uzbekistan: tashkent

My taxi picked me up at 0530 to bring me to the train station. My train departed on time and arrived on time in Tashkent, at 0830. It was basically the continuation of the train on which I'd arrived in Samarkand, a couple days earlier.

It was raining as I arrived, which didn't make me happy, but hey, what can you do. I walked to the same hostel at which I'd stayed during my first couple nights in the country. I wasn't going to stay there overnight this time, but I knew I could stay in the common area during the day.

While warming up in the hostel (it wasn't warm rain,) I ended up talking with a woman from Estonia. She was in the middle of a longer trip through a lot more of Central Asia, I envied her. She and I ended up walking together into the city 'center,' then going our separate ways.

I continued walking, I wanted to see a few more mausoleums marked on the map. I was able to find one of them, but another was behind a security gate. The one I did see was quite small, and had a couple people offering prayers when I visited.

I kept going in the rain (argh argh argh,) and walked toward a Soviet style monument. Called the monument to courage, it memorialized the 1966 earthquake that destroyed much of the city.

Near Tashkent Islamic University I found trees of blooming cherry blossoms. Beautiful, though the rain made them less so.

Eventually my walk brought me to the Jama Masjid of the city. The Friday Mosque, the main mosque of the city. This mosque was far more modern, not at all like the other mosques I'd seen around the city and country.

Behind this mosque was a wide open platz, it was really big. Since it was raining I was able to take a couple of my favourite kinds of photos, those with reflections. At the back of the platz was another old madrassa, also with the vendors about whom I'd come to have such ambivalent feelings.

I found a cafe not too far away (across the street, actually,) and stepped inside for a late lunch. I ordered too much, but it was nice to be out of the rain for a while. I think I was the only foreigner in there, I felt everyone staring at me for most of the time I was in there. Thankfully, I'm used to the feeling, and don't mind eating by myself.

After lunch I found the nearest metro station and rode the train to the stop nearest the hostel. I walked to the hostel, and took time to get all of my stuff organized in my pack. There is a difference in how you want to pack your bags when you're traveling by train/bus vs. plane.

The hostel called a taxi for me, which took me to the airport. The driver tried to get away with not giving me change, I had to ask twice. Sadly, I'm used to this kind of scam, so I had the patience to deal with it.

My flight back to Moscow was easy and smooth.

I'd like to come back to Uzbekistan, though the next time I will be exploring completely different parts of the country. After this visit I've seen enough of the cities of the country, now I want to see the landscapes.

uzbekistan: samarkand

My train from Bukhara to Samarkand was modern and clean, and departed on time. An hour and a half later, we arrived on time in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Since my arrival time was so early, and Samarkand was another city with an out of the way train station, my accomodation sent someone to pick me up from the train station.

Since my arrival was so early, and I already knew my departure would be early as well, I'd arranged with my accomodation to have breakfast my first and second mornings, and not the last morning. Breakfast was quite a spread, a buffet version of the meal I'd been served in Khiva.

Despite this being a proper hotel I realized that the wifi wasn't very good. It was basically the same as I'd experienced in both Khiva and Bukhara. 

In other words, wifi in Uzbekistan is not great as a whole.

Samarkand is an old city, a really old city. Historians have noted it was conquered by Alexander the Great in 329 B.C. During the heyday of the Silk Road trading route (that ran from the Mediterranean to China,) Samarkand was one of the more important cities. It was also a center of Islamic scholarship and theology, and those remains are what people remember most of Samarkand.

I started my sightseeing with a statue of Amir Timur, a conqueror from centuries ago. The statue is in the middle of a traffic circle, and is big. From there I kept walking along the street that takes visitors right next to the most memorble sights of the city. I walked right past the Registan, knowing I would be back later to explore more. I did pause for a moment at the viewing platform. The Registan has several huge buildings around an open square. 

As impressive as they are now, I can only begin to imagine what people back in the day thought as they moved around the city.

I turned onto a pedestrian road, which took me to my next sight. I stopped briefly in the Jewish Cemetery. The community is no longer as big as it once was, but the cemetery is worth seeing.

