Crazy Parents Travel

Patagonia‘s Carretera Austral

August 8, 2023August 8, 2023 by ksenija+mirek olmer

for Old Farts, Wimps, and Road Trippers–in short us.

Google Patagonia and your main hits will be of mountains and more mountains with a tiny colorfully clad hiker or two looking to the horizon.

So what is a couple of wimpy old farts to do? Plan a road trip and pick up any and all hitchhiking hikers on the way.

If there was ever a proof that 3rd time is the charm just look at our Patagonia trip. After we had to run from the initial Covid outbreak that caught with us in Argentina en route to Patagonia we had to cancel plans again when Ksenija contracted a mild Covid case in Benin, West Africa a year later and her tests kept showing positive long after.

But as another saying goes, after having had a door slammed in our face twice, we were able to find not only a silver, but gold lining to our Patagonia cloud.

In January and February of 2023 we were able to allocate a whooping 8 travel weeks to Patagonia both in Chile and Argentina and add on additional fascinating destinations, we never thought we will get to in our wildest dreams.

The first half of our Patagonia and Beyond adventures was spent on the road trip on Carretera Austral (= Southern Way) also known as Ruta 7 – an ultimate driving route in Chilean Patagonia.

It has everything an ideal road trip should have: Scenic winding roads, expansive vistas, small towns, tall mountains, deep lakes, icy glaciers and adventures calling. We drove it nice and slow all the way from Puerto Montt to Villa O’Higgins and then back with plenty of detours on the way. All in all instead of a straightforward 2500 km (1550 miles) we clocked 4000 km (2500 miles) on our rental car. Most all of it on unpaved surfaces. With only one tire busted. On the way we met interesting locals and fun hitchhikers, both enriching our Chilean experience tremendously.

Peat collector by the side of a long stretch of empty road

The official start of the Carretera is in Puerto Montt and that is where we picked up our rental car. Here was our first stroke of luck or good travel karma. Ask and you shall receive, ask nicely and you shall receive an incredible upgrade. Picking up our reserved compact rental in a small, empty car rental office we noticed a new 4 wheel drive parked out front. With the help of Google translate we asked the friendly lady at the counter if she could upgrade us to that car. A quick phone call to her boss later she beamed a happy yes. And we sure needed that high clearance vehicle for all the dirt roads we bumped along.

Our second travel karma was even more incredible and highly appreciated. The Travel gods conspired with the Weather gods and gave us sun and more sun and minimal rain and winds. Winds are a huge challenge in Patagonia, people on hiking trails and vehicles on roads are easily overturned by gusts of up to 120 km/h (74 mph).

Right off the bat we started making detours and even backtracked a little to enjoy the gorgeous landscape of the Chile Lake District.

Jumping for joy in front of Volcano Osorno

Then it was to the first of the many ferries. January is of course South America’s summer, but after our freezing Norwegian summer trip the year before we knew to come prepared.

I am not sure which toad trip saw us on more ferries, Norwegian or Patagonian. The Patagonian ferries were definitely much much cheaper, but also much more nerve-wracking as they were fewer in operation and it was either difficult or impossible to make reservations ahead of time.

Big chunks of the Carretera were connected by ferries, many quite small, affording a nice opportunity to chat with the few travelers making their way on foot, bycicke, motorbike or car in those backwaters.

As a matter of fact the Carretera road trip made us really nostalgic for the traveling years of our youth. Patagonia is probably the last place on earth where hitchhiking is a safe and accepted mode of transport. What is more people still talk to each other, comparing travel notes instead of hiding behind their smart phone screens.

Waiting for the morning ferry and sharing our breakfast supplies with one of the many hitchhikers we picked up on the way

With lots of space in our comfortable car we made it a rule to always pick up hitchhikers, though at some (very smelly) point Mirek amended the rule that we only pick up girls or couples. The idea being that showers are more frequent when girls are present. We even picked up some couples multiple times and took them to places they couldn’t get to other ways. Or drove them around different campgrounds to settle in a decent one with warm showers. There were fun conversations to be had with young Israelis just out of their mandatory army stint, and less fruitful hand and foot communications with local youth who by and large did not speak much English.

The best times were with seasoned travelers who travelled for a long time and long distances. We also always offered a free coffe break, a drink or a dinner. It didn’t make a huge dent in our budget, but made a difference to the camping hikers living on trail mix rations. We were once those hikers ourselves.

We introduced this lovely Dutch couple to pisco sours

And they paid us back by washing our car.

While some other Patagonia destinations are becoming very popular (and expensive) Carretera Austral was just perfect for our taste. Remote and difficult enough for a limited amount of visitors, yet civilized enough that a gas station, a decent bed and warm food could be found without too much trouble, and without breaking the bank.

A romantic view from our little cabin window at the very end of the road

So don’t believe the over-exaggerated internet posts or pay for hyper-inflated travel agencies. You most certainly can drive it yourself. And you also don’t need to take a crash course in Spanish. As everywhere in the world the locals appreciate an effort to string along a few Spanish words and they will reciprocate with a valiant effort to string along some English words or call over someone that can. Smiles and fingers are still a recognized international language.

With a spiffy traditional dancer at a local festival

Seeing that indeed we are old farts and wimps with bad backs and knees we didn’t do much hiking and lived vicariously through the hiking adventures of hitchhikers we drove long distances.

The one hiking exception was the tortuous unexpectedly long search for Cueva de los Manos (cave with ancient hand prints). The cave itself might not have been worth the climb but the otherworldly landscape and views with the addition of some flying saucers certainly was.

We would have probably given up if it wasn’t for our Dutch hitchhiking couple that kept their pace slow and encouraged us all the way up a and down.

Even without hiking we did get quite close to the tall mountain peaks and admire many a spectacular mountain view.

A few times Ksenija managed to find a horse to take her up the mountain trails.

That is always so much fun. Even more so when one gets to visit the local homesteads.

Lasso demo at the sheep and horse ranch in the mountains of Futaleufú

Training for the local horse competition in Aysen

The wonderful combination of lakes and snow-clad mountains we are well familiar with from the Alpine regions is on steroids in Patagonia. The blues and greens of the lakes in combination with the high snow clad mountain peaks is just breathtaking.

Lago Jeinimeni Parque National Patagonia

What is more we absolutely feel under the spell of glaciers. They are massive and not marred by the gray film of dirty pollution so often found in other places.

The milky green of glacier water is quite a unique color.

Can you spot the blue blue of the Ventisquero glacier?

The clean rivers of Patagonia are also fascinating with their fantastic colors in powerful currents.

If the river happens to be less colorful and hence called White River the swaths of purple lupines give it the necessary punch.

Too old for serious class V rafting on the famed Futuleufú River we instead tried our hand at flyfishing for trout with a private guide.

Mirek listening carefully to the instructions on a tiny island in the middle of the river.

Despite seeing plenty but not catching any, we had a wonderful day.

We might have not caught fish ourselves but we ate plenty, especially salmon.

Shared by his friendly and generous family, our neighbors at a cabin site.

We would be remiss to not mention that many of these dazzling sights were part of a chain of national parks established by an extraordinary individual Douglas Tompkin. American businessman, conservationist and founder of outdoor equipment and clothing company North Face.

In the 1990s Tompkins and his second wife, Kris bought and conserved more than 2 million acres (810,000 ha) of wilderness in Chile and Argentina. Subsequently it became the largest gift of private land to Chilean and Argentine people and biggest philanthropic land conservation project in the world. This donation became the core of National Parks in Patagonia. The last phase sadly was completed by his widow after the accidental death of Douglas from hypothermia in a kayaking accident on Lago General Carrera close to his home.

We tried to visit as many of their parks as possible even if we just drove a short distance from the entrance.

For old farts like us short educational trails were god sent to get a taste of diverse nature from giant ferns to giant burdocks

to giant trees.

Ancient alerce trees, relatives of giant sequoias

Even for non-bird-watching people without binoculars the frequent encounters with woodpeckers were fun. Sadly we did not manage to see any pumas, but guanacos were often loitering close to the road.

As impressed and inspired as we were by the work of the Thompkinses, we were also disappointed and worried about the future for lack of upkeep and continued government involvement. An interesting new documentary Wild Life is just out that sheds more light on the inspiring couple, and the long difficult fight to reach the goal.

For a very different and a bit more touristy experience we stopped at the Marble caves, swarming with young crowds, beer joints and restaurants. A little taste of what we could expect when we fly out to the second part of our Patagonia adventure.

Initially we were not planning to push all the way down to the last outpost on the Careterra Austral. But we were glad we did. It is a tiny little town with very few visitors, but those that come are young adventurers share fascinating stories of crossing by land and boat from Argentina.

Time to turn around and retrace our steps with different detours and a 20 hour ferry ride to Chiloé Island.

Did we sometimes wish we had a magic broom instead of a car? No, we really are ultimate road-trippers and enjoyed every bumpy mile.

Norway Road Trip Logistics

October 4, 2022October 6, 2022 by ksenija+mirek olmer

As pages of my “Journals and Notes” are finally getting dry and readable again, I am ready to give you an honest report on our ‘summer’ trip to the Arctic Circle and beyond.

If you show anyone with a trace of travel DNA in her/his blood a photo like this – maybe even without clouds if you can dig one up – the most probable answer sounds like this:

“Oh, Norway, so beautiful! I need to put it on my Bucket List.”

The next question naturally is “HOW?”

The majority of our American friends would likely be coming to this country on a cruise ship. Encountering on three different occasions these behemoths landing on Norwegian shores and disgorging thousands of people I can confirm the American accent definitely prevailed. Following the cruise ship travel format indeed simplifies the planning and logistics of travel to a remote country such as Norway.

But the photo of a multi-story cruise ship moored in a village of Geiranger with barely 250 inhabitants illustrates well certain limits on privacy and quality of life this travel style may impose on both residents and passengers alike.

