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DAY 9 – 29th April, 2011
This was the first of several days, where we took in the awe-inspiring sights of Uzbekistan and began to get a sense of the enormous amount of history preserved here. We spent several hours checking out a Muslim art and craft centre, filled with amazing hand-crafted products, and visiting a fascinating market.
Muslim art and craft centre
Ornate hand-made furniture
Muslim art and craft centre
Ornate hand-made furniture
Visiting a local market with a huge selection of traditional costumes
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DAY 10 – 30th April, 2011
The next two days were really the highlight of the trip in terms of cultural experience. Another team member, Mr Luo from Shenzhen, joined our trip, flying in to Tashkent via Beijing. Next was a train journey across some of the flattest countryside imaginable, with a few small villages on the way as we journeyed by train to Bukhara for the 2011 Asrlar-Sadosi (The Echo of Centuries) festival, also called The Annual Festival Of Traditional Culture.
Train from Tashkent to Bukhara
The spectacular costumes, vibrant dancing, and the sense of history left us almost a little awestruck, as we stepped into another world where our Uzbek hosts warmly welcomed us into a cultural experience we will never forget. The friends we made here are still in touch with us and we hope we will see them again either in their homeland or elsewhere. Photos of the festival are on our Asrlar-Sadosi gallery page. Better yet take a look at a fascinating National Geographic documentary made concerning the 2012 festival - which was held in Karakalpakstan, formerly an autonomous area within Kazakhstan before becoming part of Uzbekistan in 1936 according to the wiki article on Karakalpakstan.
30 minute drive from the station to Bukhara
Walking road leading in to the city, alongside a canal
Our spotlessly clean hotel
Carved wooden posts – clear blue sky
Lane beside the hotel
One of many dance troupes in the street procession
Vibrant dancing
Sights around us
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With warm hospitality, the Tajik hotel owner dished up a great local breakfast in the courtyard, which probably looked the same hundreds of years ago. Two friendly volunteer student guides who had showed us around the day before, and who spoke surprisingly fluent English, took us to the top of the fort from which we looked out across the flat expanse of the surrounding plain.
Breakfast in the hotel courtyard
Heading to the fort
We didn't want to leave Bukhara, as there were many unexplored nooks and crannies we would have seen if we'd had time. For example we managed to check out only a few of the many handicraft shops, full of beautiful hand-woven carpets and exquisite ornaments. But with only 2 days left in the country, we didn’t want to miss going to Samarkand, which, from our research, we knew was filled with equally fascinating sights, each one with its own story going back to the time of the Silk Road.
We left Bukhara in the afternoon, feeling touched by the hospitality we had experienced, and took the train to Samarkand, arriving in the evening where we checked into another immaculately clean hotel, again with intricate patterns carved into the woodwork. The wiki article on Islamic art, explains that the use of geometrical floral or vegetal designs in a repetition known as the arabesque, used by architects, is intended to symbolize the transcendent, indivisible and infinite nature of God. Seeing it everywhere certainly had an effect along with the clean streets and courtyards. We heard that residents customarily come out early and even sweep the street in from on their home. We certainly did see nothing but clean streets.
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