Our train trip to Bukhara was quick and comfortable. The modern fast train did the 260km trip in about 1.5 hours.
Arriving at the Bukhara train station, we were swamped by taxi drivers. Looking at my Yandex app (the local equivalent of Uber), I could see the price should be about 28,000 - 30,000 som, I was aware though that we were half an hour out of town and we might have to wait that long for a car. Also, Yandex is cheaper than taxis as a rule. One taxi driver latched onto us and was saying the price was 300,000 som! Whenever I said 30,000, he would say "Yes! Three!" and show me his phone quickly where he had 300000 written without a comma to make me think that we were agreeing on 30,000. He gave me the pips but somehow we agreed on a price of 100,000 (way too much!) and off we went. He tried to show us a few sights along the way, but I was too grumpy with him to talk much, though it wasn't much in our currency.
We arrived at the hotel and John handed him two 50,000 notes. We turned to pick up our bags then the driver said, "Excuse me" and showed us a 50,000 and a 2,000 note in his hand and said John gave him the wrong money. John knew he hadn't and stood
his ground saying the guy had swapped out the notes. The guy just shrugged and
left, a sure sign he trying one on us!
The sour taste of ripping off continued when we had lunch and the waiter directly asked for a tip even though it took forever to get our
meal. I then went to pay our lovely hotel and they used an old exchange rate
which was more favourable for them. Overtourism is such a bad thing.
On the other hand, we got a great hotel room at last! It was so big compared to others we'd been staying in recently. It was beautifully decorated with cornices and carved ceiling beams similar to those we saw in historic buildings in the city. It was wonderful to come back to it after a long day walking. We could have just hung out in the room for days, lol.
The cornices were made of a decorative plaster and were hand-painted. We later realised that this is a traditional style in Bukhara.
The beams supporting the roof were all carved in the middle. Again, we later realised that this is sometimes done in Bukhara's grand historical buildings.
On our first afternoon we wandered around just exploring. There
were so many beautiful old buildings but so many tourists! Again, groups of
them wandered along following a flag-bearing guide. The town was large enough to handle them though.
Like Samarkand, Bukhara had so many historic sites that they became a bit of a blur at times. We nicknamed Uzbekistan the 4Ms country - mosques, minarets, madrasas and mausoleums!
There were many madrasas here again. Some went against Islamic rules by depicting animals on them.
We were often the first people out and about but sometimes the Instagrammers beat us. We waited ages while one woman brushed another woman's hair right in front of the madrasa I was trying to photograph. Their blue and green outfits would have been chosen to suit the location.
In the end I got tired of waiting and took the photo anyway.
The most famous structure in Bukhara is the Kalon Minaret. When it was built in 1127 it was probably the tallest structure in Central Asia. It was the only building in the city spared by Genghis Khan when he raided it, as he was so impressed by it. It was beautiful.
The details on it were amazing.
In some parts of the city, there were domes, madrasas and minarets everywhere we looked!
I liked the old marketplaces. There were a number of them scattered through the town. Domed arches provided shelter to vendors selling tourist paraphernalia. Clothing made up a big chunk of this, but it was mostly local clothing which was good to see. When we came through here before the stall holders set up, it was beautiful and peaceful.
Many of their domes were beautifully decorated underneath.
The rows of arches and domes catch the breezes in summer.
As much as it was touristy, local people lived there too. These three men were off for a hammam early one morning. They were carrying their bathing gear in plastic bags and turned into the hammam just after I took this photo.
You could buy all sorts of things. The colourful caps were popular with tourists.
Pottery was big, as it had been made there for centuries.
One day we walked past one of the markets and dozens of carpets were laid out on the ground, all of them shades of red. A few men were looking at them. I think they were doing some sort of bulk purchase.
There were many stunning, very old doors.
Even the house number were lovely.
All sorts of trades operated along a few streets. The blacksmith had a great-looking shop.
There was even a traditional puppet-maker.
Some of the silk rugs for sale were stunning.
