Bukhara
Trip Start
Sep 04, 2003
1
15
22
Trip End
Dec 20, 2003
Bukhara,
Uzbekistan
Sunday, October 19, 2003
- Went with Karen and Anna to the Places Where the Cars Leave for Bukhara near the Samarkand TsUM (Soviet Central Department Store that has evolved slightly to keep up with the post-Soviet times... I think there's a TsUM and a GUM [GUM is roughly the same thing as TsUM] in every major city in the former Soviet Union, although Tashkent's GUM no longer exists... TsUM is pronounced tsoom and GUM is pronounced goom). Got ripped off on the price of the trip to Bukhara, but we had zilch options-- the timing for the train was completely off, and there were no buses marshoutkas or less expensive cars going.
Bukhara
- Spent the entire ride to Bukhara reading stories about evil emirs,dancing boys and tragic falls from minarets in our guidebooks and plotting future adventures to Shakrisabz, Ferghana, Nukus, and Places I Have Been Forbidden to Visit.
- Arrived in Bukhara and were told that where we were planning to stay was a bad idea (it was $5/night but according to our cab driver (not the guy who drove us to Bukhara-- he would take us no further than the edge of the city, where the Place Where the Cars Leave for Samarkand was, grr) it was a dangerous dive, and we should stay at Matluba's Mekhmonhona, which was $10/night but safer and provided breakfast. Knowing full well he was getting a cut from Matluba, we decided to go for it. Good call.
- Visited Laubi Haus, an old pool surrounded by mosques and an outdoor restaurant. We went to the mosques and the restaurant as well. I wish I had the pictures, dammit! Grrr.
- Visited many other mosques (they have kind of blurred together in my mind), and the old covered markets.
- Were continuously assaulted by questions about where we were from. That got really old. But Bukhara has become a tourist mecca, and you can see the difference in how Bukharans interact with foreigners as a recently hot destination and some other parts of Uzbekistan. Everyone speaks a little English, and isn't afraid to use it. I think they're used to mostly obnoxious tourists, because most vendors seem not necessarily aggressive but definitely very outgoing... and we did see plenty of obnoxious tourists. Anna definitely benefited from that, though-- we entered a market area right as some obnoxious Americans were leaving. Enter us with our varying proficiencies in Russian, Uzbek, Tajik, Persian and Turkish, and our basic courtesy. We were stars, and Anna got an amazing deal on her earrings for it.
- The Russian guy who sold Anna her earrings (Karen decided that she thinks he has spent time in Russian prison because of all his tattoos, but he was really nice) had a lot of "antiques" as well. They might actually be antiques for all I know. Anyway, before I really realized what was going on, Anna and Karen were dressing me up in a beautiful robe, necklace and headpiece. I WISH I STILL HAD THE PICTURES!
- Another dress up opportunity: Picture Charlie's Angels with huge furry hats-- we tried on Turkmen herdsman hats. Very cool. I will spare the repetition of the above missing picture comment, but you know I'm thinking it.
- The guy with the furry hats was also very cool. Each vendor in the mosque was allocated a tiny room that was formerly a student's cell. While we were looking at this guy's merchandise inside his cell, we started asking him about what certain architectural elements inside it were, because some of the original carvings and ornamentation was still there. We ended up getting a better history lesson from him than from most tour guides! He was a very nice guy.
To be continued...
