Tashkent - September 19 - 20, 2007

September 19 and 20

The last bus ride of our Silk Road journey brought us to Tashkent, the final destination before flying to Moscow and back to the US.

After arriving in Tashkent we visited a museum of applied arts which was only mildly interesting because we had already seen such great examples of it from Khiva through Samarkand. However, outside they did have a good selection of T-shirts to purchase.

We quickly to went our rooms in the Tashkent Plaza Hotel, received our stored luggage from a week ago and took advantage of the wireless Internet access before leaving to see a ballet at the State Bolshoi Theater of Opera and Ballet. Our seats at the ballet were very good, about twelve rows from the orchestra pit, giving us an exceptional view of the stage. The music was excellent, and even though we did not know the story presented in the ballet, we all really enjoyed the drama conveyed by the music, great scenery, costumes and dance. Following the production, we dined in an elegantly appointed room on the second floor of the Opera House. This was our farewell dinner after which we said goodbye to our tour guide, Claudio, and our fellow travelers.

On Thursday, the three of us explored Tashkent on our own, finding a Magnum ice cream bar to start off an eventful afternoon. Walking through the streets trying to find certain landmarks took us to places where we didn’t see any Westerners. One of the suggested sights to visit is the Chorsu Bazaar in the “Old Town” part of the city. We decided that we wanted to visit this one last bazaar and travel there using the subway. Talking to several people along the way, we finally found someone who spoke English and she directed us to the Metro then walked with us to show us the subway stop personally.

We purchased the subway tokens, passed through the turnstile and boarded the train heading in the right direction. We were an oddity once again, being the only Westerners on the train. Looking confused while reading map on the wall of the subway car, we asked a young woman which stop was close to the Chorsu Market. She pointed to the stop on the map, then got off with us at that stop and motioned for us to follow her. The bazaar started near the top of the stairs, and the young woman, Danosa, led us through every nook and cranny, covering the area much more thoroughly than we could ever have done by ourselves. We would not have known where to go since it was so extensive. Danosa barely spoke any English, but she understood more than she could speak. We learned that she is a college student studying Business Management. When we finally left the market, Danosa escorted us back to the subway and insisted on accompanying us to our hotel. We said good bye there and hugged her. What delight she was and what an unexpected afternoon!!

We plan to get some sleep between 7 PM and 1 AM before leaving for the airport at 2 AM. Our flight to Moscow departs at 4:55 AM and out flight to the US 12:15 PM.

See you in the States!

Tamara, Rich and Garry

Captions: 1) Navoi Opera and Ballet Theater 2) Magnum bars - it took us one month, but we found them 3) Chorsu Market 4) Vendor selling bread at Chorsu Market
5) Dasona - our impromptu tour guide 6) Evening at the ballet

Samarkand - September 18, 2007

September 18, 2007

We arrived earlier than most groups to tour The Registan, only a short distance from our hotel. The Registan is an assemblage of three huge medressas situated around an expansive courtyard in the west, north and east compass positions. As we stood in the center, almost surrounded by these massive structures with their intricate azure mosaics, we felt it was the most beautiful man-made site we’d seen on this trip. The first structure and the oldest is Ulughbek’s Medressa, taking only three years to build and completed in1420. Ulughbek was a son of Timur and the ancient astronomer whose observatory we visited yesterday. When he became the leader, Ulughbek extended an invitation to artisans throughout the region to use their skills to create this medressa and mosque. The beautiful mosaics were cleverly designed to include a myriad of stars. It was frowned upon to use secular images like this in Islamic art, but under the guise of creativity it was allowed. It is known that Ulughbek taught mathematics and astronomy at this medressa.

Opposite the Ulughbek Medressa is the Sher Dor Medressa, finished in 1636. Within the mosaic design near the top of this facade is what looks like two roaring tigers, and rising above each tigers’ back is what looks like the sun with a smiling face. These are striking in their color and appearance and stand out in contrast to the surrounding classic designs. It makes you wonder why the sun has a smiling face looking down at the people, but perhaps it is laughing in defiance of the Islamic prohibition against depicting live animals. The tradition for entering a building is stepping through with the right foot first and when leaving, leave by stepping backwards and bowing out of the room. We stepped inside this medressa, and like many others we have seen, the former classrooms are now individual shops. One of the shops sells musical instruments, and our guide arranged for a demonstration of local instruments by the proprietor. We listened to several very unusual guitar-like stringed instruments, having anywhere between two and eleven strings. Some of the bodies were made from mulberry and covered behind the strings with the skin of a goat or membrane from the heart of a bull.

The Tilla-Kari Medressa, completed in 1660, is situated between the other two. As we stepped inside there was a Japanese film crew with lights, a boom and camera filming a documentary for a television station similar to the History Channel. Their lighting apparatus brilliantly lit the interior making it easier to take some good photos. Gold leaf sparkled everywhere, which is why it has the name Tilla-Kari, meaning gold covered. You run out of adjectives to describe places like this, but hopefully the Japanese film will do it justice; our cameras can not.

The Registan complex is amazing, and is claimed to be one of the most beautiful places in Central Asia. We could hardly believe we stood there. It certainly was the visual piece-de-resistance of our trip.

Our next stop took us to the tombs at Shahr-I-Zindah. This place consists of tomb after tomb after tomb, with graves form centuries old up to the present day. Most of the tombs belong to Timur and his descendants with azure tile work adorning all of the structures. It seemed to have no end, to the point that one’s eyes tire from the repetitiveness. In one mausoleum, our group happened to be in the room thought to be the grave of Qusam ibn-Abbas, a relative of Mohammed, when a mullah began chanting from the Quran. Quietly and solemnly, we sat and listened to this unplanned experience. While this was happening, other tourists did not enter the room and after we left we asked the guide about the meaning of what we heard. Galib told us about this mullah, a religious leader who studied for four years, headed to Tashkent for six years of training at the Islamic University and then was assigned to this area. The mullah had chanted from the Quran and then spoke a prayer asking protection for the tourists on their journey.

