Uzbekistan the land of historical architecture oh and local tourists

                        

Currency: Som about 6,500 to the dollar on the black market and 3500 from the bank. Notes are available in 100, 200, 500, 1,000 and 5,000. With the highest value note being worth less than a dollar you need a wheelbarrow or as the locals use a plastic bag / man bag / handbag to carry the cash around. Locals are adept at counting notes quickly it has been an eye opener to watch. 

Visa (purchased in the UK) was for 14 days (everyone I talk to seems to be different) so two weeks to live and love this country.

Cost of Dorm room in guest house  $10 – 15

Uzbek food: There are a handful of national dishes eaten throughout Central Asia. The ones I tasted were

·         Plov (The main dish) rice cooked with a couple of spices and served with meat and pumpkin / squash. This is usually made in large quantities and traditional made by men especially at celebration times.

·         Lakman a soup which has thick noodles and vegetables in

·         Manti / Manty dumplings filled with meat and onions

·         Soupa – watery oily soup with fatty meat in to give a great flavour along with a potatoes, carrots and turnips

·         Shasklik – meat on metal skewers with big bits of fat included to make more tasty

·         Khleb – bread this is round and heavy and is eaten with every meal. It is usual to break the bread and  share it with anyone who is near (although usually declined).

·         Dried fruit and seeds - Apricots and apricot stone seeds, walnuts, Sunflower seeds – chewed by everyone and outer casing spat out

Snacks

·         Somsa – samosa style triangles filled with minced meat onions and sometimes potatoes.

·         Fried dough which may include potato

·         they also love sweets and biscuits (this can be reinforced by the amount of gold teeth most locals have.

Breakfast 

·         Rice porridge – I have tried three different types on my travels, buckwheat (Kyrgyzstan, rice Tajikistan and Uzbek, the latter use more milk and less rice and semolina style grain in Tajikistan (served in a poor village)

Drinks

·         Green tea or black tea made with loose leaf tea. This is served weak by western standards

·         Coffee where available is usually from packets and often cheap Nescafe. Two types are available 3 in one with coffee mate and sugar included or black coffee which is served with heaps of sugar

·         Compote is the juice from stewed fruit and tastes quite watery. Usually the fruit is used although it is very hard to find anything cooked featuring fruit in the markets

·         Yoghurt drinks including camel and mares milk although I did not try any camels however the horse one tasted fizzy and salty. 

So to the diary....

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Day 1 (12^th October) from the border to Samarkand

With a top speed of 160 km/per hour I travelled by taxi from the border near Tajikistan to Samarkand at a cost of $50 for the taxi it needed to be good. The journey was 6 hours, half the road was tarmac the rest was stones  and sand. The car was stopped 6 times, once at customs to check my bags, documents, the driver and car. Another policeman pulled us over for “Registration” to check my documents were in order; this is quite the norm here. He asked the usual questions where you from? are you a tourist? Am I married?  When I showed him my wedding ring, my passport was then quickly handed back. Not sure what would have happened if I did not have it. Most of the journey was uneventful after that. 

The scenery was sand and desert for part and then fields and houses after that. Uzbekistan grows a number of crops - pumpkins, squash, sweetcorn, cabbage, chillies  and apples, pear, apricots, figs, pomegranates along with nuts and seeds. All of which are sold in all the local Bazaars (markets).

I managed to get to the guest house after dark using maps.me – the taxi drivers are in awe of this app as they don’t know where any of the roads or guesthouses are.  The guesthouse owner said it was too late for me to go hunting for a restaurant at that time of night (9ish) so provided me with a “small meal” it turned out to be a huge plate of Plov the national dish, salad of tomato and cucumber with bread followed by watermelon for dessert.

Day 2 Samarkand

I spent much of the morning and early afternoon looking around the undercover Bazaar – plenty of spices, different bread, cakes. Behind the undercover Bazaar was the local Bazaar where you can find anything and everything including most importantly for me snacks,  fruit and veg. This was my morning routine - purchase daily snacks of spinach and or pumpkin pies along with fruit.

Roasted apricot seeds

Bread seller  and decorated bread for celebrations

 

Local shop - buy the amount you want

I decided to leave the main sites until the following day so took a walk around the town. Next I came across a mosque (Hazrat – hizr mosque)   which could be seen on top of a hill overlooking the bazaar. When I arrived I realised something special was going on since the mosque was closed and cordons were in place so you could only go in one way and out another.  I had managed to stumble on the mosque where the late prime minster was buried and prayer ceremonies were taking place every 10 minutes for people to say their goodbyes. The locals really loved this guy and a number were in tears during the ceremony I attended.  On display was a raised coffin with a triangular shape on top all covered  all over in beautiful white roses . Police were stopping people taking photos and those who did had the photos deleted.