150+ cruise ships carrying about 300,000 visitors in 4 months season combined with tens of buses waiting in the ports to take passengers on the narrow two-lane winding roads to 2-3 popular view spots for a selfie may make interactions with locals quite uneasy.

Dancing between buses and big camper vans you realize with a certain level of guilt that no matter what your mode of transportation is your very presence also contributes to the overcrowding and you really should as quickly as possible hightail it out of there.

Having established our summer base in Prague where we have a car, just one-day drive away from the southern shore of Norway, it was logical for us to opt for a road trip.

Between mountains and fjords and lakes; the enchanting empty road on Senja Island

This offered a more independent alternative providing freedom to select the places we wanted to see, when we wanted to see them, and flexible length of our stay in Scandinavia. In addition we hoped to get some relief from blazing hot summers Central Europe has suffered lately. We would simply move north through the marked places on the coast of the Norwegian Sea

and occasionally veer inward to the fjords all during what would be an average pleasantly warm Norwegian summer. When we finally reached a place beyond the Arctic Circle called Narvik (the ring marked with the letter H) located sufficiently Further North than we’ve ever been, and only then

we would turn south through Sweden and, with peace of mind that “mission was accomplished” we would come back to our Prague base.

“Mission accomplished” meaning that we finally set foot in the last two European countries we had not visited so far.

Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.

Beware of simple plans. Or as an old Yiddish adage says, “Mann Tracht, Und Gott Lacht.”meaning, “Man Plans, and God Laughs.” Or in our heathen version: Mother Nature pisses on your plans, literally with rain and more rain.

Even the start date of our trip didn’t go according to our plan. A 3-week delay was caused by an unfortunate (but luckily injury free) slow head on collision with a Slovenian Mail truck driver, sidetracked by reading an engrossing text message. After our car was finally repaired we were able to stuff it with all necessities for our trip and…

announce our departure on Instagram, (where else?) with a celebratory jump on our Czech family’s farm. Such important travel influencers we are! 😜

Opening of our travel to Norway could not have been more spectacular! After a day of driving through Germany, we spent the night in Denmark and then boarded one of those humongous ferries plying the waters between continental Europe and Scandinavia. It was a misleadingly sunny day when the blue color of the sky competed with the blue color of, no, NOT the waters of

the warm Mediterranean, but the unexpectedly turquoise water of cold Skagerrak, the strait between two relatively cold Seas, Baltic and North.

Despite doing our homework, browsing the websites, reading guide books, and talking to friends, we kept stumbling. Norway is a whole different breed of travel animal.

Meeting some Italian travelers with favorite Lonely Planet guides

Norway has some peculiarity in the community of European countries. It is a member of NATO but not a member of EU but to make it more complicated, does belong to the group of the countries which fully adopted Schengen Agreement. Norway also has their own national currency, called a crown like other Scandinavian countries we visited, Denmark and Sweden which are now part of both EU, and NATO.

Nevertheless, despite these somewhat confusing differences and the many borders we crossed in our 5-week trip, nobody asked us to present our passports, national or international driver’s license (with exception of international ferries), and car registration papers. As we are apt to do anywhere in a new country we withdrew some cash upon entering, but didn’t really get a chance to use it. Cards are queens, cash is not king! We were well aware that Norway was not a budget-friendly travel destination and it would be difficult to keep our expenses at least under some control. But at some point during our trip we just had to forget about any budgetary constraints and hope our credit cards will be accepted and take the load. (Automatic gas stations for example only take debit cards.)

Even though everyone speaks fluent English, the Norwegian language could pose a challenge, especially on websites buying ferry tickets and such. Norwegian, originating from Old Norse being a North Germanic language is related to English and German, but only inasmuch that one feels one can recognize a word or two here or there. (Can you guess “rød eple”? = red apple).

The Norwegian affinity for simplicity is well reflected in the names of local places.

The absolute winner is a small town, or rather a village, on the westernmost tip of Lofoten Islands. First mentioned in the historical sources as “Aa” in 1567, it had lived happily ever after till 1917, when the Norwegian language reform changed the letter “aa” to “å”. Since then the village name on maps and road signs is simply:

75 km, not people, there are actually exactly twice as many: 150

Is it not something? And for the next place on the record list you do not have to go too far. On the neighboring island of Andøya is the place with the name 100% longer and it is “Bø”!

Bø with a Dancing Barn for Vikings? No, it says: Children playing. Drive carefully.

I hope there are no Lofoten tourists visiting Wales on the other side of the North Sea. They do have a village with a name:

“Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch”. Yup, it is ONE word. Look it up, it’s fun!

Norwegians are what you typically visualize as “tough cookies”. Very much into outdoors, no matter how bad the weather. “There is no bad weather, just bad clothes”, must have been invented by Norwegians. It is not just the descendants of sturdy Viking Men but Viking Women and Children running around freely in all weather conditions.

You can not imagine how many bicyclists, how many SINGLE FEMALE BICYCLISTS, completely soaked through leaning into the wind we would see on the narrow roads of Norway. I am sorry for not having any photos, but we were embarrassed taking their photos from the comfort of our car in pouring rain. Those ladies do have my admiration! Their toughness projects into their way of communication. Kind, straightforward without wasting time talking too much. If they talk, they do not complain. Probably there is not much to complain about? Happy with the government and taxes? Husbands? Annoying Americans? Who knows. They didn’t say.

It is a pity Norwegians don’t deal with their high cost of living in the similar streamlining manner. Norway is a rather expensive country, probably the most expensive one we have ever visited. Most surprising is the high price of gasoline, in spite of Norway sitting on an ocean of oil

under the North Sea from which they keep pumping for the last 50+ years. With prices of gas reaching US$10+(NOK100) per gallon /$2,5 per liter at the pump, we definitely did not feel like we were visiting some sort of European Emirates. You would think their salaries must be much higher then, but after all the taxes they pay (uncomplainingly) they really aren’t. They are not grumbling about taxes because they value the quality of their education and healthcare. Being a teacher is a respected and well paid profession, we heard. How refreshing is that?

And then there is the cost of transportation. Thanks to the remarkable diversity of Norwegian landscape with sky-reaching mountains, deep and steep valleys, river crossings, and a myriad of fjords (there are over 1,000!) building and maintaining a well-functioning highway network must be wildly expensive. To pay for such a system, certain portions of highways, many of the large beautiful bridges

taking you directly from one super

long tunnel to another super-super long tunnel, are tolled. There are over 1,200

tunnels in a country with slightly more than 1% of the US population. Some are small and even unpaved but some are really really long, and they must have cost a fortune to drill through typically granite mountain ranges. The longest one of all is the 24.5km (almost 15.5miles) long Lærdals tunnel which was built in just a bit more than than 4 years. It was opened in the year 2000. Building a tunnel of this length, technical expertise, and price tag can be undertaken by very few countries in the world.

There are no toll gates, just a traffic sign reminder of how much you are being charged. Since you pay, you get some entertaining bang for your buck with a lot of innovation in lighting keeping drivers attentive throughout their long drive.

The further innovation in limited space in fjord country are multi-arm underground tunnels connected via round-about interchanges, thus pushing the engineering limits even higher!!!

All Norwegian registered cars are recorded in the countrywide digital collection system which scans each vehicle license plate on highways and invoices the vehicle owner monthly. Foreign registered car owners are encouraged to pre-register their car’s

license plate online before intended trip to Norway and to pair it with preferable method of toll payment like a credit card. Strangely this electronic system is so slow that we only started receiving credit card charges after our return. If you don’t register your car online, the process is similar to collection of speeding fines in EU countries. In case you get a speeding ticket in another country they will find you in European data base through the license plate or rental car agreement and send the bill to your home address with extra processing fee added. Don’t ask how we know!

The toll charges through the EPASS24 app are used on selected ferries as well. Unfortunately, some private ferries do not participate, making the boarding process on them a little bit longer, but still efficient.

Ferry rides, while frequent, comfortable, and often very scenic, are not very cheap. There must have been certain political pressure to do something about their rising cost as the government made a few ferries transporting less than 100,000 passengers a year free of charge starting this July 1. Since we often travelled off the beaten path we happily benefited from this service.

One of our major geographical accomplishments on this trip, crossing the Arctic Circle, happened on a longer ferry journey connecting two small coastal places

Kilboghamn and Jektvik on the beautiful National Highway 17. The captain of our ferry made an announcement and took

us a little bit closer to the shore so everybody on board could take a photo of the marker of this geographical curiosity.

Driving in Norway is remarkably safe (we have not seen a single traffic accident), but also exceedingly SLOW. While roads are of good quality and well maintained there are only a few 4-lane median divided highways in the whole country. We mostly drove on 2-lane undivided roads with legal speed limits of 80km(50 miles) per hour when out of towns and villages, and 50km(30miles) per hour whenever you can see a house on the roadside. It does not sound too bad, if these limits were not frequently lowered down by another 10 or even 20km(12miles) per hour whenever Norwegian Agency for Traffic Safety, or whoever is in charge of setting speed limits, decided there is additional danger to public such as a mild curve ahead, or a roadside restaurant (no matter if permanently closed). After including short stops for driver change behind the wheel, filling the tank, refreshment stops, etc. your average speed is barely hovering above 60km (less than 40 miles) per hour reminding you more of a snail race.

Those speed limits are strongly enforced. But do not think that there is Highway Patrol or similar law enforcement agency doing it. As a mater of fact throughout our whole trip we have not seen a single man in uniform (with exception of US Air Force staff in northern Norway participating in some sort of military exercise). How is it enforced then? There are many cameras installed alongside the roads working 24/7 and we heard scary stories of hefty fines imposed for speeding ($3,000 for reckless driving!). Driving over the limits is not tolerated even by an insignificant margin. No wonder that smart phone apps warning of cameras are very popular. But even if you do not have a smart phone, all cameras are openly advertised few hundred meters (yards) ahead by a visible warning traffic sign. It results in driving public’s respectful compliance with speed limits and if you are still caught on camera, you can hardly use excuses like “But I did not know!”

