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Meet the Five Stans

Acouple of my friends have five children - the same surname and many of them look quite alike, but even the identical twins are like chalk and cheese, when you get to know them.

Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan might have the same "surname" - be of the same Central Asian family - but each is very much individual.

And Travel Directors' Five Stans tour explores and brings out this individuality as it follows east to west along the Silk Road, and across steppes and mountains, and the chessboard land upon which Russia and Britain played the Great Game of control.

The Five Stans is not only one of its newest tours but is proving one of its most popular. Tony Evans, who first conceived, then researched, and is now leading the 28-day tour, says: "There is big interest in these countries. I think Central Asia is the last frontier of safe travel."

After flying with China Southern Airways from Perth to Guangzhou, it's then onwards to the garden city of Almaty, in Kazakhstan, which has parks with oak trees and statues, and poetry books in little cabinets to borrow and read, and wide streets with Porsches and Subarus. It is surrounded by vast agricultural lands and apple trees, and all set against the great wall of the snow- capped Tian Shan Mountains.

Issy Kul lake and the Tian Shan Mountains from the south side of the lake, between Karakol and the village of Kyzyltu, on the way to Bishkek. Picture: Stephen Scourfield


From there, we travel on into Kyrgyzstan, and particularly the Chon Kemin valley, to stay in a village in a big valley, with its glacier-fed river, summer agriculture and winter snow, and where life still revolves, not only around the seasons, but the Kyrgyz horses for which this country is famous. Men come riding down the big, dusty valley to compete in wrestling on horseback and buzkashi, an ancient game played with a goat carcass.

Horseriding, whitewater rafting, and a walk up the Jeti Oguz Gorge, with a glacier at its end, and to meet a Kyrgyz eagle hunter. And then to the remote town of Karakol, on a journey round Issyk Kul Lake which shows how wool is felted and willow hewn in traditional ways to make the yurts that are not only the homes but the symbol of these nomadic peoples.

In Tajikistan, a different flavour. In the warm evening in the city of Dushanbe, there are the scents and spices of Persia, and by day the huge Fan Mountains, up and through which we are driven to the high, turquoise Iskanderkul Lake - a drive that also takes us through epic mountain tunnels and along high tracks that look hundreds of metres down to the thin white thread of a mountain river below.

The people are welcoming. For travellers, Tajikistan is a delight. Very, very few tourists come here. As Tony says: "We've pretty much got the place to ourselves."

The Russian Orthodox Holy Trinity Cathedral, built of wood in the 1890s in Karakol, in Kyrgyzstan.


After crossing the border into Uzbekistan, there is the surprising city of Tashkent. The old suburbs are quiet and clean, and we stroll with splendid guide Anait Garaev, glimpsing history in the local adobe homes and the engaging Museum of Applied Arts. Once again, there are big parks, wide walkways, trees, squares and statues. There are 150,000km of irrigation canals in Tashkent and the city is green and vibrant.

On a Sunday, there is possibly the cleanest food market I have ever seen, full of extraordinary produce displayed beautifully and handled elegantly.

Tashkent is a quite wonderful place. There are mosques and minarets in this Muslim country but this is a modern, moderate country - women do not cover their faces and there is no call to prayer. "This is a secular country," Anait explains. "Our government decided 'People have watches'."

And then I leave the group, which then continues on through Uzbekistan before crossing in to Turkmenistan, where there is a night at the Darvaza gas crater, which was lit to burn escaping gases, and has been burning for more than four decades.

Throughout the journey, there are local meals at well-sourced restaurants, from Kyrgyz shashlik - arrow-sized skewers of meat cooked over charcoal - to plov, which is the national dish of Tajikistan, a rice dish with shredded turnip or carrot and pieces of meat, finally fried in a special cauldron.

Dinner in local restaurant in Karakol, in Kyrgyzstan. A local comes in from dining in the next room to sing to the group. Picture: Stephen Scourfield


There is travel in good coaches, on local airlines and into the mountains in eight-seater vehicles, accommodation in everything from a clean and welcoming guesthouse in a remote village in Kyrgyzstan to the five-star Serena Hotel in Dushanbe in Tajikistan. There are excellent local guides who have worked with Travel Directors for many years, and there are surprises.

It all feels exquisitely unusual, and safe.

And that is a question to be tackled here.

There are 20 travellers in one group and 16 in another running parallel, and a common theme among these travellers, which goes something like: "When I said where I was going, people said 'Is it safe?'"