Next I continued onto Shah-i-zinda  which turned out to be the best site in Samrakand.  It has been described by the lonely planet as “a stunning avenue of mausoleums, which contains some of the richest tilework in the Muslim world”  they were not wrong. I am not really one for architecture but I managed to spend two and a half hours walking around the various rooms. I found all the different patterns fascinating and it reminded me of a mosque I had visited in Southern India. The link has a great selection of photos found on the internet saves me taking up too much space on here.

 

 Throughout my visit to Uzbekistan I have seen and interacted with local tourists. Sometimes I ask them for their photo other times they come up and ask me. The blonde (or yellow as one local described it) was not something all of them had the opportunity to see or take a picture with before as they were from villages and towns not visited by tourists. This is definitely something that sets Uzbekistan apart from the rest of Central Asia visited.

Day 3 Samarkand

I visited the epicentre of Samarkand (and deemed the centre piece of Asia) – the Registan which consists of three madrassas and in ancient times was the commercial centre. The domes are a captivating azure blue colour and the inside walls of the buildings were covered with Islamic designs and the most spectacular ceiling was covered in gold leaf. At the time I visited there was a wedding party having their photos taken in the main room.  Each of the three madrassas were unique in design although the layout was pretty consistent. One medressa front entrance had images of lions which is rare since Islam prevents live animals being depicted.

 Most of the inside rooms have been turned into shops and “museums” a ploy to get you into their shop and look at some antiques then buy. Considering I am one not for museums this experience was great I particularly enjoyed looking at the Islamic wall designs.

I also visited the Gur-E-Amir mausoleum which houses Amir Timur's grave among others. Again, beautiful wall colouring and designs made from aqua, blue and white tiles. Even I had to be a tourist at this one and have my photo taken with his grave.

Timur = black grave in the middle

 A local family came up to me as I was leaving the site and asked if I would take their photo, on doing so they then asked if I would get married to their son (luckily a guide was on hand to translate) er no, my husband will be arriving soon. The son gave me his mobile number and asked if I could send the photo’s on.  Matthias one of the guys I had travelled Tajikistan with arrived as planned just after they left.

Dinner was at the only and expensive (of course) restaurant in town other than the large hotels. Tomato salad, soup and kebabs with bread and yoghurt.

Day 4 train to Bukhara

Watch stopped this morning and when I thought it was still only 7:15 it was 9:20 and I was meeting Matthias at 9:30.  After getting a new battery we spent the morning taking photos again in the Bazaar before I caught the train on to Bukhara, A three hour journey.  I am now getting used to the amount of drivers who swarm around you when you leave the train station. You are meat, you are dollars. When you say autobus, they say no autobus to your destination hmm, in this case it was true. If no autobus then collective taxi, the guy wanted 20,000 for me to take me alone. No thank you. Eventually another lady joined us but had to pay for the other two spaces so we could go.

At the guesthouse I was sitting down to green tea and a plate of fruit courtesy of the woman owner when another tourist was just leaving to go to another grave so I joined him. We started to walk to the area with taxis when a younger guy started walking towards us quickly followed by an older guy. They started arguing, luckily the German guy I was with spoke Russian he told me that the older guy had been waiting longer and the younger guy was trying to steal the ride. I shouted at both of them no taxi at which they looked in disgust. Not sure they are used to a woman taking over. We stopped a taxi on the main road. The taxi driver told us he used to work at the local university but his contract was not renewed . He now makes more money as a taxi driver than before.  I much prefer the older drivers as they don’t have a need to speed.

 Dinner was at a local restaurant recommended by the guesthouse (confusingly called chinor which I thought was Chinese).  Aubergine salad followed by chips and kebab. Then found a nice cheesecake for afterwards in a little shop. She weighed it and charged me accordingly. It was really heavy so cost more than I was expecting (almost 1 pound) however it tasted sweet and good.

Day 4 - Bukhara

Matthias (last seen in Samarkand) had recommended the guesthouse as the owner had loved him (he was a doctor).  I had mentioned his name yesterday when I arrived and her eyes lit up, it was special treatment for me all the way.  He had told me that the GH owner had sat down with him in the morning going through the list of places to see that day and then of a night she wanted to see photos and tick off the list. Sure enough that happened. She even walked with me to my first location which was around the corner from the GH.

Lyabi Haus was a plaza set around a pool which is the way in many parts of Uzbek. First was to see a statue then coffee – an Americano which over here arrives in a small cup almost being mistaken for an Expresso. At least it was strong and good, at 1.5 dollars I would hope so….

