Ashgabat, Turkmenistan - Thursday Sept 23, 2010

 One of thousands of marble buildings...

 Our hotel

 Women washing while soldiers and guards watch

 Camel bazaar

Women selling dried fish

 Jewelry array; jewelry used in wedding ceremonies

 "Space capsule" where we ate lunch

 Rows and rows of fir trees...

 Folklore presentation; note Turkmen textiles

Palomino horse...


Today is the last day of our Five 'Stans trip.  It promises to be a long one since our flight home leaves at 4am tomorrow.  More about that later.  Let’s enjoy today.

Spent the morning at a colorful, delightful bazaar – the Tolkuchka Bazaar.  The guidebook says “the sight of withered men haggling for shaggy sheepskin hats, a braying camel suspended in midair by a crane or sheep being driven away in a sidecar are a few of the oddities you can expect from the Tolkuchka Bazaar, one of Central Asia’s most spectacular sights.  The enormous market sprawls across acres of desert on the outskirts of Ashgabat, with corrals of camels and goats, avenues of red-clothed women squatting before silver jewelry, and villages of trucks from which Turkmen hawk everything from pistachios to car parts.  Whatever you want, it’s sold at Tolkuchka.”  I think that accurately describes what we saw and experienced.  We went first to the animal market that is on one side of the market, driving distance from the main market.  Indeed women were there in abundance selling every conceivable item.  This is a locals market – not a tourist one – which made it fascinating for us all. 

Our guide was invaluable as she helped me to haggle over the price of jewelry and hats, my main areas of interest.  Hard to bring a camel home in my suitcase. There were only a few women selling jewelry and our guide explained that these pieces would be purchased by local people and used for wedding ceremonies.  She said that brides would wear heavy amounts of jewelry for 40 days after the wedding and then wear almost none during the rest of their lives.  I bought a couple of small pieces and one larger one which she assured me was quite old, older than the 50-year limit that Turkmenistan customs allows to be taken out of the country. This resulted in a very funny sequence of events where she disappeared for a long time and returned with what she described as “special paper” that I should use to wrap my jewelry in to prevent the x-ray scanners at the airport from detecting them.  The “special paper” turned out to be aluminum foil.  Heaven help us all if aluminum foil will “foil” our international security system.  More about this later!

Stayed all morning at the market in the blazing sun.  Afterward had lunch inside a building we’d all been curious about that looks rather like a giant space capsule that has fountains running down all sides.  Very difficult to describe.  Had excellent views of the fantasy fur tree plantings and marble buildings.  Our guide arranged for a group of traditional musicians and folk dancers to perform for us. 

After lunch many opted out of the day but Scott and I continued on.  We drove half and hour to the outskirts of the city to a hippodrome to see famous Turkmen akhalteke horses (http://www.turkmenistanembassy.org/turkmen/history/horses.html).  I don’t know the first thing about horses (although many in our group did) but I was dazzled by their beauty.  We saw a simmering golden palomino, a white horse with black trimmed that Scott said made it look like a zebra without stripes and several others.  I have pictures of each one. 

At around 3:30 we drove to a private home to see (new) Turkmenistan rugs.  The prices were so reasonable that we bought a small one that will be shipped to us.  Hope to receive it in a month.  Returned to the hotel at about 5:15 and needed to be at a “special surprise event” at 5:50.

Our surprise was a visit and Q&A session with Will Stevens, the Director of Public Affairs at the US Embassy in Ashgabat.  It was a very interesting session and we had the chance to ask all sorts of questions which he (the walls have ears) gingerly and diplomatically answered.  But meanings were clear.  He explained that the primary purpose of the any US Embassy is to assist Americans traveling overseas in that country.  In terms of diplomacy, the US has three major interests relating to Turkmenistan:
- helping in the war in Afghanistan
- helping Turkmenistan to expand supply routes for its natural resources (and hopefully to help the US gain access to these resources which today it does not have)
- helping Turkmenistan to further democratize by providing assistance in such areas as election monitoring and education programs
He said that Turkmenistan has made great strides at "opening up" over the past three years.  The internet, for example, was banned until three years ago. We were shocked to learn that, due to political shenanigans in Washington, there has been no Ambassador to Turkmenistan for the past four years.  Everyone had lots of questions and came away with a greater understanding of the political situation been the US and Turkmenistan as well as the situation within Turkmenistan itself.

