Central Asia, revisited

We returned home from our trip retracing the ancient silk road two years ago with a desire to learn more about Central Asia. We met two young Uzbek ladies on that trip who became facebook friends, and over past two years, those contacts have grown to over 70 “friends”, and a desire to really get to know these young people whose lives were helping to shape our views of Central Asia in general, and of Uzbekistan, in particular. Planning for a trip like this was very different..The last trip, by necessity, was done through a silk road specialty travel agency…this trip would be entirely free lance…and the bureaucratic red tape required to navigate the myriad roadblocks of ex-Soviet republics became an ongoing challenge…For example, we have been invited to stay in many homes, but it is required that we have hotel reservations in order to receive the “letter of support,” which is necessary to receive an Uzbek visa…We have to register at the hotel, but we don’t have to stay there…so, in reality, as long as we are paying for these hotels, it is okay, now we can go stay with our friends… Undaunted, but frustrated, by continuing red tape, we finally received our passports back from the Kazak and Uzbek embassies four days prior to leaving…Most of our journey will be in Uzbekistan, but given the opportunity to see another “Stan” on our journey, we flew into Almaty, Kazakhstan and will spend a few days here recovering from our 30 plus hour journey and also to see a little something of a culture which we thought would be similar to that of the Uzbeks….first impressions seem more to draw into focus the differences rather than the similarities. But this is a good opportunity to recharge the batteries and refresh the spirit before the social whirl of trying to see all the people who have invited us to their homes, celebrate their birthdays, attend their weddings, visit their universities and lyceums (high schools) and a myriad other activities which have been planned for our visit there. So we hit the streets yesterday upon our arrival and were immediately struck by several differences between the Kazakhs and Uzbeks…Uzbeks look “central” Asian. Being at the crossroads of East and West on the silk road, the cultural contact and the inevitable genetic mixing that took place with that contact, Uzbeks have a wonderful blend of the two. Kazakhs look as if the Asian influences are more dominant than the western traits. Geographically, the country is further east and was not influenced nearly as much by western influences…They seem closer to Mongolians in their facial features… Kazakhs are much more standoffish than Uzbeks….In Uzbekistan you could not walk down the street or sit in a restaurant without being greeted warmly with words or smile…Here in Almaty, you are almost invisible…nobody takes notice of your presence…walk down the street and everybody looks straight ahead and seems not to even notice your presence. Hotel personnel, restaurant patrons and staff ignore you and continue on as if you weren’t even there….Eye contact is non-existent. This is not bad, it was almost embarrassing how much attention was paid to us while were in Uzb., but it certainly is a marked change. Very few Moslem scarves on the women and very limited traditional clothing worn by the women....In all the cities we visited in Uzbekistan, traditional clothing was as much the norm as western clothing…A restaurant waitress in Khiva was smartly dressed in her work uniform, but when we saw her later in the streets, it was in traditional clothing that she was dressed…It was not an anomaly, but much more typical of how women portrayed themselves in public. Here in Almaty, it is much more common to see women in sweat pants than in traditional dress….At first glance, it would seem that Kazakhs are more impoverished than Uzbeks, but, in fact, the opposite is true…Kazakhstan economy is literally fueled by Petro dollars, whereas, Uzbeks struggle much more financially from the ancient soviet-style heavy industry left in deplorable conditions when the Russians got out of Dodge. If I make a comment on the facebook page of an Uzbek, I get “friend” requests from individuals…I sent out facebook messages to about 10 individuals in Almaty to find out something about their city that the guidebooks didn’t talk about and only one responded…luckily, it was Nadira who has been a true blessing in helping our logistical problems. We meet her for lunch today and will have the opportunity to understand the “rules” of Kazakh society which we are observing with our eyes. So, let the adventure begin…we’re living large once again in exotic lands where our comfort zones are being challenged by the continual search to understand the wonderful peoples and places that this planet has to offer.