Further along this road was the mausoleum of Islam Karimov, the first president of the modern country of Uzbekistan. It looks far more modern than other mausoleums, but the style is similar to others of the city.

I walked all the way to an old observatory. It was originally built by Ulugbek, in the 15^th century. At the time it was considered one of the best observatories of the Islamic world. Modern visitors find it unique because most of the mechanics are underground. Granted, there aren't many remains of the observatory, and if you're somewhat scientifcally challenged like I am, it wasn't completely clear how the whole thing worked. Oh well. There was a small museum in the area, describing the guy who built it, and his interest in science in general.

The museum also sold postcards, of course I bought plenty. (Far too many, as it turned out.)

From the observatory, I walked around a long way to the entrance of a place called Shah-i-Zinda. It's a grouping of mausoleums, from as early as the 9^th century. There is an entrance fee, of course.

The entire area of Shah-i-Zinda is stunning. The direction of the sun makes a big difference in how it comes out in photographs. In front of each building is a sign that says who is buried there, as well as architectural things to notice of that particular mausoleum. 

The names didn't mean anything to me, and I only paid attention to the architectural notes in terms of appreciating the art of each building.

There is a LOT of blue tiling, in various shades. In each of the buildings you can see the tombs, or at least the covers of the tombs. The interiors were completely covered in tiling, in intricate designs. I could've wandered for hours, even though the area isn't huge.

I continued my walk by circling back around to the mausoleum of Islam Karimov. While I was there I realized prayers were being sung for him constantly, the melody was somewhat haunting. The actual tomb of the man is quite small.

A long city block away, I walked through the city market, a large area. Like other city markets I've seen, vendors were grouped by type. There was an area for produce, dairy, bread, etc...

I walked back in the direction of the Registan, again passing it by. I kept going and got to my last sight for the day: the mausoleum of Amir Timur. While I was exploring Uzbekistan, and reading information, I found several spellings for his name, so I'm not quite sure in what I've written.

As I think I've written previously, Amir Timur was the leader of an empire. He was born in the 14^th century, and eventually was the leader of military campaigns across a wide swath of what is now Central Asia.

The name of the mausoleum is Gur Emir, (wikipedia tells me it is Persian for Tomb of the King,) it's big, and stunning. As I'd already seen around the country, there was a heap of blue tiling in various shades, in various designs.

I paid my entrance fee (sigh) at the gate, then walked in. There is a garden area in the inner courtyard, from which you can appreciate the front facade of the mausoleum building.

I entered the main building, and was stunned. The entire room is decorated in shades of gold. There is a chandelier, which lights up the gold, making it even more memorable. Whoa. It's not a big room, but the way it is decorated makes it clear someone really important is buried there.

When I left Gur Emir it was right around sunset. I walked back to my hotel, picking up food along the way. It turned out to be too much food, but that's a lifelong habit of mine.

The next morning I had another fabulous breakfast, then started walking. This time I walked to the Registan, found the ticket office, and paid my fee. It's a large area, with three big buildings on the sides of the open platz. The fourth side is open, and is where every iconic photo is taken from.

The buildings on the platz are all old madrassas. When you see them it's easy to understand how geopolitically important Samarkand used to be in this part of the world. They're massive, with more intricate mosaic tiling for decoration.

Walking through the entrances of each building was a bit of a letdown. As I'd see in other cities, there were vendors inside the various areas of the building. The vendors sold similar items, and all of them being in there takes away from the historical value and looks of the building. I'm not sure where I would prefer all these vendors to be, but in the individual rooms of what used to be a religious school just didn't seem right.

In the middle of the middle madrassa was a stunning mosque. I walked in and actually said 'whoa' out loud. Another room with stunning decoration, blue and a lot of gold. Just wow. After wandering through the Registan for a while, I opted to go back to the hotel for a little while.

After a nap, I went out for another walk. This time I went to another large mosque complex in the city. 

This one was for Bibi Khanum (another name with many spellings depending on who is doing the transliterating,) who was said to be the favourite wife of Timur.

I had to pay another entrance fee, which was irritating me to no end at this point. I was not a fan of continually paying entrance fees, I'd rather a single ticket cover the entire city. Argh.

