Platzkart

Train travel in Central Asia is an experience full of contrasts and surprises. In Uzbekistan, the ultra-modern high speed rail network connecting the capital Tashkent with its touristic rival, Samarkand, coexists with the remainder of the country’s rather old rolling stock. A seventeen-hour journey on the latter takes the adventurous traveller through nine of Uzbekistan’s fourteen regions. After the suburban sprawl of Tashkent, jagged southern mountains and kaleidoscopic sunsets over the Kyzylkum desert, the train finally arrives in the westernmost city of the country, less than a dozen kilometres from the border with Turkmenistan: Nukus.

Travellers on this scenic route who opt for the local way of travel – in Platzkart – will soon realise that their journey is just as socio-cultural in nature as it is geographic. For better or for worse, fellow passengers in these open, dormitory-style train carriages will, for a short overnight journey, become roommates, childminders, impromptu bar tenders. Samovars at the carriage entrances provide hot water throughout the journey. People pass the time by swapping snacks for life stories.

Many of the characters depicted on the following pages are fictional. Their stories, however, reflect true accounts entrusted upon me during my travels throughout Central Asia. 2015-2020.