At long last I'm posting about our trip to Uzbekistan. There were a lot of pictures to get through. And given that this was a five day trip, there are a lot of stories. I'm going to try to stick to the basics but have broken the post into daily sections to make it easier to digest. Here again, if you want to skip to the pictures, click the link below.
Day 1: The Incredible Journey
Logistics would have been simpler if we were driving in a vehicle with diplomatic plates. Since neither we, nor our friends had a trip-worthy vehicle, we had to get creative. We hired a driver to pick us up early in the morning and drive us to the border - about 1.5 hours away. Due to political tensions between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, it's very difficult for locals to cross the border, so we decided to walk across the border on foot and have another driver pick us up on the other side.
When we reached the border, the first checkpoint was just two guys sitting outside at a desk. I asked if I could take a picture and they didn't seem to mind, but I ended up nearly causing an international incident. Another guard came out from a building and sternly demanded that delete the picture. No problem, but then he made me give him the camera as well. Now, if you know me, you know that in my mind, I'd rather not go on a trip at all than go without my camera. Suffice it to say I was rather anxious. But in the end, the guard gave it back and shook his finger at me half jokingly and we enjoyed some friendly banter before heading on our way.
The border crossing is almost a kilometer long and consists of around six checkpoints combined between the Tajik and Uzbek sides. The first I already mentioned. The second one was just a guard who glanced at our passports and waved us on. At the third one, we tried to show the guard our visas, but he scoffed and said "For what I want to see your visa? You're diplomats!". So on we went.
I think the next one was when we finally entered Uzbekistan and was rather odd. This guy in a doctor's uniform stopped us and pointed a device at our foreheads, which clicked, (the device clicked, not our foreheads), before passing us along. I assume it was a thermometer, but it could also have been a thought stealing device. Then at this same checkpoint, another guy slowly tried to read our names aloud as he typed them into a computer. Stephanie's gave him the most consternation and came out Step-hanny, which delighted us each time it happened, which was every time someone tried to read it.
The fifth checkpoint required some ingenuity as there was a long immobile line of people trailing out of the building. Fortunately, we'd been warned about this sort of thing and I knew to go in and announce that we were diplomats, which got us somewhat expedited. We still had to wait for all of our passport information to be entered into a book by hand, but it was far better than waiting for everyone else to go first. By the time we passed through the final checkpoint (another guard who waved us through), we had spent about 45 minutes. Not bad considering that some of our non-diplomatic friends reported waits of up to 2.5 hours.
With that adventure behind us, we located our driver on the Uzbek side, Naim and loaded our things into the car. Naim was a great driver and guide, our only complaint being that he brought a four passenger sedan for five people. Naim informed us that he had never driven from this border crossing before and that we would have to stop periodically for directions. He also told us that our American english was very hard to understand.
The drive itself was amazing, just some really spectacular scenery. There were places where it looked like walls of rock were just sticking up in the air.
As we passed between them we could see that it was the result of entire plateaus tilting up in the air due to plate tectonics.
It was really amazing. The temperatures were in the mid-80's so we rode with the windows down, taking lots of pictures of the passing scenery,
And sometimes stopping to pose...
The trip from the border to Samarqand was over 8 hours long, so of course we needed to stop for lunch. Naim pulled off at a likely looking place. We had a long conversation trying to explain to him that he needed to roll up the windows because our belongings were in the car. We thought he didn't understand our 'American english', but as we talked, the windows rolled themselves up automatically. Naim laughed and said, "Are you from America, or Uzbekistan?" Apparently, seven months away from the U.S. is long enough for us to be behind the times.
As it turned out, the 'restaurant' was actually a mosque so we got back in the car and continued on until we found an actual restaurant that served excellent shashlik. We got stopped at several checkpoints on our trip and at one, this ancient looking old woman was yelling a stream of what Naim told us were profanities at the guards. Most of the guards just glanced at our diplomatic passports and waved us through.
After a long day of driving, we took a stretch break in the last mountain pass,
and were on our way down into Samarqand. We saw some impressively packed cars,
and Naim stopped to buy some meat for dinner,
because he invited us to his house that evening to celebrate Navruz.
