Hello friends, here we are, alive and well in Samarkand. Davi Rumel linked me to a contact, Abdulldubois, an infectious disease physician in Tashkent and we met him and his wife for dinner. They told us all about the good and bad about life in Uzbekistan. Corruption is their major concern and they are hoping to emigrate to Canada. Luckily they told us about the train from Tashkent; had we not known that this train continued to Bukara, we would have forgotten to get off. Anyway, the train was slow but good and I enjoyed people-watching on the train. I saw small gestures of human kindness and it was so nice. One lady pulled the curtain so that the sun wouldn't shine on her seat-mate's face; everyone shared the food that they had brought along for the trip with their seat-mate. Always nice to watch people being nice to each other.
Samarkand: "We travel not for trafficking alone, By hotter winds our fiery hearts are fanned. For lust of knowing what should not be known We take the Golden Road to Samarkand (final lines of James Elroy Flecker's 1913 poem The Golden Journey to Samarkand). Also referred to as "Marakanda in Greek liturature". This has been the romantic city of my dreams. We checked into our hotel and started walking around the town. The population of about 500,000 is mostly Tajik speaking people. We have entered the Registan (3 medressas)from the back streets and tried to recapture the ambiance that the traders of the middle ages must have found.The site is an ensemble of majestic, tilting facades and towers covered in lovely patterned tiles. While there are among the world's oldest preserved medressas, alas, it's better to look at old photos and try to imagine the scene. The 14th century ruins have been spruced up and the whole area has been sanitized and dressed up for tour groups. Any buildings older were pulverized by Ghenis Khan. A couple of earthquakes have shaken many of the buildings and the gold and jewels that adorned the work have long ago been stripped and probably have found their way into many of the world's crown jewels. The original inlaid tile works (majolica) are of course still very beautiful and the turquoise blue domes captivate your attention.
We have been walking the streets and have visited 14-15th century mosques and mausoleums and have enjoyed the Russian neighborhoods, wide streets and beautiful parks. Yesterday we attended a "spectacle" at the Drama Center.
The drama theater was very attractive; the production was in Uzbek but was pretty much a comedy-a woman wanting to be younger; flirting to get a husband. We were surprised by the flirtation between the actresses and
actors. The audience was mostly wom en and they found it all very hilarious. Lots of knee slapping and elbow jabs indicated that the women felt very superior in the situation to the suitor on stage. The singing and dancing was pretty but too loud. We are enjoying walking around this city and this afternoon walked a couple of kilometers to visit a silk carpet factory. Of course I found many beautiful carpets that I would love to fly away home. These carpets are about a thousand dollars each and well worth the price. Interesting designs, natural dyes and so beautifully made. However, we are already overweight with our bags and we just can't drag them around with us. The factory offered to send them to us, but we've been cautioned that the carpets may not arrive....c'est la vie.
We are enjoying new adventures everyday; albeit that we are a bit preoccupied with staying well. The roads in Samarkand are paved, but the sidewalks are in very bad shape and as is typical across Central Asia, pedestrians are fair game for any and all vehicles. Donkey carts compete with cars, but so far, we haven't seen any cows or goats on the streets; there are more bicycles in use here than we have seen anywhere else. We've found all kinds of good things to eat in the markets and both of were feeling well. Today, I encountered something that is upsetting my stomach and will hesitate before eating dinner. We have been very lucky with the weather. Still gets to about 30 degress at mid-day and cool evenings.
The internet connections are often interrupted; I've been booted out twice in the last hour. Love to all, Corine and Stefan
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