Stars in an Uzbek music video

There are two ways that you can tell that you’re in Central Asia… stretchy, yet rough,toilet paper and the only option for vegetarians is bread and vegetables that you buy yourself at the market.  Luckily I brought some Jif with me so at least I’ve been having peanut butter on my bread along with my plate of sliced tomatoes and cucumbers.  And the bread is GOOD.  They call it “non” which is pretty funny because the bread section of the market was labeled “NON – BREAD” in Samarkand – the first place we saw any signage in English.  Samarkand is the closest thing to a “tourist trap” in Uzbekistan but even still, there are very few tourists. 

Samarkand was a key Silk Road city back in the day and when Timur made it his capital in 1370 he turned it into something of a mythical place with massive mosques, masoleums and medressas so elaborate and impressive that you can’t stop your jaw from dropping.  Even still, Samarkand probably wasn’t our favorite of the three cities we visited in this country just because the sites are spread out and in between the modern Samarkand has taken over so you lose that feeling of being transported back in time like in Khiva or even Bukhara.  Regardless, Samarkand’s sites by themselves were astounding.

We spent two days wandering around – the highlights being the Registan: a collection of towering, intricately decorated medressas, the Bibi-Khanym Mosque: the tallest mosque we’ve seen by far (the cupola stood at 41m), and the Shah-I-Zinda: an avenue of stunningly beautiful masoleums.  Because it was about to be Independence Day here there were several stages set up in the main plaza of the Registan with spotlights and grandstands polluting the otherwise majestic views of the incedible structures but it was still awesome.  Hopefully you can get a bit of the sense of scale from the photos. 

At the Bibi-Khanym Mosque we were approached by a couple of Uzbek film makers that were shooting a music video for one of their brother’s bands.  They asked us if we would be a part of the video because they wanted to show that there were in fact foreign tourists in their country.  We agreed before we realized that we actually had to sing too.  They assured us that they were going to add in a lot of other voices singing on top of ours so we wouldn’t be heard.  I certainly hope so.  The words were something like “Hello Uzbekistan… you are my fairy tale…” and we were supposed to sway and bob our heads side to side as we sang.  One of them friended me on Facebook and promised to share the final version with me when it’s done… I sincerely hope they end up editing us out of it.  🙂

My personal favorite spot in Samarkand was the Shah-I-Zinda or “avenue of masoleums” where supposedly many of the relatives of Timur, the Prophet Mohammed and other well-connected folks were buried.  A very narrow walkway was lined with towering tourquiose-tiled masoleums, exquisitely designed both inside and out.  Of all the places we visited, this was really the only one where we saw people praying which only added to the sense of meaning.

Other than exploring the main sites, we spent our time wandering the back streets of the old town.  The authorities have tried to cut this area off by building walls around it, making it very difficult for non-locals to figure out how to get in.  Thanks to the Lonely Planet we found the one small door leading in but it took us a good hour to walk far enough to get out the other side.  We tried alley after alley assuming it would connect with a parallel street where our guesthouse was located but no – they were all dead ends.  Eventually we walked to the point where I guess the government thought no one would venture that far and stopped extending the wall.  A little frustrating but in the end helped make for a fun little adventure and some interesting views into the real lives of the locals.  The homes are all hidden by large metal gates and mud-brick or cement walls.  The few gates that were open allowed us to catch glimpses of quaint courtyards with gardens at their center.  Down one dusty alley we came across some young boys playing a version of bocce ball with rocks.  Once in a while a car would force us to the side of the alley but luckily most of the vehicles here are very narrow – Chevy Sparks seem to be very popular in fact. 

My Ukrainian has been coming in handy although we have certainly hit a few roadblocks once the locals start to assume that I understand Russian perfectly and start to ramble on and on.  We sat for a little while in the bazaar trying to get some candid people shots and a young man started to talk to us – asking if we were journalists.  Eventually he understood that we were tourists and that we were married but for some reason I couldn’t get the point across that we just got married about two weeks ago.  He seemed confused that we were so old and didn’t have any kids – boasting that he was 26 and already had two.  Oh well.  Later, I was asked by another vendor how long we have been married and this time she understood me and even gave us a newlywed bonus – an extra scoop of the vinegar-soaked salad that we tried that evening for dinner (quite good actually and even had some eggplant in it!).  Too bad we couldn’t get the same kind of discount when Jit wanted to buy a banana.  They’re imported from Ecuador and going for about $1 each (when you compare that to $1 for a kilogram of apples it’s obvious that bananas are a bit of a luxury item). 

After our second night in Samarkand it was time to get back on the train and head back to Tashkent for our last night in Uzbekistan (assuming we don’t get stuck anywhere trying to get to the Kyrgyzstan border tomorrow).  As we were walking into the train station, we came across a group of what looked like Indian tourists but upon closer inspection we realized that they were all wearing the same shirt and it said “International Symposium of Aesthetic Cosmetics” on it.  Interesting.  🙂  Even more interesting because they were all male.  Anyway, we navigated our way to Tashkent and took the Metro back to the guesthouse where we stayed during our first few nights in this country.  It’s Independence Day so they are fully booked tonight so we’re sleeping in the courtyard on a large bed under the stars.  Hopefully there aren’t any mosquitoes.