Once in Samarqand, we checked into the hotel, which was very nice,
and gave Naim some money to exchange for us. While we waited for him to come and get us for dinner, we walked around a bit and took in some of the sights around the hotel, which was very near some of the major sights of Samarqand like Amir Temur (Tamerlane)'s Mausoleum, and the madrassas of Registan Square.
When Naim came to get us, he brought our exchanged money. The $300 we exchanged got us almost 700,000 sum. Needless to say, it was fun having such a large pile of cash, even if it wasn't worth all that much.
In Uzbekistan, there are two types of currency exchange, the bank rate, which is about 1600 sum to the dollar, and the black market rate, at about 2300 sum per dollar.
I don't really understand how that works except that the bank rate is basically a way to rip off tourists because the banks only buy dollars at that rate, but don't sell them back. Everyone in Uzbekistan uses the black market rate so if you exchange at the bank rate, you're paying a lot more for things. Luckily, Naim was an honest guy and got us the black market rate!
Dinner at Naim's was great, a real feast.
After lots of snacks and salads, his wife brought out home-made plov. This plov was chock full of vegetables and much less oily than the kind they have in Dushanbe. It was delicious. We also had a traditional Navruz dish called sumalac,
made from a boiled grain - I think something similar to sorgum. On the way back to the hotel, Naim took us to see some of the sights lit up at night.
And so, after a very long day, we retired to our hotel to rest, but not before we discovered that the curtains in our room weren't big enough to close. We improvised and tossed the bedspread over the curtain rod. Problem solved.
Day 2: Samarqand
The second day started with a delicious breakfast at the hotel, the highlight of which was these amazing mini-pancakes. They were crispy on the outside and soft on the inside and so buttery-delicious. We spent the second day of our journey with an excellent tour guide who was able to explain just about everything we saw in amazing detail. Don't worry, I won't relate the history of every monument. If you want to know more, try wikipedia.
We started our day by walking around some of the old streets of Samarqand,
until the Mausoleum of Amir Temur opened and we could go inside.
I think the pictures can speak for themselves. Some lady tried to charge us money for taking pictures so we asked our guide if we should pay. She seemed rather indignant about the whole thing and said stiffly, "I think not!" and stormed out with us in tow.
Our next stop was a more detailed tour of Registan Square, which was built by Amir Temur's grandson, Ulug Beg.
In addition to more beautiful architecture, we got to see a pottery craftsman at work and also bought some local ceramics.
From there we paid a visit to Ulug Beg's observatory, which was responsible for some of the most important advances in astronomy of its time.
Then we took a break for a nice lunch and had a hilarious moment when we tried to interpret the dessert menu. Our guide said it was a "banana screwed in the balls" and then quickly recanted the statement when she saw our expressions. No one ordered the banana screwed in the balls, so I don't know what it was. We exited the restaurant to a surprising sight...SNOW!
It was snowing really hard, which was quite shock after it had been so hot the day before. But we continued on unhindered and visited the necropolis, which is full of beautiful tiled mausoleums.
We ended our tour at the Bibi Khanim mosque, which was built for Amir Temur's wife, Bibi Khanim.
We finished up our day by warming up at a nearby restaurant and then turned in so we could get up for an early start to Bukhoro the next morning.
Day 3: On to Bukhoro
After stuffing ourselves with more mini-pancakes at breakfast, we were off to Bukhoro.The drive was uneventful and blessedly short. Upon arrival, we checked in at our hotel, which had a very nice courtyard,
and headed out for lunch. We found a great place called Labi House, right on one of the city's ancient water basins.
The weather had warmed up a bit and it was sunny. Perfect. Our table was adorned with the traditional symbol of Navruz (first day of spring celebrated as the new year in Central Asia, a small circle of spring grass - this is apparently the stuff from which they make Sumalac.
The best part of lunch was the lagman. In Dushanbe, lagman is a delcious noodle soup. In Bukhara it was a scrumptious (needed a word better than delcious) plate of noodles topped with a fried egg.
It was so good I broke one of my cardinal rules of traveling and at the same thing at every meal while in Bukhoro. Of course, I tried other things, but always with Lagman. After lunch, we spent the rest of the afternoon mostly getting a little lost. But it was worth it since I finally saw one of the fabled "big ass" sheep up close and personal. I think the picture explains the descriptor perfectly well. That is some real badunkadunk.
