There are usually some regulations that are supposed to be followed before someone can be able to get a visa that will enable him or her or even them to travel 5 stans, and these agencies and firms help the holiday maker(s) to get these visas fast.

There are many things to see whenever one decides to travel central asia. This place is steeped in history and those people who go there will marvel at how much history they will learn there.

Apart from history, people also get to learn about the culture of the people of these places during the central asia tour. Learning about other people’s cultures is important in helping achieve true world peace and understanding. This is what will complete the world becoming a global village.

There are many palaces and fortresses to see here too, and this usually fascinate a lot of people because they have only heard about palaces and fortresses in movies and read about them, but they have never seen them. There are also snow capped mountains as well as dry deserts that will interest those people who take time to go and enjoy the many attractions that these places have to offer.

Today, I still think the trip to Kyrgyzstan is one of my favorites.  The country is so diverse and beautiful.  From our start in Almaty, KZ to Bishkek, KG, you travel along the northern edge of the Tien Shan mountains.  It takes you through a mixture of steppe, rolling hills and farmland.  The border crossing is a little bit tricky.  (You can’t just drive through.  Instead, you have to walk through customs, walk across this bridge and into Kyrgyzstani customs.  Our taxi driver guided us through the process…  thus, costing us more in the end.  And the border crossing back into Kazakhstan wasn’t easy either, with its own challenges.)  From Bishkek to our destination, Karakol, you travel through some mountainous desert to a giant, saline lake in the mountains called Issyk Kul.  Karakol is more lush than most of the region.  Karakol is a gorgeous area with forests, green grasslands and mountain hiking trails.  One of the days in Karakol, we decided to hike up to the Alytn Arashan and spend the night in a yurt.  The old Russian man who ran the hostel up there and a Kyrgyz woman made us some delicious food, and we spent the evening with a group of people from Poland, a Japanese guy, 2 Australian women, a Russian couple and some Peace Corps Kazakhstan volunteers we ran into in Karakol (Kyrgyzstan was PC KZ’s number one go to place for vacation leave).

It is interesting (and sad) to think that less than a year after we were in Kyrgyzstan, KG would be turned upside down by revolution and ethnic conflict.  Even with all its beauty,  Kyrgyzstan has its issues (poverty, ethnic and religious strife, etc.).

Check out more at Video + Cinematography.

While I was in Kazakhstan, I made many videos in my spare time.  It was a productive way to deal with the long winters and the boredom that accompanied them.  However, “Welcome to Yavlenka” was thought up in my last months in KZ while the winter ice began to thaw.  I was walking home from the village school where I worked, and it was one of the first beautiful days after a long, dark winter when I thought up the video.  I was inspired by all the freshness in the air and the villagers vibrantly walking about.

At this same time, I had been corresponding with a teacher in Arizona to send her students  pen pal letters from KZ.  I wanted to make a video showing off the village where I had lived for almost 2 years, so I enlisted the help of 2 of my students and we went around videoing the village.  (People always thought I was crazy or they thought I was a spy for taking so many videos and pictures of the most mundane in Yavlenka.  To me, though, the mundane was nothing but…)  Since I hate listening to my own voice when it is recorded, I decided that my student Galya would be a good candidate.  I quickly edited the videos together, wrote up a script, recorded some voice over and put it all to music… and viola!

“Welcome to Yavlenka” never made it to the Arizona classroom for which it was intended (the teacher never emailed me back about mailing her the video, and then I got sick at the end of the summer and went home 2 months earlier than expected).  It did, however, make for a brief sensation on Facebook–at least, with a few of my friends.

Check out Video + Cinematography.

Nevertheless, I thought Five Finger Feast would be better served, in the meantime, if I gave myself a little push off the diving board and got my feet wet…

Since starting this blog and my surge of art making over the past few months, I thought that Svetopolis could also serve as a good platform to, at least, get the ball rolling on Five Finger Feast (a rough draft of sorts).  The site also allows me to double up and incorporate all different aspects of my story which words can only do so much–to make Five Finger Feast more than a story.  My eventual goal is to merge both video, art and stories into something somewhat coherent.  It may take a few months or even a few years for me to really feel like I have finished this project.  It all depends on my time commitment over the next year or so and the amount of inspiration I feel towards revisiting my time in Kazakhstan.

I often tell my kids that I work with at my school, that procrastination will get you in the end and there is no time better than now to start.  So I hope readers and bloggers will enjoy whatever I can scrounge up for my Kazakhstan experience.

Tim

Turkestan (2 of 5) (2011); Ink on Water Color (6″x12″)

The Mausoleum at Turkestan is halfway surround by this mud wall, which strangely contrasts with the tiling of the main buildings.  As far as the writing, I wanted to give it more of a “postcard” look, so I added the writing.  I’ve always liked this Russian cursive style.

Check out the rest of the series.

Turkestan (4 of 5) (2012); Ink on Water Color (9″x6″)

The arched entrance of the back side of the mausoleum in Turkestan, Kazakhstan.

Check out the rest of the series.