Even the ducks got their own mausoleums

Next to look around the mausoleums, One had a number of local artists creating the products to be sold.






In one textile shop the owner a woman in her 20’s told me that her family had a workshop which her mom looked after. They made the designs and then sold them in the shop. I had already bought one in Samarkand and it was cheaper so I passed up on another one.


 Susanni material designs inspired by the wall colours 

 Then a walk down to the Ark which was a wall around another important mausoleum , I passed  through an underground bazaar selling tourist bits including some handmade fluorescent baby jackets then Kalor minaret and also the local jewellery market.

I stopped for another coffee at a local restaurant where I also found a huge baklava with local fruit and nuts in. Think I am coming down with a cold or virus as coffee is the only way to keep me going at the moment. It was a really cold day and my feet were getting cold so I decided that I would buy a new pair of warm socks after exploring the Ark.

I did miss out a small prison museum which was significant for England. …..

I walked down to the local bazaar and found fluffy socks. The stall holder was laughing as I wanted to keep them on. I continued walking in the bazaar and found stalls selling local clothes.

Also a stall selling pashminas. Since I had left my coat at home I decided to buy one, it would be cheaper here than a tourist shop. A guy from Belarus was also looking . I tried to get the stall holder to give us a better price for taking more. He did (25,000 approx $4) or at least for the guy since he bought three and then walked away. I had to pay more 26,000. The stall holder walked away and told his friend how much to collect. I gave him 25,000 the same as the others prepared to give him one more if he asked. He counted it then gave me 4,000 back) a bonus I walked away happy.  He must have realised his mistake as he came after me demanding money back sorry no (benefit of not speaking the language). He eventually left. I later spoke to the GH owner and she confirmed the local price was 15,000 so I didn’t feel that bad. My final stop as to the old city wall, as you can see its made out of mud and bricks made of mud. Its amazing how it has stayed up.

At the end of the day I went through the day's itinerary and photos with the gh owner; she was happy that I had seen everything and had a good day.

Tonight was a special moon with Aries so I was pretty disappointed when it was cloudy, however walking to the restaurant it was actually a benefit since a red aura could be seen around the moon. Back at the guest house a white dove was waiting on my private stairwell, the gh owner pointed it out and had said they have never seen one of these before (google translate works wonders in these situations). It stayed well after I had gone to sleep.

Day 5 – Bukhara

I woke up without much energy but the gh owner was insistent that I went out to visit sights. She made me a special breakfast of meat (mostly fat which I ate round) and yoghurt with fruit. I walked down to Char minor which I thought must be pretty speculator as it was on the front of the current Central Asia lonely planet. I almost missed it as it was only small and was in the middle of a housing area. Luckily one of the local women helped point me in the right direction.  I was the only tourist there to start with so was able to enjoy. I read a book in the only stall inside, luckily I did as there was hidden stairwell in the last minaret which led to the roof.

I missed out the next  attraction and instead went to catch a Marshuka (shared minibus) to Emir summer palace which is on gh owner said I should not miss. I flagged down two but they said no when I said the bazaar name I wanted. I enlisted a local who spoke some English and she was able to get me the next one which was indeed going my way.

The summer palace was filled with local tourists and wedding parties having their photos taken.  A local male tourist stopped me whilst walking through pushing me towards a mirror, I had no idea what was going on but had previously learnt this is there way of making sure I did not miss out on things.  On looking at the mirror which had three panels I realised that it was indeed special and I was able to myself being reflected several times. Some may say that's a bad thing but will leave it to you to decide...

 Ceiling in the summer palace

This image is seen all over Central Asia mostly with the fabulous watermelon

Mode of transport throughout the countries

Cotton plant grown all over Uzbekistan and Central Asia

Day 6 – journey to Khiva

Today was spent on a 6 hour car journey going to Khiva.  The gh owner had arranged for me to be picked up from the door at 9am.  There were two larger men in the backseat so was relieved that we had requested the front seat. She had thought it would be suitable to say I was pregnant and therefore needed the space when I tried to explain I get car sick. Hmm tricky one later when they were asking how many children I had and where was my husband. Very tricky as my luggage is rather heavy and definitely one not to be picked up by someone pregnant. We survived.

Day 7 Khiva

I like Khiva, it is small enough to walk around in a day and is surrounded by a city wall so can’t get lost. I spent the day with an Aussie guy, decided that it would make the museums more interesting. The entrance ticket covers all 16 buildings (madrassas and museums) and we managed to get through 6, not bad I guess.
 
