CalevPhoto

Uzbekistan and Tajikistan Trip Report–Part II

The journey begins – Tashkent

To sum things up, Tashkent is not Uzbekistan. Tashkent is an ugly Soviet city with a bit of megalomaniac government built in. It is rude and bureaucratic and is not a good introduction to the country. We knew this before going there and planned to spend as little time as possible in Tashkent.

Our flight arrived at four in the morning and we headed straight to our hotel to sleep. Unfortunately we found it difficult to do so as we had slept some on the plane and sunrise was at 4:30. Normally when we travel far I try to arrive at night so we can go straight to bed and then be on their time zone. However that was not an option this time.

The strange thing about Tashkent are the number of huge parks and buildings with literally no one in them.  Imagine that there were some rich billionaire out there that decided to collect massive buildings instead of cars.  Instead of a showroom for his buildings, he placed them a fair distance from each other in huge parks with nice landscaping and paths so he could take walks and admire his buildings.  That is a bit what downtown Tashkent looks like.

The photo below is us in a park next to our hotel.  Despite the fact that we visited this park during the middle of the day, notice the entire lack of people save for the cleaning woman.  All of the parks had a number of cleaning people patiently waiting for some dirt to fall from the sky.  I do have to say that the lack of people was very welcome compared to our trip last year to China where we felt like sardines at times.

Tashkent contains a mix of old Soviet architecture and newer what I call Central Asian style buildings.  Currently they are rapidly tearing down the older Soviet buildings in favor of the newer style.  Our hotel in Tashkent is a good example of the Soviet style.

I actually found it to be rather pretty from the outside.  The hotel itself was OK but still a bit Soviet.  For example at the restaurant on the bottom floor they have a water cooler.  We helped ourselves to some water while we were eating at the restaurant and were scolded because the water is intended only for visiting athletes.  Also, we stayed at a different room each time we came back to the hotel from other areas of Uzbekistan and each room had something that did not work.  In various cases the refrigerator, television, or air conditioning did not work.  Still, I had fun coming up with compositions for the exterior of the property.

The Central Asian style is a bit similar to the building at the very top of this post – though I am not exactly sure if that building is new – it could be a remodeled Soviet building.  The Central Asian style is generally very clean with few details.  They have few curves but look remarkably modern compared to the older Soviet buildings – particularly the apartment buildings.  A lot of them also have a very peculiar blue glass that I presume makes them cooler as during the summer it is quite hot there.

Like any good Soviet city, Tashkent contains its share of monuments.  With the exception of the Lenin statues, all of these still stand with their original propaganda.  They are in your typical Soviet style.  This monument is from an earthquake that occurred in 1966.

This is a well done monument and I was very impressed at the solemnity and seriousness of it.  Interestingly, by the official Soviet propaganda at the time only ten people perished during the earthquake.  In truth it was several thousand.  The next monument is for those who perished in the second World War (by official Soviet propaganda – more than ten).

Historically, Tashkent is a minnow within Uzbekistan.  Before the Russians occupied the country, Uzbekistan was split into three khanates or emirates.

• The Kokand khanate with its capital at Kokand.  This included Tashkent.  From what I heard little remains within Kokand itself.
• The Emirate of Bukhara – with its capital at (where else) Bukhara
• The Khorezm Khanate – with its capital at Khiva

Before this Samarkand was the capital of Timur’s empire that stretched from China to Delhi to the borders of Europe.  Therefore, while Taskhkent does have several interesting structures history-wise it is wisest to see it first as Bukhara, Samarkand, and Khiva all blow it away.

Tashkent does have though the world’s oldest Koran – supposedly stained from the blood of Osman – which is definitely worth seeing.

Most of the old structures of Tashkent are very close to each other and can be visited in a few hours.  The above example is very typical of the architecture there.  This architecture also extends to the rest of Uzbekistan, though the structures in Bukhara, Samarkand, and Khiva are far grander, more ornately painted, and older.  Despite having the largest population though, few people venture to see old Tashkent.

We did stop a party of people we ran across to take their photo.  Generally it is OK to take photos of people in Uzbekistan – even women.  Many women are modest though and prefer their photos to not be taken – particularly by a man.  We had much more success when I handed my camera to my wife and she asked to take their picture.

The dresses are typical of Uzbekistan.  For my wife’s relatives (originally from Tajikistan) they now where these clothes only for special occasions.  However over there this is just the standard way they dress.  Unlike some other countries the culture of Uzbekistan is “authentic” and not just for show.

