We got our first taste of the fact that we were back on the tourist map in Bishkek when we saw a group of Canadians and Yanks who were doing a “Stan” trip and a French group doing what we know not. What we didn’t know was that was just a taste of what was to come.
Our five a.m. wake-up call came as a startling reminder that we had an early flight to Tashkent, followed by a late afternoon flight to Urgench where we would catch a bus to take us to Khiva our final destination of the day. With our one hour time change, we landed in Tashkent, Uzbekistan at 9:30 a.m. and headed into town. What a really nice surprise Tashkent turned out to be.
Bishkek was a pretty unremarkable city as capitals go so we didn’t know what to expect but it is a lovely city, full of wide boulevards, modern, interesting architecture and the same warm, friendly people we had found in Kyrgyzstan. It’s a very European looking city, one you might find in France or Germany. Even the population seemed very Euro rather than Eurasian. Following the devastating earthquake in 1976 they redesigned everything and I must say made it an easy city In which to get around. The lack of cars and the wide avenues seem not to go with each other, but certainly to our advantage.
We continue to be the objects of interest to people, particularly teenage types. School boys in their pressed black pants white shirt were very curious and friendly but stood off. Not so the girls. There was one gaggle of 5-6 of them who were posing for their own photos, when Saci took a photo of them while they were in their posing mode. That was all it took. Next were questions about where we were from, did we like Tashkent, what do we do for work. All this in semi-broken English. Good enough to understand and be understood, but still some confusion about details which had to be repeated in different ways to get through. We’d say bye-bye and walk on only to have them reappear suddenly just where we were and it was as if they had decided as a group what and how to ask their next set of questions. Again we went on our way, and again they reappeared as we were walking by the bronze tablets listing the 600,000 Uzbeks who lost their lives in WWII. One of the girls took me aside and wanted me to know that her grandfather was on the tablets and showed me where he was. Just as we were walking back to our bus the the designated questioner came running up to me and gave me a fridge magnet she had bought for me. That brought on another round of photos and we finally ended that portion of “Stan” friendliness. It was a sweet gesture and totally unexpected, but seemed totally in character with all our experiences. It has been a constant theme here. They are genuinely interested in us, and enjoy practicing their English.
A lovely lunch – did I mention that the food was good :-) - brought our first Tashkent stay (we end our trip here in a week). At the airport there was the same group from the airport in Bishkek heading with us to Urgench and to Khiva, plus another group of westerners. After another hour flight followed by a 30 minute bus ride which turned out to be an hour and a half when the diesel was so fouled that they had to stop and clean the filters put us into our hotel about 10:00. As we pulled into our Khiva hotel there were six big tour buses and we knew we were back on the grid.
The next morning’s breakfast brought a cacophony of different tongues all eating in the large dining hall. This is a group that has had breakfast entirely to ourselves for almost four weeks. The Chinese didn’t get up that early to eat and we didn’t see any other western tourists, and then to suddenly get hit with this all at once was a little disconcerting. There must have been over a hundred tourists having breakfast. Carol and I finally found an unoccupied table and sat down only to have two ladies in their 60-70’s ask if they could share the table. Of course we said yes, and since I had already heard them speaking German and when they asked permission to join us their accent came through and we wound up having a nice conversation over breakfast. Turns out they are doing eight days entirely in Uzbekistan. It’s almost a day trip for them. Less flying time than JFK-SFO and the same time change three hours. It’s really easy for them to come. They were headed for Bukhara and we agreed to look for each other and share a breakfast table should we be at the same hotel.
And now for Khiva. It’s as if everything we’ve done so far has been in preparation for this. We’ve followed the Silk Road west and seen remnants of what was, or were taken to places where we were told this is where it used to be, but in Khiva, it’s here. The thousand year old city wall of mud and straw still stands in it’s entirety. Yeah, it’s crumbling in places, and it’s cracked in others, but it’s still there even though the gates have been restored with modern brick. The entire old city is enclosed within its 1 ½ mile circumference. It’s like a living museum, old streets remain as they were with beautiful Muslim buildings. When the Soviets ruled the place they basically shut the doors on everything, so it was as if everything was just held in storage for independence. We heard tours given in Italian, French, German, Portuguese, and naturally in English. It’s not an unknown gem, it’s just a gem. You can’t get lost, you’re never more than a quarter mile from the city wall. Just keep on going and you’ll find where you are.
A really fascinating aspect to village life, and Khiva is essentially a village of 50,000 compared to Tashkent’s 3 million is that it seems so incredibly different. Tashkent was so modern and upscale and Khiva seems to have changed so little in its 2,500 year old history, with the exception of a few hundred gift shops willing to give tourists a good price. Anyway, the fascinating aspect is that many/most women have their entire upper teeth in gold. It seemed unique at first, then it seemed a trend, then finally it was the de facto method of presenting themselves. Our waitress for lunch was a very pretty woman of about 25 and when she smiled here entire mouth was gold. For us westerners it really seems to take away from their looks, but guess what. They don’t do it for us, they do it because it’s their custom, their tradition. It is considered high fashion for village women and a sign of wealth and individuality, as it were. Members of our group couldn’t get over talking about how it detracted from their looks all the time their snapping as many photos of them as was possible. The women didn’t mind. They smiled broadly and showed off their own personal self-esteem.
The weather was quite warm in Khiva and we all fled back to our hotel after a late lunch, only to venture back out to the old city after the heat of the day had passed. The streets were no longer clamoring with tourists and it had a really relaxed feeling. It was the first time we’ve really felt we could imagine the old silk trade exactly as it was because we were walking in their exact footsteps. It felt almost palpable. We’ve been working our way here for so long it seemed and here we were. While the men's dress reflects 21st century, the women seem to have stepped back in time, or rather not to have changed. Like Kyrgyzstan, they are not devout Muslims here. Although technically about 85 % of the people are Islanic, apparently only about 5% are practicing Muslims. Hence, although women cover their heads with shawls, it seems more a fashion statement rather than a religious one. We don’t see men wearing the skull caps that we saw in the Uighur area for example.
We stopped for an ice cream outside the restaurant where we had taken lunch and our waitress appeared from somewhere. Now out of her waitress attire, she was a Uzbeki woman. Her dress was a bright blue satiny material. It was short, coming to mid thigh and she wore matching pants. Her clothes were of good material, she was nicely made up with cosmetics and he was still very pretty, and then she opened her mouth and smiled when she recognized us from lunch. Again, that mouth full of gold is something that still takes me aback. It just seems to change the entire look, but as I said, it’s not about us.
We’re on the short list now and things are happening quickly. Our days are filled and passing quickly. Just two more cities and four more days and it will all be over. It’s been a great trip, but I can honestly say that Khiva was what I had hoped to see- something that really looked and felt like the Silk road. Just like Cordoba has for the past 50 years, the sense of Khiva, the feel of it, will remain long after I’ve gone.
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