Afterward we moved to the dinning room for our farewell dinner.  This hotel serves excellent pizza and Italian food and we can’t seem to get our fill after the largely bland meals we’ve been eating for the past couple of weeks. 

We had the super-delux opportunity to keep our rooms until 2am, our departure time for the airport.  I went back up at 8:30 to pack, shower and try to get some sleep.  Bags out at 1am.  The porter got mixed up and knocked at our door at midnight.  It didn’t matter; I was awake for most of the time but it was wonderful to have a chance to lie down and rest. 

The security screening check in process at the airport is a trip in and of itself.  Our bags were screened and passports checked three times before we even got to the airline check-in counter.  I got through the screeners just fine; no red alarms set off by my aluminum-foil-wrapped jewelry.  But another fellow who bought a dagger (also wrapped in aluminum foil) wasn’t so lucky.  They saw it, checked it, but it wasn’t confiscated.  I was pretty relieved that aluminum foil couldn’t completely undermine airport security, particularly in Central Asian countries where almost nothing would surprise me.

Flew Turkish Airlines from Ashgabat for Istanbul at 4am.  This is about a 4-hour flight.   Arrived at 7am Istanbul time.  Had coffee in the very nice (it looks like a dazzling shopping mall after the modern-but-no frills Ashgabat airport) Istanbul terminal with Larry and Renee.  They headed off for the second of four legs of flights to get them back to Albuquerque.  They should arrive in Santa Fe at midnight tonight.  Scott and I departed Istanbul at 11am.  Turkish Airlines, btw, is a very nice airline.  Had a great bulkhead seat in coach on an enormous plane; very comfortable for our 10-hour flight to JFK.  Arrived New York at 3pm and were back in our apartment at 4. 

It was amazing but we slept only on the Ashgabat to Istanbul (comatose would be a more accurate way of describing my condition) and didn’t sleep for one minute on the 10-hour flight.  Stayed up until 9pm and slept wonderfully all night so we’re hoping for minimal side effects from let-lag. 

Closing thoughts about our trip in general:  I'm sure I’ll change my feelings about the trip as I get farther away from it, but here are few comments.  I adored the time we spent in Samarkand and Bukhara.  I could have stayed there longer to have more time to explore (there are more sights we didn’t see) and time to wander and photograph.  I would have liked to visit other sites in Uzbekistan like Khiva and Shahr-i-Siyabz but to do so would have meant adding a significant amount of time to the itinerary and accommodations would be rugged.  I'm not sure that spending one day going to Tajikistan was worth it.  It was a difficult day given the amount of time required for border crossing and the time spent to get there was not worth it given the small amount we were able to see in Pendjikent.  I would have liked to find antique textiles for purchase.  I should have done advance work on this topic and possibly tried to make appointments with textile dealers.  But I'm not sure this would have been practical given our busy itinerary or worth it given restrictions on export of antiquities (50 years old +).  A major disappointment was the realization that people no longer wear ikat or embroidered clothing.  Or if they do, they do not live in or come to a city.  This tradition must have been wiped out during Soviet years.  People wear store-bought printed cotton or velvet clothing, or modern jeans and high heels, depending upon the country. I don’t think that visiting Kazakhstan is necessary unless you love to hike.  A visit to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan is worth a detour. 

But looking back over the whole, I do feel I have a much greater understanding of what Central Asia is all about.  I know there are no commonalities across the countries; despite in many cases having a common ethnic heritage (i.e. Turkmen), each country is completely different from the other and must be seen as having different needs and political issues. I'm glad to have had the chance to see and experience these little snippets and put my toe in each of the Five ‘Stans.

Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Tuesday September 22

 Cityscape from hotel balcony

 Rows and rows of fir trees designed to create "climate change"

 Nissa Parthian ruins

 Turkmenbashi's mosque

 School girls in their uniforms

 The current president

Transforming the desert into a gleaming white marble city

 Monument to the Ruhnama

The "golden man" himself

City at night, from our balcony


Landing in Ashgabat is like landing on another planet, particularly after coming from the other 'Stans that have either gray crumbling Soviet-style buildings or from Samarkand and Bukhara that are ancient towns with mud houses and tin roofs.  Here the old has been eliminated completely.  Here, all buildings are new and faced in gleaming white marble.  As we drove into the city last night, bleary-eyed and exhausted, we sat at the edge of our seats marveling (read stunned) at what we saw.  Lining huge boulevards are white marble buildings that house a plethora of ministries (agriculture, mining, army, etc.) and lighted with spotlights.  The last time I thought a city had showcased its buildings so well at night was in London the last time I was there.  We passed many 10 story white marble apartment buildings and wondered who could possibly have enough money to live in them…  How did all of this come to exist?

Today we learned quite a lot from our wonderful guide, whose name I won’t mention for fear of getting her into trouble.  Turkmenistan is not an open country for its people in any sense of that word.  About the only freedom they seem to have is freedom of religion, or at least up to now the government has not seen fit to meddle in it.  There is no freedom of speech, no ownership of land, the government can order you to do whatever it wants and you must do it or you will either wind up in jail or be punished in some other way.  Everything and everyone is controlled by the state.  Turkmenistan calls itself a democracy but there is only one political party and whatever “elections” do occur are rigged and the outcome a forgone conclusion. 

Turkmenistan achieved independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 and since that time has had only two leaders, both tyrannical dictators.  The first called himself “Turkmenbashi”. 

It was Turkmenbashi’s idea create a marble city.  He built gold statues to himself all over town (which we toured this afternoon; I could hardly bring myself to glorify them by taking a photo).  Another inspired idea of his was to change the climate of Ashgabat from desert to temperate by planting fir trees, yes fir trees, everywhere the eye can see. He ordered millions of trees to the planted across acres and acres of desert land and ordered all the citizens of the city to water them and keep them healthy (or they would be punished).  Some were so desperate given how difficult it is to make a fir tree grow in a hot desert, that they substituted artificial trees for real ones so when the president flew over the city in his helicopter for inspection the trees would appear to thrive.

Turkmenbashi built a 25-kilometer long “health walk” (that looks rather like the great wall of china stretching over the mountains; you can see it from anywhere in the city) that everyone was ordered to walk on Sunday regardless of whether or not they were physically able.  One man notified the government that he was too ill to walk; was ordered to walk and indeed died.

Our own guide’s family personally experienced the hardship of living under such a regime.  Her husband at one time worked for the government but after being forced out was subsequently blacklisted.  As a result, she and her daughters were at significant disadvantage relative to those in government favor.  The daughters were no longer able to get into good schools in Turkmenistan and had to leave the country to continue their education.  Our guide works mostly as an English teacher and part-time as a guide.   She is supports her family because her husband is no longer able to find work. 

We heard shocking story after story as we drove through what she called “a fantasies (sic) world”.  I’ll never forget that phrase.

Ashgabat is probably the cleanest city I've ever been in.  The poorest women in society, faces wrapped in cloth to keep out the dust, spend all day in the sun sweeping with twig brooms to keep the streets clean.  I saw many without dustpans simply collecting leaves by hand, picking them up one by one.  I saw many scrubbing the ground (particularly around monuments dedicated to Turkmenbashi) with soap and rags.  (Not once did I see a man doing such menial manual labor.)  

The country is currently ruled by another (crazy) megalomaniac named Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, who is only slightly less oppressive than Turkmenbashi.   None of the palaces That Turkmenbashi built for himself meet the needs of Berdymukhammedov, so a new white marble palace is being built and the city center is being moved to the location around his new palace.  Huge red cranes work furiously all over the city building more and more and more. 

Where does all the money come from?  Oil and natural gas!  The country is sitting on vast reserves of oil and natural gas and the government is making a killing yet is not passing much on to citizens.  How it explains this (apparently the president loves to make speeches on television including one where he explained that it is bad for people to be paid too much money) and gets away with it I’ll never understand.  Except that the country is run by the military and the government has and probably still does exert a form of mind-control over the citizens. 

Turkmenbashi wrote a book called the Ruhnama that’s a bit like Mao’s little red book.  It laid out “the rules for living” and all citizens were required to memorize it.  In fact he eventually banned all other books than the Ruhnama from being taught in schools.  This policy has now been changed, but our guide pointed out that there’s an entire generation that learned nothing in school but the Ruhnama.  No math, science, history – nothing.  So they are completely ignorant.  It’s all quite horrible and unbelievable.

