2020 GeoEx Catalog

The Silk Road T  his trip is an old-fashioned epic, taking us to three of the five ’Stans: beginning in Turkmenistan, wend- ing through Uzbekistan—which every fan of eye-snapping Islamic architecture and slam-bam history must eventually The Epic of Central Asia TOURING | 22 DAYS · GROUP

I am not the same, having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world.

mary anne radmacher

drawing the traveler from the desert, almost as though this deep ceramic blue was necessary to life.” More great names and places: Mile-high Issyk Kul, a larger Lake Tahoe, which we circumnavigate, glancing up at the snowcapped peaks of the Tien Shan. Karakol, with its idyllic setting and warm hosts, and Djety Oguz Gorge, with charming eagle hunters and mesmerizing canyons. And the gorgeous, fertile, refreshingly green- in-spring Ferghana Valley, whose Heavenly Horses more than 2,000 years ago inspired the Emperor Wu-ti to become, as the great Bruce Chatwin wrote, “the most spectacular horse rustler in history.” If this trip isn’t far-ranging enough for you, or you’re reluctant to go home without completing your ’Stan collection, we’re happy to extend your trip with visits to Kazakhstan and mountainous Tajikistan, western China, or other intriguing Central Asia locales, tying in newer place-names with the legendary. Day 1  arrive in Ashgabat, sightseeing ✦  2  Ashgabat ✦  3  fly north to Dosoguz, drive into Uzbekistan ✦  4  Nukus, on to Khiva ✦ 5  Khiva ✦  6  drive to Bukhara via Kyzyl Kum Desert ✦  7 & 8  Bukhara ✦  9  drive to Samarkand ✦  10  Samarkand ✦  11  drive to Tashkent, exploring ✦  12  drive to Ferghana via Rishtan ✦  13  Ferghana Valley ✦  14  drive to Osh, Kyrgyzstan ✦  15  on to Chychkan Gorge ✦  16  by road to Bishkek ✦  17  drive to Karakol via Issyk Kul ✦ 18  Karakol and Djety Oguz Gorge ✦  19  drive to Cholpon Ata ✦  20  drive to Bishkek via Burana Tower ✦  21  Bishkek and Ala Archa National Park ✦  22  depart. apr. 25–may 16 from $11,365

visit—and finally reveling in Kyrgyz- stan. The vibrating roster of place- names in the day-to-day itinerary below reminds us of William Hazlitt’s insight: “In traveling we visit names as well as places.” Names that raise the pulse and race the brain: Ashgabat, Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva, Tashkent, Ferghana, and on and on. In a fair and balanced

For another epic, try Caravans and Conquerors , a train journey that meanders through Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan in addition to key Silk Road cities. Visit GeoEx.com for details.

world we’d devote a few pages to all those names, but let’s single out just a few: Samarkand, the crossroads of world cultures. Glorious Bukhara, an “enchanted city” whose buildings match up well with “the finest architecture of the Italian Renaissance,” according to the great traveler Fitzroy Maclean. And lovely Khiva, which beat its larger oasis brethren of Bukhara and Samarkand to UNESCO World Heritage Site status, a telling indication of its inti- mate beauty. Wandering these archetypal cities gives us a sense of what Yasushi Inoue meant when he wrote that “the blue of Central Asia’s blue tiles sings a siren’s song,

BELOW  The Kalyan Mosque, Bukhara, Uzbekistan.

MEL LONGHURST / ROBERT HARDING

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