Trip to Uzbekistan Part 4 - Tashkent

Our taxi's picked us up at 6:00 a.m. to take us to the train station.  We got there and through security and waited for about thirty minutes until we boarded the train to Tashkent.  We were on a train from Russia that looked like it was full of workers coming back to visit home.  The train was old and soviet style, so we felt right at home.  Our trip was about five hours, so we laid down and rested and had snacks  while we traveled. 

Waiting for the train.

When we got to Tashkent, we unloaded our bags.  Our rolling bag's wheels were broken.  We think the taxi driver broke the wheels when he was loading it.  The bag has been with us since our first year in Kazakhstan.  We've taken it back and forth to the US at least once a year, to southeast Asia a number of times, to Europe (multiple times), to Russia three times, and to Georgia and Uzbekistan. I also used it on most of my conference trips to the US.  That bag has some miles on it!

It meant that it had to be carried, which was a job.  We took the subway and then walked to our hotel.  It was about a mile worth of walking, so it was plenty of exercise.  Our hotel was on a side street and was very nice.  It was the most like a real hotel of all the places we stayed.

We needed to get money to pay for food and stuff, but had a devil of a time finding an ATM that worked to dispense money.  Bukhara was nice in that sense.  There were only a couple of ATMs, but they all worked with foreign cards to dispense money.  In Tashkent, there were only a few that accepted cards other than the local ones.  We did finally have success getting the money we needed, though.

Outside our hotel.

We decided to go the "Harry Potter" cafe for dinner.   The decorations were nice and the food was yummy.  It was the most expensive place we ate the whole time we were traveling, but we had a lot of fun and the kids loved it.  We also got dessert for Yulia's birthday a few days earlier, so win-win!

Harry Potter cafe.  Salads for the grown ups.

Kids getting their food in fancy bowls.

Dessert!!!!

Saturday morning we started exploring Tashkent.  We started at the orthodox cathedral, the seat of the orthodox church in Central Asia.  It was interesting to compare it with the mosques we had been visiting.

Cathedral

We walked from the cathedral to an outdoor train museum. The museum had a lot of old soviet steam engine trains that you could climb up on and around.  My great grandfather was a machinist for the Union Pacific railroad and worked on the big steam engines (later diesel) so it was fun to show the kids around the trains.

Starting our train adventure.

After we had seen the trains, we got on the metro and went to the "Plov Center" to eat.  We had heard from our friends that it was the place to go.  We were not disappointed.  The scale of cooking was really impressive, and the restaurant was highly efficient, very cheap, and built to serve thousands at a time.  It was our cheapest meal and nobody left hungry.  We had nice salad, some bread, and a big dish of plov and some horse sausage (something we are very acquainted with from Kazakhstan.)

One of the many big vats where they cooked plov.

The main dining room (it was full, so we were taken to the overflow.)

Eating plov in the overflow.  Notice we also had a regular boiled egg and a quail egg as well!

Plov, in all its glory!!!

After we had our yummy plov meal, we took the metro to the main "Chorsu" bazaar.  Lina and Lexa both got their souvenirs there from a guy.  We had an interesting conversation about religion with the man who was selling.  The bazaar itself was huge and a bit overwhelming (especially for me), but we turned out okay.

We headed back to the hotel on the metro.

Sunday morning we took two taxis to the airport, checked in, and flew home without incident.  We arrived in Kazakhstan and took the bus home where we found that all was well.  Yuki had gotten a tick while we were gone, but Yana, one of my basketball team girls who was watching her, had seen it and gotten her to the vet without problems.

We had a wonderful time in Uzbekistan. Yulia had been a bit leery about going, but ended up very glad that we went.  It was a unique opportunity.  We are more likely to get to Europe again, but we may not have more chances to spend time in Central Asia.

Trip to Uzbekistan Part 3 - Samarkand

Our train didn't leave Bukhara until late afternoon on Tuesday.  In the morning after breakfast we went one last time to the market.  This is where Nika helped Sophia buy her outfit. See below. Sophie got the floor model of an outfit and really bartered her way to a price that was more affordable. Nika bought a similar outfit when we were in Samarkand.

The outfits are quite striking on both girls.

Sophie with her prize!