Some other interesting sights in the Tomb of the Living King: an upright black marble tombstone etched with the image of a man, his race car and his racing bike; a domed grave marker with a carved white stone shawl lying on it, signifying that the woman had been to Mecca; an ancient domed grave marker with another smaller half round dome on top, meaning the death of a pregnant woman.

We headed to Bibi-Khanyn Mosque, the largest of Timur’s structures, 109 by 168 meters, built between 1399 to 1404. We heard the story of how Timur’s wife had the mosque built when he was away for a long time. The architect fell in love with her and would not finish construction until she allowed him to kiss her. She relented, but the kiss left a mark on her cheek that Timur noticed when he returned. He had the architect executed and ruled that women should wear veils from then on so they could not tempt other men. Inside, an enormous stone Quran stand sits in the courtyard, and supposedly, any woman who crawls under it will be blessed with many children. You can see how worn the stone has become from centuries of this activity. We visited a section of the mosque that is deteriorating badly, with exposed timbers, falling stucco and large cracks in the arches. Although faint, you can still see some colors in the frescoes on the undamaged surfaces. We were praying that the building wouldn’t collapse as we walked through the area under the dome. One minor tremor and I can’t imagine that it will still be standing.

Next to Bibi-Khanym is the Main Bazaar which is the wildest and craziest place since experiencing the Kashgar Market in China. Although this bazaar does not have livestock, it has about everything else one could possibly want. There is table after table with large heaps of spices (great aromas), herbs, garlic, potatoes, eggs, bread, nuts, dried apricots, raisins, candy, sweets and endless other items. A sense of organization did exist within the chaos. In one area the fish mongers displayed their catch, whole fish with red gills and some fish already breaded and fried. Surprisingly, the smell wasn’t offensive, just a touch of fishiness, considering that the fish were lying on newspaper on the ground and in the sun. The fish must have been very fresh. We interacted with the locals who were so happy to meet and talk with us, asking to take their photo and send it to them. Gold-capped teeth flashed continuously. One question we all wondered about was who were the customers? With many merchants selling the same products, how did they ever make a living? We understand that going to market isn’t just to buy and sell; it is also to talk and exchange information.

We finally had a free afternoon to relax and pack for our final leg into Tashkent. Periods of free time were few and far between.

Samarkand did not disappoint us. Its legend and reputation as the most beautiful city is confirmed in our minds. To quote James Elroy Flecker in his poem,”The Golden Journey to Samarkand”

We travel not for trafficking alone,
By hotter winds our fiery hearts are fanned.
For lust of knowing what should not be known
We take the Golden Road to Samarkand.

Good bye from dazzling Samarkand,

Tamara, Rich and Garry

Captions: 1) Gold Tilla-Kari Medressa at Registan 2) Local women with gold teeth shopping at Main Market 3) Tombstone at Shahr-I-Zindah(Tomb of the Living King)
4) Tigers over prtal at Sher Doi Medressa at the Registan 5) Registan complex
6) Bibi-Khanyn Mosque

Samarkand - September 17, 2007

September 17, 2007

Samarkand, a city we’ve looked forward to for the entire trip, is just a few hours away.

Cotton fields lined both sides of the road about twenty miles outside of Bukhara, some fields were filled with pickers, and other fields were not. That would change within a day. Our bus came to a stop, and we watched while a literal caravan of mini-buses, at least one hundred in all, passed us by filled with school-aged children and escorted by police cars with their lights flashing. Following the busses were large open trucks hauling the beds and luggage. We learned that school closes during the cotton harvest, and these buses were carrying children to the cotton fields to pick cotton for the next month and a half before the rains begin. Each child is given three meals a day, works seven days a week, and is expected to make their quota of 30 kilos every day. Each cotton boll weighs approximately 3 grams, so that means they must pick about 10,000 cotton bolls to make quota. Our guide, remembering his time as a child, said that smart kids work early in the morning while the cotton is damp with dew rather than later in the morning when it tends to be drier and lighter. We don’t know if there are Child Labor laws, but the practice children working the fields may not be much different than what happens during harvest in certain parts of the US.

Pesticides, used in the production of cotton, are getting much more attention. In past years, the pesticides were applied by crop dusters, but that method of application has been stopped because the workers in the fields are contracting diseases associated with pesticides.

Entering Samarkand, we noticed a sign celebrating its 2,750 years of existence. Actually, the city just celebrated its 2,500 year anniversary a few months ago, but some carbon dating completed recently determined that the city is actually another 250 years older. Samarkand means “Fat City” or “Rich City” – a city of merchants. It is a rich city since so many tourists have visited and spent their money!

After dropping off our luggage at the Afrosiab Hotel, we headed to the Guri Amir Mausoleum, a short distance away. This mausoleum was built in 1404 by Timur, a ruthless warrior and ruler of Samarkand. An enormous fluted dome sparkled in the sun with its azure colored tiles, as did the domes of the two attending minarets. Minaret actually translates to “lighthouse” and in its day, fires burned atop them illuminating the way to Samarkand for caravans on the Silk Road. The men, who climbed to the apex of these minarets, had an excellent vantage point for observing what was going on in the city below. Believing this was not right, they began to use blind men to build the fires. Near the top of all minarets the calligraphy reads, “Allah is God, and Mohammad is His Prophet.” As in Bukhara, the mausoleum foundation was built with alternating layers of reeds and straw to help minimize damage from any tremors or earthquakes. Timur had intended this place just for his sons, grandsons and teachers, and had built a simpler crypt for himself in Shakhrisabz. However, due to the timing and location of his death, he was buried here as well. A slab of dark green jade, reportedly the largest in the world, marks the grave of Timur. In one of the alcoves there is a tall wooden branch reaching high into the air and from the top hangs the tail of a yak. This signifies the grave of a saint. The large and stunningly beautiful dome overhead lends a feeling of peacefulness and elegance to the crypt. Motifs on the ceiling are made from papier-mâché covered in gold leaf while the lower areas have motifs in stucco covered with gold leaf. The intricate designs and a huge faceted glass chandelier make the entire inside magnificent. It’s just too hard to adequately describe.

