 90 degrees Fahrenheit. I dozed off intermittently, glad to be back in possession of my iPhone so that I could listen to music that had nothing to do with the Great Leader.

Goodbye, North Korea!

The rest of the photos are here.

Taken September 2009 while driving through Pyongyang in a bus (hence the poor photo quality)

I believe this is the entrance to a factory

I thought the style of these trams looked very familiar. They are Czech made, and likely the same style as the ones I rode in Prague several years ago.

Koryo Hotel on the left

Propaganda vehicle (notice the speakers on the top)

Student group

Top of the Ryugyong Hotel

The only gas station I saw in North Korea

A Nissan Paladin aka Nissan Xterra. The only reason I really took this photo was because I own an Xterra.

Another Xterra

A very crowded tram

The Mansudae Grand Monument to Kim Il-Sung. After Kim Jong-il’s death they added a statue of him as well.

And that is the end of the Pyongyang street photos. All of them can be found here.

More photos from Pyongyang in September 2009.

Traffic Girl (because who needs stoplights?)

City beautification project

City park with playground

Metro station

More propaganda

Apartment buildings and propaganda

Taedongmun (Taedong Gate). This is the eastern gate of the inner castle of the walled city of Pyongyang and one of the National Treasures of North Korea. The gate was originally built in the sixth century however the present construction dates from 1635 (the original was burnt to the ground during in the late 16th century).

Surprise, more propaganda

The elusive male traffic control officer

Pyongyang high rises

More random photos taken while driving through Pyongyang, North Korea in September 2009.

More propaganda. It is literally everywhere.

Mangyongdae Children’s Palace

Ryugyong Hotel under construction.

Decorations for the September 9th “Independence Day” holiday

Tram

Portrait of Kim Il-Sung on a building

Approaching Kim Il-Sung’s Mausoleum (Kumsusan Memorial Palace)

Another view of Kumsusan Memorial Palace

Note: I’m trying to play catch up here; there was a moment in 2010 when I stopped really blogging about my travels. I was laid off from my job with Big Oil in December 2009, and as the months progressed I felt guilty actually taking the time to blog when that time could have been spent more productively, i.e., writing cover letters or taking paid writing jobs (and let’s face it, after writing all day, the last thing you want to do is write in the evening). As a result, this blog fell by the wayside and I failed to finish blogging about my travels to North Korea and China in 2009, and barely mentioned my trips to Central Europe and the UK in December 2009/January 2010 and Costa Rica in February 2010. Then came a multitude of temp jobs, the move across country from DC to Seattle, a full time job in the travel industry, etc, and before I knew it almost three years had passed since I had completed these trips. So this is my attempt to finish writing about these places in time for a tour of Southeast Asia in December.

After touring Kaesong, we departed for Pyongyang, stopping enroute at the Tomb of King Kongmin which is located just outside Kaesong. I found this drive to be particularly interesting because we passed a lot of small farming villages along the way, all with the requisite propaganda paintings of the Dear Leader and Great Leader. Strangely, we weren’t allowed to take any photos during our drive to the tomb, which was unusual because our guides had not previously imposed any photo restrictions (aside from the DMZ, of course).

I was actually a bit surprised we even visited the Tomb of King Kongmin, as it was one of the few sights on our itinerary that wasn’t strictly “North Korean”. By that I mean there was no propaganda or lectures extolling the heroic feats of Kim Il-Sung, so visiting the tomb felt a bit out of place. It just seemed like a typical historical sight that you could visit in any number of “normal” countries. Our guide didn’t talk at length about it and actually seemed pretty indifferent about it.

Also known as the Hyonjongrung Royal Tomb, these 14th-century mausoleums contains the remains of Kongmin, the 31st king of the Koryo Dynasty, and his wife, the Mongolian princess Queen Noguk. Construction of the tomb was completed in 1372, six years after Queen Noguk’s death in 1365. Kongmin was interred here two years later after being killed by one of his court eunuchs. Apparently Kongmin had gone insane, threatening to kill several members of the court and subjecting them to depraved sexual acts, so the court members decided to kill him first (of course, they would later be executed for the crime). The whole incident was quite tawdry and would likely make an excellent script for a Hollywood film.

Steps leading up to the tomb area

One of the tombs

The “spirit road” lined with statues of military officers and Confucian officials.

Statues of sheep and tigers surround the tomb. The tigers represent fierceness and the sheep represent gentleness.

Surrounding area

All photos of the tome are here.

Mangyongdae Funfair, September 2009

And apparently he wasn’t very impressed:

On Wednesday, KCNA reported that newly anointed leader Kim Jong Un had visited an amusement park where he scolded park officials for poor upkeep of the park, according to the Yonhap News Agency in South Korea.

The criticism from the young leader was the first publicly reported rebuke since he inherited leadership of the country in December, and a rare occurrence in the history of the normally laudatory “inspection tours” taken by his father, Kim Jong Il, and grandfather Kim Il Sung, who ruled before him.

Kim’s criticism of the Mangyongdae Funfair in Pyongyang was strong and detailed, going so far as to describe the state of the grounds by the Viking ride as “pathetic,” Yonhap said.

He found problems with the roller coaster, the paint on the rides and the safety of the waterpark, the report said, and instructed officials to draw a lesson from touring the site and take it as a warning of the need for a “proper spirit of serving the people.”

No mention if Kim actually rode the roller coaster of death itself, however, or just observed the falling screws from the safety of the platform. If he did, he probably would have mentioned the non-functioning safety restraints (then again, it is likely his handlers didn’t recommend a ride on it for that very reason).