Tony, also a director of Leederville-based Travel Directors, says: "The Five Stans is a very, very, very safe trip."

Throughout the journey, I felt completely secure . . . and acutely aware of the peaceful, welcoming normality around me.

Burana Tower, a minaret in the Chui Valley, Kyrgyzstan, 80km east of Bishkek, near Tokmok. Picture: Stephen Scourfield


And yet there is an epic quality to this journey.

Tony explains: "The idea for the Five Stans took two years before I went out on the research trip. I did the whole of the research in one go and knew that it was going to be an epic tour." He says that, travelling from Kazakhstan to Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, there is a sense of "crescendo".

He thoroughly searched and experienced the areas, looking for the best routes, places to see, stay and, importantly, eat (despite this, there are still some "stomach revolutions", as Kyrgyz guide Ulan Ermekov puts it).

With so many border crossings and visas, the paperwork is not only difficult but has to be precise. For example, visa on arrival is granted at the Tashkent airport in Uzbekistan but not at the land border which we cross. Tony got these visas months ago by taking the travellers' passports to the Uzbek Embassy in Dubai. He explains: "They know me and accept me bringing passports from Australia."

He adds: "The paperwork is enormous, from invitation letters to some group visas and some individual visas." And Tony is a fluent speaker of Russian, which is absolutely crucial in all these former Soviet countries.

While Travel Directors is used to having "repeaters" coming with them on a number of trips, half of those on the Five Stans are new to them - the Five Stans has touched a wider nerve and there will be four departures next year; two in May and two in September.

Among the solo travellers I meet in one group, ages range from people in their 50s to bright and sprightly 80s.

There is Rhonda Lewis, sharing with retired teacher Lesley Hoyling. Another retired teacher, Jan Ashworth, has paid the single supplement for a room alone.

Seven of the people on the trip met on Travel Directors' Black Sea tour last year and decided to come together on the Five Stans. They are in holiday mode, with chatter and jokes in the back of the bus, and a few drinks and laughs in the evenings.

Donkeys at red sandstone cliffs known as the 'Seven Bulls'. In Jeti-Oguz Gorge, near Karakol, in Kyrgyzstan. Picture: Stephen Scourfield


By contrast, there are a couple of serious note-takers in the group - Jan Ashworth and Joy Copeland, listening attentively to hand-picked local guides. Tony is leading the group but there is still a very knowledgeable local guide with the group every day. The guides give even more depth to the experience. Jan and the appropriately named Joy tidy up their notes in the evening and, when Joy gets home, she makes a book of the trip.

There are four married couples - among them Doug and Chris Allen, who have been on seven Travel Directors tours.

Doug explains: "These are places you dream of. They are places we would like to go to but wouldn't on our own.

"This takes all the worry away. They pick the best places to see and you see them. This company suits our style. They look after you. We like how everything is covered."

The group ranges from a farmer to a retired doctor, teacher and renovation builder - from factory owners to a retired electrician, from a restaurateur and bank man to a retired mine worker.

If in planning to visit the five Stans, many of them were asked about its safety, there was a second question, too: "What do you want to go there for?" And pay roundabout $14,000 each, if sharing a room.

The catchall answer from them is simple: "To see what's there."

And one evening I walk up the Chon Kemin valley of Kyrgyzstan in the dying light, standing among horses and flanked by mountains, with the jingle of a glacier- fed river, and look back towards the guesthouse, with its homemade jams and freshly baked bread, and produce from the fields around, and my cosy room with its wall hangings, and feel lucky to have got to know this family of "Stans".

FACT FILE

The next departure of Travel Directors' Five Stans tour is from May 3 to May 30, 2015, and there are other departures in May and September. The 28-day tour costs from $13,950 twin share. This includes all flights between Australia and Kazakhstan/ Turkmenistan and Australia, all internal flights in Central Asia, all accommodation, the vast majority of meals, highlights and surprises, Travel Directors tour leader, local guides, visas and gratuities. Travel Directors is at 137 Cambridge Street, Leederville. traveldirectors.com.au, 1300 856 661 or 9242 4200.

China Southern Airways flies direct between Perth and Guangzhou and connects with 190 destinations in 40 countries, offering full-service flying at low-cost prices. Visit csair.com.au or call 1300 889 628 during business hours. Their office is open at Suite 4, Level 2, 3 De Vlamingh Avenue (off Adelaide Terrace), East Perth from 9am-5pm, Monday-Friday, or ask travel agents.

Stephen Scourfield was a guest of Travel Directors and China Southern Airways.