For our kids the highlight of old Tashkent was a group of storks in one of the gardens.  They are kept as pets there (as they are considered lucky) and cannot fly.  If you have bread you are free to feed them.  When my older son was younger he used to call them “dorks” and would often shout “look! a dork!” when he saw them – generating a few interested glances.

For me, the highlight photography-wise in Tashkent was the market.  Markets are extremely important in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan (and pretty much all of Central Asia) as they are the main place where pretty much anything is bought and sold.  The vast majority of Uzbeks do not frequent supermarkets or retail shops for their needs but instead barter at the market.

Above are one of the reasons we travelled to this part of the world in the first place – lepyoshki.  Lepyoshki is the Russian word for them and locally it is just called naan – which is the word for bread.  Incidentally this is the same word used in India and the breads do have their similarities.  My wife had been craving this bread ever since she left Tajikistan 16 years ago and even when we travelled to New York and bought the bread there she declared that it was just not the same thing.

Lepyoshki is considered the national bread there and in Samarkand they even go as far as creating artisan breads with writing and decorations that are intended for hanging on the wall.  I honestly can say I have never considered hanging a loaf of bread on my wall but the opportunity is there for those so willing.

For many Russians, Uzbekistan is known as the source of many of their fruits and it therefore comes as no surprise that any Uzbek market is full of them.

Uzbekistan is famous for its grapes in particular and everywhere you go there you will see vines – particularly in the courtyards of houses.  Grape vines serve many purposes there – not just providing a nice snack to eat.  In the summer the vines provide useful shade against the hot sun.  Interestingly while their grapes are considered amongst the best in the world, their wines have no such distinction so they are intended strictly for eating.

Also not to be missed in any Central Asian market are the spices.

I honestly had no idea what the majority of spices are, but there are a lot of them and I had a lot of fun photographing them.  We went through the Tashkent market rather quickly, but I had much more of an opportunity later on in Khujand, Tajikistan.  I suspect though that you can buy pretty much any spice known to man there and there are a great many stands there selling them.

Every market is divided into sections.  In one part of the market you can buy fruits, in another part bread, another part meat, fish, spices, nuts, and so on.  However, just outside the “food” area of the market are the “everything else” sections.  Here just name it and they have it – electronics, dresses, furniture, kitchen utensils – anything.  I found this rather interesting.

My wife had told me about these but this was my first opportunity to actually see one.  This is a baby bassinet.  It looks fairly standard with the exception of the hexagonal hole towards one side.  You see, there diapers are pretty much non-existent and even though they are technically available, the vast majority of the population cannot afford them.  This is the solution to the problem.  Baby waste falls through the hole to something below it that collects the waste – which is then emptied.  While this sounds a bit gross, keep in mind that children there are potty trained at a much earlier age than children here.  It is practically unheard of over there for a one year old to not be potty trained.

Another fun fact is actually paying people in the market.  The currency of Uzbekistan is called the Sum.  Officially, there are 1,700 Sum to the dollar – at least when I was there.  Unofficially the rate is 2,400 Sum.  However this rate is only available through the black market and foreigners are strongly advised to not attempt to exchange money themselves because many of the sellers at the black market are there to catch you and force you to pay a very high fine.  Instead, it is best to ask someone you trust to exchange the money for you.

The interesting part comes when you actually receive the money.  You see, the largest note there is 1,000 Sums and in the market they will often give you only 500 Sum notes.  The result is an awful lot of cash.  I had to dedicate an entire pocket while I was there to holding cash.  Below is a bit less than $200.

While most souvenir shops will accept dollars, restaurants and people in the market will only accept Sums.  This was a bit of a pain while we were there.

We returned to Tashkent several times as it is used as the start of many tours and is the main location to fly in and out of.  I certainly would not recommend spending a lot of time there, but there is enough to keep one’s interest for a day.

Our next day, though, when we headed for Samarkand, was far more interesting.

Uzbekistan and Tajikistan Trip Report–Part I

This summer, we chose to go somewhere different and spent three weeks travelling to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.  The trip was rarely dull and was extremely interesting.  What follows is a (rather long) summary of our trip.  To make this easier to read, I will split it into multiple blogs.

