Australians Megan Kerr and Roger Chao on their quike, said they experience the first towns in Uzbekistan very different to the towns in Kazakhstan (click to enlarge)
Watermelons provide liquid to Roger and Megan in the extreme heat. Images courtesy of steppebysteppe.com.au (click to enlarge)
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Steppe by Steppe update: From Kazakhstan into Uzbekistan
Posted: Aug 06, 2009 08:11 am EST
(Thepoles.com) During their last days in Kazakhstan Roger Chao and Megan Kerr were heading as fast as possible for the Uzbekistan border because the time on their Uzbekistan visas was running out. The border crossing didn’t go as easily as they thought it would, but eventually they got to meet the Uzbeks.
Jetisay poets
In the last town in Kazakhstan where Roger and Megan stopped over, Jetistay, the head of internal affairs took them on a cultural tour.
Roger described a very rare traditional ceremony they attended during the tour. “This was a very rare, traditional, ancient, and extremely spectacular duel of poets - one on accordion and one on dombra, improvising.”
“Each poet would improvise on their instrument whilst they sang a debate over certain topic (the topic of this dual was our journey from Australia), each trying to outdo, make a fool of and defeat their opponent by their lyrical and musical mastery.”
“This was very exciting to see, as we had never seen anything like this before and not really practiced anymore, a rare tradition/ceremony, which is rapidly being lost.”
Gagarin border post
From Jetistay they went straight to the Gagarin border, that they had been assured by many people in many high up places, was open to them Roger stated.
At the border post one of the guards took one look at their passports and said "no you cannot cross here, it is for Kazakhstan or Uzbekistan citizens only". The two were then directed to a border post about ten days ride away.
Roger and Megan didn’t except that and after much discussion, the border post men gave them clear directions as to how to get to the closest border on the highway.
Roger explained, “It was only some 60 km away so not very far (though on a 450kg quike it is!), however we were again quite suspicious about if it was really open to us, as all along we had never ever been told about the existence of this border crossing.”
Pedestrian border post
When the two Australian got to the border post they found out that this one was for pedestrians only to cross “and quikes” Roger added, “thus rarely used at all (if ever), since no one crosses borders by foot.”
The first section of the Uzbekistan border post had a very friendly man from Bukhara who made it a smooth and fast progression into the customs control area.
But down the road a kilometer or so was the last and worst stage. Roger and Megan had to declare all their money and then all their gear were inspected in the finest detail. After two hours they got permission to enter the country.
Uzbekistan vs. Kazakhstan
They headed to the “elusive” town of Gagarin. Roger noticed, “So far Uzbekistan had seemed very different to Kazakhstan, the streets were just filled with donkeys and bikes (we hadn't really seen donkeys on the street in Kazakhstan, only camels and horses).”
“Even more interesting was that there was a lot less rubbish on the roadside than in Kazakhstan, despite Uzbekistan having a much higher population density. The other items of interest for us was the ever-present canal system where everyone would go for a swim (perfect given the ever present heat).”
During the ‘Steppe by Steppe expedition’ Australians Roger Chao and Megan Kerr attempt a 15 month, 12,000km journey across 7 countries and 30+ cultures through Central Asia, China and Mongolia. On 4 May they started off in Astana, Kazakhstan on a specially designed four-wheel bike named, Quike.
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