Sidebar: Our guide told us that after some radical incidents in Ferghana and Tashkent during 1999, there was a crackdown on Islamic fundamentalism. Mosques are now forbidden to broadcast the call to prayer from minarets. Also to prevent radicalism, no Islamic medressas are allowed, so religion must be taught in the home.

Our next stop was the Ulughbek Observatory. Ulughbek was a son of Timur and his discoveries as an astronomer garnered more fame than did his reign as a ruler. During the 1420’s, he built a three story observatory with a vertical sextant, rather than a horizontal one, and recorded 1,008 stars and 8 planets. His calculations for the calendar were off by only 58 seconds. Ulughbek knew that the earth wasn’t flat and that it moved around the sun.

The last stop for the day was Afrosiab Museum, displaying artifacts from nearby excavations covering eleven civilizations around ancient Samarkand. At the end of the tour, the final room was particularly well worth seeing. On all four walls it displayed the original frescoes found at the site. While large sections were missing or damaged, you could still recognize hunting scenes, a procession of dignitaries, and some local rulers. The color blue in the frescoes was exceptionally brilliant, considering its age. Renderings of what the complete frescoes possibly looked like were sketched on the wall above.

We had just enough time after returning to the hotel to have an espresso, then grab our computers and head to an Internet café. Again, we could not connect to the blogsite, and we think that it must be blocked like it was in China. Who would guess that this would be so difficult?

Take care,

Tamara, Garry and Rich

Captions: 1)Guri Amir Mausoleum 2) Ceiling at Gari Amir Mausoleum 3) Timur's tombstone 4) Partial track of sextant at Ulughbek Observatory 5) Afrosiab Museum

Bukhara - September 16, 2007

September 16, 2007

Our tour of Bukhara’s sights began near the hotel, and we continued through the city until very late in the afternoon; a long, dusty, and bloody-hot day. We walked to a medressa in the “old city” which now has merchants selling their wares in each of the ground level rooms and lining the walls in between. Brightly colored silks, hand etched brass trays, stitched purses and jackets, pashminas, exotic musical instruments, beautiful silk carpets, slippers of golden thread, and Aladdin lamps were some of the items displayed in this former medressa. We also saw three young men, employees we were told, sleeping under quilts on a carpet in the medressa’s center as we walked the area.

Please note the spelling change of the word “medressa” from one town to another.

With a few purchases in hand, we walked to Lyabi- Hauz, a plaza with a central pool shaded by mulberry trees, some that were 700 years old. According to our guide, the history is that a wealthy woman once owned a house where this pool now exists, and the Khan wanted her property but she refused to sell. To get his own way, the Khan built a channel of water under her house and flooded her property forcing her to move. Today, restaurants ring this pool where men at tables lounge around eating and socializing on Sunday afternoons. We didn’t see many women at the tables, but there were families enjoying the comforting shade and pool fountains. Near the pool, a statue of Hoja Nasruddin, a somewhat mystical sage who helped the poor, welcomed us. His whimsical face expressed a kindness and light-heartedness.

Our next stop was a handmade silk shop located in a former caravanserai. The proprietor is a master weaver and we watched him weaving an intricate silk material, deftly using his bare feet to operate the pedals of the old weaving machine. He has demonstrated his craft many times in US cities, most recently visiting Santa Fe, NM. After a few purchases, we left for Maghoki-Attar, Central Asia’s oldest surviving mosque.

Sidebar: Caravanserai, in centuries past, were built outside of towns along the Silk Road. Their purpose was similar to the roadside inns and liveries in western history, providing food, shelter and protection for the travelers and camels. If your caravan didn’t arrive at the caravanserai by 8:00pm, you were locked out for the night.

Maghoki-Attar was a mosque in the twelfth century, but now houses a museum of carpets and prayer mats from China, Bukhara and other surrounding cities and countries. It has survived until this day because until the 1930’s Maghoki-Attar was buried under ground, initially due to shifting sands. This actually saved the mosque, and two nearby mosques, from being destroyed by Genghis Khan when he invaded Bukhara and destroyed everything in his path. The present day level of the city is approximately 20 feet higher than in the 12th century.

After a quick lunch, we headed to the Kalon Mosque and its Minaret that has a nine meter deep foundation of layered reeds and straw that provides earthquake protection. The stonework of this tower is exquisite with bands of intricate patterns extending to the top. One hundred and five steps wind inside to the top, but we were on a tight schedule and unable to experience the interior of the tower and its view from the top. Inside the mosque, which can accommodate 10,000 worshippers, we witnessed the magnificent tile work of the domes and the splendid architecture of the pillars. Our guide pointed us to the best locations to take photographs, here in the mosque and elsewhere. It really saved us the time of figuring out the best angles for photos.

As we walked through the old city to our next stop, the three teenage female entrepreneurs that introduced themselves to us on our quick tour last night, accosted us again to visit their shop. They remembered our names and reminded us that they had given us a small piece of pottery as a gift to ensure a promise to return. These girls can speak several languages and told us last night that they were earning money to continue attending school. Our local guide told us that they actually do not go to school, and when confronted with this today, they said simply “well, that’s our story”. Tamara refused to buy, on principle, but Garry, the soft-hearted shopper in our group, overpaid for a pashmina scarf.


The next stop took us to the Ark or Citadel, a royal fortress within a town. Located within this fortress is a jail, and one of the cells was actually a thirty-foot pit called a “bug pit” because the prisoners shared this space with scorpions, lice, snakes and raw sewerage. We heard the story of two British officers who once occupied the bug pit. Back in the 1830’s, Stoddart came to speak to Emir Nasrullen Khan, aka “The Butcher”. Stoddart, and later, Conolly who came to rescue Stoddart, failed to bring gifts for the Kahn or a letter from Queen Victoria. Their naïve or arrogant failure to massage the Khan’s ego angered him and the jail became their home for a time. Eventually, after they dug their own graves, both men were executed by beheading in the square outside the Citadel.

