Leaving Shymkent Kazakhstan, I hopped onto a shared taxi towards Chernayeka where I was dropped off on the main highway. Having no tenge to spare, from the main highway it was a 3km hike to the border crossing and probably one of the most chaotic border crossing I've experience Central Asia. For those trying to use this border, careful of changing money here as they are all a bunch of cheats! My advice, over the Uzbek side after leaving customs, walk 1km to the little town and try to change in a shop there and ask around there and then try to hitch a ride into town from a local as everyone seems to be a taxi driver here(taxi are bona fide arsehole here).
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| Border crossing from the Kazakh side. |
Having spent more than 2 months surrounded by mountainous landscape, I was quite excited for some cultural and historical enrichment of the ancient Silk Road and escaping from my short and relatively expensive stay in Kazahkstan. Having read about the great Silk Road city of Samarkand, Buhkhara and Khiva, I must say I was somewhat disappointed by Samarkand to some extend, having been so heavily restored during the early 1900s by the Russians, it felt like something built in the last century as opposed to some centuries ago albeit still magnificent sites. No better example of this can be seen than Resgistan Square in Samarkand surrounded by the 3 majestic madrasahs. One is left to imagine about it's glorious original form.
While there were many sights to see, I found myself picking and choosing and being rather selective where to visit given the entrance fee of going into such places. It didn't help that Uzbekistan liked to charged foreigners five to tenfold what the locals pay.