Getting There

To get to Uzbekistan for all practical purposes you need to fly into Tashkent’s airport.  Tashkent is slightly tricky, though not too difficult, to get to.  The  only direct flight from the United States flies from New York to Tashkent on Uzbek Air.  Other airlines that fly there include Aeroflot (from Moscow Sheremetyevo), Turkish Airlines (from Istanbul), and Asian (from Seoul).  As we were departing from Seattle, the best flight for us turned out to be to fly from Seattle to LAX, then LAX to Sheremetyevo on Aeroflot, then to Tashkent also on Aeroflot.

Needless to say the travel time was quite long.  The flight from LAX to Sheremetyevo is about twelve hours and the flight from Sheremetyevo to Tashkent is another four.  At the end of the trip we certainly did not feel like flying any time soon.

Sheremetyevo is a modern airport and pretty easy to navigate.  LAX, on the other hand, was a nightmare and I will definitely try to avoid it in the future.  On both our in and out connections we almost missed our flights (despite having 5 and 4 hours in between connections and no delays) simply due to the inefficiencies of this airport.  In particular you have to exit the terminal and either walk a ways or take a bus that is rather difficult to find.  You then have to recheck in and go through security again.  On our trip back the line for customs was so long that we almost missed our connection.

Prior Planning

Uzbekistan is not one of those countries you just buy a ticket to and go.  For citizens of most countries, a visa is necessary and you cannot purchase it on arrival.  In order to obtain a visa, you must have a letter of invitation – typically issued from a licensed travel agency.  Along with your letter of invitation your travel agency will explain where you are travelling to in Uzbekistan.  This is not a place where you may go freely anywhere you desire.  The government wants to know where you are going and for how long.

We considered long and hard which agency to go with and looked at a variety of tours.  There are generally two types of travel agencies that can arrange trips to Uzbekistan.

Local agencies – These agencies typically reside within Uzbekistan and have the best prices.

Foreign agencies – These agencies generally hire one of the local agencies and charge their customers several times the price.

We obviously only looked into local agencies as we did not care to pay extra.  The following are agencies we heard of.

Advantour – This is the company we wound up going with.  They were very well priced and we were extremely happy with their services.  We spent a lot of their time in planning the trip and they were very helpful.

Orexca – We spent a great deal of time planning an itinerary with Orexca and originally planned to book with them.  Their site is much more professional than Advantour and they were very helpful to deal with.  They also offer a number of excursions that Advantour does not have.  The only reason we did not go with them was the price – as they were double Advantour’s price.  From talking while on tour in Uzbekistan, they are considered reputable but are a bit unpredictable in their prices.

Stantours – This company is mentioned quite often on the Lonely Planet forums and many of these replies occur coincidentally on a Central Asian time zone.  Although I never dealt with this company directly, it seems a bit fishy.  The hotel and tour operators I spoke with there had never heard of them.

Tajik visas are much easier to obtain.  No letter of invitation is necessary and they are very easy going.  Unfortunately getting from Uzbekistan to Tajikistan is not trivial as the countries are not very friendly.  At the time we went the Penjikent border was closed and the only border we could use (because we needed to go to Khujand) was Oibek.  Advantour was not able to arrange anything in Tajikistan for us and we needed to arrange this part of the trip ourselves.

Going through customs

Upon entering Uzbekistan, you must fill out a customs form.  It is extremely important that you fill this form out correctly.  Any jewelry, electronics (computers, cameras, cell phones), and money must be entered in the customs form in the correct places.  When you exit Uzbekistan, you must fill in the same customs form and again state all of these things.  The amount of money taken out must be less than that brought in.

If you do not enter your camera equipment or other electronics upon entering it is subject to confiscation.  This is not just theory – but practice.  Our laptop was almost confiscated on the border because we entered “computer” instead of “laptop computer”.  In addition, make sure the money you write down is correct.  Upon leaving the country they will likely ask you to count all of your money in front of them and they will search your bags for more.  If you miscounted your money or forgot to write it in, the excess will be confiscated.  This did happen to me and a number of others upon exiting (nothing was confiscated though as my numbers were correct).

For those taking cameras to Uzbekistan, it is illegal to take photos that display Uzbekistan in an ill light.  They did ask me to show them the photos I took when exiting but for some reason they only wanted to see my son’s G11.  Regardless I had prepared for this by replacing the main cards in my cameras with photos I knew would not be an issue.

No used price updates for the next several weeks

After thinking about this a bit more, I have a much better idea on how to implement this – allowing me to include more prices and a lot more info.  Currently it takes me some time each day to update the used prices – time I can spend instead making the system work better so I do not need to spend this time.