Not surprisingly free street parking in towns is very rare and not paying your parking fee carries fines almost as harsh as speeding.

There are still a few cool railroads operating in Norway and we planned to ride the most famous:

This rail line is on the list of the most beautiful train journeys in the world and is one of the leading tourist attractions of Norway. The train runs from the sea level at the end of one of the arms of more than 200km (125miles) long Sognefjord, all the way up to the high mountains ending at Myrdal station. Unfortunately the early morning we reached Flåm Station the weather forecast was for a colosal rain storm so we opted to visit just the station and take a few pictures of Mila for our granddaughter.

But you may be more interested in how we spent our nights on this trip.

The sleeping arrangement was not very easy considering our style of travel. Even with mutual agreement about the direction of our drive, we were not quite sure WHEN and WHERE we will be by nightfall. And night falls late here. During the first half of our trip we drove through the Fjord Land at the peak of the summer tourist season. When and where to find a roof over our head was quite difficult because everything but the most expensive hotels was booked up. We were glad to have borrowed camping gear for this trip to have a place to sleep when other options couldn’t be found.

Tent camping can be a pleasant experience

when the tent is dry and reasonably warm. Thanks to this summer’s extreme (wet and cold) weather we did have many opportunities for hard testing this travel model and our conviction to camp, which I thought, and frequently proclaimed, I love. If, after all of our chalenges, the Norwegian camping experience did not break our spirit, the credit goes to my wife’s ability to sleep through anything on an inflatable 2” mattress floating in the pool of water with 72km(45miles) per hour gusts of wind bending the tent poles.

This certainly confirmed that the borrowed tent which proved to be an excellent sleeping device in deserts of Namibia for our friends does not have to necessarily provide for uneventful nights in summer days of Norway. On the positive side we learned to improvise a lot. After the first rain we bought a waterproof tarp at the nearest IKEA to prevent water seeping in from the bottom. As a result any water coming into the tent from the top had no way of leaking out.

Similarly when night temperature started dropping towards 0 degree Celsius (32F), you knew how smart you were taking your fur coat and a fast gas cooker with you. It helps boiling your hot drink or favorite soup within a MINUTE!

After our sleeping bags proved to be no more

than our grandkids’ theater prop, we acquired in another IKEA store (it looks like this company makes tons of money having their stores strategically placed all over the country for the benefit of camping travelers) a large goose-down comforter. The warm cover kept our feet toasty enough to feel in the dark of the night how high the water level in our tent was creeping.

We also learned how to pack up all of our camping gear super fast no matter how much water was inside the tent, how to be able to move quickly in the dark from the tent to our car seats and to adjust the same seats beforehand to a comfortable sleeping position in case such necessity arises.

We also became quite innovative in finding places where to dry our camping gear.

We discovered early on how to read carefully weather forecasts by the hour for the nearest possible location using the Norwegian app called YR. Alas it proved it was not always reliable and we paid dearly for 2-3 catastrophic prediction failures. After all of this, it is a miracle we still like camping and we might even want to try it again on our planned Patagonia trip next year!

The simple Norwegian camping cabins are quite a good alternative.

You just have to plan ahead and know when and where you wanna be at any given time six months ahead when all cabins in Norway are usually fully booked. Since it was not our case, we managed to snag one only twice.

How pleasant it is to listen to the pouring rain outside even if your luxury is only a bunk bed with no ensuite bathroom. Add a sound of a hot soup bubbling “mijotée” in the cabin’s kitchen (just an electric plate) and your life is suddenly nearly perfect.

Hotels and AirBnBs were a big step up to recharge our batteries and dry all our stuff . There were not as many as we hoped to find, specially in the Far North. Their ridiculous prices reminded us of the Japanese hotels during Sakura season. But we will never forget our stormy 3-nights in a Bergen Marriot,

one amazing life saving recuperation night in the beautifully restored farm house

facing a very soggy golf course after the worst rain-wind storm near Trondheim,

or a wonderful week spent in an elegant AirBnB on Lofoten. They all provided a dry asylum when we needed it the most!

Eating and cooking on the way was also a new and different experience. I do like cooking both indoors and outdoors. Since my youthful mountain trekking years I cooked on a portable gas cooker. An easy foldable table I bought just before we left upgraded my moving ability as my years of cooking while sitting on the ground with my legs crisscrossed are long gone.

Notice fresh blueberries picked at this marina campsite and our blue tarp drying

Smoked salmon or trout were our favorite but we were less enthused by dried cod.

Though on few occasions we splurged on a nice restaurant meal and tried excelent bacalao and other cod dishes.

We met a friendly young chef who inducted us into the marvels of Norwegian sea weed with a special tasting.

We could discuss with him the finer points of Norwegian cuisine and express our surprise how few mushroom dishes were offered with great abundance of mushrooms popping up in the rain.

Homemade (and handpicked) chanterrels and eggs made at a well equipped common camp kitchen.

The importance of having tools for making our food and drinks has become apparent even more in sparsely populated northern Scandinavia. The idea that we could always find at least a small coffee shop with decent cappuccino and fresh croissant north of Arctic Circle has never really materialized.

Even those rare ones we could find were closed after the season ended on August 15 or they rarely stayed open past 3pm.

We only felt truly back to ‘civilization’ as we know it when we reached the cute, old, sun lit town of Lund in southern Sweden on our way back!

At the end our estimated trip length nearly tripled. Instead of 4,000km we were shocked to find our final tally was 11,500km (over 7000 miles).

We felt very lucky to have had a comfortable car as a vehicle and a shelter this rainy summer in Norway. Truth be told ideally one should have a small van with two beds or a small camper (the big ones are too tough to drive on narrow roads). Not only are the Norwegian camps catering mostly to campers, but there are many free parking areas dedicated to campers with basic amenity such as toilets. Often they prohibit tents.

Lastly it is legal to park your van or camper most places by the side of the road and spend the night and you will see lots of travelers do that on any pull-outs by beaches or fjords.

Maybe next road-trip? What says you, Mila?

A Date with a Modern Day Fisherman and Ancient Hunters of Norway

September 24, 2022September 26, 2022 by ksenija+mirek olmer

Fishing boats in the port on Lofoten at night

Listening to the rain lashing the windows on Lofoten a thought occured to us. Wasn’t it somewhere here that our youngest daughter lost our GoPro camera one winter when she was swimming with the orcas?

A quick message exchange gave us the precise location, it was a day’s drive further North to the island of Andoya. Four years ago she was swimming with orcas and in her excitement totally forgot about the GoPro strapped to her wrist. When she came back up to the boat it was gone, lost in the depth of the freezing sea.

One day many months later an email popped up in her inbox. Was it she that lost a GoPro? It said that a fisherman hauled it up with his daily catch. The housing was ruined under the pressure of 500m, but the memory card was extracted. The fisherman -detective analyzed the contents on his computer and saw that the first images were from our diving in the Andaman sea and the last from a boat in Norway. He went to talk to the agency organizing trips and asked, “Do you know of anyone who lost a Go Pro on one of your expeditions? Sure enough they found Naya’a records. The memory card was sent back and a local reporter even interviewed all parties and wrote a nice article.

I remember reading the barticle and thinking, “One day I would love to meet this fisherman.” Now, unexpectedly, our chance was here.

“Do you have his email?” was the next message to our daughter. She did and we quickly shot him a message. Would he be willing to meet with us for dinner in the next few days? A resounding yes came back quickly. His wife was going to join us too and he made a reservation in the only decent restaurant in town.

There was a little break, still windy and grey, in the perpetual rain on the day we said goodbye to Lofoten and headed to Andoya. We had no luck finding a single open food establishment. Until 4 pm when we hit Bleik Beach, just short off Andenesič where we were meeting for dinner at 6.

In a plain little hut we joined four other patrons heaping their plates with a smorgasbord served in heated metal containers. I sent a message to our fisherman that we made it and apologized for stuffing ourselves early at Sylvia’s. Just as we were telling the story of the fisherman that found our GoPro to the owner two people entered. “You have new guests,” I pointed out.

They headed straight to our table with big and smiles on their faces.

“It’s them,” exclaimed the owner. “They are my friends!”

“We live in the village on this beach,” they explained.

“Well, listen, we still want to take you for a nice dinner, as promised. How about we also try to invite the reporter who wrote the story. Do you have his phone number?”

“No, but I can find it!”

We stepped out and for the first time that day the sun broke through the grey skies for a few minutes and a beautiful rainbow greeted us.

How symbolic: strangers connected across continents by serendipity.

Having gotten hold of the reporter who promised to join us at the restaurant we were invited to Bernt-Jonny Lund’s fishing boat.

It is a simple boat with little shelter from the elements. Hard to imagine the tough life of a fisherman for soft city rats like us.

We had a great evening chatting with our new friends and the reporter

who took some notes for part 2 of the GoPro Saga.

No surprise that our guests did not order fish for dinner but next day Bernt-Jonny brought as a bag of dried cod to try. Let us just say despite its nutritional value and transporting capability it is an acquired taste.

There wasn’t supposed to be the next day as we were planing to take the ferry to neighboring island of Senja. But a big storm the night after our dinner with huge swells prevented fishermen and ferries from going out to sea. So we made another night’s reservation at the old army barracks now a simple hotel and spent the day with our friends taking them to touristy places in their backyard they have never been to. (We have never been to Alcatraz either, despite living in the San Francisco Bay Area for the last 30 years).

For all our troubles we were rewarded with one spectacular sun kissed day on Senja, starting with a panoramic ferry ride.

With no plans for climbing mountain peaks,

Senjahopen village with the view of the peaks including the signature Segla and Hesten

a day was enough to crisscross the whole island. Senja is much smaller and less visited than Lofoten but it certainly punches above its weight.

