Jiggety Jog

And so it’s home again, home again jiggety jog, but not without thoughts blasting their way into our minds as things keep coming back from our 35 day odyssey through time. Some memorable moments:
Most impressive scenery – Carol: The Tian Shan mountains with their expanses of snow covered peaks. We saw them from the ground, we saw them from the air, and we were awed by the views. Jim: Coming down the Torugart pass, lurching and jerking our way down the abysmal road with the Tian Shans all around us and the barrenness of the landscape. It was an incredible experience. One that the books talked about, and it did not disappoint.
Most memorable people, Carol: Besides the members of the group that we traveled with for 28 days I will remember the big, burly Kazak who paid the park photographer to take a picture of us with his group and without any English was able to make us understand that one copy was for us and we would have to wait till it was processed to pick it up. Jim: This is a tough one. We met so many people on this trip and each with their own stories. We tried to make contact with the Karakalpak lady from whom we could have learned much. I thought her to be a very interesting person. But the person whose memory will stay with me the most is Mari, the shop girl in Bukhara. She was one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met and just had a kind demeanor about her that was very becoming. If more people in the world were like her, we’d have a lot less problems. I know we’ll be friends even though we’ll be half a world away.
Biggest surprise, Carol: The number of people who wanted to have pictures taken with us, and the fact that it ran the age gamut, from pre-teen boys and girls to men and women our own age. Jim: The number of German tourists in Uzbekistan, and sitting at the restaurant with Asiya and Tina in Tashkent and seeing all the obviously Russian faces go by the window.
Biggest disappointment - Jim: Only one night in Samarkand. I would have loved to have a day of just soaking up the place. Carol: The food in China. It was just so repetitive.
Most visually impressive – Carol: The Bingling grottos and Mogao caves in China with carving after carving and cave after cave that were so important to the people in the past and have been carefully preserved so we can still see them today. Jim: The Sand dunes at Dunhuang with the Crescent Moon spring in the middle. It was exactly what I had always envisioned it would look like: sand everywhere with a small, verdant oasis sitting all by itself in the middle of it all. We’ve seen dunes bigger and more isolated, but these just fit what I always thought the Silk Road would be. The camel rides that most of the group took only added to the overall picture. And I have to add the color of the women’s clothing. It was continuously visually stunning.
What we’d come back for- Carol: To become more familiar with the fiber arts of the people: the silk and the cotton including the silk mill in the Fergana valley, and the felt art and weaving work in Kyrgyzstan. Jim. Easy to say another day in Samarkand and more time in Kyrgyzstan, but what I’d really like to come back and see in a few years is how the lives of many of the kids we met along the way have turned out. They have such potential and yet things are very difficult, and achievement and success isn’t always determined by ability in the Stans. I think in China the system accelerates the upward swing, but not in the Stans.
Most confusing day, Jim and Carol: The day we couldn’t go to Xiahe and visit the Labrang monastery because of the “Excitement” in the Buddhist area. We never found out what the deal was. It was like we fell into some informational black hole. Was there unrest? Were there riots? Was there a crackdown the authorities didn’t want to get out? We’ll probably never know. It really showed us that no matter the talk of the “New China,” in many ways, it ain’t that different.
Strangest day – For both of us it was the Border crossing between China and Kyrgyzstan. We just didn’t have a clue as to what was happening or going to happen, and it was such a looooong day.
Best food: The Stans, without a doubt, for both of us. The variety of salads and the tastiness of the meat made this part of the trip so much more enjoyable. Because they were so repetitious in China, it got to the point where meals were not even looked forward to. It was just feeding “Vol” as in a Star Trek episode.
Most unusual day – Jim and Carol: Leaving Urumqi for a two hour drive to get to the railway station only to arrive at this frontier town that was filthy, polluted, and parts looked like they were Chernobyl throwaways. Then waiting four hours for the train to arrive only to get to our compartment on the train and find dirty linen. We all slept in our clothes that night.
Most amazing sight – Carol: The Heavenly Lake, or the Tian Shan lake. We had been through so much desert area and then the ride culminated with this beauty spot of nature. Jim: The incredible line which stretched over half a mile to see Mao’s enshrined body and the obvious rural character of the people in that line. It was definitely a very big deal to them.
Most surprising facts – Carol: That Tashkent was the 4th largest city in the Soviet Union, after Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kiev. Jim: The number of Koreans in Tashkent, and the fact that they know nothing of Korea.
Strangest sight – For both of us it would have to be the mouths full of gold teeth that we first encountered in Khiva and continued throughout Uzbekistan.