The Bolo-Hauz Mosque was one of our favourites. Tall, slender tree trunk posts supported the entrance roof. Some were bent with age.
The ceiling of the outdoor porch was stunning.
It was just as beautiful inside.
The Ark was one of Bukhara's most famous buildings, but I suspect we were getting a bit overdone by this stage as it didn't impress us much. This large fort was built in the 5th century and survived until 1920 when it was bombed by the Red Army. For all those centuries it was the home of Bukhara's emirs.
It has now been partly restored.
The fort contained a whole city, including a mosque of course. Decorated columns held up parts of the roof.
Inside the mosque were painted cornices, similar to the ones in our hotel room.
Metalworkers at work beside a carpet-seller's stand.
In a museum I found these stunning decorative horse rugs. The narrower end sat under the saddle and the wider end draped over the horse's rump.
The Ismail Samani Mausoleum was amazing. It was made entirely from baked terracotta bricks. I went inside and found two Muslim women praying. Obviously, it's still a very special place!
This building on the main square was lovely in that it wasn't outrageously decorated. There was a certain charm to its detailed brickwork.
Inside the Kalon Mosque. It was large enough to hold 10,000 worshippers.
Part of the highly-decorated House Museum of Faizulla Khodjaev. This 19th century home of a wealthy man was one of the few surviving from that era.
I love the manhole covers!
We found a wonderful restaurant in an historical building. It
was built by a wealthy Jewish merchant in the Islamic style. It was
gorgeous.
Unfortunately, we both got minor tummy bugs in Bukhara (not from this restaurant). We didn't follow the golden rule to not eat salads here, did we?
We were back on another train to go to our next destination, Khiva. This train, however, was an old Soviet one and it took 6.5 hours to travel there. Train tickets sell out fast and we could only get a sleeper train, even though it was daytime. It was all a bit weird trying to work space out with the two younger men on the top bunks.
The land quickly turned to desert. This is more like what I imagined the Silk Road traders riding their camels along!
After a few hours, we neared a river and started to pass greenery again. Cotton is a huge crop in Uzbekistan and we saw lots of it.
Our hotel turned out to fine but our room was quite small again. We did, however, have a large balcony which turned out to be a godsend as both our stomach bugs got worse. John's cleared up after a few days but mine dragged on. I tried eating only bread then I tried starving the bugs out, but they were stubborn little things!
The hotel was garishly decorated. That's our balcony above the red carpet (many hotels do the red carpet thing here.)
Luckily, our hotel was inside the old city walls and everything we wanted to see was close by. Khiva was quite different to the other Uzbek towns we'd been in in that the whole town was a living museum. It was only small so it was easy to just wander around and see the sights. Busloads of tourists came in during the day but in far less numbers than the other two big cities we'd been in. If we got up early, we had the place to ourselves.
One of my favourite places was the Juma Mosque, built in the 10th century. 213 elm trunks supported the roof and they created a really lovely effect. Most of the posts aren't from the 10th century, as the mosque has been largely rebuilt since then, but there were still some really old ones there. All of them were carved in unique patterns.
A really old carved post.
Just near our hotel was the Islam Khoja Minaret, one of the most beautiful we've seen. The bands of yellow and blue were unusual and quite striking. We had planned to climb up inside it but we weren't well enough, sadly.
We ate dinner (or didn't eat at all) on our balcony a few evenings. The minaret was gorgeous at dusk!
The other minaret that I really loved was the Kalta Minar. It was designed to be the tallest minaret in Central Asia, but the owner died before it was completed, so it remains stumpy to this day. The glazed brickwork on it is amazing though.
There were so many historical buildings to see! There were sumptuous palaces. The oddly-named Kunya Ark was where the khans used to live. It was a fortified city within a fortified city. Its walls were pretty cool.
Inside was a maze of tiled walls.
The throne room there really was that - not a name for a toilet! The original silver throne was taken by the Russians so this one is a replica. This is where important visitors would have been received by the emir.