We crossed the street to another mosque (we were experiencing mosque and information overload at this point), then back on the bus to the mausoleum, Ismail Samani, dating from the 10th century. This particular mausoleum has a shimmering and ever-changing tint of color during the day, and we were told it is because it was built using camel’s milk rather than water in the mortar.

Two more stops before our day ended. The mausoleum, Chashma-Ayub was built in the 12th century. As the story goes, Job touched his staff to the ground and a spring appeared. A structure was built over the site, and the strong of heart and intestine were invited to partake of this special water. It certainly would be extra special in a couple of days if someone got sick! Finally, the last stop was Char Minar. Traversing through a maze of narrow lanes and winding past adobe walled dwellings, we reached this cute building boasting four minarets with azure domes. Supposedly, it was built as a beautiful structure to attract suitors for his four daughters and marry them off. This is an UNESCO World Heritage site as are about twenty sites that we have visited so far on this trip. The best are yet to come when we visit Samarkand.

For dinner tonight, we retraced our steps from the hotel to the first medressa we visited in the morning, this time for an evening of food, music, dancing and even a fashion show. The men played native musical instruments and the women performed the native dances wearing brightly colored costumes. Throughout the dinner we watched a number of different performances, and while the dancers changed costumes, other women modeled native fashions from the nearby store.

This day was exhausting, but we valiantly walked two blocks to the Internet Café and tried to upload several blog installments before heading back for a well-deserved rest. Unfortunately, we couldn’t connect. One last surprise occurred when the three teenage hawkers we mentioned earlier walked into the Internet café. We couldn’t escape them!

Goodbye from Bukhara,

Garry, Tamara and Rich

Captions: 1) Lyabi-Hauz pool 2) Char Minor 3) Bug Pit at Ark or Citadel
4) Silk Weaver 5) Kalon Mosque 6) Tower at Aklon Mosque 7) Maghoki-Attar

Khiva - September 15, 2007

September 15, 2007

We began the day touring Khiva, a city whose exact age is unknown but estimated at 2,500 years. Legend has it that Noah’s son, Shem, discovered water after digging a hole in this location and thus founded Khiva. Now, it is the second largest city in Uzbekistan with 115,000 inhabitants, and is situated between two deserts, the KaraKum, meaning Black Sands and the Kyzylkum, meaning Red Sands.

As few sidebars; the Silk Road once extended 12,000 kilometers from Beijing to Rome, and caravans of eight to eight hundred camels with accompanying military for protection, took between 7 ½ to 8 months to complete the journey. Camels are sometimes called ships of the desert having the ability to carry heavy loads, go for days without food or water, and withstand the extremely high desert temperatures. In those days, the value of one camel was from five to ten slaves, but today they command a price of approximately $1,500 USD. Our guide told us that during the Russian time, an edict came down that all camels be rounded up and shipped to Turkmenistan as a central location.

Many graves dot the perimeter along the outside of Khiva’s old city walls. We learned that these half-domed burial sites served two purposes. First, the poor people who lived beyond the walls wanted to be buried closer to the wealthy people residing inside the gates. Second, the Khan wanted the graves close to the walls because enemy could not easily climb the walls to attack because they would not step on the graves.

Originally, the just wealthy people lived within Khiva’s old city walls and they had madrassas built to educate their children. The west gate was the main gate where guests entered, the south gate was where the caravans entered and the east gate was where the slaves were bought and sold. Today we entered at the west gate. The first structure we saw was the Mohammed Amin Khan Madrassa, which originally had seventy-five study rooms, but in its present use as a hotel, it uses 60 rooms. In the courtyard stands a fifty-three foot minaret covered with tiles in various shades of turquoise. The Khan initially wanted to build it seventy meters high so that he could see all the way to Bukhara. After experiencing the drive to Bukhara later in the afternoon, I don’t think that seventy feet would have been high enough, considering that it took us HOURS to get there through the desert.

Meandering through the maze of streets inside the walls, we reached the harem of the Khan and our guide, Sulaymon, intrigued us with her description of life in a harem. Entitled to have four wives, the Khan built this harem with individual quarters for each of his wives. Each displayed different designs and patterns of blue and white tiles covering the full height of their space and was topped with a beautifully painted ceiling. Of course, the Khan’s ceiling was higher than those of his wives’ quarters. His concubines lived across the courtyard, freely moving back and forth between rooms, dancing and singing while the wives remained tucked away from view. However, the concubines did not have a secure life. If the Khan said “talek” three times to a concubine, she had to leave the harem immediately and return to life outside village without going back to retrieve any personal belongings. Knowing their length of stay was unpredictable, the concubines wore all of their jewelry all of the time, day and night, just in case they heard, taloq, taloq, taloq!

We often noticed blue-green tile embedded into some of the walls and found out from our local guide that they mean good luck. The Juma Mosque we visited has 218 intricately carved wood columns supporting the roof and two of these columns date back to the 10th century. A few women selling shawls and other items caught our attention and soon we were carrying another plastic bag of goodies. However, by the time we left the mosque, the rest of our group was not in sight. We asked for help from a woman who did not speak English, but when I mentioned Sulaymon’s name, she motioned for us to follow her. We followed her through several streets and around a few corners, and amazingly enough, the woman reunited us with our group.

