Part 15: Urgench to Tashkent
Train 058ЬА 'Amu Darya' – price 40 EUR for 'Spalny Vagon'
STD 3.50pm - STA 7.01am (travel time 15h11m)
As my train departure was only at 3.50pm I had time for a leisurely last stroll through Khiva in the late morning. Given I had so much time I decided not to haggle for a taxi at the West Gate but to head for the North Gate in the hope of finding a marshrutka to travel like the locals do. The marshrutka stand was reportedly a bit further to the east, but some locals were here in their own cars gathering enough people for the 32km drive to Urgench. I paid around 1USD for one of the four seats in the car, which is quite a fair price compared to the 5USD I haggled on the way to Khiva for a taxi. Within minutes the last few seats were occupied as well (fortunately for me not by fat babushkas but by pretty young ladies) and we set off for Urgench. I went out in the city centre close to a shopping mall as all other passengers went out there as well.
There isn't really much to see and do in Urench at all, but if you need to catch a plane or train in the city you can keep yourself occupied for an hour or two by just wandering around. It's a modern Soviet town of broad streets, empty boulevards and big squares. The city was founded by the people of Old Urgench (Konye-Urgench) in what is nowadays Turkmenistan (the border is just a few miles south of Khiva). When the Amu-Darya river changed course in the 16th Century the townsfolk were left without water and had to look for a new spot to set up town. Even though the river itself is a few miles out of the town, the huge Shavat Canal bisects the city in half.
Of course, there are plenty of ugly monuments such as this one named the Avesta monument. The Avesta is the primary collection of religious texts of Zoroastrianism, composed in the otherwise unrecorded Avestan language. Zoroastrianism is an ancient fire religion, and in ancient times was the major religion in much of Iran/Central Asia. Unfortunately no Game of Thrones style scenes here with a nude Melisandre or Thoros of Myr waiting with a bottle of gin
Across the river towards the train station was the little Jalad ad-Din Mingburnu Park. The chap was the last ruler of the Khwarezmian Empire in the 13th Century.
A broad avenue brought me to the train station where I still had about a 40 minute wait until my train all the way back to Tashkent would arrive.
Time went by fast and before I knew it my train rolled into the station. Urgench is a major stop on the line so most through trains will halt here for some 20 minutes.
Today's train (timetable number 058ЬА) was named the 'Amu-Darya' after the great nearby river. Like most long-distance trains in the ex-USSR, it has a cool name plate and beautiful shield of the national railway company.
I again had a ticket booked in a 1st class sleeper which is known in every ex-Soviet country as 'Spalny Vagon'. It consists out of two berths. In Uzbekistan, if you book only on berth it means that most often you will share the compartment with another passenger of the same sex (of course you can book both tickets for single occupancy). As the train was fully sold out what it seemed – it meant I had a roomie as well for the journey. This has its upsides as well as obvious downsides. The downside is of course less privacy. Had I known that a ticket did not give single occupancy (it differs per country and trains are perhaps even more inconsistent than airlines with their rules!) I would have probably bought two tickets given they were relatively cheap at just 40 EUR for this long journey. On the other hand, one of the great things about travelling is socialising and meeting other people.
The carriage attendant, called the 'provodnik' or 'provodnitsa' depending on their gender) comes around collecting tickets (you get it back shortly before arrival) and handing out bedding. Uzbekistan Railways is unfortunately no Lufthansa First Class where a lovely FA makes up the bedding for you before you go to sleep
The journey goes straight through the Kyzylkum Desert. And while that means that the terrain is not the most varied, it does give a sense of adventure as you realise how empty and dry this country is for most. Sometimes you pass some bigger or smaller irrigation canals – all created in a madcap attempt by the Soviet Union to irrigate the lands (mostly for cotton harvest, which is still a big industry).
The whole attempt at centralised socialist planning was sheer madness from the start. The Soviet Republic of Tajikistan built the fourth-largest aluminium factory in the world, but did not have any aluminium deposits so it had to be brought from far away. Uzbekistan, being one of the driest places in the entire Soviet Union, had to become the largest producer of cotton, which is notorious for needing quite a bit of water. Whole rivers were diverted or drained and canals were constructed for the project. It surely did contribute to the industry, as Uzbekistan delivered some 70% of all Soviet cotton during its heyday, catapulting the USSR into the 2nd place of world cotton production behind the US. It however had gigantic ecological results, from chemicals polluting the sparse water supplies, the monoculture creating problems with the soil, and most of all: the drying up of the Aral Sea, a huge endorheic lake in the country which got most its water out of the Amu-Darya and Syr-Darya Rivers.
Yeap, that's what happens when you take away all the water for the cotton industry and the rivers cannot bring enough water to retain the levels of the lake. Photo courtesy of NASA's public domain images.
On a more happy note, I loved the moment when the train finally crossed the Amu-Darya River. While the name of it might not ring a bell to many, for sure the Greek and Latin name of the river (the Oxus) is much better known. I always love it to follow the footsteps of such important figures as Alexander the Great – although arguably crossing the desert by train is far more comfortable than on horseback or foot!
The train has a lively bar wagon, where I sat down for some tea and laghman.
At one point my compartment roomie arrived as well and sat down opposite me. Even though he didn't speak a word of English (and my Russian doesn't go further than just a few words) he was genuinely friendly and insisted on buying a few beers for me. At one point he also brought a plate of some potato and meat dish for me. At other tables, some of the Uzbek men even ordered entire bottles of vodka.
Highlight of the train however was the beautiful desert sunset, which was a great farewell to a gorgeous country.
I slept well and woke up an hour before arrival in Tashkent, giving me plenty of time to fresh up a bit in the bare-bones lavatory – which was kept surprisingly clean. We arrived at Tashkent's southern station right on time. I had no problem finding a taxi to take me straight to the border with Kazakhstan, located on the outskirts of Tashkent, and was even able to negotiate a very decent price of around 5 USD.
The border procedure was fairly easy and straightforward. At Uzbek exit procedures nobody cared about any of the hotel registration slips (you officially must keep these!) and the friendly Kazakh officer quickly stamped me into the country after inquiring about my travel plans (it's visa-free these days for most western nationalities). Much quicker than anticipated, I was now in country number 69 which I've visited.
Even though I heard there are irregular buses departing to the nearest big city of Shymkent some 110 kilometres away, I didn't encounter any. There were however plenty of taxis and private vehicles offering rides. I was easily able to exchange USD to Kazakh Tenge at the border, and then to secure a front seat in a car heading for Shymkent for around 10 USD. We set off empty, although we picked up three more passengers for the back seats during the ride on a smooth motorway.
Highlight of the journey was this strange monument of a mountaintop ship which someone put up there for a weird reason.
Within just under two hours we arrived in Shymkent, where the driver dropped me off in front of my hotel. The whole journey from Tashkent's southern railway station across the border to Shymkent took just over three hours – and was much, much quicker than I anticipated. All the more fortunate for me, as it meant I had a full day ahead to explore Shymkent.
Next up: exploring the Kazakh city of Shymkent and flying home with Aeroflot