So putting the current world aside for moment, we drove to the outskirts of town to visit an ancient Parthian ruin called Nissa.  Nissa was founded as the capital of the Parthians in the 3^rd century BC.  I was surrounded by a commercial city that was inhabited until the 13^th c when the Mongols arrived, laid siege to the city and razed it to the ground.  We walked around inside the fortress walls and saw lovely rooms made of mud bricks.  The center is believed to have housed a Zoroastrian temple. 

Then back into the city for a stop at a huge white marble mosque that Turkmenbashi built to honor himself (Turkmenbashi Ruhy Mosque) and a mausoleum next door built to honor his mother.  Inside the Turkmenbashi mosque, instead of quotations from the Qur’an there are (surprise) quotations from the Ruhnama! 

There are many Turks working in Ashgabat in the construction business so their companies got together and built the Azadi mosque, a replica of Istanbul’s Blue Mosque.  We stopped by for a visit; Ok, but nowhere near the magnificence of the real thing. 

Had lunch in a high-rise business restaurant with views of marble buildings and row after row of Xmas trees. 

In the afternoon did more driving around and stopped to see a huge pink (why pink, no one knows) statue of the Ruhnama, plus many GOLD statues placed all over the city of “the golden man” Turkmenbashi.

The best stop of the day was at a marvelous Carpet Museum with superb examples of Turkmen weavings from all around the country.  Had a Ph. D. in Turkmen textiles to give us a tour.  She took us downstairs to see women weaving carpets that will become part of the museum’s collection.  We were able to see how the wool is wound around the warp and cut off; different colors wound around different threads to form the eventual pattern.  We saw the bits of graph paper they were working from and I cannot fathom how they translate what I saw into such magnificent and intricate designs.  Both the weavers and our expert guide seemed delighted in our interest and allowed us to take photos.  Unfortunately we’d been told not to bring our cameras into the museum and I’d left mine on the bus.  Why I obeyed such an instruction this time I don’t know since I usually do not.  So I'm relying on Larry to send me the photos and videos he took on my behalf.  We left the museum energized and thrilled by our good fortune to have had such a knowledgeable guide. 

Dinner at our hotel, another “fantasies-world” experience.  We’re staying in the Hotel President, the poshest of posh hotel in the city yet it has no Wi-Fi, you can’t get more than one room key (the card-key variety), and when you return to your room at the end of the day you have no towels or other vital amenities and have to call to the front desk to get them.  The veneer of modernity is there, but not the reality.   Oh yes, almost forgot to add that Internet was only introduced into the country three years ago.  And I am sure that very few people have access to it; probably only government workers and business travelers. 

I do want to quote something from Lonely Planet:  “Be aware that all top-range hotel rooms are bugged, as are many offices, restaurants and anywhere foreigners meet.  Reserve sensitive conversations, especially any with Turkmen citizens (who are far more likely to get into trouble than you) for safe places, preferably outside.“

To Ashgabat, September 21st

Today is all about traveling.  Apparently there is no direct way to get from Bukhara (UZ) to Ashgabat (TM).  It's either a 20-hour drive itinerary or the bus to walking to vans to plane itinerary that we have today.  Bags were due out at 6:30 this morning for a 7:30 departure.  The program is to drive to the Turkmenistan border and have lunch in Turkmenabat.  The problem is that every time the tour leader does this trip he has different experiences crossing the border; sometimes the group has to walk with their luggage for one mile along a hot, barren road; sometimes the wait for the officials to review and OK passports is endless.  Gary had us prepared for a long, miserable ordeal. 

What we actually experienced, relatively speaking, was not too bad.  We arrived at the first booth to leave UZ at 9am and completed the immigration process into TM about two miles down the road around noon.  You would NEVER want to attempt to make this crossing by yourself or without an experienced guide.  Much candy and chocolate was distributed (along with much cash I'm sure) to the guards and customs officials behind the scenes to get us through without hassle.

Then drove 1 hour in smaller vans to Turkmenabat where we had lunch at little cafe with yurts for us to rest in.  Really nothing to do there except wait from 2 to 5 for departure to the airport.  Our flight is scheduled to depart at 7:30 pm and we expect to arrive in Ashgabat around 10pm. 

