Thursday, May 9, 2013
I forgot to tell you about the Jewish synagogue we visited yesterday afternoon, while wandering around Bokhara. About 50 feet further down the alley from our hotel, the Salom Inn, is the door to the heart of the Jewish quarter, the 420 year old synagogue. We went by a couple of times only to find the door locked. Finally, late in the afternoon, the door was open and two gentlemen showed us around the two room building containing a small synagogue on one side and a school room on the other side. There were 5 Torah, each hundreds of years old and lots of Jewish paraphernalia in both rooms. One of the men said there were now only 350 Jews in 52 families in Bukhara. Most of the 25,000 Bukharan Jews moved to Israel or the US when the Soviet Union collapsed. There was another synagogue in the area that is supposedly 500 years old and no longer functions. Later on we visited Akbar House, owned by the wealthy antique dealer, whose shop I described in yesterday’s post. His house is just around the corner and has a large sign of David painted on at least two walls in the main living area of the large and opulent house. We had gone there earlier to see more of his collection. It surprised us to learn there was such a large and vibrant Jewish neighborhood in Uzbekistan.
Today is Victory Day in Uzbekistan. It is treated like our Memorial Day and honors “Mourning Mothers”. It is also our day to leave Bukhara and head for Khiva, a day’s drive NW. The 450 kilometer route is called the A380 and, although part of the Silk Road, it has no colorful name. Expecting a very long and uncomfortable ride, I padded my back and bottom with a pillow and a wedge and had a comfortable journey most of the way. The two lane road was about half bumpy, pot holed asphalt and half smooth tarmac or concrete. Rafcat is careful to travel at the speed limit, which varies from 60-100 KPH. Fortunately the traffic was very light with mostly large trucks going in the opposite direction. If the road is ever completed in concrete the trip will take at least an hour less than the 7 hours it took us and be a pleasant ride. Once out of the Bukhara area, the countryside turned to steppe–nearly flat, sandy gravel with a bush size plant called sacsaul that is salt and drought resistant, scrub and many small plants that are flowering. Looking out toward the horizon the landscape looked very green. In a month the steppe will be dry and brown. We saw two large turtles crossing the road and stopped to move them out of harms way. We also saw a mixed group of bactrian and dromedary camels foraging on their own. Other steppe creatures we did not see include fox, jackal, monitor lizard, hare, gazelle and deer.
An hour out of Bokhara, we saw a series of large buildings, about two miles off the road, that Jenia said belonged to the Chinese, who are building the three pipelines, I wrote about earlier, to serve western China.
About 1pm we stopped for a picnic lunch on a ridge overlooking a nearly empty reservoir called the Camel’s Neck, that captures overflow from the Oxus during snowmelt. The place was pretty barren, but suited us nicely and lunch was perfect–cheese sandwiches, whole tomatoes, yogurt, hard boiled eggs, fruit, biscuits and hot green tea. Thankfully, we had just finished when a sand devil blew over, coating us in dust. Only thing missing were ants.
Except for a very short distance where small sand dunes encroached on the sides of the road, we were in steppe until the last 30 kilometers, when irrigated fields and villages replaced the steppe. We were paralleling the Oxus River, without being able to see it. Shortly before reaching Khiva, we crossed it, the largest River in Central Asia, on a bridge that was finished in 2011. Jenia said that previously a pontoon bridge was used. The river does not look so huge any more as much of it is diverted from its course. For centuries, it drained into the Aral Sea, but little if any water makes it to the sea any more and the sea itself is largely dried up.
All along the drive we chatted about a variety of topics. One of which was Uzbek currency. Until the 1995, the Russian Ruble was still in use in Uzbekistan. By 1996, the conversion to a new currency, called the som, was completed. Originally the value was set at 50 som to one dollar. Now the official rate is 2100:1, while the black market rate is 2500-2700:1. The most common som notes are in denominations of 1000. A stack of 1000 som notes needed to buy $50 is called a brick. We see people carrying piles of som to transact business as cash is the only accepted form of payment. The banking system is so convoluted and non-business oriented that people tend not to use banks. Jenia, who is using som and dollars all day long, carries a large grip, he calls his wallet. Most people have learned how to count som rapidly by fanning a stack. I have tried to get the knack of it, but cannot do it successfully yet.
Here are a few recently reported facts. The population of Uzbekistan is estimated at about 30 million. Uzbekistan and California have about the same size land area and population. Unemployment is officially 5%. The average age of the national population is 24. Khiva has about 50,000 people.
Near the end of the journey I asked Jenia what he would like my blog reading friends to know about Uzbekistan. He thought for a few minutes and said: “Uzbek people are peaceful and friendly. The country is nothing like Afghanistan”. Uzbekistan is stable, secular, educated and unified. It is also a safe place to visit. As far as I can see, he is correct on every point. I am sorry I entertained any concerns to the contrary. There is nothing like traveling to foreign lands to dispel unnecessary fear.
We arrived at our Khiva hotel at 3pm, settled into a modern room on the second floor with a large balcony looking out over the old city. We relaxed a couple of hours and then went for a good walk around the tightly contained historic section of the city, which is surrounded by high walls. Not nearly as large or spread out or busy as Bukhara, it is full of charm and simplicity. It is also very clean. There are not nearly as many vendors and most of their wares are less sophisticated and less appealing. Hopefully, I will not feel the compulsion to buy anything here.
We had dinner in the hotel garden with Genia, who insisted we try the local dishes. One was egg stuffed raviolis, another was minced meat stuffed crepes that were deep fried, a third was pumpkin soup and lastly was a backlava-like, but not so sweet dessert. The dishes were all interesting and worth a taste, but I liked the soup and the dessert the best. While lounging in our chaihana, or tea bed, we noticed a familiar looking woman across the way in another chaihana. Mark guessed we had met her during our trip to Burma and thought her name was Ursula. After awhile we could not resist the urge to confirm our suspicion and we asked. Sure enough, we had met her on our boat ride down the Irriwaddi River last fall and she remembered us too. How is that for a small world.
Well, it is time for me to turn out the lights so Mark can sleep.
Tomorrow we visit old Khiva with another local guide.
Good night and sweet dreams,
Julia
Adventures with Julia 