Jumping above our age at Bergsbotn Uttiktsplattform

Sunshine held in Tromso, so we could walk around town amongst throngs of local people with their gleefully uptunred faces parked on benches and grassy park patches. Real summer has finally come to Norway now that we were nearly done?

We met famous explorers

and more trolls

A beautiful contemporary Arctic Cathedral represents well the mountains and northern lights of Tromso and the whole county of Troms og Finnmark.

Always looking for the LONG way around we drove through Lyngen Alps along and across Ramsfjord.

We never heard of these places yet we found them more spectacular (and more peaceful) than their famous brethren in the south. We even took notice of some disparaging remarks about these far reaches of the country from Norwegians who obviously could never have been up here and experienced this dazzling beauty.

As a matter of fact one of our two guidebooks didn’t even cover this part of Norway. We will never forget it especially since we had a unique encounter with a pod of mama orcas playfully swimming along the bay with their babies as we drove by.

Too gobsmacked to take a photo of the orcas. Sometimes you just have to surrender to the random moment of awe!

Yet we did know of the place that was our end goal in our amended travel plan – Alta. It also has a contemporary cathedral: the Northern Lights Cathedral, Nordlyskatedralen in Norwegian.

The most unusual crosseless Christ figure in sparkling interior

But it was something much older yet illuminating that we came to see. A deservedly UNESCO World Herirage site. (Sometimes we wonder about these designations…)

It is in fact not that easy to see so we hired a private guide to show us around.

Poitning out and explaining the faint rock carvings

He works at the truly well designed Alta Museum. Alta has Northern Europe’s largest concentration of rock art made by hunter-gatherers. 6000 figures have been discovered up to date and many are encompassed in the museum’s outdoor area. The oldest date from 5000 BC.

To better see them the shallow carvings have been painted red, though this method is frowned upon and discontinued nowadays.

As great lovers of rock art this was a unique peak experience for us not only in Norway but worldwide. We have sought out rock art in many places like France, Namibia, Australia, and Malaysia, but such a large amount of panels and figures as here is quite unprecedented.

The figures portrayed are people, reindeer, elks (US “moose”), bears, dogs/wolves, foxes, hares, geese, ducks, swans, cormorants, halibut, salmon, whales, boats, implements and other artefacts, and various geometric patterns and shapes.

It is the human figures and their activities that speak to us and offer a unique window into the everyday life, beliefs, and rituals of our ancestors.

Fishing on the boat above and NOT hunting the elk, but performing a ritual.

Travel for us is about discovery, adventure, nature, beauty, creativity, but foremost connection to other humans around the world. Sometimes, when we are lucky we get to even feel the connection to the humans of the distant past.

As always we left a piece of our heart behind. While at the same time our heart and mind expanded and our life was enriched.

Lofoten Bound

September 8, 2022September 20, 2022 by ksenija+mirek olmer

Oh, are we glad we changed our plans midway our Norway road trip and pressed North! With the weather not affording leisurely camping by blue lakes and fjords and a car being a safe (=dry) mode of exploration, we continued towards the Land of the Midnight Sun. Well, we were just a bit too late in the season for that and on the other hand a bit too early for Aurora Borealis. Dang!

Troll with our granddaughter’s doll Mila that came on the trip with us. We sent her pictures all along the way.

We said goodbye to the better-known fjords by driving the famed Trollstigen (=Troll’s path). The approach looked quite dismal.

The road begins where the clouds are the thickest

But miraculously for a few minutes the clouds lifted enough so we could see and drive the switchbacks with full force of waterfalls cascading all around us.

Impossible to show on a little photo the magnitude of Nature! See how huge the waterfall is and how tiny the cars?

We were hoping to take a small Rauma tourist train as we missed out on the famous Flam train ride due to rain. But the train was canceled, but luckily a nice girl in a sports shop told us we can see exactly the same from the car. Thank goodness for her advice. It is surprisingly difficult to get good information in Norway, web sites are not updated or only in Norwegian and tourist offices in many places closed.

On the way back through the Romsdalen Valley we stopped to admire yet another cool tourist architecture (a restaurant and souvenir shop)

and even more so the mirror reflection of the sheer Trollveggen (= Troll wall), the tallest vertical rock face in Europe. Naturally, such superlatives attract extreme sports fanatics like rock climbers and base jumpers and sadly many have been killed here.

In Molde, we had an ad hoc coffee with Laila, the mother of a tour guide we had in Bergen. She shared a lot about the Norwegian way of life and their values and attitudes. She worked at a refugee agency, so we had an interesting discussion about that, too.

She then put us in touch with her other daughter in Trondheim, who really helped us out a few days later by letting us do a load of laundry and dry out our tent in her garage. On top of it she gave us a tour of her city and over lunch enlightened us about the younger Norwegian generation, University system, etc. So it proved true what we heard that the further North we would go, the friendlier people became.

Trondheim is an interesting city for it is brimming with students, which means better coffee shops. It is also the end of a popular pilgrimage road, a Nordic version of the Spanish Camino. The St. Olav’s Ways is a 5000 km long network of pilgrim pathways meandering through Nordic countries.

Pilgrim’s passport with stamps collected on the way in front of accommodation set up for pilgrims.

We talked to a friendly Swedish couple who were just finishing their walking pilgrimage, heading towards the Nidaros cathedral. We offered them a ride as the rain clouds threatened again, but they refused.

What a wondrous surprise the cathedral was for us. After all the sweet, if at times also dramatic little churches the giant stone cathedral built over the grave of King Olav II, patron saint of Norway, was indeed impressive. After all it is the biggest cathedral in Northern Europe (it can sit 1,850 people) and the northernmost medieval cathedral in the world.

I can totally imagine being a pagan from a small countryside settlement and stepping into this awe-inspiring place and converting on the spot. In truth of course Viking conversion to Christianity was a slow process in Norway and whole of Scandinavia. Sadly in the process, women were the biggest losers. Where they had great powers in their pagan religion and a certain level of equality with men in their society all that was gradually stripped away.

We had another great opportunity to learn about the Vikings at the Lófótr Viking Museum, where real live “Vikings” practice crafts and answer questions.

The weaver drinking from a replica of a Viking cup found at the longhouse

The replica of the longest Viking House ever found

One can even go for a ride in a Viking ship

Ah, Lofoten. For travelers and photographers, it is one of those whispered mystical words of a magical place that haunt you in your sleep and while awake. Only Svalbard perhaps holds more sway. We left frozen Svalbard for another time but took the six hours long ferry to Røst on the edge of islands in the chain.

Luckily it was a calm day on the open sea that kept going and going with a prolonged light of the lingering night beyond the Arctic Circle. Arriving way past midnight we slept a few hours in the car and witnessed the first sunrise on the Lynx’s Foot islands, as the Vikings named Lofoten.

Lazy photography: Sunrise reflected in our car bonnet through the front windshield.

We spent a week on Lofoten, in seven days four were dumping rain relentlesly, but the remaining three were enough to drive every single road on the islands, some more than once, returning to favorite picturesque spots.

Dramatic: tall mountains rising straight from the sea

Same but ever changing: Golden light of the Golden Hour

You can let your imagination go wild down bellow or you plant your feet firmly on the upward path and climb to a different perspective.

The one and only trek that convinced us we should leave such adventures to the young and nimble. The wind nearly blew us off the mountain and into Kvalvika Beach.

Best to just go beach combing on surprisingly many attractive beaches.

When the weather is not cooperating there are many museums and galleries to enjoy and learn. Besides the Viking Museum one can not help but encounter the many museums and the still working establishments of the cod processing industry.

Since time immemorial skrei, the wandering cod from the Bering Sea has been caught and dried on Lofoten in the millions.

Drying racks waiting for the winter catch

It was the base of the Hanseatic league trade (and wealth) in Bergen and the means of sustaining Norway economically before the oil boom changed everything.

Dried cod gets exported primarily to Italy, Portugal, and Spain where the bacalao dish reigns supreme

The dried heads all go to Nigeria for spicy soup

Personally, we much prefer Lofoten salmon.

Salmon and shrimp sandwich with non-alcoholic beer and a view

We bid goodbye to Lofoten and continued North for we had a special mission to accomplish.

Lofoten panorama with typical red fishing village (now mostly turned into tourist accommodations).

To be revealed in the next instalment.

Norwegian Rainy Summer: Fjord-land

September 6, 2022September 20, 2022 by ksenija+mirek olmer

Indeed, in the summer for a time the sun never sets in Norway’s North but that doesn’t mean it is sunny all the time.

This year in particular it hasn’t been. While the rest of Europe was baking in record-setting heat, we were told Norway was experiencing the coldest and wettest summer in 100+ years.

And this was the summer we decided to finally go to Norway on a road trip. It has always been too far and too expensive. Still is, but we are starting to really feel we are running out of time and European countries to visit. Panicking, as we checked the accommodations (booked up, or ludicrously expensive: room with bunk beds and shared bathroom for $285 anyone?) we threw a borrowed tent and some sleeping bags in the car. Bought two inflatable mattresed and a gas cooker for tea and instant soup.

We haven’t camped in like over twenty years, but hey, the idea brought back fond memories of a vigorous youth. We downloaded a camping app and read that wild camping was legal and practiced everywhere so our stress level went down immediately.

Until the first big rains…

And temperature dropping precipitously…

Our summer sleeping bags proved woefully inadequate but we managed to buy a feather filled comforter at Ikea.

After we were seriously flooded twice we decided to camp only in good weather. Luckily the second part of our trip was after the end of high season so we were able to find a combination of simple campground huts, hotel rooms and Airbnbs.

We spent a week in this beautiful Airbnb on Lofoten

Still we were proud of giving camping a fair chance and glad to meet a lot of nice fellow travelers in camps’ common kitchens. With local restaurants and coffee shops closed altogether or closed early in the day our little cooker came in handy. (More on the logistics in a later post)

When one thinks of Norway it is the image of fjords that comes up in our mind first and foremost.