I wasn't able to go inside very much of this complex, so paying the entrance fee was even more annoying. This complex was originally built rather quickly (relatively speaking, of course,) and never held up as well as other buildings in the city. It went into total ruin for a while, and at least one earthquake caused more damage during the centuries. Wikipedia tells me some work was done to fix it up during the Soviet years, but I was less than impressed.

After leaving this complex I went back to the city market, as it was nearby. This time I walked through all the aisles, making some purchases. It took some time, and when vendors saw me they were calling out to catch my attention.

Some of those calling out for my attention were beggar women, all carrying children. At times I want to give them something, but if I do, I know the pressure to give more will never end.

On my way back to my hotel I stopped at a grocery store to see if there was anything I wanted, there wasn't. I also stopped for ice cream, with sprinkles. When is ice cream not appropriate?

The next morning a taxi picked me up and took me to the train station. Goodbye to the most visited city in Uzbekistan.

uzbekistan: bukhara

My frustration with the lack of public infrastructure continued when I was going from Khiva to my next city, Bukhara.

My guesthouse in Khiva had arranged for me to take a shared taxi between the two cities, and it picked me up on time in Khiva. From there we picked up another lady, then went to a shared taxi stand in Urgench, to wait until more customers came along. After about 30 minutes the lady said something to the driver, who then spoke to me. 

She had suggested that each of us pay double the price, and start driving immediately, rather than waiting for two more customers to fill up the taxi. I agreed, as it seemed that it could be quite a while before we got anywhere if we waited for random passengers.

The taxi stopped twice, though neither stop was long. One stop was for lunch, and another was for buying melons from a random roadside stall. 

Remember what I said earlier about Uzbekistan growing water needy produce, despite being a desert country? Melons are another item to add to that list.

Eventually we arrived in Bukhara, Uzbekistan, and the taxi took me right to my booked accomodation. I was able to check in, and relax a bit in my room. Part of the check in process at this place was tea service in my room, which was a nice welcome.

I started walking, I didn't have to go far to get to the city center. One of the major areas tourists visit in Bukhara is called Lyabi Khaus, I think. It's basically a big platz, people could come together back in the day, and now. There is a man made pool, which was a source of water for the local population. The guidebook told me it was also a source of disease, as the pool wasn't cleaned very often, and water circulation wasn't very good.

The platz is surrounded by what used to be the market, what used to be a madrassah, and what used to be a mosque. The area didn't look very nice while I walked around, it was mostly empty. The pool didn't have any water, or very little. There were a few souvenir vendors, but not many, I assume this was because I was traveling in low season. At least, I hope that is the reason. Otherwise the lack of people would just be sad. 

I went into the old madrassah, which has been turned into a market for tourists. Each room had a vendor, all selling pretty much the same thing. Basically, it was a disappointment, it didn't feel like there was anything to see. I did enjoy the blue mosaic decorative tiling on the front of the building, but not much else.

After wandering around for an hour or so, I couldn't help but think "is this all there is to see in Bukhara? Why do people rave about the city?"

I found a few back streets to wander, hoping to see something, but it didn't happen. I'm normally pretty good at finding something photogenic in the normal daily life of a place, but I wasn't seeing anything that day. Argh.

I ended up eating dinner at what I thought was a random cafe, as I was the only person in there. When I got the bill I realized the place normally catered to tourists, as it was higher than I expected. Lesson learned.

When I was finished eating it was dark, so the platz was lit up a little, and looked somewhat better. Even so, I went to bed that night without a lot of hope for the next day.

The next day I woke up and had the breakfast included in the price of the room. Tea, bread, blinis, fried eggs, a hot dog, and cottage cheese. Despite the amount of food, it really wasn't all that good of a breakfast.

Eventually I got moving again, heading into a different direction of the city. On the street I passed the ruins of an old madrassa, not at all blocked off from crazy people like me who like to climb ruins. The stairs to get up to the second level were quite steep, and falling apart, but I liked the views, so it was worth it.

Eventually I walked past a GIANT old madrassa, and finally knew why tourists come to Bukhara. 