Finally got to airport and after much buildup about max 20 kilo limit for checked plus hand carry luggage out local guide Gozul was able to negotiate a group check in so my very much overweight three pieces of baggage (one hand carry and two checked) went through without problem or extra charge.  I had been concerned about this weight limit and many others sent boxes (at great expense) yesterday via Fed Ex to avoid issues. One of the reasons we got through so easily might have been a carefully arranged lineup of Butterfingers and other candy bars on the check in counter as our bags were weighed. 

Everywhere we go, our guide says “money talks but candy sings”! I'm sure that money is liberally dispensed behind the scenes.  Candy is distributed openly to all.  Our guide carried five pieces of luggage; we now know that four of them were full of either snacks for us or candy and chocolate for border guards and airline agents. 

Monday, September 20th - Bukhara, Uzbekistan

 Summer palace mirrored room

 Summer Palace

 Gorgeous ikat

 Cotton boll

 On top of Chor Minor

 Nadir Devon Begi Medressa

 Twilight over Bukhara

 Blackmail photo of Larry

 Scott in Pasha pose

Magnificent suzani

Drove 5km north of the city to visit the Summer Palace of the last ruler of Bukhara which was built between 1911 and 1917 and was only used for three years.  Our guide explained that this was used as a summer home as opposed to the Ark, which was a military palace for old Bukhara rulers.  The interior was richly decorated in colored mirrors (which gave an effect not unlike being inside a kaleidoscope), floral and geometric painted walls, and carved stucco in a honeycomb pattern at the ceiling.  Some of the rooms housed examples of antique ikat and embroidered textiles. 

We met the director of the Summer Palace who told us that he is one of the authors of the 99 Ikat Khatans book that Mehmet Chetenkaya (sp?) also co-authored.  He is also one of the co-curators (or contributors to) the upcoming Central Asian Textiles show at the Textile Museum in DC.  The palace is in a sad state of disrepair.  Our guide asked the director why the museum was not better maintained given high admission fees  charged to groups.  Essentially he said that fees earned by this site are not allocated 100% to it but rather are distributed across many state sites, some of which are "profitable" and some not.  We couldn't help but wonder if this was a convenient way to hide misallocation and theft of of money away from public institutions and into the hands of government officials. 

On the way back into town we stopped to walk into a cotton field and see the process of cotton-picking up close.  Women pick cotton by hand with no machinery.  Cotton harvesting is done in waves across different fields.  They make a first pass picking an entire field collecting the ready and available cotton.  Then they move to the next, and so on, and when all the fields are done they repeat the process until all the bolls have opened and been picked.  We watched women stuffing enormous heaps of cotton (larger than they were ) into muslin sacks.  Men took the sacks and hoisted them into trucks.  Looked like a much easier job to me!

Once back into town we visited the Chor Minor, or Four Minarets.  This is no longer a functioning mosque so we could go inside and climb to the roof for a view across the rooftops of the neighborhood. 

Had lunch at a Persian man's home; decor similar to the nice home in Samarkand where we had dinner but this one seemed to me to be far more affluent.  The afternoon was free for (yeah) shopping.  We scoured the various bazaars and I have to say that shopping in Bukhara was disappointing; I can't help but wonder if you know the right people and can find good antique shops if you'd have a different impression.  But not having this contacts it's disappointing.  Nevertheless I did find a few items to add to my collection:  a beautiful Bukharan suzani; two antique women's hats (red velvet with silver coins and a square sequined one).  Barbara Kelley was incredibly helpful in bargaining for a good price for my suzani.  She has the same skill that Cliff Meyer has; she treats bargaining as a game, has a good nature and keen sense of humor and the shopkeepers love dealing with her.  Scott bought two ikat neckties.  We roamed around in the hot afternoon sun until about 4:45 when we returned to the hotel.

Dinner at 6:30 on a rooftop overlooking the city.  Got there just as the sun was setting.   From the roof you can see how truly ancient this city is – a lovely vista of mud houses with tin roofs and the occasional mosque.  (OK, there are satellite dishes everywhere, but this is the only nod I could see toward the 20^th century.)