Mountains reflected in beautiful blue-green waters.

Well, with the ratio 1 sunny day to 3 rainy ones, we had a whole lot more of cloudy and rainy fjords. Reflections, thank goodness, were still there.

Moody, broody, but very satisfying to photograph.

There are three ways to see the fjords. From the banks

Night shot from our camping spot at Breim’s Lake.

from the top and from the water.

If you are a hiker, there are many hikes that will reward you with fabulous views. Our hiking days are well behind us so we needed to resort to driving windy roads to come to lookout points.

18 specially designated National Tourist Roads have elegantly designed pullouts and viewing platforms.

It is even better when one can take a gondola and feel like really being on top of the world.

Mt. Hoven lookout at the top of Loen Skylift

Fjords and lakes as far as the eye can see

Geiranger Fjord, likely the most famous and most touristy fjord of all. Can you spot the cruise ship?

Getting on the water means renting a kayak (which we didn’t do) or hopping on a car ferry. Some are just your everyday short connections between different sides or arms of a fjord but others can be running the length of the whole fjord and are a scenic tourist attraction.

One can get close and personal with waterfalls, this summer reinforced by plenty of rain.

Seven Sisters Waterfall in Gerainger Fjord

So yeah, fjords are spectacular and very attractive, but Norway is so much more. For once we didn’t have a detailed travel plan and were not limited with a return ticket date so we had a chance to be flexible and explore more. To some degree we tried following the weather predictions on a Norwegian weather app, but when it rains everywhere you can’t quite drive away from it.

Bergen’s Bryggen – a short break between storms

Hence we got holed up in a hotel in Bergen for three days, drying out our tent and planing our route further North than initially invisioned.

Making lemonade out of rainy lemons we looked for indoor activities and discovered places and experiences we would likely have missed in sunny weather.

Classical piano concert of Edward Grieg’s music in his home

The design and quality of their museums was a delight and the stave church on the outskirts dramatic.

Now for the stavekirken… We got quite obsessed with them and after our first encounter went out of the way to visit. There is something very attractive about them – a combination of Viking mysticism and Early Christian spirituality. Researchers believe that there have been just under 2 000 stave churches in Norway. 28 of these are preserved. Such medieval wooden churches were scattered all over Europe but are now only found in Norway. Incidentally we saw similar hand hewn techniques of church building (without any nails!) still used in a remote corner of Romania. We easily fell under their spell as well.

Many of the Norwegian still standing stave churches are total reconstructions as these churches are prone to fires. In order to protect the churches they are tarred on the outside, thus the (rather sinister) black appearance.

They were built at the time when Vikings started accepting Christianity en masse around 11th-12th century and on.

The oldest intricately carved portal of Urnes stavekirke from 11th century

Finding Viking sites was another mainstay of our meandering around the country. With the Viking ship Museum in Oslo closed for renovations for the next five years (!) we were ecstatic to find the newest and largest Viking ship on display at the spectacularly intelligently and beautifully designed Sagastad Museum in the tiny fjord where it first sailed.

The walls open so the seaworthy replica can be rolled into the fjord for a row about.

We came on a Sunday morning expecting a crowd and upon seeing an absolutely empty parking lot suspected the museum was closed. It wasn’t. It was singlehandedly manned by a teenage girl who couldn’t be more than sixteen. That’s Norway to you, people are expected to behave well, doors are not locked, streets are safe to walk in the middle of the night.

As the Myklebust ship was a burial ship it was burned to a crisp and covered by a big earthen mound. Nevertheless archaeologists could still determine so many details that an exact replica could be built.

Row, row, row your boat! All the way to America.

The Museum has mirrored walls and ceiling with black background so you have a feeling you are in the charred mound.

The awesome part about Norwegian museums is that they are so interactive. You are not only allowed but encouraged to walk on the ship and become a Viking.

Compared to these intricate highly skilled works of art and craft the majority of buildings we came across were rather simple and slap dash in their construction. The countryside is dotted with simple red huts. Red must be the favorite color in Norway.

Cottages are a national obsession and it seems like every family has one somewhere. They are surprisingly simple, many lacking inside bathrooms. Norwegians for all the cold and rain love to spend their time outside, hiking and fishing. From an early age babies and kids of all ages are out and about clad in waterproof clothing and boots. Sturdy Viking stock, indeed!

A bit more elaborate are farms that mostly seems to follow an attractive pattern of white main house and red barns.

In the cities too, housing is simple and utilitarian. And often red.

The last picture illustrates how we feel about Norwegians. There is no problem communicating as pretty much everyone speaks perfect English, but man, they are hard to break a barrier with. That’s why for once you will not see any people pictures in our blog.

Except for this gentleman, we found picking a bucketfull of crab from his cages with his wife.

I turned on my most charming self but it was tough going to sustain a conversation. They told me they were having a Sunday party for friends. I half jokingly asked at what time? They seriously answered, “At 5.” Having just come from our trip in Central Asia, the difference was stark. There we would have been invited for a crab feast at the first hello. With no English spoken. 😉

Maybe further North we will be luckier. Norwegian North coming up next!

Of Birth and Death and Life in Kyrgyzstan

August 2, 2022August 2, 2022 by ksenija+mirek olmer

The view from our homestay’s dining room

As we walked up the steps to our homestay in the village of Arslanbob, we heard a baby cry.

A black clad grandma was holding a baby swaddled in layers of pink. Her face showed concern and frustration. “May I?” I asked with a smile. To my surprise, she handed me the baby and I put her on my shoulder and started the baby dance that I have practiced to perfection with many babies, my own and others. (Long time ago for many years I worked with new mothers, helping them breastfeed and master other mothering skills).

Soon the little bundle burped and instantly calmed down. The baby’s mother walked out of the house, startled to find her daughter in the arms of a stranger. Her mother-in-law said something to her, presumably about the baby calming down in my arms and the mother looked at me with friendlier eyes. Our guide came up and translated. “It is our first grandchild,” explained the granny. “It is a miracle. We have waited for her for 15 years!”

As we stowed our bags in our guest room, I noticed that the women were getting ready to leave. “Where are they going?” I asked our guide. “To the baqshï – traditional healer. The baby doesn’t eat well and cries too much.”

“Would it be acceptable if I tagged along?”

The women had no objections and we all piled into a beat-up car with a cracked windshield. I sat in the back with grandma, holding the baby, while the mother was in the front. It seemed to me that the baby didn’t quite belong to the mother, but to the family as a whole. Soon the narrow road through the village came to an end.

We had to cross a stream by foot on a rickety footbridge

and then walk up to a house. We were welcomed and ushered into a spacious room with floor seating. Immediately an assortment of food was piled up in front of us. The mother passed the baby to the healer.

I gestured to my phone and was so pleased when I got permission to take photos. You see, if I could do my life over I would have wanted to be an anthropologist. I just love learning about people’s traditions, beliefs, and cultures.

Truth be told it is a bit hard to learn about a culture when you don’t understand the language. Not that many words were spoken during the ritual that was part medical examination. After a quick Muslim prayer

I watched intently the healer’s strong, steady, skilled hands probing the baby (checking fontanel for dehydration, tummy for obstructions) and then bringing out various powders and ointments to put on the baby.

Blessing with an ancient turtle shell – certainly a pre-Islamic shamanic tradition

But it was her face that mesmerized me. She had an open face with the kindest smile. I would have gladly put my body and soul into her hands.

But then she asked the mother for a sterile razor blade and while pinching the skin started making tiny little cuts on the baby’s back. That was not something I was quite ready to see, though different ways of “letting blood” to take out impurities is a method used in many cultures.

Luckily the baby barely whimpered and quickly calmed down when put to her mother’s breast where she fell asleep.

There was no payment from our side but in the end we all received a different scarf as a parting gift from the lovely baqshï.

With my new scarf carefully tied by the grandma

I really wished I could have asked her some questions or offer some breastfeeding advice and if I had had a woman guide I would have been able to. Still, I was very grateful to have had been afforded a thrilling glimpse through the small window into the local culture.

On the other side of life’s journey we had many opportunities to encounter not funerals per se, but burial traditions. Again one could see some remnants of pre Islamic traditions. In the near total absence of historical architectural monuments and only very simple village architecture we were fascinated by attractive graveyards scattered throughout the countryside.

They always had a nice view but were rarely connected to a human settlement. But then Kyrgyzis were true nomads for much longer than sedentary people.

In the olden, nomadic times people were buried on the way, wherever death overtook them. Some more important people would perhaps get a tomb, possibly in the shape of a yurt, that would in time become holy shrines – mazars.

These days skeletal ironwork yurt graves offer rest to family members in their favorite traditional dwelling.

Many tombs were adorned by a crescent moon. The crescent is not only Islamic but also a symbol from earlier times, of light at night.

Some others displayed the five-pointed star, a distinctly Soviet symbol.

As most were constructed from adobe (mud and straw) bricks

they were in all stages of deterioration, looking like sand castles eroded by Mother Nature and Father Time.

Some had handcrafted pictures and names, but the newest ones followed an uncanny Russian tradition of exact likeness etched in polished marble.

The exact likeness could not be attributed to the traditional bal bals, anthropomorphic sculptures made from limestone and granite.

From 6-12th century they were probably carved memorials to the honoured dead. Their production and reverence ceased with prevalence of Islam which prohibits figural depiction of people.

The majority of population in Kyrgyzstan declares itself Muslim, but except for the South close to Uzbekistan border we felt the country was more secular than its neighbors. There were no grand mosques and we heard no muezzin calls.

The only woman we saw in a real hijab was this stunning fishmonger.

Lucky for us she had no problem posing for pictures.

