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Published: November 13th 2023
The circumstances behind my initial visit to the Silk Road were quite unusual. I had previously read a number of books about the region and had always held a huge fascination for its culture but had resigned myself to the fact that it was unlikely I would ever get there. Then, way back in 2006, I was preparing myself for a routine business visit to my Queensland Sugar customers in Korea when I noticed that the Asiana Airlines flight that I regularly took from Sydney to Seoul actually went one stop further to Tashkent. So, being the opportunist I am, I promptly arranged to take a couple of days leave and traded in my business class Sydney to Seoul fare (to which I was entitled) for an economy class Sydney to Seoul to Tashkent fare, which in fact resulted in a saving for my employer.
So after spending four days doing my business visits in Korea, I traded in my suit and tie for more leisurely clothing and set off for my brief visit to Uzbekistan. With limited time available, and a preference to take in Samarkand and Bukhara rather than the more modern Tashkent, I arranged on arrival at
the latter to immediately take a domestic Uzbekistan Airways flight on to Bukhara. Well, this was certainly a lively introduction to this part of the world. The propeller plane I took looked as though it was held together by rivets, half of which seemed to be loose. Internally wasn’t much better, with many seats in a bad state of repair and poor service provided. As I got off and was walking across the tarmac, I thought I must take a photo of this plane as people won’t otherwise believe me. However, just as I was raising my camera, I was greeted by a very stern woman official with a clear message “nyet photo”! Welcome to Uzbekistan!
This was all soon forgotten as I made my way into Bukhara and arranged an overnight stay in a very attractive small family-owned hotel very central to the old city area. Bukhara of course is over two thousand years old and is one of the best examples of well-preserved Islamic cities of Central Asia of the 10th to 17th centuries. It still contains hundreds of well-preserved mosques, madrassas, bazaars, and caravanserais, dating largely from those early days, although it is clear that many
of these have been more recently renovated. Amongst the many attractions visited were the Great Minaret of the Kalyan (part of the Poi Kalyan Mosque), Samanid Mausoleum, Mir-i-Arab Madrasa, Chor Minor, Lyab-i-Hauz (just near my hotel), Moschea Bolo-Khauz, and the Ark of Bukhara. Other interesting attractions included the very comprehensive outdoor marketplace, shielded by the crumbling city walls. As always in any tourist destination, there were also some very aggressive hawkers, often pre-teenage kids in brightly coloured clothing, developing their sales skills at an early age.
There was no easy way to commute from Bukhara to Samarkand without losing a lot of time, so I decided to splash out on a taxi, who quoted me around USD40 for the four-hour drive. Little did I realise that the trip came with side benefits. Before taking me off, the driver took me to his home to meet his wife and kids, the former of whom filled me with Uzbek delicacies while the latter practiced their English-speaking skills on me for half an hour. It was a quiet taxi trip as the driver himself had no English!
The big-ticket item in Samarkand is of course the Registan. This magnificent complex comprises
a central square flanked by the most ornately tiled, mosaic-clad madrasahs (3 historic Islamic schools), these being, from left to right Ulugh Beg, Tilya-Kori, and Sher-Dor Madrasah. Other main attractions included the Gur Emir Mausoleum, the Bibi Khanym Mosque, the Hazrat Hyzr Mosque, and the Shahi Zinda Necropolis, a complex comprising many varieties of mausoleums. Next door to the latter was a more traditional cemetery with a wide range of tombstones.
The trip back to Tashkent for my flight home completed the triumvirate as this time I took the train, courtesy of Uzbekistan Railways. What was lacking in the Airways was more than made up by their rail equivalents as the 4-hour trip was smooth and comfortable. I had the pleasure of sharing my compartment with two twenty-something female French teachers, which gave me plenty of time to dust off my rapidly diminishing quality of French conversation, because if they were able to speak English, they weren’t telling me!
Naturally, I didn’t get much opportunity to partake of the traditional Uzbek cuisine. In Samarkand however, I did splash out on a magnificent plov, a mix of rice, spices, carrots, and deep-fried meat, accompanied by obi non, the round
crisp sourdough bread, and washed down with a locally produced wine, the least of which is discussed, the better!
One of the fascinations back in that time was the Uzbek currency. The largest banknote then was the 1,000 som note. Now this might seem a lot until you realise that this converted at that time to around US 30 cents! Given that credit cards were rarely in use, it was necessary to carry around a brick of banknotes if you wanted to purchase anything of value, or even bring a wheelbarrow if you wanted to exchange a significant amount of cash! They have now corrected this, with banknotes issued up to 100,000 som, but they would need to as 1,000 som is now worth less than 10 cents.
All in all, the visit was a real eye-opener for me although obviously far too brief. Little was I to know that almost exactly ten years later, then in my retirement years, I would get the opportunity to do a month-long tour of the five ‘Stans, not only catching up with the delights of these two cities but naturally many more on the old Silk Road.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Uzbekistan
What a great story. Thanks for sharing. We've been to Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan but have not made it to Uzbekistan yet.