 
Views at sunset over the city
 City wall
 My favourite was a trip to the music museum which we had walked around with a local family consisting of two women , a man and three older men which included two of their fathers. One of the women grabbed me and said dance? She had found a room with a tv which played local music and she loved to dance. In fact the three older guys also got up and danced. Considering one walked very slowly and with a stick it was great to see them having so much fun even if it was only for 5 minutes before he had to sit down again. We had a private show from the woman and she was a great dancer. Then she got me up with her, thank goodness for the practise in Tajikistan.

 
Old guy wearing traditional cap                               Dancer

That night we decided to go out for dinner, shashlik was the order of the day. We found what we naively thought was a quite café and after ordering the lights went down and the glitter ball started spinning to the  music that became louder.  We had hit on the towns answer to a nightclub. Little alcohol served instead the local teenagers were ordering food and coke. Unfortuately there is always one to spoil a party and one guy had managed to procure alcohol and was drunk. He decided to dance with another guys girlfriend so a fight broke out after he tried to get too cosy. We left not long after that.
 

We met this woman during one of the museum visits. Note her eyebrows which are considered beautiful for the older generation. It was also fashionable in the 90's to remove front teeth and replace them with gold ones. Luckily a practise that has stopped.

Traditional hats in Khiva

Day 8 – A day spent travelling

Back on the train again this time to Tashkent, the capital.  Left at 4:20pm and arrived at 8:45 am.

Trains in this country are not as great as those in Russia. I was on top bunk but there wasn’t enough room to sit up so when my room mates decided to start making their beds (5:30pm) then I had to lie down on my bed, very claustrophobic and by 6pm I was asleep and luckily did not wake up until 6:30am the next morning when the others were getting ready to leave. 

I decided that even after an overnight train that I would not stay in the capital longer than had to so took a taxi to Fergana, the valley known as the garden of Uzbekistan since it grows a huge amount of fruit and veg. The taxi driver who picked me up from the train station was tasked with finding me the best price and a front seat. He relished the idea and kept asking which car (he reeled off a number of makes and model) I wanted, I did not really care as long as it was large enough to get my bags in and I had the front seat.  He spoke to a number of local taxi drivers and dismissed each in turn either on price or size of car. In Uzbekistan it sounds like people are arguing when in fact it is just discussion and they can take a while. He eventually found one to his liking surprise surprise it was a white car. No idea of make or model it obviously wasn’t that important when I was making notes in my diary after all his hard work. I did the final negotiation; I need coffee before we leave! My bags were scurried away by the new driver pleased that he had finally got his fourth person and could leave. Then I beckoned for me to follow as he shouted café. He selected the shop and told them black coffee I also selected a large filo pastry filled with honey and nuts. He showed me his watch and pointed 10 minutes and then he was off but back within the 10 minutes as promised. We were off..

The 5 hour journey was great - he was a mature driver so stuck to the speed limits (in most cases). We had to stop a couple of times for registration of the tourist; I think this was because we were near the borders of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan so were more diligent. We crossed over mountain passes, it was great to see mountains again as this was something that was lacking in Uzbekistan and something I now craved. The valley I realised later was none existent however the fields of crops and cotton were prevalent.  


Local traffic jam!!


Locally grown apples for sale on the side of the road

We stopped only once on route to buy special traditional bread from the area. I’d managed to find an onion bread and was pleased until the driver lead me off to another stall to buy the traditional bread they had all stopped for. It lasted a week and tasted more like pastry. He was surprised when I only wanted a little one , wish  I had listened to him.

Vocal sellers all trying to out shout each other selling a local delicacy, mares milk balls which are hard, salty and take forever to get through. Not to my liking 

My hostel – Valentina’s was in an old Russian housing block of flats, luckily the owner (originally from Crimea) was downstairs when we arrived otherwise we may never have found it. Fergana is a highly educated town and the houses and shops reflected this I worked out. I was presented with a single room no breakfast or internet was included.  The quilts and decor of the house were very 1970’s with frills. All handmade I realised later when I saw her sewing machine and latest creation.

She told me what my plans were for the next couple of days. Tonight dinner should be at Fun city  (she pronounced fancity) Tomorrow I should catch a bus to Margilon and visit the silk factory and then on Sunday visit the market since it was the best in the area if not Uzbekistan. The market was one of the main reasons for coming to Fergana besides not wanting to spend time in the capital.

Dinner was Russian buffet style so I pigged out. Mash potato, cutlets, squash and pepper stuffed with minced beef. Washed down with compote.