The entire front was decorated with tiles in mosaic designs, it was gorgeous. Across the street was another building just like it. Around the corner was a platz with a HUGE mosque on one side, and a fully functioning madrassa on the other side.

Going into the old maddrassas that were no longer in active use as schools was nice, but the front of the buildings are the amazing parts of the buildings. The interiors are now filled with vendors trying to sell things to visitors, which I think ruins the ambience of what should be a gorgeous museum. I wasn't allowed to go into the still functioning maddrassa.

The HUGE mosque was really neat to see, and it was easy for me to walk in. I was clearly there when it was not prayer time, and I was there during low season for tourists, so it was completely empty. Wow, just wow. I read somewhere that this mosque can hold 10,000 people, it must be quite a sight when all those people are there.

Next to the mosque is the Kalon minaret, but I didn't find it very exciting. It was tall, but there was no coloured tile decoration, unlike the big minarets I'd seen in Khiva. Hmmm...

I found the womens' hammam and entered, to find that I was the only person there. I paid what they asked, though I have no idea if it was the correct amount, or if I could've bargained at all. Either way, I didn't care.

An hour or two later, after being scrubbed, heated, showered and massaged, I walked out of the hammam feeling like a new person. It was amazing. I truly felt like I was glowing.

Since I was the only person in the hammam at the time, I was on the receiving end of some 'advice' from the lady who took care of me. Our conversation was a mix of Russian, English, and a little bit of Uzbek. She told me to get married and have kids, which I took with silence, since there was no point in discussing my differing views.

After the hammam I went to visit two more old madrassas, and found out they had entry fees. I was running very low on Uzbek currency, so I went to an ATM, but it only gave me the option of withdrawing dollars, which was not what I wanted. Someone asked me if I needed help and I was able to explain what I needed. This guy then walked me to an exchange point, where I was able to get more som. The madrasses ended up being full of vendors, argh. 

For all the desire Uzbekistan has for tourists, putting vendors right in the middle of the sights is a way to ruin the sights and drive away tourists.

I kept walking, eventually getting to the citadel area of the city. It's a large fortress, with plane stone walls. By the time I arrived it was getting dark, and closing hours had arrived, so I had to wait until the next day. Argh.

I did notice that across the street from the citadel was what used to be a functioning water tower. It isn't used anymore, (that I know of,) and now has digital lights along the structure, so I was treated to a bit of a light show.

The next morning I had the same breakfast, but some of the food seemed reheated, so it felt even worse than the day before. Ugh. There was a single teabag used in the teapot so the tea was too watery, and not 'traditional.'

I started walking, making my way to what I'm pretty sure is the smallest mosque in the city. It was very very small. When I got there I noticed there was a fake bird nest on top of one of the minarets. The inside of this mosque was not impressive.

From the small mosque I walked to the Jewish cemetery. Waaay back in the day, Bukhara had a strong, internationally recognized Jewish community; it is no longer the case. 

Bukharan Jews are a special group of Jews in the world. Because they have a history in Bukhara, they have a separate cemetery. When I got there I realized the entrance gate was in good shape, but very little else was. Sigh.

After visiting the cemetery I looked for the local synagogue, and ended up finding it. I was hoping for a quick peek inside, a quick photo, and moving on. This is not what happened. 

I'd forgotten that that day was a Jewish holiday, Purim. In Bukhara, the Jewish community has a community meal and gathering at the synagogue, I accidentally stumbled into this. They invited me to join them, so I did for a little while. I'm glad I got to see it, but it was really difficult to communicate, since most of them spoke only Uzbek, while I speak English with just a bit of Russian. 

In the west I've been told that Purim parties involve costumes, but each area of the world has it's own traditions. Sometime during this 'party' they tried to marry me off to one of the men in the congregation. Ummm, no.

After the synagogue I walked all the way back to the Ark (the citadel/fortress,) to make sure I was there during opening hours. 

Even though it looked huge from outside the walls, the area that foreigners/tourists are allowed to see seemed quite small to me. I don't know if this is because parts of the area are in ruins and not safe, or for other reasons.