We quickly went to the East gate to see the former slave quarters. We were about out of time and needed to return to the bus for the long trip to Bukhara, but not until Sulaymon delighted us with another story. In 1871, as a caravan was on the way to Khiva, they spied two teenage boys fishing along a river, captured them and took them to Khiva. There, the Khan bought these strong boys at the slave market and put them to work building madrassas. One day, when a Russian caravan came through town, one of the boys wrote a letter to the Tsar explaining their situation and smuggled the letter to someone in the caravan asking them to deliver it to the Tsar. When the Tsar read this letter, he contacted the Khan and asked for their release. The Khan explained that he paid a large amount of money for these boys, but if the Tsar would reimburse him, he would gladly release them. The Tsar did not intend to pay money to the Khan, and when no money was forthcoming, the Khan didn’t give any more thought to the matter. Some time later, the Khan left Khiva on a journey and in his absence, Russian forces came and took control of the town, removing the entire treasury and the throne. The Russians gave the town 24 hours to find the Khan and bring him back. When he returned, the town was closed and he could not enter. Instead, a prepared document awaited his signature releasing the boys and requiring the payment of taxes to Russia, which continued until 1920 when the Bolsheviks assumed power.

We received more information about camels, maybe more than we wanted to know. For instance, did you know a man in a desert without food could cut his camel’s neck and drink the blood for both fluids and nourishment and survive another two days? The camel could replenish the lost blood within one week. Also, did you know that scorpions and snakes don’t like camel hair? People stayed within the circle of camels at night for protection. The next time you are in similar situations, you’ll be prepared!

As we made our way out of town, one of the roads was barricaded and farther down the block, people were standing in the street. Like day laborers lining up on corners waiting for work in the US, hundreds of Uzbek workers were waiting here to be selected for work in the cotton fields. Numerous fields throughout the country need the manual labor to pick the cotton during September and October.

Stopping by a cotton field, several of us got out and went to meet some women picking cotton. They wore muslin bags around their bodies to hold the cotton until full, and then transferred it into larger bags. The Polaroid camera was the perfect icebreaker once again. We started to take some photos of these women, and one of them poured water from a shiny kettle to wash her face before posing. Her pantaloons had lace trim at the bottom of each leg. Her hands were dirty, dry and cracked, and we were told that they receive only $10 to $15 per day. It is certainly not an easy life.

The drive through the Kyzylkum desert to Bukhara was uneventful, but during one section of the drive, we followed a river, looking across it into Turkmenistan. We arrived in Bukhara about 6:30 PM and had just a short time to stroll around town before nightfall.

Taloq, but not three times,

Rich, Garry and Tamara

Captions: 1) Woman in cotton fields with muslin bag 2) Map of Silk Road in Khiva
3) Harem 4) Juma Mosque with 218 columns 5) Woman in cotton field washing up for photo 6) East gate in Khiva originally used for slave trading

Khiva - September 14, 2007

September 14, 2007

We began our day with a city tour of Bishkek, stopping first at the Krygyzstan “White House”, the seat of their government. This building does not also serve as a residence for their president; he lives about three miles away. We noticed that there was absolutely no traffic on the wide avenue, but soon a caravan of cars led by a police car with flashing lights sped by. We found out it was a Swiss contingent heading to the Ak Keme Resort and other traffic had been detoured for security reasons.

Across a street in a wooded park stands Friendship Tower representing friendship between Kyrgyzstan and Russia. The next plaza down the street has two important monuments. The first is the national flag of Kyrgyzstan waving from a flagpole above a marble pavilion. Two soldiers stand at rigid attention guarding the Krygyzstan flag in the open plaza. We waited a few minutes to see the hourly changing of the guard, reminiscent of Buckingham Palace. The soldiers in their green uniforms kick their legs out almost parallel to the ground as they march forward in the ceremony to relieve their fellow soldiers on the elevated platform. It is not as easy as it looks, especially while holding a rifle and marching in unison with two other soldiers, but this is an elite assignment, much as it is for the young men guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Washington DC. Also, on the plaza stands a statue of Erkindik (Freedom), a winged angel on a globe holding out the national symbol on the Kyrgyzstan flag. The guide told us that the angel’s face bears a striking resemblance to a former President’s wife who handed out favors and positions at the right price. Pigeons appropriately sit on her head. During the Russian time, there was a statue of Lenin in this spot, but it now resides a short stroll away in a somewhat hidden park.

We drove to the airport for our flight to Tashkent, Uzbekistan. With a weight limit concern, I jettisoned some items to get my luggage within the weight allowance of 20 kilos. The scale at check-in registered 19.2 kilos (hurray!), but I had stuffed two carry-ons to help reduce the weight. Garry and Rich were not as lucky; they had to pay $7.

Heading to passport control, two men stopped to ask me if I was traveling to Pakistan. I answered no, but that I had traveled from Islamabad through northern Pakistan and continued talking to them about our Silk Road trip. The reason they approached me was that I was wearing my T-shirt with Silk Road and Pakistan on the back. We met them again inside at the gate and talked more about the Swat Valley, Karimabad, Shigar and Skardu. They both work for the Pakistani Department of Agriculture and were returning from a conference in Krygyzstan.

The uneventful flight pleased us, but after arriving in Tashkent Uzbekistan, going through passport control and customs with our luggage was a different story. The group was still working its way through the long line when we found out that our next flight, to Urgency (Khiva), was leaving in 45 minutes! Our 6 PM flight had been moved ahead to 3 PM! Claudio pulled off a minor miracle by gaining the cooperation of the officers and some nearby porters. We then made a mad dash to get our bags through customs and make our way from the international terminal to the domestic terminal. At the domestic terminal, three of the women were given the wrong ticket, but while going through security at the gate, the personnel did not even notice that the name on the ticket didn’t match the name on the passport. We swapped tickets to correct the mistake before boarding the bus that took us to the plane. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the plane was a new Boeing 757.

As we traveled to Khiva from Ugrench airport, we noticed people, mostly women, picking cotton in the fields. We started asking questions of our guide and learned a few interesting facts. Uzbekistan’s economy favors the cultivation of wheat and cotton with cotton production of 3.5 million tons rather than the previously inflated quota of 5 million tons under the old Soviet regime. Kyrgyzstan specialized in cotton and supplied the entire USSR, so after their independence in 1991 there was severe economic difficulty while they worked to find new customers and reduce their production to match demand. Growing of the cotton was done collectively under the Soviets, but now private farmers own the land, cultivate, harvest and sell the cotton themselves. In Uzbekistan, the cotton crop is harvested over three picks. The first pick is done by hand and must be completed by the end of October, before the rains begin. This yields the best cotton. The second manual picking occurs after the rains, but yields a lower quality. The third and final picking is completed by machine and yields the lowest quality.

