May 20-21 Bukhara

Samarkand is surrounded by mountains, but Bukhara is surrounded by desert, the Kyzylkum Desert.  Such contrasts!  We arrived in Bukhara in plenty of time for dinner but we were rather pooped after a fairly long and rough but wonderful drive from Samarkand. 

We chose to dine on the balcony - delightful setting

The rather lovely dining room at Lyabi House

The hotel where we stayed, Lyabi House, was very quaint and featured a pretty, albeit small, dining room. There was a large group of French and German people staying at the hotel and we managed to piggyback on their set-menu dinner. It was OK but the next night we went looking and found something a bit different. 

A number of things were on our list to see in Bukhara including an old madrasa with woodcarving displays, a photographic gallery. Rather relunctantly, I opted to stay at the hotel to rest my ankle which was sore and swollen from walking a little too much in Samarkand (a hangover from a broken ankle sustained 6 months earlier). So Lindsay had the guide all to himself and enjoyed the highlights for both of us. 

Here I'm including an excerpt from Lindsay's blog in which he describes his solo tour of Bukhara https://www.tumblr.com/lindoig1 .

"We started with a tour of the madrasa just outside our hotel - just the same old, same old, intricately ornate, opulent looking extravaganza, loaded with buying opportunities, but my guide had a wealth of knowledge that he imparted freely to me. Unfortunately, some got lost in translation and some never found a nestling place in my memory. Interesting history at the time, but I simply don’t retain much of it for more than the length of a few verbal paragraphs.

"We then went to Char Minar, a former merchant’s trading place with 4 towers on a more human scale, still occupied by traders. I paid to climb to the top and decided that Heather wouldn’t have made that climb anyway - very steep narrow winding steps with huge risers and very low ceilings - quite a challenge even for me. The view was good though. Not all that high, but we could see a long way across the low rooves to get a bit of perspective on the Old City. The blue cupolas on these and many other towers were always referred to by my guide as the ‘turquoise turbans’. Cute!

Domed market [Photo L Doig])

"We walked through three multi-domed trading areas, all of them pleasantly cool under the domes. Apparently, the domes reflect much of the sun away from the enclosed area and the small hole in the top vents more heat as the warm air rises.

Entrsnce to the Ark of Bukhara - a massive fortess [Photo L Doig]) 

"We caught a cab across the city to the Fortress, including the 1400 year old Ark, an area surrounded by a museum, a madrasa, a mosque and some other historical buildings all contained within a mammoth city wall. It is in the process of restoration, mostly finished, but they are leaving one part in its original state so the tourists can see what it was like. There is a big music festival coming to Bukhara in a few days and the performers, mainly dancers in traditional dress, were doing a final rehearsal just outside the walls so we watched them for a few minutes before walking back to the hotel via a series of detours to see the sites/sights. I think it was about 4km, but that was because we took such a circuitous course. One stop was a photographic exhibition capturing traditional scenes and people from Bukhara, maybe 50 or so years ago. Some really great work on display, particularly the monochrome candid portraits of old people. Really striking work! The photographer is a local, but is recognised internationally for his work particularly during Soviet times.

A small portion of the Old City wall [Photo L Doig])

"We visited about 4 more madrasas and mosques, but I chose to admire them from outside. Most times, we sat nearby while my guide explained the history and significance of the icons and ornamentation on each and answered my questions. One thing I asked about was the sparkles, spangles and sequins on many of the women’s dresses. The women tend to dress very smartly, but it surprised me how bright the colours were, how much effort went into making themselves noticeable, even the emphasis on upper body shape in many cases, in a country where I imagined women would have striven to be as covered up and inconspicuous as possible. My guide said that the beads, colours and sequins were fashionable right across Uzbekistan, but particularly in Bukhara. Interestingly, I noticed lots of heavily sequinned dresses even on women working in the fields. We have seen a few hijabs and chadors as we have travelled west, but this was a feature that seemed counter to the trend.

"We finally walked back to the hotel that was effectively sandwiched between two more madrasas so my guide gave me another description of their history and design. One of them was built as a madrasa, but is now technically a mosque. When the president was opening it, he accidentally referred to it as a mosque - welcoming all the guests to the ‘opening of this wonderful mosque’. As a result, it had to be converted to a mosque, but it lacks most of the features of a normal mosque and has some ornamentation of some mythical beasts that would not otherwise appear on a mosque. Strange!"

Once back Lindsay and I went wandering in the cool of the evening and passed through an area of cafes and shops set around large pools where people were picnicking. In C19 Bukhara was ‘famous’ for plagues. They didn’t change the water in the city’s watering holes often enough and as a result life expectancy was 32 - I didn’t drink the water just to be on the safe side!  Our last night in Bukhara we went looking for and found an interesting restaurant. The food was fine - lots of BBQ, salads etc but the entertainment was excellent. A very talented violinist played an electric violin. He was superb!  It is Ramadan and evening meals are a bit special hence the entertainment perhaps. It was very festive.

One of 114 pools from which the plague stretched deadly fingers into the populace

Our entertainment - an electric violin. The sound was haunting

Next morning we were picked up and headed off to the border and Turkmenistan ....