I got to see a mosque inside the walls, with a great ceiling. I got to see the old throne room, where the coronations of Bukharan khans happened. There was a museum of money, which I loved, while the museum of ethnology wasn't as interesting.

After the Ark I followed the smaller roads leading behind the walls to get to the zindon (jail.) It had an entrance fee, and was not the entrance fee. There were a few signs describing who was held there, and why people could end up in jail, back in the day. I saw a couple cells, as well as a pit where some were thrown for a while. It must've been very cold for prisoners at this time of year.

I followed my map to find the Friday Mosque of Bukhara, which is currently the most important mosque of the country. I arrived at a prayer time, so I saw all the pairs of shoes lined up in front of the entrance, as well as men running late to prayers. They ran, took shoes off as fast as possible, and ran into the building. I didn't get to go in, but the ceiling of the porch area was gorgeous.

I kept walking, and found a couple old mausoleums. They weren't open anymore, to tourists or locals, at least not that I could tell. I appreciated the blue tiling on the front facades, and appreciated the quiet of the area. I didn't so much appreciate the way some of the 'windows' had been boarded up with plyboard. Such a sad ending for what should still be beautiful buildings. 

At that point it was getting dark, so I found another cafe for dinner, then went home. I went to sleep early, as I had to get up super early the next morning. My train left at 0500, but the train station was not close to town. A taxi picked me up at 0400, the drive was about 30 minutes. Thankfully, the train was modern, and the boarding process was straightforward.

uzbekistan: khiva

Getting from Tashkent to Khiva in Uzbekistan wasn't quite as straightforward as I'd hoped. Uzbekistan doesn't have as much tourist infrastructure as I think it should, especially between some of the most popular places to visit in the country.

My day started when a taxi picked me up at 0600 to take me to the airport. My flight was supposed to depart at 0750, and we boarded on time. Then we sat. And sat some more while eating a snack. And sat.

Eventually we deboarded, and went back into the terminal. Announcements were made, but they were in Uzbek and Russian, so I had no idea what was happening. After a while we reboarded, and finally took off around 1015.

A few hours later the plane landed at Urgench airport. Since it was a domestic flight and I had my bag with me, I basically walked straight through the airport, out to the parking lot. 

My original plan had been to catch a bus into the city center, then catch another bus to my next destination of Khiva. Since the flight had been delayed, I no longer wanted to take the time to do that, and opted for a taxi instead.

I agreed on a price of $20 with a taxi driver, and off we went. He pointed out a few things as we drove (including cotton fields, one of the water hungry crops grown in this desert country,) and took me right to my guesthouse in Khiva. 

When he dropped me off he tried to raise the price, saying that I'd been by myself. I gave him the $20 we'd agreed on, and got out of the taxi. I hate it when people try to do that.

I was able to check in straightaway, something I always appreciate. I ended up taking a small nap, which wasn't my greatest move. I need to get better about checking in somewhere, dropping my bags and walking back out straightaway to start exploring, instead of wasting time.

The weather wasn't amazing, which was one of the reasons I ended up dozing off. It wasn't as warm as I'd expected, and it wasn't sunny. At all. It was windy, chilly, and constantly threatening rain.

My first area to explore was right across the street from the guesthouse, I think it took me about 3 minutes to walk to the entry gate. There is no entry fee just to walk around the area, so I opted to wait on buying an entry ticket. Also, the ticket office wasn't immediately obvious, another reason to wait on ticket purchase.

As I walked through the gates I could see a group walking along, including two women wearing wedding gowns. It didn't take a genius to figure out that they were having wedding photos taken, I guess it was a double wedding. Very cool to see.

The old city of Khiva is still surrounded by its walls, which were first mentioned in history in the 10^th century. The khanate of Khiva is one of the areas that now make up Uzbekistan, but was independent and geopolitically powerful back in the day. 

The old city of Khiva is what visitors come to see, the modern part of the city isn't very interesting. (Though I do wish I had explored a bit more.)

I spent the next few hours wandering around the area within the walls. I found a short, very fat minaret that was never completed. I found a tall, skinny minaret that provides a good view of the entire old city. I found a couple mosques, and a couple madrassahs. I found quite a few museums, some of which sounded far more interesting than others.