We arrived outside the thick adobe walls of Khiva’s old city and were surprised to find that our hotel, Hotel Asia, was conveniently located right across the street from the south gate. As soon as rooms were assigned, we hurried through the gate to explore the old city before sunset. The streets were clean as we observed women sweeping them with straw brooms and then sloshing water by hand from buckets onto the road in order to settle the dust. Wandering through the streets, we saw minaret after minaret jutting skyward, veneered with tiles of blue, turquoise, green, yellow and white. Most tourists had left for the day, leaving the streets practically empty; however, several shops remained open for that special last minute purchase. This town has thousands of residents and we saw young children playing, riding bikes and some older boys carving wood. Through open doors you sometimes saw a woman sewing as she watched TV and one husband was reclining by the front of the house drinking tea.

As it got dark, we returned to the hotel and sat in the courtyard across from the city walls enjoying a cold draft beer. We had dinner in the hotel restaurant and called it a night.

Signing off from Khiva,

Rich, Garry and Tamara

Captions: 1) The Krygyzstan "White House" 2) Freedom statue 3) Changing of the Guard 4) Having a cold one at the Asia Hotel in Khiva 5) South gate at Khiva's "Old City"

Bishkek - September 13, 2007

September 13, 2007

Today is Garry’s birthday and the start of Ramadan, a thirty-day period of fasting for Muslims. Our Uzbekistan national guide says that he may eat and drink in both the morning and evening, but not in between. However, he is not obligated to fast while traveling as a guide during Ramadan, but when he is done he will resume fasting and add the days he skipped to the end of the thirty-day period. Muslims who plan to take their Hadj pilgrimage (to Mecca) do so about a moth or so after Ramadan. They get their visa from the government, travel by air and stay for a week. The cost is about $2,000.

A short distance from our hotel on the way to Bishkek, we stopped at the Issyk Kul Historical State Museum to see the petroglyphs. The Scythians, who once inhabited this area, were fierce fighters and the only people able to stop and turn back Alexander the Great. Throughout this boulder strewn field there are drawings carved onto rocks depicting animals such as mountain goats, reindeer and Marco Polo sheep, and scenes like archers hunting with snow leopards and men hunting on horseback. In the latter drawing, the sheep are depicted much larger in relation to the hunters, and this is thought to indicate the great importance of animals during a period of famine. UNESCO protects this site, but there no fences to restrict access. Anyone can park their vehicle and enter the field. There are no structures to protect the petroglyphs; some of which date back to the 8th century B.C., and unfortunately, several are now so faint that they are difficult to see.

Back on the bus, the topic of conversation turned to ownership of property around the lake. Like everywhere else, waterfront property is valuable here in Kyrgyzstan (location, location, location). Prior to the real estate boom, this area’s main purpose was farming, but land prices are increasing. People who have lakeside property are selling to wealthy investors who plan to build hotels for tourists. A parcel of land measuring 800 square meters now costs between $10,000 and $25,000 USD. Fortunately, nothing may be built less than 50 meters from the water. Some families are turning their houses into Guest Houses and are installing pipes to bring hot water from the springs and cold water from the Lake. Building codes require that no wastewater be emptied into the Lake, and we learned that six older resorts were recently closed because they did not halt their past practice of dumping into Lake Issyk Kul.

We made another quick stop to photograph a statue of a snow leopard situated on a large boulder near the side of the road. Along the roads throughout Kyrgyzstan there are many statues like this depicting various indigenous animals including the snow leopard, ibex, eagle and Marco Polo sheep.

Driving towards Bishkek, we paralleled the Chuy River on our left, well known for its whitewater rafting. Cars with different color license plates passed us and our guide mentioned that the colors had meaning. For example, blue indicated a government car, yellow meant joint venture cars, like Ford teaming with a Kyrgyzstan company, and red indicated a diplomatic vehicle, such as the United Nations or the Red Cross. We noticed one particular license that plate started with the letters KGB.

About 60 miles away from Bishkek, our bus broke down. There was a violent shaking and the driver pulled over immediately. Bad news! We’ve mentioned before that many long sections of road are very rough and rutted; well this was proof. Nine bolts had snapped off the right rear wheel, and the twin tires were splayed because only one bolt was left holding the wheel on. Fortunately, there was cell phone service in this area and our national guide called and arranged for two vans to pick us up. We waited about an hour, and during that time, the bus driver was able to jack up the bus, remove the two tires, the large hub and the stubs of the nine broken bolts. He was a good mechanic as well as a driver, which makes sense in this country. He called to have replacement bolts delivered from Bishkek, and we found out later that he repaired the bus and made it back to the city.

Continuing our trip in vans, we stopped at the Burana Tower for a very interesting view of an archeological site. The Burana Tower is a wide, unfinished minaret seemingly out in the middle of nowhere, but you could see the entire valley from this vantage point. Nearby there is an extensive mound of what appeared to be dirt, however when you climbed to the top you could see where excavation had exposed the inside walls of several rooms of some ancient building. A short distance away is a graveyard with many large, upright stone markers, and each has shallow carvings of an upper body, possibly that of the person buried. The carved faces had delightful expressions and many showed the arms holding a cup. Each stone is different, and they line the field like soldiers. These graves were not Muslim because icons are not permitted, however there are a few Muslim grave markers nearby which have only Arabic script. We left this field of totem-like stones and headed for lunch at a lakeside restaurant, about one hour outside of Bishkek.

Finally, we arrived in Bishkek and drove to the Ak Keme Hotel, an upscale property complete with swimming pool. We noticed that residents of Bishkek love German cars; BMWs and Mercedes were everywhere. While driving through the city we saw white rectangular signs near the traffic lights with the letters “CTON” printed in black. Our guide Claudio asked us what the signs meant. No one had a clue, but I am sure some linguists reading this will know instantly. The signs say STOP in Cyrillic.

