I am on no 3 computer in an internet cafe in Bukhara having been assured that no 3 actually sends, because yesterday I spent 2 and a half hours writing a missive twice on number 1 and kaboom! into the ether they went. So here goes…again.
Bukhara old town where we are staying is a delightful place. Its history is ancient and complicated having been conquered by Alexander the Great, Jengiz Khan, Timur (Tamerlane) and the Russians, among many others. Itis full of madrassas, mosques, trading domes, caravansarai and minarets, many in beautiful turquoise and blue tiles. It has whetted our appetites for Samarkand. The weather is warm, not hot and the mudbrick walls and small gates belie the cool courtyards and decorative rooms inside. Room walls are covered in carpets or suzanis (embroidered cloths) or complicated Persian style paintings. Only the plumbing leaves a little to be desired sometimes.
My attitude to Uzbekistan is ambivalent however. On arrival at Taskent customs I was accosted by an official who claimed that my disappointingly cheap,unreceipted, gold-looking boddhisattva (a Guanyin) purchased in a Chinese night market did not have permission to enter or leave thecountry witout an official certificate from the Ministry of Fine Arts.After our English speaking transit guide turned up I was taken to an upstairs room and informed that the cost of the certificate would be 42000 sum or $40US, oddly far more than the statue was worth. I sensibly informed the gentleman, even though he was clutching my passport, that my husband had all our money. He said he would deliver the certificate to our hotel in the evening and collect the $ then. I hotfooted it out of the room, statue in hand, to be greeted with cheers from Ian and the group who had waited paitiently and nervously for one and a half hours.Our guide dumped us at our hotel, suggesting we negotiate the price of the certificate down. Our real guide didn’t turn up until the evening after we had stewed all day. He said the transaction was illegal and not to worry!! I have since read in the Lonely Planet that it’s acommon scam by ‘venal bureaucrats’. The other conundrum here is that tourism is tightly controlled and more expensive-we judge particularly by the price of its beers- and many of its historical sites have been restored to the point of losing some character. However on the whole the place is well set up for tourists (in groups).
Uzbekistanis 75% desert and one of its main rivers, the Amu Darya called the Oxusby the Greeks, has little water left because it has been used by the Soviets to irrigate cotton. The lakes are salty dry and the fields parched. The Murray Darling, only worse. At least the country has gold and oil to prop up its wealth. We spent a couple of days on the edge of the Kyzylkum desert investigating 2nd century fortress ruins and spent a night in a yurt under a starry sky.
The people are Turkic rather than Mongol and there are distinct differences from Kyrgyzstan, especially in the absence of livestock and the nomadic lifestyle. They are reserved and friendly and Islam is tightly controlled by the government. Most women wear socks and slippers, pants with a matchingdress over the top in gaudy synthetic velvet, with a furry syntheticor vinyl vest, and a headscarf, which makes for a colourful contrast to the men in black. We head towards mountains tomorrow and then on to Samarkand. it’s hard to believe that in a couple of days we will be in India and closer to home.