Therefore for the next several weeks I will not be updating the used prices section.

Moving to Medium Format – Selling all Canon Equipment

After much thought and deliberation, I have decided to move to medium format and sell all of my Canon equipment.  The truth is I need to improve my range as a photographer and moving to medium format is the best way to do that.  I also have the desire to move into professional gigs where a MF camera is basically a requirement.

The problem with Canon SLRs, as most of you already know, is they keep bumping up the megapixels while ignoring the optical limits.  The gain in resolution between camera models is negligible.  The problem is, megapixels are important, so long as they actually lead to an improvement in quality.  Therefore, Nikon was completely out as their decision to keep cameras in the low megapixels (sans the D3x which has the same issue as the Canons) doesn’t help me at all.

The breakthrough came just yesterday, when – after some length of discussions – I convinced someone to sell me his digital Hasselblad gear for a good price.  The camera and lenses are all extremely new.  The guy was forced to sell them due to mounting debt and a house in foreclosure, so after having a difficult time selling them he finally agreed to sell them to me for a price that was too good to turn down.  However, to now finance this purchase I need to sell all of my Canon gear.

What does this mean in terms of my photographs?

Well, now that I have truly pro equipment you will see my photos get significantly better.  Don’t listen to those other blogs out there.  Better equipment does make you a better photographer.

This also means that I will cease producing many of my super close insect shots.  I’m bored of insects and it is time to move on.  I did purchase a macro lens in the group though, so larger insects are still possible if I desire to turn back – and at 50MP I can crop quite a bit.

I’ll likely start including more portraiture on this blog and people photos as well.

For those interested in purchasing some of my Canon equipment – including a 5D2, 7D, TS-E 17, TS-E 24 II, 70-200 4L IS, 100-400, 16-35 II, and other things, click the ‘read more’ link to view the full blog.

Continue Reading…

Disney World Vacation Post Mortem

For the last week, the four of us have been visiting Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.  As part of a new practice to improve our vacations, I have decided to follow a similar practice that we use in software engineering – a post mortem.

I hope that this information will also help others planning vacations both to WDW and to other places.

What went well

Spending five solid days at the parks

We only visited Walt Disney World itself and avoided other attractions such as Universal Studios.  For just WDW, this time proved to be exactly what we needed.  Had the weather been warmer and we were visiting Blizzard Beach, we would have wanted an additional day.  Given the size of the parks and how much there is to do, five days was just right.

The Disney Deluxe Dining Plan

Disney food prices are quite expensive.  In particular their sit down restaurants are quite pricy.  Breakfast each morning for the four of us was $60.  Lunch varied from $70 to $110 and dinner varied from $90-$180.  These prices do not include tips.  Given these prices, the dining plan enabled us to save significantly.  It also provided us a good break to get away from the chaos of the parks and experience some very interesting restaurants.

Making dining a big part of the planning

In addition to spending a great deal of time figuring out how much time we needed at the parks and in which order we wanted to see them, I also spent a great deal of time planning which restaurants to visit.  A number of the restaurants – particularly Coral Reef, Citricos, and Sci-Fi Diner, have their own characteristics and provided as much enjoyment as the rides.  For future vacations, I will also spend time looking for interesting places to eat.

Planning what rides to go on and when

The parks were a lot more crowded than we expected, but by using the strategy of visiting popular rides early in the morning combined with FastPass, we rarely had to wait.  We did have access to the tour plans mentioned in the Unofficial Guide to WDW mentioned below – but they were basically worthless.  They either did not contain the rides we were interested in, did not factor in eating meals, or assumed we could get our kids up at the crack of dawn to get to the parks before they open.

Filling our days solid with entertainment, combined with resting intervals

In the past, we often felt that we spent too much time at some locations.  At other times, things just moved at too frantic of a pace and we became tired too quickly.  During this trip, we were quite busy while we went on ride after ride, but we had about an hour each for lunch and dinner that we used to relax.  This worked out quite well – allowing us to move at a fast pace but buffer it with relaxation periods.

Taking the new Canon G11 instead of an SLR

For once, I did not want to drag around a larger SLR and lenses.  A number of people did this at the parks and while WDW did provide storage for many of the rides, this wasn’t the case for all of them.  The G11 worked out quite nice here and fit in my pocket when not in use.

