Day 21 was actually yesterday. We are back in Tashkent today, our last full day in O’zbekiston.
Our fixer, Bekzod, picked us up at our hotel yesterday in Chorvoq, the resort town, and took us to the waterside of a large man-made lake nearby. The town of Chorvoq lies impossibly directly below an enormous earthen dam that creates the lake. I can’t see the dam ever bursting, but most of the town would be underwater in minutes should the dam ever release. Seems crazy to me to live or work there, but ….
After having a look at the waterside (it was pretty hot to do anything other than stumble over stones along the shore), we drove high up among the surrounding hills, the area reminding Harold of the Kamloops area of lower BC. Being still the dry season, the grassy hills were yellowed and tinder-dry. My dad would have been pleased at all the conifers planted all over. There is clearly an attempt at soil-retention and even reforestation at work.
The suggested itinerary included a visit to a Soviet-era open-air chairlift – which sounded dicey at the least. But it turned out it had been demolished to make way for a new resort. There is an astounding amount of construction going on in the area, and in Uz more generally. I have no idea where the capital is coming from, with cotton and some oil/gas as major contributors to the economy and Harold and I have speculated at length on cost origins. The Russians? The Chinese? The World Bank? Moreover, when we do see construction, it is 100% built to last; not then Egyptian half-effort sort or clapboard kind. They build with dressed stone and do it well.
So, we carried on to a large resort area to a modern gondola system that took us up to a peak 2290m ASL. It was all very modern and doubles as a ski and snowboard area in winter. It certainly did not feel like we were in the developing world at all. The view was amazing over the whole area, with the Kazakhstan border area away off in the distance and Kyrgyzstan not far away either, to the east. Looking at a map of the area, I was amazed to see that when we were in Kokand, we were really so close to Kashgar in what is now China. I have ready much about Kashgar – both in history as a meeting point on the western edge of the Taklamakan desert, but also as the last residence of the British consul Sir George Macartney who could be considered having negotiated the last years of the Great Game of political intrigue between Tsarist Russia and British Imperial India. Fascinating place.
At any rate, our gondola ride was pleasant and the weather up at the top stupendous and cool, with a strong breeze. There was an odd restaurant at the top strongly reminiscent of the ‘Cloud Gate’ art installation or ‘Bean’ in Chicago. How peculiar. We didn’t go in, but walked around the area at the top, much as one does in such areas like Whistler, or Banff or Jasper until it’s time to descend. Lunch at a place at a lower elevation and then the drive back to TK. It was 44C in TK when we returned.
We’ll set out for the Chorsu market once again today, bringing our visit to Uz full circle – it having been the first place we went to when we arrived here a million years ago now. Our flight out leaves at 3am tomorrow, so we’ll head to the airport about 11:30pm this evening. I may take some photos at the market today, but I’m not sure.
The man-made lake at Charvoq:
A single, non-functioning windmill at Charvoq, although Bekzod suggests that there are great windfarms out in the desert to the east.
Abandoned (?) Russian boat on the lake’s littoral:
Container-built cottages overlooking the lake at Charvoq. They are situated high up on the shore because the water level only a month previous lapped at their stairways.
The Austrian-Swiss built gondola system ran in two stages, requiring disembarking and walking to stage two to get to the peak in the distance.
The “2290” restaurant – reminiscent of Chicago’s Bean (Cloud Gate) at the peak:
There was, indeed, a steep drop immediately behind this sign. It was refreshing to not have it all fenced off, but made me wonder what sort of accidents might happen here from time to time.