In the 1800's, a newer palace was built by over 1,000 slaves. The harem was all tiles and loveliness, however the lives of the many concubines weren't great. The concubines were usually slaves. Only the khan's four wives could bear his children so any concubines that fell pregnant were forced to have abortions, which often killed them as well. They were sent to the harem as young as 12. If the khan died, his concubines were all sold back through the slave market.
The bed chamber.
The tile work in the harem was lovely.
A decorated ceiling.
The Abd al Bobo Mausoleum was really peaceful and beautiful, despite it being built on the site of the original slave market.
Another sensational madrasa.
Being a region known for its wood carving, there were so many wonderful carved doors!
Some seemed incredibly old.
The house numbers and street names were even more lovely than those in Bukhara!
I found this old street that clearly still had its ancient stone paving. I could easily see cart wheel tracks caused by years of carts being pulled along it.
The many domes, minarets and madrasa facades meant that there was always a wonderful new view at every turn.
Most of the town had been completely renovated but there were still a few places where ruins seemed to be awaiting exploration.
Ive never seen tiled crenelations before!
Khiva is a double-walled city. The oldest part of the town is inside one wall then a not-quite-so-old part lies between the oldest walls and the newer ones. The oldest walls have been fully restored. They look very impressive, but we don't know how they would stop serious invaders as some parts could be climbed up without much effort.
One morning we walked around the old walls. It was more adventurous than I imagined. First we had to climb up really steep steps inside the walls.
Most of the path along the walls was wide but some parts were very narrow. There were loose bricks in some of the narrow places and nothing to stop people falling over the edges.
We discovered a heap of tombs in one corner.
We kept seeing big, woolly hats for sale. I thought it was just something from the past that was dredged up for the tourists until I saw some old photos in a museum. Almost everyone in this photo is wearing one!
We've found a few weird mannequins in our travels and this one fitted right in! It was black, but the colour had worn off in places.
The woollen hat it was modelling is typical of the hats for sale. The ends are curly as that's the type of wool the sheep have here.
Another fabulous manhole cover. Ichan Qala means Old Town.
Not everything inside the old city walls was ancient!
Our time here was strange as we were unwell. To top it off, we had allowed an extra day here to fit in with the first of our flights that will take us home, so we just cruised around. We would walk for a bit then go back to our room and recover. It was such a change after having been climbing mountains only last week!
It was also frustrating as, five days after we booked all our flights and accommodation to get home, Courtney found out that their graduation is two days before our arrival date. We couldn't change our flights. If only we'd known a bit earlier!
John started to come good part way through our stay in Khiva and I finally felt better on our last day. Thank goodness. Neither of us wanted the runs while flying!
The flight to Tashkent, the capital, was our first flight with Uzbekistan Airlines. It's supposed to be safe, which is the important thing to us. We boarded the plane to find we were in the very back row. The large man sitting next to me reeked of alcohol - not today's alcohol, but last night's. He was at the stage where it was coming out of his pores. He took up a chunk of my seat and played noisy YouTube videos. To top it off, the flight was an hour and a half and they didn't let anyone out of their seats to go to the toilet! John tried anyway but the toilets were locked. Finally, another Aussie guy somehow convinced them to unlock one toilet. It was ridiculous. And we've got an overnight flight coming up with this mob!
Our hotel in Tashkent was an older one but it was fine. It was opposite an old Soviet dome which is now used as a circus.
A guy at our hotel had recommended a local place for lunch so off we went. The menu was very meaty so I asked for some vegetable dumplings. Nope - they only had meat ones. We didn't want to risk the salads there so we asked the waiter what we could have without much meat. He suggested a platter that had dolmas on it (cabbage rolls) and other things. The platter turned up. On the bottom was one potato, one slice of tomato and some onion. On top of those were one meat-filled dolma, some weird sausages and slabs of roast beef. It was a greasy, suss, meat-fest. Even John couldn't eat much of it and he's much tougher than me when it comes to things like that.