The other item for sale: kurut –dried yogurt balls

Speak about stunning. This beautiful girl Zarina was the niece of our guide and she gave us a private concert on komuz, a traditional string instrument, while her mom cooked us a delicious lunch.

Visiting Begaly’s family was such a treat. Mom and dad were lovely as well.

And we even got invited to his sister-in-law’s birthday party.

While many women wore loosely tied scarves, some men wore traditional kalpaks. As it used to be with all traditional clothing clothes or hats were not just for protection from elements but also immediately explained someone’s status in society: noble or serf, married or unmarried, etc.

For example in the past when a Kyrgyz boy was 12 years old he would wear a kalpak with green embroidery, this would change to a blue kalpak at the age of 24, a brown one at 36, beige at 48 and black at 60. If a young man was looking to get married he would wear a kalpak with red decorations.

Our guide Begaly with his kalpak on a throne in Skazka (Fairytale) canyon

In case you were curious kalpaks are made with a traditional material – felt, made from wool, plentiful around sheep.

Even we recognized this man we met in the village of Arslanbob as an Uzbeki because of his square hat.

Not sure this gentleman has any symbolism in his clothes. He was impeccably dressed, eating lunch alone in a roadside restaurant and before he left I asked him for a portrait. I wish I had a chance to ask him some questions, but he seemed in a hurry.

This cool guy was one of a team of four salt miners, we met on a quick detour to an old salt mine. He insisted on gifting me this piece of salt rock.

Sometimes the encounters are fleeting

A gorgeous girl holding a platter of freshly baked goodies.

Sometimes we get a chance to have real conversations as with this Dungan lady, the owner of the best coffee shop and a little hotel we stayed at in Karakol. Dungan are Muslim people of Hui origin that left China. They are especially known for their delicious cuisine. Because of her fluent English we had over the course of a few days some lovely conversations about food, traditions, family, and life in general.

It is a bonus when one can have a free flow of ideas that enrich an encounter.

But sometimes words are not needed, generosity and kindness speak directly from one heart to another.

Great grandma and her great granddaughter at our first homestay. Sweet memories!

We might say goodbye to Kyrgyzstan, but we will always remember the wonderful people we met.

In Awe of Kyrgyzstan’s Nature

July 25, 2022July 26, 2022 by ksenija+mirek olmer

Indeed, and with a renewed hope for the planet. Following the news one is apt to believe the Earth is on the brink of collapse. The glaciers are melting, the oceans are choked with plastic, rivers dead and forests infected. No wonder young people are depresed and without hope for the future.

They should come for a week to Kyrgyzstan, trek in the pristine nature of the mountains, wade through mountain streams and eat fresh fish from the lakes. Yes, there is an occasional eye sore of plastic refuse on high mountain passes left by the many truck drivers and there are traffic jams in the capital but all in all this country is Nature’s Paradise.

And people live in harmony with nature and animals. Seems like the nomadic blood of their ancestors still flows through their veins unabated and calls them to the summer jailoos in the mountains.

While grazing sheep and cows are the main contributors to the economy it is the horses that are the love and pride of every Kyrgyz male. It is true that horses occasionally complement the menu of this carnivore nation at the family table or restaurants. This is a habit more common here than in the West but it is still relatively rare among the line after line of beef and lamb culinary marvels you can usually select from the menu.

Horses are everywhere and everyone has them. And rides them. It is a hobby. It is a right of passage. They naturally learn riding like crawling and walking.

It is something they are born with in their DNA. They ride them as they manage their sheep, goats and cows. Those people are for me like Central Asian version of American cowboys. Watching them makes me feel like being back in the American Wild West. How could it not with a backdrop like this?

One afternoon we followed the river to a small village to our homestay. We stopped by a footbridge that leads over the fast flowing river.

It is late afternoon, time to bring herds home.

My Kyrgyz cowboys are doing their job with grace. They do what I see my wife doing whenever she is around horses. Touching them gently on their heads above their nostrils, hoping to mount them and ride them away into the wild. Is it not funny to think about your wife in those terms?

Cowboy Volod: “See you at the local joint later tonight?”

My wife: “Or maybe at the animal market in the morning?”

When planing our trip to Kyrgyzstan we had hoped to be in Karakol on a Sunday to be able to experience their weekly animal market. And wouldn’t you know it, we arrived to this pleasant town on the shores of Issyk Kul on a weekend.

We love markets anywhere in the world. People are busy doing what they do at a market – buying, selling, meeting their friends and don’t pay much attention to foreign visitors soaking it all in.

It is essential to get to the market early and we had a good warning from a traveller we met who missed most of the action. So we got up at the crack of dawn and found that the market was indeed already in full swing when we arrived. Many people have brought their animals from afar and some spent the night at the site.

It was a cold morning after a rainy night. The surrounding mountains were sprinkled with fresh snow. What a setting! With two crazy travelers gleefully lost in the see of animals and people.

Tradition and modernity – smartphones are common

There was a lot of action.

When in Rome… Mirek checking the fat content of the “tail”

It was, by and large, a men’s affair

but occasionally women were involved as well.

There was a considerable quantity of animals gathered, but surprisingly we saw very few sold.

Fast money counting skill we did not manage to acquire

We would have stayed till the last animal was loaded up again, but our stomachs reminded us we didn’t have breakfast so as a bonus for getting up so early we loaded up with freshly baked bread on the way back to our hotel.

It was to be expected that spring weather in Kyrgyz mountains will be changeable and rain possible. We were actually pretty lucky with the weather and never got wet or hindered in our activities.

The one day we decided to go on a hike to Atlyn Arashin valley it was sunny, but weather didn’t prove to be the issue.

There are certain bitter elements in our travels which had been and still are an integral part of our life together. We never traveled in groups, relying mostly on each other, if I disregard traveling with our kids when they were growing up. Our children now travel on their own to the mutual relief of both generations involved.

For many years, we have managed to find a a good balance between our interests and abilities in physically demanding disciplines. I preferred mountain trekking and scuba diving and my wife horse back riding. Rafting was fun for the whole family. As the years went by the balance was exposed to the test of time. After my back surgery which led inevitably to my retirement I suddenly had to face the fact that my lovely wife could still be jumping like a foal around me over the mountain streams and easily dealing with rough rides in the 4×4 vehicles, some of them old enough to match my age.

It all came crashing down around my ears as we boarded one of those former Red Army vehicles to get us on the unpaved valley road above the tree line for a hike amongst the peaks. The road reminded me more of a training site for old T-72 tanks than a road.

Terrain full of boulders, with remnants of last winter’s avalanches, and potholes the size of our house’s living room.

My best intentions got a forceful reminder that my dreams may have survived those 50 years since I first tried to come here, but my back and surgically stiffened spine are way too fragile for this adventure and think otherwise.

It was a bitter moment of recognition that my time of hiking with sixty pounds heavy backpack (half filled with essential bottles of beer) is long gone and finally over and I had to let it go.

We sent the driver back with half his fee and started walking slowly

by the fast-flowing mountain river enjoying flowers and green meadows and chirping birds.

We walked over a bridge to the first human dwelling,

while our guide flew his drone.

On the other side the verdant spring has reached the high summer pastures where a few cows were contentedly nibbling on fresh grass.

The majestic peaks with snow still plentiful on their steep slopes were watching quietly over the herders taking care of their animals and summer gardens.

To my big disappointment, I realized I could get no closer to the mountains. I could not make it any further and we had to turn around and walk back down to the first village to call a taxi for the rescue.

Next time up only in a chopper, oh my!

Golden Eagle Hunt

July 19, 2022July 19, 2022 by ksenija+mirek olmer

In our cozy yurt by the shore of Lake Issyk Kul, we slept soundly through the pelting rain to wake up in hopes of a dry morning. It was vital that the weather cooperated as we were to have an important meeting in the village of Bokanbaevo. With a man, my wife has dreamed of for a long time.

In this small village on the south shore of lake Issyk-Kul there are thirteen men practicing the ancient custom of hunting with Golden Eagles. They will do a demonstration for a small fee for the curious in the nearby fields. Easily arranged, thinks our guide. But then my wife drops a bomb. She has no interest in a tourist show. She wants to ride with the hunters into the mountains on a real hunt.

“The Impossible we do immediately, Miracles take a little longer, maximum till the next day, “ is the oft-proven motto of our Begaly.

As we poked our heads out of the yurt his beaming face meet ours. The rain has stopped and we are to meet one of those Magnificent Thirteen.

It feels like we are in a movie. Our meeting is set at a dilapidated gas station where we wait for a few minutes. We don’t know what our man looks like. We lean against our car and eye every vehicle driving by with raised hopes. Then a beaten up Mini Daewoo with broken windshield, back seats sold for spare parts and car doors impossible to close stops by the side of the road. A lean man, dressed to the nines like a model from a gentlemen’s fashion magazine AND in riding boots steps out, shakes our hands, and beckons us to follow him. We drive through the narrow unpaved streets of the village and stop at a modest unassuming family house where the gentleman keeps, feeds (fresh chicken only), and trains his darlings, three Golden Eagles.

As he goes to fetch his horse we notice something brown in the back of his car.

Under close supervision of his wife the Eagle man unceremoniously drags the bird out of the car and…

We get the first inkling of the size of the eagle

… ties him to the car

then perches him on the wall, head covered by a leather cap

where he waits for the hunting team to assemble:

The hunter with the leather glove for the heavy “weapon” on his arm, the assistant with sharp eyesight to identify the victim in this crime; and my wife with an alternative harmless gun – her trusty iPhone.

All accomplished riders, they mount their horses at once

and disappear down the village road and into surrounding by fields towards the mountains in the background.

We, less than accomplished horse riders (may we dare call ourselves media supporting team?) are left behind but in no way do we give up our participation in this quest. We will be, at least discreetly, following in our LandCruiser, observing from behind and offering any (un)necessary help, if God forbid, the hunters ask for it. Meanwhile, our guide assembles a small drone with a camera.