Since it was our last night in Uzbekistan, the travel company gave us all goofy gold hats and I had fun taking photos of Scott and Larry assuming the "pasha" poses.  

Bukhara, Uzbekistan - Sept 19

 Saminid Mausoleum

 Bolo-Hauz Mosque

 The Ark

 Young girl with "uni-brow"

 Miri-Arab Medressa

 Kalyan Mosque

 Exterior of bazaar

 Suzani that I would eventually purchase

 Neighborhood where we would have dinner

 Nadir Devon Begi Medressa

 Scott and a lamb skewer

My five hat purchases


Had an whirlwind day seeing Bukhara's sights. Bukhara is different from and older than Samarkand. Bukhara was the capital of the of the Samanid state in the 9th and 10th centuries and as the culutural heart of Centra Asia . Bukhara succumbed in 1220 to Jenghiz Khan and in 1370 fell under the shadow of Timur's Samarkand. In the 16th c the Uzbbek Shaybanids made it Bukhara khanate . The Shaybanid Bukhara was a vast marketplace with dozens of specialist bazaars and caravanserais, more than 100 medressas (with 10,000 students) and more than 300 mosques. For the purposes of today's sightseeing, I will leave the history here although obviously it continues (in a torturous fashion) for centuries.

Began the day at the Ismail Samoniy Mausoleum (also called The Samanid Mausoleum in another book) which dates from the 9th/10th c. This is a beautiful square, untitled but highly textured structure that we were fortunate enough to see ine the raking morning light. The bricks are arranged such that beautiful patterns emerge in the surface of the building and inside you can clearly see the architecture of the done. Again there is no tile work on thiis building at all, or color, other than that of the natural mud bricks. Superstition has it that if you make a wish and walk three times around the building your wish will come true. Was too busy photographing to try it. Then quickly to an unknown-holy-man's mausoleum which I need to track down the name of.

On the way to this stoop I passed a woman selling wonderful antique hats. Sasha helped me to negotiate and ended up paying $20 per for five hats: two from Kyrgyzstan, one from Turkmenistan, one from Uzbekistan and one from Kazakhstan. Somewhere along the way I heard my name being called to come quickly and join Sasha for a run to a local fabric shop. There are two other women on the trip who wanted to buy ikat and off ran through a fabulous local market (me snapping pictures and trying not to get lost as the three of them ran ahead). We finally arrived at a pedestrian street lined with shoops selling things to the local people (not for tourists). Arrived at the store and all fabrics were new and not quite what we were looking for. So I felt we had our own trip to see "yard good" in Bukhara. I enjoyed seeing the local women selling produce; the vendor selling birds and men selling spices. We ran ran ran and finally rejoined the group at a lovely old wooden Bolo-Hauz Mosque.

Next to Magoki-Attari Mosque which has no tile decoration at all except for a few pieces of turquoise tile that are original to the building, over the entryway. Inside this mosque today is a small display of Bukharan carpets (not a very good one) but something to see.

On to the grand citadel called The Ark (built in the 18th c) which was the palace of the Bukhara amir, housed mosques, government administration, etc. It is reminiscent of the Red Fort in Delhi or some of the other grand forts of India. The Art was considerably destroyed in 1920 when the Red Army subjected the city to air bombing and attack. Inside was a small history museum that included a few examples of clothing and ikat.

Ran ran ran to the spectacular Kalon Minaret, buit by Arsian Khan in 1127. The minaret is 47m tall and in 850 years has never needed anything but cosmetic repair. There are 14 ornamental bands, all different, and the tower includes the first example of glazed tile that would later cover monumental buildings under Timur's rule. Adjacent is the Kalon Mosque (took a video of the place it's so large), and across the courtyard is the Mir-i-Arab Medressa (1535) that remains a working medressa today.

Had a brief discussion of carpets (by no means the kind of presentation worthy of an SFWG trip) at a carpet shop and then lastly (whew!) to the Modir Devon Begi Medressa (1622) . Can't find the discussion in my book but the exterior had two gorgeous birds over the entrance.

Will post photos of all later; this hotel, once again, charges by the megabyte uploaded so I'm being stingy.

Had dinner outside beside a pool at the Lyabi-Hauz Plaza. I had veggie shish and Scott had minced beef. Plus lots of vodka for me.