Later in the afternoon we found our way back to the old city and took in the sights,
and browsed some shops, like this one where we saw a guy weaving scarves.
We stopped at a tea house to warm up and then went up to the roof for the view.
For dinner, we all went to Labi House to enjoy the view at night and the ridiculously priced food.
Our meal for the four of us was $12,000 sum, or about $5.31. Amazing. We were also entertained by a couple of guys who had apparently celebrated Navruz too much and could barely walk, much less eat shashlik off a sword. Again, we had trouble deciphering the dessert menu. The chocolate roullette sounded good but we joked that it would turn out to be ho-ho's. Lo and behold, the waiter brought out a package of what looked like ho-ho's. We felt bad to have laughed so hard, but it was just so funny. We also didn't buy the ho-ho's, but returned to the hotel to get some rest.
Day 4:Bukhoro
We were tickled to discover that our hotel in Bukhoro also served mini pancakes for breakfast and departed for the day's excursion in a fine mood. The weather was also a bit warmer, but not much.
The day's sights began with the mausoleum on Ismoili Somoni.
Some of you may recognize the name as the national hero of Tajikistan - and the enormous statue erected in his honor in Dushanbe. From there we toured the Friday Mosque,
and the ancient citadel of Bukhoro,
and many of the mosques and madressas we passed the day before.
After lunch we headed back over Labi House to meet our driver. On the way we passed through the ancienc covered bazaars and saw a Mosque dating back to the first arab conquest of the area in the 8th or 9th century. It was particularly neat because it was about 9 feet below street level.
Our guide explained that many old sites are below street level because over time the streets and newer buildings are built higher. So going down to the older sites is like walking back in time. From there it was off to the Summer Palace for a quick tour and gawking at the peacocks.
We returned to the old city for an afternoon of shopping. Stephanie and I drove ourselves to distraction trying to figure out what we wanted to buy. Even having gotten the market exchange rate at the beginning of our trip, we were being offered unfavorable rates to change back to dollars so we determined to just spend all of our money. In the end we accomplished this goal, but it was hard work!
After my last plate of lagman at Labi House, Stephanie and I stopped at a 600 year old synagogue near our hotel.
The man there told us they have a torah dating back almost 1000 years, a couple of centuries after the first Jews settled in Bukhoro.
We dropped our stuff off at the hotel and then headed out to try to meet up with some of our friends who also happened to be traveling in Bukhoro. We weren't having much luck following their directions when, suddenly, the lights when out in the old quarter. We abandonded our search and made our way through the narrow winding streets to our hotel, where we were provided with a candle that lasted just until the power came back on. It was really neat seeing the sky full of stars from the courtyard.
Day 5: The Long Road Home
Given that Bukhoro was about 3 hours further west of Samarquand, we were skeptical when Naim told us it would only be 8 hours back east to the border (remember it took longer than that to get to Samarqand). So we started our journey around 7am.
Again, the drive was pleasant (albiet a bit crowded) and uneventful. It was interesting to see how precipitation over the weekend had made the countryside even greener. Leaving so early in the morning, we got to see the morning fog lifting off the green hills.
It was really spectacular.
We only stopped once at a bazaar to try to spend off what remained of our money. It was the most ridiculous thing I ever saw. No one was selling anything but candy, toilet paper, and soap! I had to walk about 15 minutes down the road to find other things and ended up just buying around 6.6 pounds of almonds. I was able to negotiate for 34,500 sum, exactly what we had left.
True to his word, Naim dropped us off at the border almost exactly 8 hours after we left. We made our way back through the gauntlet of border control with litte incident until we got to the Tajik side and a guard asked where our exit stamps were. I explained about the guy who said he didn't want to see our visas and the guard asked me again where the stamps were. I told him that was a good question. Fortunately, he thought that was funny rather than smart-mouthed as I intended and stamped our passports and sent us on our way.
Our driver on the Tajik side picked us up right on schedule and we were home by 5:30pm. All in all a great trip. Here's the link to the rest of the pictures again. Hope you enjoyed!
 |
| Uzbekistan 2010 JPGS |