We drive behind the hunting party about half a mile ahead of us on the country roads but

even with a 4W drive, we can not follow them up the first rocky hills as they press onward on their horses.

Yet we can still observe their dramatic adventure at least on the drone display.

At the top, they dismount and leaving the horses to graze, continue on foot.

There is no common language to communicate in anyways so the group proceeds in silence to the steep edge for the unobstructed view of the immense blue lake. But all attention and awe is reserved for the giant bird, one of the largest, fastest, and nimblest raptors in the sky. In olden days these faithful birds would bring the prey to the hunter to help feed his family, especially during the lean winter days.

Close Encounters of the 1st Natural Kind

The eagle gets a short glimpse of the surroundings with his cap removed

It is touching to see the close relationship and gentle caresses from the hunter

After he had a chance to stretch his wings the cap goes back on and everyone scrambles over the uneven floor looking for potential movement in the sparse vegetation. The assistant stops every now and then throwing a rock down the hill or calling out immitating an animal.

As the hunting party crosses a steep terrain on the other side of the mountain range the hunter’s assistant catches a glimpse of a jackal on the slopes below covered by boulders and brushes. Not more than one, maybe two hundred yards away from him. After a quick exchange among the party members, the hunter clears our Golden Eagle’s vision by removing its cap and releases it. My wife, an accomplished iPhone camera-woman, without missing even a blink of her eyes, starts recording the whole action so this hunt can be saved, if not for generations to come, then at least for us! And here it is:

This short version of the hunt’s video is not National Geographic quality, but for Iphone it is pretty good.

The released Golden Eagle majestically descends down the mountain slope mercilessly eyeing the jackal, who is now running for his life….but to no avail! The Eagle moves silently to the jackal from behind, his sharp claws chopping into his furry neck. Then, in the critical moment, the jackal luckily slips from Eagle’s sharp talons. while our Eagle continues on its flight path, the jackal somersaults multiple times completely out of control, before his body gets out of our sight.

While the Eagle circles above the search party scrambles down through the scree and bushes looking for the injured jackal. In the end, unfortunately, the recovery search for jackal’s body is not successful, yet the hunters are strangely elated. We find out only later that this is the first ever real hunt of the young eagle after three months of training with a stuffed fox.

The excitement is even bigger when they realize the whole hunt is de facto recorded and can not only be studied carefully for future training but shared (and bragged about) on Facebook!

Golden Eagle back on his master’s arm, the hunting expedition returns to the horses.

Adrenaline still runs high as they mount their horses and descend

down to the rim of the deep ravine where the LandCruiser is waiting.

A congratulatory bottle of beer is what all actors of this drama, our young Golden Eagle, all hunters, poor jackal, all of them deserve!

The love and pride on the master hunter’s face…

Last photos are taken

and we leave deeply grateful that we could come face to face with such a magnificent creature and experience firsthand this age-old tradition, part of the life of local people for thousands of years.

What is more, we are now invited to return any time in the future and STAY with the family, as this mutual experience of the Golden Eagle’s virgin hunt forged important and powerful bonds.

See Kyrgyzstan and Die

July 13, 2022July 15, 2022 by ksenija+mirek olmer

Some 60 years ago I tried to get on any hilltop in the neighborhood and later, with my college buddies, further on beyond my neighborhood into the world. Our beyond was limited by the thin wallets of student years and the impenetrable Iron Curtain era of Big Brother governments. This lethal combination pushed many of my hilltop climbing dreams into the memory files marked NTH (Never To Happen). Such was the unfortunate fate of my dream to trek the Tien Shan Mountains of Central Asia, as the very un-friendly administrators of the now-defunct U.S.S.R. didn’t give us the necessary permits.

I was lucky that some of those NTH dreams were double filed in another drawer as well, the drawer called NTF (Never To Forget). It had been a long wait… but here I am with my travel buddy/adventure partner/wife re-hashing one of those NTF dreams, one of those never-to-die. You can see us arriving in the early morning hours in a cab from the last Uzbek railway outpost city of Andijan to the only open land crossing border post to Kyrgyzstan.
From Uzbekistan historical paradise with the fingers of its eastern arm tickling the flanks of the mystical Shangri-La of 20,000 plus foot high peaks, difficult to cross passes,

and breathtaking colorful lakes – the land of 40 tribes: Kyrgyzstan we walked into a teeming mass of people jostling for position in front of two grim immigration officers. “You are foreigners, you are our guests, please go before us.”

After another short cab drive, we are in the City of Osh. We have 24 hours before our guide with his Land Cruiser reaches us from the capital Bishkek. Looking at a map and consulting with our hotel staff we decide to hire a taxi for a ride to the nearest village towards the mountainous south.

Exciting first, yet soon disappointing. Because further south there beckon the ranges on Tajikistan and Chinese borders. A short bargaining session ensues over a greasy meal and a pot of tea in a local joint. Our side is full of fast, and extremely enticing US$ arithmetics (all in my rusty high-school Russian, mind you!) and the driver employs Oscar-nominated quality moaning over rising gasoline prices. In the end, we triple his scope of work and double the price. The driver has never been there and does not know the condition of the road, but once a local confirms it is asphalted, he caves in. The deal is made and without further ado we jump in the car and the driver presses the pedal to the metal.

“Go South, young man! Go South!”, and
“Push as close as possible to the border!” so we can see the highest peak in this area.

And after plowing through endless herds of sheep, goats, and the occasional horse going to the summer pastures and getting over the 11,650ft (3,550m) elevation mountain pass,

Beginning of a trend where every mountain pass has to be photographed.

the plains below us finally opened up to the view we came to this country for.

OK, it was me; my wife came here mainly for horses, people, Golden Eagles, and yurt interiors.

The first sight of the second highest* summit in the Tien-Shan (=Heavenly) mountains, the massive Lenin Peak 23,405ft (7,134m) high, from the road leading to the Chinese Uyghur Province (another still impossible-to-get permit and visa required), was indeed– heavenly.

*The highest Tien-Shan mountain, Jengish Chokusu, formerly known since 1946 as Pik Pobedyi (Victory Peak), is 24,406ft (7,439m) high. Located in an inaccessible area of the Kyrgyzstan border with China.

Artistic view of it on a stamp issued in 2000

You may now think: “Mission accomplished!” And on the first day, no less. But there was so much more to be seen and our fabulous guide/driver/fixer/soon-to-become-friend Begaly, who showed up on the dot the next morning, made sure to prove it afresh every day: another mountain range, another mountain lake, another mountain pass, another waterfall, valleys, canyons, rivers, yurts, horses, Golden Eagles. Just you wait!

From now on we were zig-zagging across this country as it was slowly waking up into the beautiful spring after a long cold winter and two-year nightmare of the COVID pandemonium.

The mountain lakes enchanted us with their beautiful colors and clear waters.

The shores ringed by wild apple trees in full bloom made us

jump with joy

over so much beauty, as flowers of all kinds and colors winked at us from fresh green grass..

I could not help but take a (skinny) dip, as it was customary in my younger years, in no matter how freezing any body of water.

With melting snow in the mountains, the waterfalls were gaining strength.

The weather in the higher altitudes could still be cold and not every day dawned with blue skies but pastures and meadows were exploding with colors.

Poppies mixed in on the edges and popped up at the sides of the roads.

Even where the land was barren on the lake shores, lake colorful water with the help of dramatic cloudy sky and sun delivered.

To make the landscape come alive there were horses to be seen everywhere.

It was Song Kul (Song=Last Kul=Lake), that was the tricky one. It is a high alpine lake situated at an altitude of 3016 meters in central Tien Shen Mountains. Till the last moment we were not sure if the mountain pass will be open and as it was we were only the second car to pass.

The windy steep road over the Thirty-Two Serpentine Pass (another 3,000 plus meters high) still held some sun

Made it over the hump! Thank you Begaly and car!

But on the other side things deteriorated quickly.

The iffy bridge over the fast flowing river

Ominous clouds with rain turning to snow rolled low.

Yet our every positive guide pressed on in hopes of sun breaking through at the lake.

It wasn’t quite sunny but for short moments the clouds lifted enough so we could see the lower layer of the ring of mountains even if the lake stayed steely gray. And the first herd of horses has made it up to their summer pastures, while summer crowds were still far back.

Mares with their foals as I try to approach them – you can see me between horses and the Song-Kul lakeshore

On the way down on a different road we could not miss the opportunity and visited a yailoo (= summer pasture) with two yurts and local shepherd family.

Husband, wife and young daughter were taking care of large herds of 1,200 sheep, 200 cows, four horses and a few dogs. Cordially invited for a cup of tea at five and a tour of
their two yurts, one perfect traditional hand made from felt and the other a now unfortunately common new plastic Chinese import.

The traditional yurt ceiling free of internal supports provides for pleasant and spacious
ambience.

Comfortably seated we were served many local snacks. Some of them I tried, while my wife bravely partook of all. Our conversation proceeded with help of hands, fingers and other bodily extremities, my rather laughable Russian and my wife’s, as per usual, magically discovered gift for the rudimentary version of the local dialect.

In a friendly atmosphere of mutual understanding, photos of other family members were presented.

In a few moments it was established that on our family side we still had one unmarried daughter. On their family side, the big family guy, clearly a successful herder with remarkable resources, indicated his younger brother was still lookingng for a suitable match for life. We were just a little taken aback when pater familias started without hesitation a serious negotiation on the size of the dowry. What amount was I keen to entertain as the father of a daughter of obvious beauty, fluent in English, with good education, decent cooking experience, and possibly willing to relocate to the groom’s homeland?

I could not convince him while he upped his bidding in numbers of sheep and cows that both my wife and I could not legally represent our sweet child in this contract. It came as a shock for the eager and well-meaning brother of the potential groom that our non-negotiable stance was that personal contact between the bride and the groom was a pre-requisite for further progress in this matter. In spite of his clear disappointment we parted on very friendly terms.