Day 9 – Visit to silk factory

After a lie in I ventured down into the town and to the bus station near the bazaar. I decided to stop off on route to get a coffee and breakfast. I found a fast food restaurant and ordered what I thought was a black coffee (surely coffee without milk and without sugar = black coffee) wrong first one came with milk and sugar (3 in 1 sachet) this was quickly sent back and was replaced with black coffee with sugar. Once again sent back and 3^rd time lucky the black coffee arrived. Breakfast was too much hassle here so decided to buy bread as walked through to the minibus.

Silk factory was great, as it was Saturday very few people were working but I did learn that woman did most of the intricate work whilst the men carried out the dyeing and also designing of the fabric.

Next I decided to go and buy my train ticket for the next evening. When I arrived the ticket office was closed for lunch so I sat talking to a lawyer who’s mother (a doctor) lived in Fergana and he was visiting. The conversation went on for over an hour whilst we waited for them to finish their “lunch break”. He helped buy my ticket before we decided to go and eat shashlik from the best stall in the area which happened to be outside the train station.

 As we had a shared interest in food and cooking the lunch went on for a further hour. 3 shashliks each later (a skewer with five large pieces of meat and a piece of fat on), bread and raw onions oh and two pots of green tea he headed for his train.

Dinner was at a Baliq (fish) restaurant  he had recommended. I gave the piece of paper to Valentina who tried to tell me not to bother going as she had not heard of it.  Instead I managed to get a fellow guest from Japan to accompany me which not only made the taxi cheaper but as we were going through dark roads and out of town to an area I was not familiar with it made me feel safer. The taxi driver was not very familiar with the area either so we ended up using a combination of maps me and him calling his friends to navigate us in. We found it down by the river in the middle of nowhere.

We sat in a room with a group of guys who were happily getting drunk.  After pointing at their fish and salad we found out it was Carp and cost 16,000 each so one to share was a better option. We ordered a salad each and bread to share. It tasted great and was worth the long wait. Carp is not a fish I’d eaten before but would recommend. The guys in the room got louder and louder as more friends arrived. By the end of the meal they had drunk enough to ask us for photos.  The restaurant staff joined in as they had not had tourists before.

Day 10 – Bazaar

The guy from the previous night out decided to join me to go to the market so at 7:30am we walked into town again and back to the restaurant for coffee. My thought process was that they would remember how I liked my coffee. Wrong, it took two attempts before they got it right. The Japanese guy just accepted black coffee with sugar. Maybe I am too fussy?

We eventually found the right bus station – three to choose from and piled into the bus. We had the last two seats on the back seat. By the time we got to the market the bus was crammed packed without any breathing space. The doors at the back of the bus were jammed closed as there were so many people. The market was worth the effort, in fact we walked around for three hours. You could buy anything and everything here from car parts to elastic, shoes to local bedding.

 Uzbek common pottery, the design features a cotton flower and leaf


Car part stalls

Local shoes, these are worn around the house to protect the boots made dirty outside. Some people wear them together. They are paitent material so no need to spend long polishing them.

I wanted to go to buy some local Ikat material which I had seen at the silk factory. I had been told that it was much cheaper in the market since very few tourists go there. I started looking round the ikat stalls and with the help of a local woman found a scarf I liked, next thing I know she is buying it for me as a gift.  She was buying eight for herself so I thought it was the best thing to accept. It will look great as a wall hanging as would the other material I bought later.


The market was so crazy all the aisle were full to bursting with locals buying items. It was great to see and inspired me to write a poem about it (something I had taken to in Uzbekistan) as it was the only way to do the place justice and remember what was going on once back home.


 Bread seller

 busy side alley in the market

Lunch was shashlik at the market before heading back to Fergana to catch the train. The train was a new service that had only started in September. Before that trains headed through Tajikistan and therefore took a long time. The new service went through a 20 kilometre tunnel which had been cut into the mountains and made the service much smoother.  Unfortunately just as we were getting to the tunnel we were made to close the curtains, it was dark guess you would not see much anyway.

Taskent, the Capital was a quick stop for a day, Spent time in the local market

Sweet stalls (these can be found all over the country

Biscuit seller, buy as much as you need. They can get stale by the end of the box

 Flour all different grades and types

Tea seller green or black are both popular choices.

Then around a couple of sights. Easily accessible via metro which like Russian metro have highly decorative walls and ceiilings.

 Front gates to the park

 Earthquake monument

 Crying mother monument . Constructed in 1999 to commemorate the 400,000 uzbek sliders who died in ww2.

Amir Timur monument - there is one in every town and city


Next heading for Kazakhstan.


Saw this post, one to consider for my future job interviews

http://uncorneredmarket.com/7-habits-of-highly-effective-travelers/