Uzbekistan on the Silk Road is steeped in history and horror

Off to Uzbekistan on the Silk Road in Central Asia

At the airport we received an unfriendly reception From the Uzbekistan immigration official. Our
travel agent had supposedly taken care of all the details but on arrival the immigration department
told us that visas are required and cost 50 US $. But the office was closed for what was called 5
minutes. Half an hour later the little window opened and a man scowled at us. He began the tedious
low-tech process of issuing the visas.
Due to a slight change in our itinerary we needed to extend the visa for 2 days. No you must get out
of the country. He snapped. We said no and refused to leave his desk. It cost us 10 more dollars and
a load of shouting (in front of long queues) to finally get the visa. He said he was only doing his job. I
wonder how much more we would have had to pay for a smile let alone a warm welcome. In Dubai
they go out of their way to be friendly and efficient and even give out a bowl of peppermints!
To keep you in the picture, here is a map we found on a wall in Khiva. I am sharing our experiences
with you about the places with pictures and stories so that you too, can have a wonderful time on
this part of the Silk Road. On this leg of the journey we will go to Tashkent, Samarkand and
Bukhara. At a later stage I will tell you all about my favourite desert city - Khiva.
Tashkent is the capital city of the state of Uzbekistan and is in a better state of recovery and repair
than some of the other cities we had visited in Central Asia. It is a booming metropolis and the
modern section has reinvented itself after the devastation of an earthquake in 1964. It measured 9
on the Richter scale and razed most of the buildings to the ground. A beautiful clean modern city
emerged, thus purged of the greyness and oppression of Communism. Green parks, large open
squares and a beautiful fountain with a monument to liberation set the tone. The stork is their
symbol for freedom and African storks migrate to this place to breed. Here they seem to be tame and
friendly and have no real predators as they do back home
Our guide showed us around the old city that suffered far less damage and most of the beautiful
Mosques and other buildings survived. They are well maintained and they know how to use paint
and tiles and even how to repair the odd roof or broken window pane. It is a Muslim country and
there is a friendly laid back vibe. Most of the women let their hair down and wear normal dresses.
On Sunday we strolled through the beautiful parks and saw people enjoying family outings. They
were all beautifully dressed up in what we thought was their Sunday best. But later we found out
that many of them are just beautifully groomed and dressed to the nines for a reason. They are
obsessedabout being photographed, especially with foreign tourists. They also take copious pictures
of themselves and each other with their cell phones at the famous monuments and huge state
buildings.
The people are friendly and anybody can walk around the centre of a city at night. This includes
toddlers and families with babies. They seem to have a good siesta so they can have family bonding
time. There is music, fountains fun and laughter and people eat and enjoy leisure time. The next
morning the place is still clean and tidy and one wonders why we need so many street cleaners back
in SA.
It was exciting to visit the market place, still on the site of the original Silk Road. Here the silk is
locally made and highly prized. Uzbekistan is a wealthy country and runs a brisk trade in cotton,

silk, gold and gas. We loved the food hall.I finally saw a lot of different types of Kimchi. This mixture
of fermented vegetables is similar to sauerkraut and includes other vegetables like carrots, onion
and peppers. People are healthier to the extent they eat fermented foods and seemed to be the case
here. There was also plenty of farm cheese and kefir for sale. (Kefir is similar to drinking yoghurt)
Bees are still buzzing and at the market they sell all sorts of products made by bees. I was offered a
scoop of liquid that included a few bees. Yum?
The Communists diverted the two rivers that flowed into the Aral Sea as a source of water for
irrigating their crops and thus depleted its contents. But recently some of the water has been
redirected from the Amur Daria and the Sid-aria Rivers back to the lake again. We saw the concrete
canals and water ducts that are still being used to "steal" this water. The endless fields of green
crops are still thriving!
Samarkand. Wow, what a lovely place. We arrived after 4 hours on a bumpy bus and had a
traditional meal at a local eating house. They dont really cater for vegetarians and serve a big round
loaf of bread so as a gluten-free vegetarian, be warned to not expect anything more exciting than
tomatoes and cucumbers!. We walked back to our hotel through a park with gushing fountains,
music, children and happy people at 9 pm.After the luscious green city of Samarkand we drive
through the semi-desert terrain to Bukhara. This province provides riches from under the ground gold, uranium, oil and especially natural gas. Most of their vehicles run on methane gas that is
90%cheaper than our petrol. Chevrolet cars are made here and moat people drive them. Back in the
11th century this area was an active part of the Silk Road.
As camels could only cover a distance of 30 km per day they needed an overnight facility called a
Caravanserai. Camels eat a low thorny bush called yon tok. It is the only plant that survives in the
desert . Travellers used to boil up the leaves to make a Tea to treat diarrhoea. They have deep roots
that draw up water to the surface, so the locals plant melon seeds with them to take advantage of
this.
We visited the ruins of a typical one that was built in the 12th century. It is built out of yellow clay
Muslim bricks. In the background there is a modern gas station, a 21st century replacement. This is
obviously a quicker and safer way to transport merchandise, including silk. Today they are building a
new modern Silk Road a dual carriageway that is mostly being financed by the Chinese government.
Silk was considered to be the most versatile trading commodity (cash). Anything could be traded for
a bale of silk, even camels. Money was also printed on silk instead of paper.
The pottery and crafts centre we visited along the way is a typical Caravanserai complex that is used
as a family home and workshop. We enjoyed sitting on the family table cum couch cum bed - I want
one!
The skin used on their four-stringed instrument Comes from an ox's heart. We call it the
pericardium. In Uzbekistan families have free education starting from nursery school and ending in
a college or university degree. But employment is a problem so most of the youngsters go abroad to
work. The average age in this "young" country is 21.
The next site we visited during our bouncy bumpy bus ride to Bukhara was the summer palace of
Bukhara Emirs Sitorai Mokhi -Khosa. It is an interesting combination of Asian and Russian
architectural styles. After that we were schlepped around another compulsory dose of the dead stuff
including a mausoleum and a necropolis. Talk about not letting the dead bury the dead. Islam and
Communism have a common fixation about dead monuments. By now we have heard three times that
a Muslim wears a white turban on his head. It is made out of a piece of white cloth large enough to