Turkestan (3 of 5) (2011); Ink on Water Color (9″x6″)

I feel for many Americans Islam is often misunderstood.  For most of my life, I was one of these Americans—and I must admit, I still don’t always understand it.  However, it was my time in Kazakhstan when I began to try to understand Islam and the people who follow it.  It was in Kazakhstan (especially my visit to Turkestan, KZ) where I began to truly appreciate the art and architecture of Islam.  The exoticism of Islamic art and architecture attracts me to this subject matter as an artist.  There is something simplistic, yet, complex in its design—and I think this piece reflects this idea.

Check out the rest of the series and my ramblings 1/3 a Hajj.

This is from an email I sent home on May 19th, 2008.  The email was titled “The Kazakhstani Dream,” and this part of the email is about the mausoleum at Turkestan and my 1/3 of a Hajj (Muslim pilgrimage).  This experience is the inspiration for 1/3 a Hajj.

Turkestan, Kazakhstan

Horses on the Kazakh Steppe

A three hour drive north of Shymkent is the city of Turkestan.  Turkestan is the site of an ancient Muslim mausoleum.  This mausoleum is important to Kazakhs for a few reasons.  One, it is one of the few architectural monuments on the ancient Silk Road that exists in Kazakhstan.  So the building has historical importance for the young Kazakhstani nation.  More importantly for Muslim Kazakhs, three trips to this mausoleum are equal to one hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca.  (The hajj to Mecca is one of the five pillars of Islam.)  Well, that is what Kazakhs believe.

In truth, most Kazakhs are only nominally Muslim.  Maybe this is due to the fact that Kazakhs only recently (somewhere in the 1700s or 1800s) converted to Islam or the Soviets repressed religion.  (During the nineteenth century the Russian Empire believed it would be easier to conquer the nomadic, pagan Kazakhs if they converted them to Islam.  So the Tsars used Muslim Tatar merchants to do the job.  Then a hundred or so years later the atheist Bolsheviks violently annexed tsarist Central Asia from the White Russians during the Russian Civil War.)  As a result, Kazakhs follow a sort of “folk” Islam.  Most Kazakhs do not pray five times a day facing Mecca—one of the five pillars not abided by.  Most do not observe the fast during Ramadan—another of the pillars dismissed.  Also most Kazakhs drink vodka with a religious fervor.  Oh, yeah, they all keep dogs as pets too—something forbidden by Islam.  Nevertheless, since the collapse of the Soviet Union, many Kazakhs are attempting to rediscover their Muslim roots.

So one day we [30 or so Peace Corps Volunteers (PCV)] all rented an old city bus—I mean this was a real city bus with hard plastic seats, and some people stood the whole trip—and we made our 1/3 of a hajj to Turkestan.  We arrived in Turkestan after a three hour trek through the flat, desert-like steppe.

An Ancient Mausoleum

The mausoleum was quite impressive.  It was the most prominent feature in the flat, low skyline of Turkestan.  It was halfway surrounded by a mud wall, and the mausoleum itself was massive with two large domes.  There was scaffolding on parts of the building as workers worked away laying blue tiles and mosaics into the walls of the still incomplete, ancient building.  Pilgrims were walking around the building praying as they kept their hands in contact with the wall.  Some local university students led us inside.  The girls had to cover their heads with shawls to enter the building.  The mausoleum’s interior was rather stark.  There were several large rooms reserved for praying.  When we went back outside, the PCV stationed in Turkestan waited for us with rented camels for us to pet.  We petted the camels.  Then we agreed the best thing to do after petting the camels was to eat shashlik (Russian-style barbecued shish kebabs).  So we found a nice, shady shashlik hut, and we ate some delicious shashlik.

All in the day of 1/3 a Hajj…

Tour 13 Tage / 12 Nächte

Tour-Programm

Frankfurt – Ashgabat – Dashoguz – Kohne Urgench – Khiva – Bukhara – Samarkand – Taschkent – Almaty – Frankfurt
Abflug von Frankfurt am Main nach Ashgabat mit der Fluglinie.

Erklärungen der Abkürzen:

• B- Breakfast / Frühstück
• L- Lunchbox / Brotpause
• P- Picknick / Picknick
• D- Dinner / Abendessen

Hotels:

• Tashkent Palace 4*
• Asia Khiva 3* or. Malika 3*
• Asia Bukhara 3* or. Omar Khayyam 3*
• Asia Samarkand 3* or. Grand Samarkand 3*
• Hotel Kazakhstan 3* in Almaty
• Hotel Grand Turkmen or Ak Altyn 4*in Ashgabat

Services inbegriffen:

• Doppelzimmer Unterkunft (basierend auf Zwillings Räume) :Ak-Keme**** oder Golden Dragon**** oderr Silk Road Lodge*** Hotel in Bishkek
• Transport ( Deutscher Minibus oder Bus mit a/c)
• Mineralwasser (1 liter pro Person je Tag)
• Volles Programm; English Guide laut dem Programm
• Eintrittskosten zu Museen
• Gepäckservice an Hotels und Flughafen laut Programm

Services nicht inbegriffen:

• Einzelzimmer Unterkünfte in Hotels
• Alkoholische und Softdrink Getränke
• Kosten für Kyrgyz und Kazakh Visas
• Kosten für Video- und Fotoshootings
• Trinkgelder und private Kosten der Touristen