Better luck finding a match for their little one!

We took from this visit a very strong desire to try this traditional accommodation at the first possible opportunity. And it was served to us on a silver platter when we reached the southern shore of Lake Issyk-Kul. Here we discovered a number of yurt camps.

The yurt of our dreams, old farts that we are, had to have one important element: a rarely offered private bathroom. Lo and behold our all-knowing Begaly had heard about a newly opened establishment and there we drove as the sky darkened.

No matter the season hadn’t officially opened yet, no matter we were the only guests, they welcomed us with open arms. We were taken through a grove of apricot trees

and given a tour of a beautiful King size bed yurt villa exquisitely furnished with homemade elements. (Oh, please, no Chinese crap smuggled across the border two mountain ranges away!), with heating, latest 2G level internet,

and grand reveal of en-suite private bathroom with running cold and HOT water AND western FLUSHING toilet!!!

As it started sprinkling, my wife was offered a special blanket made of wolf pelts. A home made dinner was thrown in for good measure.
Not a chance to refuse such an offer!

Dinner and breakfast were served in a large yurt where I was kindly offered (to accommodate my spine’s limited flexibility) as a special favor a straight-backed chair reducing the necessity to criss-cross my legs according to the local custom of sitting at a low table. It was our dream come true scenario to be remembered for the rest of our traveling days!

So perhaps the title should be changed to See Kyrgyzstan and sleep in a yurt!

To be continued…

Uzbekistan’s Silk Road Splendor – Part III Tashkent & Fergana

June 8, 2022July 5, 2022 by ksenija+mirek olmer

There’s more to Tashkent than meets the eye, I am sure, but there were only two things on our list during our short stop in the capital: Tashkent Metro and the Museum of Applied Arts.

First was the cheapest private tour we ever undertook. We bought a ticket for like 15 cents and just rode the metro, stepping out at different beautifully decorated stations.

Someone had done the work for us and posted an extensive blog about all the most interesting stations including a handy map. Thank you, Google and Cynthia!

Credit: https://www.journalofnomads.com/best-metro-tashkent-photo-guide/

A nice passanger seeing us study the map told us that the metro had been extended and suggested we ride all the way to the end. So we did.

Mirek catching the metro back from the last station

We like to ride public transportation on our travels (well, one of us really does…)

The Gafur Gulom metro station named after G’afur G’ulom, a famous Uzbek poet, writer and translator.

That one of us takes special joy and pride in figuring out how to buy a ticket and read the map. The other one likes to observe the people and make up stories about who they are and where they are going.

Grandma, Mom, and daughter leaving Alisher Navoi station going to buy tickets for a performance at Alisher Navoi theater?

The majority of people were dressed in Western styles, certainly all men. Women showed more diversity, but we saw no covered faces.

Texting her friends? First time meeting her pre-arranged husband? Going for a magazine fashion shoot?

Or just looking for lunch options?

We definitely couldn’t miss the Kosmonavtlar metro station built in 1984 in honor of the cosmonauts of the Soviet Union. Luckily one can now take photographs of the station which was prohibited until recently as the station was designated as a nuclear bomb shelter.

The blue ceramic medallions on the walls feature some of the historical figures of space dreams and legends and greatest pioneers of the Soviet space program, such as Yuri Gagarin and Valentina Tereshkova, the first man and woman in space.

Twin Russian girls in front of Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space. Still kicking at 85 and in Russian politics no less.

Some stations were very contemporary.

Beruniy station with crystal chandeliers

And some really harkened back to the communist era with their red stars decor.

We preferred the more folksy decorations with colorful ceramic panels of country life.

One could spend the whole day riding the metro, but we did want to make it to the State Museum of Applied Arts before closing time. The building itself is interesting as it was originally a palace of a rich late 19th century Russian diplomat Polovstev, adorned in colorful oriental decorative style by his male Russian-Uzbek lover. Ah, if those walls could talk!

Unfortunately, for once no one could be found to talk and guide us through the museum. For a while, we pretended we were part of a British tour bus group, but then decided we will strike it out on our own.

I have already waxed poetically about spectacular suzani embroideries, so let me just mention a few of the other 4000 exhibits on hand.

There are exquisite lacquer boxes

Detailed miniatures

Intricate wood carvings

What is fantastic looking at these masterpieces is knowing there are people here and now that still have skills and know how to do this with their own two hands and simple tools.

A good place to find them is Fergana Valley and that is where we headed next. We jumped into the train and immediately made new friends. A lovely group of ladies traveling for days to get to a wedding in Kyrgyzstan.

When we told them we will cross over the border too, they immediately invited us to the festivities. Alas, we were not going to get there on time as we were planning to make a few stops on the way.

We jumped out in Kokand. It is a tiny place and certainly not able to compete with the Big 3 on the Silk Road, but we had it all to ourselves, not counting the guest soccer/football team that stayed in our small hotel, preparing for the weekend tournament.

Kokand was situated on major ancient crossroads of two trade routes and at the end of the 19th century Khudayar Khan built a huge royal residence with 113 rooms set around seven courtyards. The ruler wanted his mother to live in one of the palace’s grand buildings, but she refused and set up her yurt in a courtyard.

These days only a few rooms remain and only one is in perfect condition.

The Kokand Friday mosque is luckily very nicely restored and inviting with a large green courtyard that has a 300ft (100m) long iwan supported on 98 gorgeous slender columns.

Some of the original carved redwood columns, brought from India are still there.

We knew Fergana valley was famous for silk weaving but we were not prepared for what we found in one of the small one-man workshops in the mosque.

Iridescent shimmering hand woven and tailored silk coat

It took our breath away. Nothing ever anywhere after or before has been so close to perfection. As the proud weaver turned the coat it caught the light and the surface undulated into different patterns. Mesmerizing… Like swimming underwater in a tropical sea. Wow, just wow!

The chain-smoking wood carver on the other hand couldn’t be bothered to even look up from his work.

There was a small museum, too, with two other visitors, students from a local University that delighted in being able to practice their English and of course take a picture.

They gladly explained the strange wooden implements found exhibited.

Weeell, they are part of this ensemble.

It is a cradle-potty chair combo for little babies.

No need for changing diapers in the middle of the night. Scroll back and try to guess which is for boys and which for girls! The thing is, while this is an interesting ethnographic exhibit, many mothers, including our female guides are still using it nightly. (now that is also why I prefer female guides).

We were doing these stops on the alternative, longer way from Kokand to Margillan with the craziest, fastest, and friendliest taxi driver. We called him Oscar(chik) and he called Mirek (E)mirek. He had nowhere else to be, so he was happy to stop on our way and a few hours drive turned into a whole day of fun and exploration. With a break for lunch at the best shashlik place (our treat of course).

He spoke great Russian and about 10 words of English, despite his sister being an English teacher. But he was sharp as a tack and kept doubling his vocabulary every 20 minutes while laughing and gunning his car down country roads. “Oscarchik smart,” he would say tapping his finger on his forehead. “How do you say…”

We had a communication snafu as I kept insisting that he has to take us to Rishtan’s famous ceramic workshop of Master Rustam Usmanov while he kept advocating for a ceramic workshop of a different guy. Turns out he was talking about Usmanov’s son.

Rustam and his son at the gates to their workshop

Both were most welcoming and took time to show us the whole process. I was a bit apprehensive before coming as I was worried about it being too touristy. We were the only people there and every piece they had in their huge production was a masterpiece. When we bemoaned the fact that we traveled with a small carry-on only and couldn’t buy a whole set of dishes they GIFTED us a little pomegranate vase.

It is Margillan that is the center of silk weaving. We asked our Oscarchik to first take us to the local market but only a few stalls with silk could be found.

Most of the market was cheap Chinese mass-produced clothes.

The visit to the Yodgorlik Silk factory was a disappointment. It is supposed to produce enormous amounts of hand woven silk but most of the looms were abandoned. As elsewhere we found girls jumping to do work only when a tourist poked their head in.

Still, we soon had fun taking portraits of the girls.

Remember the eyebrows? Definitely unmarried girl!

We finally said goodbye to Oscarchik in front of Margillan’s Ikat House Guesthouse.

It was a carpet-studded homey place and immediately we felt like in the good old days of young travel with interesting travelers from all parts of the world hanging out and sharing experiences and tips. Especially cherished was the discussion with a group of young Russian motorcyclists. They left Russia for a long trip anxiously awaiting Putin’s May Victory speech afraid he might conscript young men. Tentatively at first and then more freely, they expressed their opposition to Putin and the war in Ukraine.

Our last stop in Fergana Valley and Uzbekistan was in the city of Andijan.

The city has a famous historical figure to be proud of as it is the birthplace of Babur (=Tiger in Persian). He was the great-great grandson of Timur and ascended to a much diminished throne of Fergana at the age of twelve. Following a series of setbacks, he finally succeeded in laying the basis for the Mughal dynasty and became the first Mughal emperor.

Babur is considered Uzbeki National hero

We had another important reason to visit Andijan. Through the power of the internet and Instagram, I got connected to Gulkhumor, the owner of Inter progress School, teaching children foreign languages.

Of course, I promised we will visit them. I thought we would pop in and say hello to the students.

Who was I kidding! We were treated as VIP dignitaries, starting with a big bouquet of fresh flowers.

With Ghulkhumor (L) and her head teacher

Speeches were delivered and the children in their Sunday best prepared songs, dance, and recitations in English.

Parents were invited to this event of the year.

Countless selfies were taken

And invitations for tea, dinner and overnight stays extended. Alas, we were bound for Kyrgyzstan border the next day. But what a farewell to incredible Uzbeki people!

Saying a final goodbye to Uzbekistan with this fun oldie, but goldie couple. Is it time to change our name to CrazyGrandparentsTravel? Nope, but it is time to cross the border to Kyrgyzstan! See you on the other side.