Sophie and Nika in their outfits.

After visiting the bazaar, we hung out on the plaza for awhile, got some lunch, and then got picked up by our cab driver from the day before and got taken to the train station.  The train station was full of foreign tourists getting ready to get on the fancy train to Tashkent.  

Our train was a slightly less fancy train.  When we were getting ready to get on the train we saw a group of returning sportsmen who were met with a band (horns and drums) and great fanfare.  The sports group had loaded up with bread in Samarkand, which is famous for its bread.  It was quite a sight.

Waiting with a bunch of tourists. There was a big group of American tourists who were going through Central Asia with their last stop in Kazakhstan.

On the train to Samarkand

In Samarkand we got two taxis to our hotel.  They got split up, but we managed to meet at our hotel which was centrally located in town.  The hotel itself was interesting.  The floors were covered in rugs and the clientele mostly seemed to be religious folks from various areas of the world.  We had a room on the first floor and the girls had a room on the second floor.  It was about 8:00 p.m. and dark when we arrived.  We checked in and then walked out and found a restaurant to eat in - a little Italian cafe a few blocks from the hotel.

Upstairs where girls had their room (lots of nice rugs on the floor).

We had nice breakfasts at all of our hotels.  Lots of good fresh fruit.

After we woke up, we ate breakfast at our hotel and then went out walking to explore.  We had mapped out our day, planning on having a relatively light day of walking and seeing since we had gone quite hard in Bukhara for three days.

Our hotel was in the center of the city and so walking to the main sites was very convenient.  Our first stop was at the statue of Timurlan (Tamerlane), who was a warrior who became the most powerful Muslim Leader of the 14th century.  His statue was in a traffic circle near our hotel and his mausoleum complex was just a few blocks away.

The Mausoleum was very commercialized - a number of tour buses pulled up at the time we were there, so it didn't have the same feel as some of the complexes we saw in Bukhara, which were quieter and more reverent.  Temirlane was a pretty horrible human being, so maybe reverence was the right feeling anyway....

At the mosque/mausoleum complex.

After visiting the mausoleum, we walked to "registan", the old center of the city which was the area of the kings.  The whole complex included a number of mosques and Madrasahs as well. We were really impressed with the parks and walkways throughout the center of the city.

Walking to registan.

Looking out at Samarkand.

Approaching Registan.

Amazing inlay work on the restored buildings.

Registan from the front entrance.

Mosque.

Lexa and Papa resting on a bench.

More amazing tile inlay work inside a mosque.

Nice inner courtyard in the rear mosque complex.

Furniture and other crafts.

Mama and Polina posing.

Veronika posing (one of just a handful pictures of her since she was our main photographer for the trip).

We really enjoyed the registan complex. We learned that one of the leaders, Ulugh Beg, had built an observatory in the 15th century. His work was the basis for a lot of later astronomical work by astronomers in Europe, including Copernicus. There was a really neat museum with displays about the science and about his life.

We saw a bunch of weddings while we were there. In fine Soviet tradition, the wedding party goes and gets photographs at all the landmarks.  If I was getting married in Samarkand, I'd go get my picture taken at Registan as well.  I got my picture taken with my wife, but it was 17.5 years too late!

After walking through the complex, we stopped at a little outdoor cafe and bought ice cream and water to eat.  Everyone was very happy about that.

Ice cream break. Notice the nice park behind us.

After our ice cream break, we took a walk to the main bazaar in town: the Siyob Bazaar.  It was down a nice road.  It had everything that we wanted and needed and we loaded up on treats (nuts, fruits, and local candy) for us and for others.

The bazaar with a selection of nuts and fruits.

We ate lunch with the locals at a local shwarma place and walked back to the hotel.  After resting for a few hours, we went out for dinner.  Yulia had looked up a restaurant, but we couldn't find it, so we went back to where we had eaten the night before.  We saw a sign for "KFC" and were curious.  A woman came out of the cafe and told us that they had KFC there.  We took a chance.  We were the only customers and it was a bit dark.  We were not sure because the prices seemed high (they were for massive portions it turns out).  We ordered KFC (which was just fried chicken) and some other dishes.  We ended up with a nice meal for a good price and a very interesting experience.  We have real KFC in Kazakhstan and I'm not sure that they want their name appropriated this way in Uzbekistan!

