Hi to you all! Our trip is coming to an end. After midnight, Anne flies to Frankfort, then Detroit. I leave a little later and will fly to Istanbul to spend a week with my brother Thom. We've learned a lot, seen alot, talked with lovely people. Here's what we've been doing:
10/11: This morning we take a high-speed train to Bukhara, a main crossroad of the Silk Road, across flatlands where we see planted and harvested fields and various animals. The fastest speed I noticed the train going was 229 km, about 143 mph. Bukhara is still a shopping mecca, though many of the items we see, and buy, are made in China. The summer high temperature is 50° C, the winter low is -15° C. The Old City has 56 Jewish families, two synagogues and a school. We see a demonstration on making and playing with puppets, a miniaturist artist, old market sheds and caravanesari.
10/12: We visit an ancient mausoleum built in an Indian style. Our guide Bek explains the crescent above mosques. The crescent means Islam, and the number of balls underneath it indicate if there is praying, ablution, teaching. We see a 45-meter tall minaret, and learn the foundation is 10 meters underground. All along the Stans we hear stories of the destruction by Ghenghis Khan. Bek nicknamed him The Bulldozer. There are 12 different types of Arabic writing. Muslims don't believe a snake was involved in Adam and Eve's downfall. They believe a peacock was the culprit. And because of its involvement, God punished it by giving that beautiful animal a terrible screeching voice. Anne joins the group for dinner and sees a folk story and dance.
10/13: We visit the summer palace of Kwaja Bahauddin Naqshband. We had a terrific lunch at Bek's brother's restaurant where his sister shows us how she makes bread and samosas inside her tandoor oven. Later Anne and I sit in the park and see many brides. But we see something new: two brides come face-to-face on their walk. They stopped, pulled their veils over their heads to cover their faces and make 3 low bows to each other as a respectful greeting. We were so thrilled to see that.
10/14: Today we're on a 7-hour bus ride west through scrubland and desert on a bouncy road to lovely Khiva. This is a huge gas pumping and refinery region. We're on a new highway built by the Chinese for about three hours. We were delighted to find a recently updated pitstop with all new Western toilets out in the middle of nowhere. We see many rice fields.
10/15: The 2,000-year old walled city of Khiva is full of little streets, entertainment, madrassas, sellers. We love the short and two tall minarets. We are entertained by a family group this evening. Bek tells us women don't really drive in Uzbekistan, although I did see one. Did I mention that brides rent their wedding dresses? They are too expensive for families to buy.
10/16: Today it's a 4- hour bus drive to the northwest on rough roads through the semi-desert region to Nukus, the capital of the autonomous Republic of Karakalpakstan (the 6th Stan). We tour the Igor Savitsky museum. He was an avant garde artist forbidden to work in Russia and an archeologist. All along our trip we see hard working farmers and field workers. Bek tells us they have 300 days of sunshine here annually. We learn that the Aral Sea has been shrinking since the 1960's and that it could be a natural process. At a hillside necropolis, there's a building called the world clock; when all the rocks fall, it will be the end of the world. There I see those flying bugs that look like matchsticks, which I haven't seen since I was a kid. We see camels occasionally, which we learn were brought from Arabia centuries ago. We say goodbye to Bek, who is flying back to meet a group of Greek tourists. Opaa! When we were at the museum, Linda, our Chinese medicine healer, was invited to a concert tonight; so this evening about 8 of us take a short walk to it. It looked like a political rally, but actually it was a concert sponsored by the Uzbek Liberation Democratic Party. A couple young women stopped to talk to us, then a larger group, then also their teacher. A couple of us joined in dancing with the women. Then a couple shy guys came by, so we introduced them to the girls and made them get in the dance circle. We all had a great time, even though we were a bit concerned about the drone flying above us and the party officials dressed in suits all around. We were sad to leave the fun and wished the young people great futures. A couple party officials shook our hands as we left. The Uzbeks and all the people of the countries we've visited have been warm and friendly.