cover his body as a shroud, should he die at any time. No cremation is permitted and bodies must be
immediately buried, so hence the ever ready headgear.
The Sufi centre was originally built in 712. The unusual dome is based on the lotus flower. Islam
teaching began in Central Asia and it took160 years to convert most of the people to Islam.
Mohammad was not in favour of holy men and monks like Sufis who not work for a living. He said we
have two hands and feet and must work to earn our keep
Interesting it was to hear different versions of his teachings including the lengthy lectures from our
guides. Standing out in the blazing heat makes it difficult to endure the religious enlightenment
before visiting each complex especially when it is a stifling 38 degrees centigrade in the sun.
A short history lesson about ancient tyrants and mass slaughter
In the early 13th century the Mongolian invasion headed by Genghis Khan swept across the known
civilized world of Central Asia. In Bukhara he razed buildings to the ground and butchered the
people. We visited a beautiful mosque that had been reconstructed. It included an octagonal building
in the centre court to mark the spot where Genghis ordered all the hundreds of surviving babies to
be placed. He and his horsemen then trampled them to death.
A century later control fell into the hands of the mighty Islmic Timur Chine, better known as
Tamerlane. He was bolder and bloodier and The city of Samarkand was his capital. He too, was a
devout Islam and had his personal Imam to guide his religious studies and see that he had a few
prayer breaks in between spilling the blood of innocent people.
It is no surprise that today man perpetuates such tyranny in the name of religion. Both sides build
weapons of mass destruction to kill in the name of their God. Yet they claim to worship the same
God. They wash their hands before eating, but not after issuing commands that result in what we
can now see on television - cold blooded murder. As a result there are more ruined buildings and
homeless broken people who are tortured for their beliefs.

The people of Central Asia built up their

plundered cities and then Communism
reared its ugly head. Countries we visited
like Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and
Kyrgyzstan were forced to unite and
become part of the Soviet Republic. No
religion was tolerated; buildings were
smashed to the ground again after World
War Two.

People then had a chance to work in a communal bee hive. Today we see the results in the form of
factories, heavy industry, cotton crops, roads and bridges and huge grey apartment blocks for the
hallowed workers. But many of the people we spoke to said that they were better off in those days.
They had jobs, education, medical care and
We saw a very disturbing documentary on TV about the torture of Christians in Iraq by Muslim ISO

extremists. Yet Islam is divided between the Shiites and the Sunnis who also kill each other. This
journey has not just been about sight-seeing. It is more about simple ordinary people like us.
We have met wonderful, friendly happy folk who don't seem to care about blood, religion or history.
We eat, drink and are merry and try to make people happy. One elderly couple in our tour group
kept a lot of money in their purse to secretly give out to poor people every day. They also bought
clothes and gifts to take back to orphanages they supported back home. They shared food with us,
laughed and played with street children and were interested in everything. Healthy and happy at age
81. The more affluent young people in the streets only worry about their iPhones, clothes and how
many bling-bling selfies they can take in a day. They laugh, smile and really make us feel at home.
The Uzbek way to say thank you, is really from the bottom of their hearts. "Rachmad" is what they
say and then bow and touch their heart with the right hand. Thank you for joining us.