Off-road motorcycle trip through Central Asia: Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan

We recommend taking a night flight from Europe and landing at Osh Airport in the morning to make the most of the day. We leave our luggage at the hotel and visit the local bazaar and eat a local dish. After checking in at the hotel, we rest a bit. In the late afternoon, we pick up the motorcycles and take a short test ride. Then we head back to the hotel ready to go.

We start the tour and ride across the border into Uzbekistan. Along the way, we encounter mulberry trees and hopefully visit a silkworm farmer who feeds his worms with the branches of these trees. In Marg'ilon, we visit a silk factory and can buy fine silk scarves and local cotton products. Along the way, we see fields of cotton, watermelons, and other crops. We ride to Rishton and spend the night directly in a pottery that produces the famous ceramics.

During the visit to the pottery, we marvel at the impressive painting skills of the local family. From clay extraction to glazing, everything happens on-site. We ride into the red, hilly desert at the border with Kyrgyzstan. Wonderful off-road experiences and picturesque photo stops await us. We continue to Kokand, where we spend the night. We visit the mosque and Quran school and admire these impressive and artistic buildings.

To start the day, we marvel at the former Khanate of Kokand. Only part of the impressive palace remains. We leave the Fergana Valley and ride over a pass towards Tashkent. Along the way, we visit a baker with excellent fresh bread. Passing by a large coal power plant, we head towards the big city of Tashkent. We make a brief stop at the monument of Timur, the local 'new-old' folk hero. Now we will spend two nights in Tashkent.

With our motorcycle tour guide and 'old travel fox', we explore Tashkent unusually without the motorcycles. Together, we visit mosques and madrasas and one of the oldest Quran manuscripts in the world. We continue through the impressive large city park and underground to the famous subway stations. We have lunch with Osh, a rice dish. Refreshed, we head back through the huge bazaar to the hotel.

We ride our nimble Hondas to a solar power plant from the 70s, which develops very high temperatures for material tests and specialty products. Over lovely lonely off-road tracks, we ride in the afternoon to the Kazakh border and continue on the highway to Shymkent.

The wide horizon and huge fields in Kazakhstan impress us. We visit a massive limestone cave in the 'no man's land'. Over lonely gravel paths, we traverse the infinitely large Kazakh steppe and let the wonderful nature impact us. In Taraz, we relax in a good hotel.

We cross the border into Kyrgyzstan and ride to Talas. We visit the memorial and mausoleum of Manas, a local folk hero similar to the Swiss 'William Tell'. He was part of the victorious army of local, Arab, and Tibetan tribes that defeated the Chinese army here in 715. The many prisoners were very valuable to the victors due to their expertise in secret paper and silk production and other technologies.

We ride south into the remote mountains and conquer the Kara Buura Pass at 3300m altitude. Ahead of us lies a huge mountain valley that we ascend on a long gravel road to the Chapchama Pass at 2850m altitude. We then head down into the hot Fergana Valley.

We ride to Mailuu-Suu and hear many new pieces of information about the former uranium mining in this dreamlike beautiful region with reddish rock formations. We drive over rough gravel paths past the radioactive dumps and learn about the difficult legacy from Soviet times. Back in the Fergana Valley, we continue to Arslanbob, where the largest walnut tree forests in the world are located.

We ride past rice cultivation areas to the mausoleums of Uzgen. These monuments date back to the 11th century and are among the oldest structures in Central Asia. Now we continue to Osh, back to our base. We return the motorcycles and stay two more nights in Osh.

We recover from the exertions and visit the bazaar and Suleiman-Too, the historically significant mountain of Osh. Early on Thursday, we fly from Osh via Istanbul back home.