10/17: Another grueling border crossing, this time into northern Turkmenistan. Turkmenistan has been a neutral country since 1995. The government owns all the land. In 1948 there was a 9.0 earthquake here, killing about 200,000. Look at the John Oliver show about the country's president if you haven't seen it. The Turkmen president's picture is everywhere; he's in a lab coat as a doctor, a uniform as a border guard, a sportsman -- and we're only in passport control. We later see him everywhere, in our hotel breakfast room, at least two in every plane,everywhere. We say hello to Gozelle, our local guide. We learn the weather is a hot continental climate with a below zero winter. In the capital Ashgabat, the White Marble City, we see a mountain range along the south where Iran is on the other side, just one hour by car to the south. The country's first president wanted all the buildings in the capital to be white marble so they wouldn't need repairing, only cleaning. This country is the 4th largest producer of natural gas and oil in the world. It also became independent in 1991. Their currency is the manat. There's no access to F/B, Twitter, YouTube or Google. There are 700,000 people in this country. Now this has really creeped me out: the young schoolgirls all wear long green skirts and long sleeved green jackets with a cap on their heads and their hair braids on each side of their face. And the university women wear the exact same but in red. If they have cut their own hair, they have to buy braids for the sides of their faces. Control? Most women wear long dresses and their hair covered by a scarf hat. Very few young women dress western style. We see mausoleums, minarets, monuments and, really, a city entirely of white marble. Most of the cars are white. We visit many locations beautifully groomed-- and no one is around but us.
10/18: Horses are celebrated here, and they have their own holiday. Five tribes were brought together in this country, and each tribe's carpet design was incorporated into the national flag. The streets and parks in the capital are all well groomed, just empty of people. All that white marble is imported. We see the Arch of Neutrality, the earthquake memorial, WWII eternal flame monument. The earthquake memorial is based on a legend of the earth sitting between a bull's horns. When people are misbehaving, the bull shakes the world. Even the ferris wheel is within a marble building. We stopped by a fancy hotel in the shape of a gas flame for a pitstop. We could have stayed here for just a few hundred dollars more. There's a place called the Palace of Happiness where couples get married -- and divorced. In 2015 the Asian Olympiads were held here. Gozelle tells us she got her rent-free apartment in 1998. Today she only pays $60/month which covers gas, electric, water. We see the horse stadium.
10/19: We fly to Mary for the day to see the remains of the ancient city of Merv. This is a very dry region, but they use drip irrigation to grow sugar beets, wheat, cotton. We see a herd of dark-haired camels. Our flight home is delayed. It's a long day.
10/20: We decide to not go touring today. We eat a late breakfast at a nice restaurant near by, then we walk through a small bazaar. We leave in 12 hours. We agree that one day in Ashgabat would have been plenty.
Yes, we've been on the move since mid-August, but we haven't had a dull moment. We met lovely people wherever we went. Thank you to Orhan, Murat, Ramil, Spiekermann Travel and East Winds Travel. They shared their countries and knowledge with us, treated us with care and respect. We do thank Adib, Bek and Gozelle for sharing their countries with us. We have been disappointed in our meals and accommodations in these last three Stans, they really weren't as good as they could have been. For example, our hotel here in Ashgabat should be rated a one or two star hotel at best. JMG booked us here without visiting it prior to our visit. For that and a few other reasons, we do not recommend JMG Tibet Tours company. I always wish I could help every homeless animal I see, so that always makes me sad. But there are great things to see, wonderful people to meet here. Come see for yourself!
I want to thank Anne. She puts a lot of effort into her photos, and they are beautiful. And she always lends a hand when I need it. I thank everyone at home who helps enable us to take these journeys. I especially thank Dawn and Roddy. Thanks, too, to Allan and Andy.
Thanks Maddy for taking copious notes so we can remember what we did! Where to next?????