Fifty percent of Bishkek’s population is Russian, so for dinner tonight, our guide selected a Russian restaurant, about ten minutes from our hotel. The meal began with a trio of salads, including a beet salad. The main course was a hearty soup served in a ceramic pot covered with a “lid” of baked bread. Prior to serving the soup, the waitress poured a small glass of vodka. The tradition for eating this course is to remove the lid of baked-on bread, pour the vodka into the pot and mix it with the beef, potatoes, and onions. It tasted delicious. When finished eating the contents, we tore the bread into pieces to soak up the remaining gravy. A blini enveloping a fruit mixture, topped with ice cream, finished off our meal. Well, not quite finished; we celebrated Garry’s birthday with cake plus more vodka and some wine. Happily, our perception of Russian food and service changed completely. The food courses were excellent as was the service

The city is quite cosmopolitan and a strange contrast to the flavor of the countryside we experienced earlier in the day. Tomorrow we are flying to Khiva.

To our last night in Kyrgyzstan,

Garry, Rich and Tamara

Captions: 1) Petroglyphs 2) Snow leopard statue 3) Broken down bus 4) Upright markers 5) Celebrating Garry's birthday at the Russian restaurant

Karakol - September 12, 2007

September 12, 2007

We headed to Karakol, on the eastern side of Lake Issyk Kul for a day of sightseeing. Along the, we saw another of the ubiquitous Muslim cemeteries, where usually one person is buried in a decorated tomb. When more individuals pass on in a family then a mausoleum is built to bury everyone together. Surrounding each cemetery stands a stone wall or fence; however, the mullah (religious leader) insists on a gate to allow the spirits of the dead to leave..

Further down the road, our guide Ulan again mentioned that Lake Issyk Kul was once used to test prototypes of torpedoes for the Russian Navy. At 695 meters in depth, it served as an excellent testing ground, and if the testing was successful, Moscow got the green light to continue. At the eastern end of the lake still stands Pristan Prahevalsk, the old top-secret Soviet torpedo research center with its cranes still in place.

Before reaching Karakol, we turned onto a side road to visit the Przewalski Memorial. Our local guide at the memorial, a slight, white haired elderly woman dressed in a blazer and shirt, shared her enthusiasm about Nicholas Przewalski, the famous Russian explorer of Asia and Central Asia. During the period of 1870 through 1885, Przewalski led five expeditions through Mongolia, China, Tibet and other areas. By the time the guide finished explaining all of them, Garry whispered, “it took nearly as long as the expeditions themselves.” Finally, the curiosity got the best of me, so I asked the woman, how old she was. Her answer was 83. She had been a tour guide at this memorial for the past 21 years and a teacher of Russian literature for the previous 40 years. You go girl!!!

Moving through the museum, we viewed Przewalski’s expedition memorabilia and a small horse named after him. Outside and down a long path through trees and gardens we came to a large memorial topped by an eagle marking his grave. From the adjacent overlook, we could see clear evidence in the rock of Lake Issyk Kul’s original level, which was about 100 feet higher than the present level.

Ramadan starts tomorrow and a visit to a Chinese Pagoda-style mosque seemed appropriate, although we were not allowed to enter. The mosque, designed by a Chinese architect and built by 20 Chinese laborers around 1903, was built without any nails. As at all mosques, there were five clocks outside on the wall near the entrance showing the times during the day for their “call to prayer”;5:45am; 1:30pm; 5:20pm; 7:20pm and 8:45pm. Our guide related a story of how a recent group of Kyrgyz pilgrims went to Mecca for their Hadj, which is required for all Moslems who are able at least once in their lifetime. On the return, the Turkmenistan government refused to allow them passage through their country, so they were held up in Iran for over a month before they were allowed to continue home. Since that time, the Kyrgyzstan government will only allow their citizens to fly to Mecca.

Our lunch stop in Karakol included a chef’s salad (their version), ravioli soup, beef, fries and the ever-present bread which nourished us for the next round of sightseeing. After lunch a few of us, headed to a local general store to see what they had to sell, and found a bottle of wine called “Tamara”! Naturally, Tamara had to purchase it. We checked out another nearby store and bought more to share with the group at a cocktail party that we planned for the late afternoon.

Back in the bus, we went to visit Holy Trinity Cathedral, a Russian Orthodox Church built in 1895. It is a beautifully ornate wooden structure with five gold onion-domes, nestled perfectly in a stand of poplar trees. The poplar trees were starting to turn a wonderful shade of orange-yellow and the leaves glistened in the sunshine with the breezes. The Bolsheviks had destroyed the domes and turned the place into a club during the 1930’s, but it was reconstructed beginning in the 1960’s.

We then walked through the town of Karakol, skirting the little bazaar as we walked to another local grocery store. The small store was really packed with a myriad of products, and it also included a bakery and a section with wine and spirits. Our guide had the clerk show us two particular bottles of a clear spirit that each had a small branch inside with a snake coiled around it. There were no buyers in our group.

On the return trip, a couple of us wanted to get some more exercise, so Claudio got off with us to hike back to the Aurora Hotel. A short distance before arriving at the Aurora, we approached the new Karven Resort, also along the coast of Issyk Kul. Claudio had noticed this property under construction while with a tour group last May. Now that it was open, he wanted to check it out for possible use by next year’s tour groups, so we walked down the long driveway and entered the reception building. We chatted with the manager for a bit then took a tour of the four-story hotel, looking at several modern, comfortable rooms with great views. We also walked to the restaurant building to check the menu and decided to stay for awhile and enjoy a beer on the terrace. Our view from there included a number of expensive looking cottages, sporting green tile roofs and modern exteriors, on the grounds between the dining room and the Lake. When we asked the manager who purchased these cottages, he replied “Russians, Kazakhs, and one person from the Netherlands.” Our national guide Ulan told us later that this hotel was financed by the Russian Mafia and the former Kyrgyzstan Minister of Finance, who fled the country a number of years ago. Although this is a new hotel, they still miss many aspects of serving the customer the most blatant of which is not installing an elevator. This problem seems to be the norm rather than the exception. Lake Issyk Kul is expected to become the next resort mecca. It may take years.