Taking the kids at ages 5 and 6

We saw a lot of babies and younger children at the parks and many of their parents looked quite miserable.  While WDW rides are in general tame, there are a number of them that will terrify younger children.  Our older son was still scared by many of the rides while the younger one had absolutely no problems.  There are also height restrictions on some of the rides that in a few cases did not allow our five year old to ride.  From this experience five years old is probably the bare minimum I would want my child to be to take them to the parks.  Younger than that and the trip becomes more for the parents than for the kids.

What went OK

Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge

We stayed here for the entire trip in a room with a savannah view.  The idea was for the kids to see animals from the room when they wake up and this worked well on one occasion.  While the hotel definitely caters to kids, we were so busy at the resorts that we made little use of it.  In addition, the rooms were quite small and the bed was among the least comfortable we have ever slept on.  I had originally planned to stay at the Grand Floridian but decided against it because I was worried the kids would not find it as interesting.  We visited the Grand Floridian to eat at Citricos and for the hotel itself this assumption was accurate.  Therefore, while I was not very impressed by the Animal Kingdom Jambo House resort, it was probably a decent choice.

The Weather

Of course it is impossible to predict the weather and how was I to know that Seattle would be on average twenty degrees warmer than Orlando while we were there.  On the other hand, except for our last day it hardly rained there.  We were able to do all of the rides except for the water related ones, so it wasn’t that bad.

Going in the 2nd week of January

The guide book listed below stated that the second week in January – after New Years when all of the kids have gone back to school – is the best time to go.  Instead, the parks were quite crowded and we needed to strategize how to see things in order to not spend too much time in the lines.  Luckily, we did not spend much time in the lines do to careful planning – though some rides reached wait times as long as 120 minutes.

What didn’t go well

The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World

This book should be renamed – “The whiner’s guide to WDW”.  Most of this book was completely unhelpful and often completely false.  The reviews of restaurants were not accurate and the descriptions of the rides – in particular how appropriate they are for kids – was not correct.  I just really had the impression that the authors have never been anywhere outside of Disney World and have no concept of the outside world.

Disney’s vaunted customer service

When I visited the parks fourteen years ago, I marveled at how happy everyone at the resorts was and the degree to which people (called “cast members”) would go through to make sure you had the best trip possible.  This is no longer the case and I even found the service to be rude on occasion.  In general I would give their customer service an “OK” rating.

Greetings from Turkey

Some of you may have noticed that I have not answered my comments lately. This is because I am writing this right now from my wife’s Iphone in a cave in Cappadocia. I have so far over 40gb of data and lots of blogs for when I get back very soon.

Introduction to Microstock Photography – What Sells?

So what types of microstock pictures sell?  In general, people shots often sell the best.  Of course, I do not have direct experience here because I do not sell pictures of people.  However, if you do want to earn a profit from stock photography people pictures are a great place to start.  In particular, shots of people working are often the best selling.  Generally if the photograph has a business aspect, it will do better.  For instance, put a person in front of a house or in a business suit instead of an ordinary pose.  Also, pictures of minorities – especially in a business sense – often sell well.

For those of us who prefer to not take pictures of people, travel shots often do quite well.  For me, these are my best sellers.  More exotic locations that have not been covered well are the best sellers.  Pictures from common locations such as Hawaii and Mexico do not sell as well as Dubai and Jordan.  Make sure when taking travel pictures though to get the best lighting possible – generally early in the morning or late in the afternoon.

For those who don’t get out much, isolated shots are also great sellers.  You can start out with objects from around your home and go on from there.  Many stores sell light boxes that you can use or you can make your own.  There are numerous isolation techniques that you can read about on the Internet, but make sure you isolate the subject well or it will be rejected due to poor isolation.

Finally, images with a theme tend to sell quite well.  Themes include joy, happiness, hard work, and a multitude of others.  Make sure to add any possible themes to your keywords – but don’t get too inventive!

Shots that do not sell

I can vouch from experience that pictures of bugs are poor sellers.  I suspect that many animal pictures also sell poorly – or at least my animal pictures do.  These are not the type of pictures most graphic artists are looking for.  Still, I take these pictures because I enjoy them and if they sell it is a bonus.

If you wonder whether a shot will sell, try entering a few of your expected keywords on one of the microstock sites and see how many results turn up.  If there are a large number of competing shots, your image will likely not sell well.  Images that should have been rejected, but for some reason passed the reviewer, will also be rejected.  Sometimes you can get passed the reviewers – but buyers are always impartial.