"KFC"

Our "KFC meal"

Famous Samarkand bread.

After dinner we returned to our hotel.  We had an early start scheduled for the next morning.  Our whirlwind stop in Samarkand was over.  We really enjoyed the sites there, but felt that one day was enough to see them.  We  were glad to have the more authentic experience for longer in Bukhara, but Registan and the parks in Samarkand were truly beautiful and impressive.

Trip to Uzbekistan Part 1 - Bukhara

For fall break this year we decided to visit Uzbekistan. At the beginning of the year, the country changed its visa laws and really opened up for westerners. Some of my colleagues had visited and everyone who went raved about how nice it was.  We decided to go - even if Yulia was a bit apprehensive at first - instead of making our usual trip to Europe somewhere for fall break.

We bought tickets from Astana to Tashkent and Yulia had booked our train travel and hotels ahead of time, so our travel itinerary was set.  I was in charge of the day to day sightseeing stuff.  I didn't do as good of job of planning as Yulia usually does, but we managed things quite well.

Our flight to Tashkent left at about 8:00 a.m. on Sunday.  The flight was just over an hour and a half and there was a 1 hour time difference (earlier), so we arrived around 9:00 local time.  The passport control and customs process was very quick.  Our online $20 visas were accepted with no problems and we didn't have to declare anything.  We changed some money, got some more money out of an ATM, and then made our way out of the airport.  

We made it through the gauntlet of taxi drivers - insistent, but not even as pushy as the ones at the airport and train station in Astana - and walked to the bus stop.  At the bus stop we figured out which bus we needed to get on and then rode it to the train station.  At the train station we bought some snacks and water and ate them and then went in to wait.  Our train was in the early afternoon so our wait was about 4 hours.  We found a little cafe in the station and had plov (pilaf, but so, so awesome) and some other yummy food while we waited.

Our train ride from Tashkent to Bukhara took a little over seven hours.  We did a lot of sleeping along the way.  When we arrived at the train station it was after dark.  We got two taxis and after a bit of an adventure finding our hotel, arrived at the Kok-i-Noor hotel around 10:00.  We were met by Sabina, who spoke a little English and who was fluent in Russian.  We got our room keys and settled in for the evening.  We were in Bukhara, Uzbekistan!

Our train route from Tashkent to Bukhara.

Waiting in Tashkent.

Boarding the train.

Trains!

Train rides make me sleepy.

And Nika, too!

Kids' room at hotel.

Our balcony. View from kids door. Our door is first one on right.

Looking down into courtyard.This is where we ate breakfast each morning.

Looking down on breakfast.

Breakfast.

Our hotel was in a little alleyway of regular houses near the "Choor Minor" or four minarets.  It was the gatehouse for a Madrassa (religious school) that was built sometime in the early 1800s.  Its architecture is different from anything else around.  We had a great view of it form our hotel.  Downtown Bukhara was less than a mile walk from our hotel through narrow alleyway streets.

Our first day we got up and ate breakfast (delicious all three days) and then went out exploring.  Our first stop was at the Choor Minoor.  The storks on top are fake, but in the old photos there was a time when all four minarets had a nesting pair of storks on it.  Storks are a symbol of good fortune, and these fake storks are on a lot of the buildings in Bukhara.

We paid a few extra s'om to get in and climb up to the roof.  A dollar was equal to about 9500 s'om, so we were carrying around some serious money!

Choor Minoor

Fruit trees and grape vines in the courtyard.

Pottery that reminded us of our trip to Greece last year.

The old buildings had these stone windows that let in light and air and they were beautiful.

Climbing up the stairs.

Narrow streets and walled houses.

Sophia

This was the back of Choor Minoor - our hotel was about 100 meters to the right of where this picture was taken.

a paved street with a water channel.

Adobe walls were common.  Reminded me of growing up in Ephraim, Utah!

We walked from Choor Minoor toward the downtown.  We really liked the feeling of walking in the alleyways and feeling part of the ancient city.  We passed some interesting things on the way, like a grave outside of one of the houses.