We had dinner tonight at the Aurora Hotel restaurant again and the Russian food and service was as bad as or worse than last night.

Good bye and good night,

Tamara, Rich and Garry

Captions: 1) Obsolete Russian torpedo factory 2) Przewalski Memorial 3) Guide at the Przewalski Memorial 4) Chinese pagoda mosque 5) Holy Trinity Orthodox Church

Naryn to Cholpon Ata - September 11, 2007

September 11, 2007

On the sixth anniversary of the WTC terrorist attack we were thinking about our country, family and friends, and concerned that something might happen. Late that night we were relieved that no bad news came our way.

We left Naryn this morning heading toward Cholpon-Ata on Issyk-Kul Lake. Naryn means “sunny” in Mongolian and it’s one of the poorest areas of Kyrgyzstan. It’s called the Siberia of Kyrgyzstan with very cold temperatures in the winter and a short growing season in the summer. Ulan explained how the US State Department has provided consulting and financial services to Kyrgyzstan to seed small business enterprises as a way to help jump start this emerging economy. This is much as the same as we saw in Mongolia during our 2004 visit when we met representatives from the State Department doing consulting work there.

During Soviet times, most of the mosques were destroyed, and since their independence in 1991, most have been rebuilt by the Saudis but without madrassas for teaching. Before the fall of the Soviet Union, the Muslims had to worship at home behind closed curtains.

We drove through the Dolon Pass in beautiful weather, but were told that in the winter it can be rainy or snowy. We drove by heavy duty grading machinery parked along the roadside which was being used to smooth the road surface. I’d hate to see, or worse, feel, what the road was like before it was graded. The road was rough and created so much dust that we even had it suspended INSIDE our closed bus. We stopped at an overlook for a beautiful view of the surrounding mountains, and opened windows and doors to air out the bus.

Ulan suggested we walk down the hillside and the bus would meet us on the road at the next switchback. The walk began as a steep, rock strewn hill with a beautiful view of distant mountains and the valley below. So there was Tamara, gingerly picking her way through and down the mountainside in black-sequined flip-flops with Garry calling her twinkle toes since everyone else was wearing hiking shoes. Rich pointed out that Sherpa’s in the Everest region wear flip-flops. Eventually the hill leveled out to a rocky plain where some horses and cows were grazing. We had to jump over a few small streams, avoid the horse apples and barking dogs before reaching the road and hopping back onto the bus.

One of the most interesting stops for the day was at lunchtime. There was a handicraft store in the small village which included a museum of traditional clothing and decorative needlework. Some of us donned items like hats and heavy fox coats to pose for photos. More exciting was the adjoining room where there were items for sale crafted by women throughout the village. There were many different wall hangings, purses, dolls, slippers, etc. Some of the wall hangings had additional meaning with 100 year old squares of tapestry used as a focal point. Additional quilting surrounding the center included blue portions symbolizing water, green areas for the grass of Kyrgyzstan, triangular pieces represented talismans or amulets, orange sections indicating the sun and its rays. Several such works were purchased by our group increasing the coffers of the village women. I was fascinated to see an older woman, probably the store manager, use a ledger book where each item had been entered along with the suggested price. She then crossed out the asking price and entered the actual selling price. It was all very organized. In a nearby yurt, they served us an excellent lunch of noodles, soup, a rice dish and bread. During this stop in the village I saw only one man, and he was carrying water; otherwise, the women ran the operation. If the same approach could be practiced in Pakistan, things might improve there.

On the road after lunch we passed Orto-Tokoy, a very large man-made lake that provides water to irrigate crops in the region during the summer months. The lake was quite low as we passed at this time in mid-September. A few more miles down the road we reached the tip of Lake Issyk-Kul and went east along its north shore. Measuring 105 miles by 43 miles and a depth of 2,300 feet, this is the second largest alpine lake in the world behind Lake Titicaca on the border between Bolivia and Peru. Issyk-Kul means “warm lake” because it never freezes due to its great depth, salinity and some geothermal activity. There are approximately eighty rivers that flow in and none that flow out. Our guide explained that during the Russian time, this lake was a military test site for torpedoes. He went on to say that today it is supported by UNESCO as a protected biosphere, and construction along the coast is strictly regulated. However, it looks like Issyk-Kul will become a very popular vacation spot for the region. Russian investors are now constructing an International Airport north of the lake while on the coast, there are some old resorts as well as new construction of tourist cottages and hotels.

Cholpon-Ata is viewed as the resort center of the lake and we are staying at the Aurora Hotel, considered to one of the finest in the area since the Russian presidents have stayed here. But don’t get too excited; it’s not anywhere close to being the Burj. Actually it is rather plain, very dated and deteriorating quite a bit, but the grounds are beautiful and it has the lake view. A few hundred yards away there is a new hotel complex that opened last June, and some of its buildings are still under construction.

We changed into our swimsuits and strolled down a wide walkway towards Lake Issyk-Kul’s beach. The sand is reddish-brown and very granular. Dipping one toe into the water, we decided that it wasn’t too cold and at least some of us headed in up to our necks. Naturally a water battle began and before you knew it, one person who did not want to get wet, was soaked. We dried off and headed down to a ship that we noticed nearby which it turned out to be a bar/restaurant. We had a Czech beer and a Carlsburg beer while enjoying a beautiful view of the lake and snow capped mountains beyond the opposite shore. Finally, we returned to the hotel for dinner. Russian cuisine and service, to be kind, is unremarkable.

Goodnight comrades,

Garry, Rich and Tamara

Captions: 1) Issyk-Kul Lake 2) Old village woman showing handiwork 3) The trio before heading down to road 4) Lunch in a yurt 5) Young woman explaining symbols in wall hanging