Samarkand to Bukhara - Saturday, September 18

 Gur-Emir Mausoleum

 Gur-Emir Mausoleum

 Gur-Emir Mausoleum

 Gur-Emir Mausoleum: Tamerlane's jade tomb

 Gur-Emir Mausoleum

 Ak-Sarai Mausoleum

 Women at the bazaar

 Cow parts anyone?

 Me with honey-sellers

11th c Caravanserrai Roboti Malik


Another beautiful cloudless cool day. Finally got to visit the tomb of Timur (Tamerlane), the Guri Amir Mausoleum (1404). My guidebook called the building "surprisingly modest" and I suppose given Timur's stature and power it might be. But it's also beautiful with a turquoise blue dome over a building of dark and light blue mosaic tiles. Inside shines with gold. The ceiling is gold honeycomb below which Timur, two sons and two grandsons, including Ulugbek, are buried. Timur's stone is a slab of green jade. To quote from lonely planet "Timur's stone (was) once a single block of dark green jade. In 1740 the warlord Nadir Shah carried it off to Persia, where it was accidentally broken in two - from which time Nadir Shah was said to have a run of very bad luck, including the near-death of his son. At the urging of his religious advisors he returned the stone to Samarkand, and of course his son recovered."

I'm quoting from Monuments of Central Asia by Knobloch: "In 1941 Timur's grave was opened by the Soviet Archaeological Commission, who found here the skeleton of a man who, though lame in both right limbs, must have been of powerful physique, tall for a Tartar and of a haughty bearing. The examined the skeleton and the remains, which included fragments of muscle, skin, and some hair of the head, eye-brows, red mustache and beard. The skull indicated Mongol features".

We dashed briefly next door to get a glimpse of the Ak-Saray Mausoleum (1470), a tiny gold honeycombed gem.

Then we walked for a bit through the town bazaar. It was surprising how neat and clean the place was; markets that sell fruits, vegetables and meats, etc., tend not to be. I bought some cumin, coriander and locally grown saffron for a total of $5. Women tended to be the vendors and they were quite friendly and agreeable when I asked for a photo. Scott even took one picture of me with two women who were selling honey. Bees were in the honeycomb next to me the entire time. We sampled the local bread hot from the oven. The bread is round, thick around the edges and thin and the center.

At lunch (at the hotel) we ate delicious vegetables: beets, cauliflower, cabbage, potatoes, carrots, zucchini, then vegetable soup, and then a main course of meat (??) rice and squash.

At 1pm boarded the bus for a 4 hour drive to Bukhara. On the way stopped at an 11th c caravanserai called Rabat-i Malik. The untiled but brick patterned archway was beautiful. The funny (read odd) thing is that we had been told that we had a pit stop coming up and this was the spot they were referring to. We were told to go behind the facade and find a private spot. Call me crazy but I found this strange given the fact that this was an historical monument. Crow Canyon trip this isn't! We came, we saw, we peed.

The road between Samarkand and Bukhara is surprisingly bumpy despite being a new. My guidebook says that the journey that takes us four hours would have taken six or seven days in the Middle Ages.

Funny things about our hotel room in Samarkand:
- We had a mini-bar but it wasn't plugged into anything. Scott investigated and found that the plug for the mini-bar didn't fit (i.e., didn't have the right prongs) to fit into any of the outlets in the room.
- We had the "control panel to nowhere" on the bedside consoles. There were five knobs and various switches that didn't control anything.

Checked into the Bukhara Palace Hotel. Quite the misnomer. This is really a trip back in time to the old Intourist Soviet Hotels complete with babushka on each hall who pops her head out when you exit your room to check on what you're doing. The walls have eyes here. To quote Scott, our room is quite the "love nest". Mattresses are hard as a board. The bottom sheet doesn't wrap around the top end of the bed so I fear moving around too much during the night and finding myself in direct contact with the mattress. Not a happy thought.

Went to dinner and were vehemently prohibited from sitting at a table when the entire restaurant was empty because three tiny tables had been allocated to our group. No other tables were to be used! This set the tone for the evening. Vodka was good and continues to be the best deal in town. I've had vodka each night have have yet to pay more then $1 for a glass. Some evening it's even free.

Oh yes, the mini-bar in our room here doesn't plug into anything either.