Journey of Life

On the Saturday morning, Mr Mouthien's wife, Mrs Nhai picked up us at 9.00 am for a full day tour to Mae Taeng district, about 60 km from the city center. This comes as no surprise as visiting the elephants is the must tourist activity in Chiang Mai, and in fact in most of our visit to Thailand. Other than sitting on an elephant, ox cart riding and bamboo rafting were unique activities that we experienced all in one place. We spent almost 4 hours at Mae Taeng Elephant Park, where halal lunch buffet included with the package. Instead of buffer, our lunch were served as we were the only Muslim family that day. Mrs Nhai informed us that most of the elephant camps were experiencing deterioration on visitors, especially the Chinese tourist. Some of the small park may need to close shops.

Before that, Nu'man wanted to swim in the pool even though he felt hesitant due to Covid-19 pandemic. No one can be seen at the pool area so Nu'man and I just laid back by the pool side. While yesterday we explored the inner city of the Chiang Mai city wall, today we went further to explore a bit to the northwest. Most were museums dedicated to several folklore people other than the Lanna. At 10.30 am, we went to the Highland People Discovery Museum. Initially, we would like to first visit their village, however it was closed for renovation. So we continued to the museum located just beside the village. Free entry to the museum but a tip very welcome. We were greeted by a delightful lady once we stepped into the museum. There were only us in that museum, as you expected.. :P

After about a month from last tripped to the Uzbekistan , we visited yet another fascinating destination, Chiang Mai. Situated north of Thailand, this is the fourth city we've been to. We flown to Chiang Mai in the afternoon with an uneventful journey, once we entering the province. It was the worst air turbulence we had experienced. To make it worse, our flight were not allowed to touch down and had to make circular cruise, for at least 15 minutes. Nevertheless, the flight managed to land safely 10 minutes early from the scheduled time.

Eights days, three splendid cities. From preserve restored Islamic sites to the more modern Soviet Unions architecture, the cities incredibly distinguished by its own identities. Last night we backed to the Hotel Uzbekistan, a classic example of a Soviet's architecture built in 1970. And we will be leaving Uzbekistan and hopefully we return to this fascinating country that has a lot to uncover. Uzbekistan Airways flight HY 553 back to KLIA was later in the evening at 11-ish. Mr Zulfekar, our tour leader has requested for late check-out. That morning, we went to Chorsu Bazaar located in the center of the old town of Tashkent. We were given a 2 hours for shopping where we did bought souvenirs and local delicacies. Picture on left: Roslina at the grandeur Hotel Uzbekistan

This post will be full of white! Yup, it is snowy in Chimgan. Early in the morning after breakfast, we headed to the railway station and then embarked Afrosiyob to Tashkent at 6.45 am. Coach no 5 was where all our group sat. The journey took around 2 hours passing several provinces. When we were approaching Tashkent, we saw some of the villages were covered with snow indicating that it was even cooler here! Picture on right : Arriving at Tashkent Railway Station.

I'm kind of early morning person but I had to stay in caused the weather seem harsh to me! Samarkand was even cooler than Bukhara and we had experienced snow falls yesterday. I've more than 80 pictures for this entry of the first day in Samarkand. We only had barely a full day today in Samarkand and early tomorrow morning we will be going to Chimgan. Even though today's trip start at 10 in the morning, we had visited  most of the main attractions and then finished the day shopping at Siyob Bazaar. After the breakfast, we went outside as we saw several others were playing on the ground. Snow starts to fall again, yes, we were so excited since it was our first. Mr Ilham said that this weather condition is the best as the snow is not heavy. It was at peak of the winter season in mid January. Picture on left : Nu'man @ Amir Timur Mausoleum

On the fourth day we transferred to Samarkand, its about 270 km from Bukhara. At around 9 am, the bus started the journey following the route passing through Navoi and made several stops. After about one hour, we stopped at Gijduvon to visit a ceramic center for about an hour. The traditional ceramic making was passed from generations to generations. A visit to ceramic pottery will surely be one of the brightest memories of a trip to Gijduvan. While we were served with simple breakfast, the host demonstrated the way to put down their baby to sleep, in a cot. It's not a normal cot but it has been modified so that the baby can pee and poop directly   into a bowl. Picture on right: Taking picture in front of the Rangrez Hotel after check-out.

If yesterday we had to wake up as early as 4 in the morning to catch up the flight, today's itinerary started a bit late, so we fly out the bed a bit late! The weather still freezing with the temperature never go beyond 10 degree Celsius, even in the midday. We added another later in clothing to withstand the coldness. No matter what, the journey must still go on. By 10 am, our bus headed to the center of Bukhara. Bolo Haouz Mosque, Ark Citadel and the Kalyan Minaret are some of the most famous structures. Another important and symbolic highlight is the Lyabi-Hauz Ensemble, stop in the evening.

When I was searching for attractions in Tashkent, it's Metro Station was at the top in the list. Built during the USSR era, each metro station was ornate with different themes designed by prominent architects and artists of Uzbekistan. It was recommended to view the spectacular design of now being permitted to take pictures inside metro station since 2018. Back to our trip, the journey started, and ended, in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent. With the first day in Uzbekistan pretty much exhausted with travelling, exploring Tashkent were mostly on final two days. Uzbekistan Airways HY 053 bound to Bukhara at 8.20 am. So we woke up at 4 am, and an early breakfast has been prepared as requested by our tour leader, Mr Zulfekar. Nu'man by that time has been recovered and full recharged. We were excited to visit the historical city of Bukhara. Around 6.30 am, we checked in for the 2 hours flight.

Uzbekistan, a Central Asia country was never in  front or center of our travel wish list, however it was a fascinating country with a lot to uncover. A bit on Uzbekistan, language spoken are Uzbek and Tajiks, but Russian is the most spoken. It's pretty hard to communicate with the locals. And as their SOM currency is not being traded, we brought a couple hundreds of US Dollars for our 8 days stay in Uzbekistan. Money changers can easily be found in the city or even in the hotels. SOM 10,000 equivalent to MYR 4.30 and a naan bread cost around 1 ringgit.