The first thing we came upon was an old wall.  As we walked around we found the main square.  The wall was that of a Madrassa that had also served as a caravan or place of shelter for groups traveling the Silk Road. Inside we found our first Uzbek souvenirs.  Yulia really only wanted a bread stamp - a device to make beautiful patterns in flat bread - and since it was her birthday we got her two!

Inside the Madrassa entrance.

Sophie and Lina standing next to carved wooden door.  The doors in Bukhara were amazing.  My grandpa Willardson would have loved them.  These two are taking woodcarving classes, so this was fun for them, too.

The main square had been made up very well with nice walkways, benches, and shady trees.  There were little irrigation canals running through the city and one ran through this area as well.   There was another Madrassa nearby so we looked at that and then sat in the shade and rested for a few minutes.

Main square with shade and nice walkways.

A statue of a character from folk tales in the region, Khodzha Nasreddin.

One of the Madrassas.  This one (like many of the others in town was a souvenir place.  They made jewelry and other crafts inside and sold them right there.

Inside the Madrassa. There was also a little cafe.

The whole family posing for a picture on the main square of Bukhara.

The beautiful tile work was unique and beautiful.

Just the two of us!

The man-made pond in the center of the square with traditional restaurant seating.

Canal running down the main thoroughfare.

One of the things that we had read about was a synagogue in Bukhara.  The town used to have Jews on one side and Muslims on the other.  There is still a small Jewish population, but it is mostly gone now.  There is still a mosque.  We ran into a lot of school kids on their break as we explored the little alleyways.

The man on the left with a stack of bedding is taking it from a wash place to a guesthouse. That was a regular set up in Bukhara: guest houses on one side of the street and washing facilities on another.

Near the main market. Lots of nice signs.  Bukhara was really ready for tourists!

After walking around and seeing the sites, we went back to the hotel and rested for about an hour and then we went back to a restaurant where a lady had told us to come and eat.  She was a babushka who was standing outside and calling out to tourists to buy things and come eat.  We told her we'd be back, so we came back.  We had a wonderful meal that was very reasonably priced! We quickly fell in love with mealtime in Uzbekistan.

After lunch we walked and found the old fortress, or the Ark.  It was pretty impressive from the outside and we went inside and looked.  They had an exhibit about writing and the Koran and a number of old books that had been copied by the scribes working in Bukhara in the Madrassas.  They had a distinct style of calligraphy that became very popular.

Much of the interior architecture reminded us of the forts in Agra and Jaipur that we visited in India a few years ago.

Wooden porch with decorative beams.  The beams were wooden.  Similar porches were in India, but many made of stones.

Looking out over the battlements.

Pottery at the market.

Throne under the porch at Ark.

Courtyard, view from near the throne.

Restored areas.

An example of a Koran

A little museum inside the fort.

Outside the fortress looking back toward the main madrassa and tower and central market.

Entrance to Madrassa with beautiful inlaid designs.

Late afternoon sunshine in a beautiful peaceful area.

This tower on the main madrassa in town is the symbol of Bukhara. It is quite impressive and can be seen from all over downtown.

Looking from one side to the other. 

Papa and the girls inside the madrassa courtyard.

Looking out from the courtyard.

Main market.

I am not sure what I am looking at. Probably trying to keep the kids from spending money!

Selling cloth and embroidery work.

Tourists at the market.

We had a full afternoon of exploring.  We explored the Ark inside and out and then went and looked at the Madrassas.  The one Madrassa was the only working one in the Soviet Union.  Ramzan Khadirov's father studied there in the 1960s.  We walked around the market and then walked home to the hotel.  On our way we passed a funeral procession of men carrying a coffin and chanting.  They were moving quickly because they needed to get him buried before sunset and it was already after 4:00 p.m.  Behind the men came a whole line of cars, probably to take them from the mosque (which was near our hotel) to the cemetery.  It was very interesting.

We rested for about an hour and then ventured out and found a little restaurant.  We were the first ones seated and had a nice meal (see the yummy salads!) together.  It was Yulia's birthday, so this counted as her birthday dinner.  I think she had a pretty nice birthday with more walking done than she usually does on her special day!

Chor Minor at night!

Yulia got these bread stamps (to stamp designs into flat bread) for her birthday.  It's what she really wanted even before we went.