The brand-new Centre for Islamic Civilisation is a huge, modern take on the traditional buildings. We were there on a Saturday and there were many locals there but they were mostly just hanging around, not going inside to see the museum. I looked up the prices and they were really expensive, especially for tourists. I wonder how long it will take to recoup the costs at this rate?
Golden doors led a few people inside.
A bride was having photos taken on a set of stairs there. Nearby you could rent dresses with really long trains like this one to have photos taken in.
Not a lot of the old town remained but we saw a few lovely mosques, minarets and madrasas. We thought we should add another M to the list, so we visited the huge market, lol. It's the oldest in Central Asia. It was genuine and very good. There were huge amounts of the usual wares, including colourful spices, soft cheeses and bag after bag of onions.
Nearby was a take-away food section. Even at this early hour, plov was ready to go.
One of the more unusual things to do in Tashkent is to ride the underground Metro system to see the stations! Many of the stations have been decorated in interesting ways. The whole process was so easy - just rock up to a turnstile, hold your credit card on the scanner and it deducts about 22 cents for your ride, no matter how far you go.
This station had elegant ceiling domes.
Chandeliers in an underground train station? Why not!
One station was dedicated to various cosmonauts, including an Uzbek/Russian one and the first woman in space.
We wandered along a lovely river and through many parks. The Crying Mother War Memorial has an eternal flame in front. It's to honour the 480,000 Uzbek soldiers who died in WW2 plus those who died in the Soviet/Afghan war in the 1980's. All fighting someone else's war.
Nearby, the names of the fallen were engraved on large copper 'books'. It was upsetting to see an older local man staying in front of one particular page of names. He looked so sad. He was probably in his 70's so I don't know if he lost his father in WW2 or a son or brother in the Soviet/ Afghan war.
Walking past a large mosque, we approached a funeral procession heading to the mosque. There must have been maybe 80 men there and no women. The body was being carried on a kind of stretcher and, in a beautiful gesture, it was passed along a long line of men, so each person got to help carry the body to the mosque. It was very touching.
We had read about a samsa (pie) place that's well known for is great pastry. It wasn't where it used to be, but we found it and couldn't believe our eyes. We expected a small, hole in the wall place, but this was huge! Tables, all full, were dotted around a patio and more were inside. We had to wait to get a table. The samsas were ordered by getting in a queue which stretched out onto the footpath! I'm in the queue behind the tree in this pic.
I'm not a fan of the greasy meats they have here so I ordered some vegetable ones. It turned out that 'vegetable' meant meat with a few vegies thrown in! For the next hour or two I felt like I needed to drink some sort of degreasing fluid!
My last manhole cover photo, lol.
Looking back on our trip to the 'Stans, it was all amazing. We loved the stunning mountains and lakes of Kazakhstan, the horse culture, the Nomad Games and the eroded hills and valleys of Kyrgyzstan, the Seven Lakes district of Tajikistan and the knock-your-socks off architecture of Uzbekistan.
But, not surprisingly, we also loved the people. Even though the Kazakhs and Kyrgyz were racially different to the Tajiks and Uzbeks, all of them were friendly, kind and hospitable (except the odd taxi driver of course!). People were genuinely interested in us, to the point where women often tried to sneak photos of me. Men would approach John, shake his hand and ask where he was from.
I loved the way that whenever you meet someone you say "Salam Alaikum" and put your hand on your heart. Your hand also goes on your heart when you say thank you. It's a very respectful thing to experience. I think it's something we should all adopt!
Were both feeling drained from our days of having the runs and, somewhere along the way, John developed a niggling cough. We caught our overnight flight to Kuala Lumpur on which we both barely slept. We arrived at KL even tireder and were happy to chill in our room. Two days later we flew home - and brought covid with us. As I write this, we've been home five days and are both still quite unwell, although there has been some improvement in the last day or two, thank goodness. This one has really rocked us!
Thanks for following along on our journey. It's been such a wonderful trip.
Cheers,
Heather and John