I did pay one entrance fee for the day, to enter a mausoleum. I don't know why, but this mausoleum wasn't included in the ticket that covers the majority of the inner walled area. The tiling on the walls and ceiling was incredible, multiple shades of blue mosaic designs. I also noticed that prayers were being sung constantly, by one man who sortof sat in the corner.

I entered the Jama Masjid, the 'Friday Mosque' and could immediately see how old it is. Throughout the prayer area the roof was held up by carved wooden columns. Some of the columns were in better condition than others, not surprisingly. There were no windows in the walls, so it was really dark inside. I'm not sure what kind of lighting is normally used.

I noticed that I must've been traveling during low season, as the souvenir stalls were very lackluster. Many of them weren't stocked at all, and those that were open had very quiet vendors.

Another indication that I was traveling in low season was the closure of some buildings. I could be totally wrong, and those buildings are closed for another reason, but they just seemed so sad and empty.

It was impossible not to notice that every building was made in the same colour. A beige colour, very bland. The only colour came from the beautiful blue mosaic tiles used for decoration on the front of madrassahs, mausoleums, and mosques. With the gray sky, it seemed a bit ho hum.

Eventually I walked back out of the walls and went back to my guesthouse. The owner gave me some ideas for where to get dinner. Fortunately, one of the places was nearby, as I just wasn't in the mood for walking a long way. (I was cold, and not mentally ready to be cold, if that makes sense.) Food was good, and I came back to the guesthouse full and ready to sleep.

The next morning I got to experience a fantastic Uzbek breakfast. I ate a crepe, half a piece of French toast, sweet potato, another vegetable, rice, mashed potatoes, pickled something, bread, cookies, and tea. Not only did it all taste good, it was presented really well.

After a few more hours of relaxing, I went out for the day around noon. Yes, I wasted half a day doing a whole lot of nothing. I went back to the entrance gate, and paid for the city ticket, a whopping 100,000 som. (Which worked out to $11/12 US dollars.)

The ticket office also sold postcards, so I took advantage to get a few of those. The photos weren't nearly as good as I thought they should be, but I don't make the postcards.

I started my sightseeing by walking to another palace that I thought was included in the ticket. (My guidebook said it was.) It turned out not to be included, and the additional entrance ticket would've been 40,000 som. 

Since I hadn't yet seen anything included in the first entry ticket, I decided to skip the extra palace, and hope that I didn't miss anything spectacular.

I walked back to the old city area, and found a palace inside there, called the Ark. (Not the one Noah sailed when the world flooded.) I'm not sure what each section of the Ark was, I felt as though I was seeing a series of stages. I'm sure I could look it up, but I never got around to it. 

The appearance of each stage was quite fantastic, with nice decor, and wide open areas. Each tile design was different, and the undersides of the ceilings were awesome.

I found stairs which led me to the top of part of the Ark, which provided views over the entire old city. I loved it, and if it hadn't been so windy I would've stayed up there for at least an hour.

After leaving the Ark I visited a few of the museums spread out over the old city area. I saw the history museum, a music museum, and more. Despite the season (winter,) there was no heating in any of the buildings, so I was cold. The biggest museum I visited was the handicraft museum, which was mostly a wide open and empty space. There were small rooms around the area, also emtpy. The undersides of the ceilings were decorately with different designs, which were very very photogenic.

After checking out all the museums I found a set of stairs leading me to the tops of the walls around the city. I walked as far as I could in either direction, though some of the construction seemed rather soft in areas. It was nice to see the old city from a different level, and gave me some exercise.

After coming back down off the walls and walking through the area again I passed a couple school aged kids. They saw I had a camera and asked me to take a photo of them. Who was I to say no?

After the kids, I decided I was mostly done for the day. I walked back to the same cafe where I'd eaten the night before, and managed to clean my plates.

The next morning I got to have the same fantastic breakfast, then pack up my stuff and check out. The owner of the guesthouse had arranged a shared taxi for me to get to my next city, and it showed up on time.