7NNT25: Day 7 – Bukhara
Soundtrack: “People Who Died”, Jim Carroll Band
A full day in Bukhara that kicked off with meeting a new guide at 9am. She spoke fast and I’m really bad at remembering names, so I’m not sure what exactly her name was. Uzbek names also take a bit of getting used to, there’s a lack of Shazza, Kazza, Bazza and Dazza here. Mix this with a morning of more stories about 16th-19th century Uzbek Amirs and I’m sadly floundering in the name department. All credit to the guides, they definitely know their stuff and have got all the names, dates, and places sorted, but it’s a lot for someone who’s only ever really had to deal with names like Gough, Bob, Paul, Julia, Carmen, Elizabeth, when it comes to history, maybe a George or four, and a Victoria too. Certainly not many Daniyal, Shahmurad, Haydar bin Shahmurad, Mir Hussein bin Haydar, Umar bin Haydar, Nasr-Allah bin Haydar Tora, Muzaffar bin Nasrullah, Abdul-Ahad bin Muzaffar al-Din, or Muhammed Alim Khan bin Abdul-Ahad (thanks wikipedia).
Our first stop was out of town, at the Bahoutdin Architectural Complex. Within this complex is the tomb of Baha-Ud-Din Naqshband Bukhari, a Sufi Saint, mosques for both men and women, and another large pond with geese and white swans. Within the complex there is some impressive architecture, as it says on the tin, impressively carved wooden columns, a magnificent tombstone for the saint, and all the regular trappings. I’m probably beginning to run out of ways to describe these types of buildings, as there’s a degree of sameness to each one among their differences. There’s the huge arch entryway, comprising of a massive rectangular block with the arch within, many blue tiled domes, impressively carved and painted plaster accents to the structure, a lot of mosaics (blue and white predominantly if in the traditional style, more colours if Persian influenced), and more geometric patterns than you can poke a stick at. That many of these places have been restored at various times in the last 50 or 60 years contributes a little to the sameness, there’s similar amounts of wear on each, and the blue tiles are a similar shade across each building.
That and we’ve seen a lot of mosques, madrasahs, and mausoleums in the last few days: each one amazing, each one important to the history of Uzbekistan, but just like any trip, whether it’s castles, cathedrals, or even distilleries, at some point a lot of the features start to meld into one.
Fortunately then today had places that were very different. One different thing at the Bahoutdin complex were people in attendance. While only 10km out of Bukhara city, a lot of nearby villagers come to the mosques to pray, and to them tourists are a novelty so we had many stares, lots of greetings from children, and occasionally questions about where we were from.
The next stop was also different, both thematically and architecturally, being the Summer Palace of the rulers. Once we were inside we were greeted by the calls of peacocks, and even saw a few free roaming the grounds. Given the rulers fled the invading Bolsheviks 105 years ago, these obviously aren’t the same peacocks the rulers kept (captive peacocks live for approx 30 years, thanks Birdzilla) but they do add an air of colour and opulence to the grounds. The main courtyard of the palace in amazing in its contrast, one side is Uzbeck Islamic architecture, the other two sides definitely Tsarist Russian. It reminded me very much of what we saw in the Baltic states last year. Inside on display were remnants of the former opulence, 19th century Chinese and Japanese pottery, clocks from Germany, Russian and Persian artefacts. I always wonder with displays like this, not that the objects are authentic and original, but how they managed to survive an army taking control, and then 70 years of occupation. Especially when the army seems to be staunchly against wealth and property. That any items survived this is amazing in itself. Our guide showed us an awesome feature of the rooms: they could remove hidden panels in the columns and unscrew these from the wall. The wall panels could then be removed and swapped for what was appropriate for the season (or the whim of the Emir, I’m guessing). Around the grounds were more peacocks, and we wandered through the wives’ house that is now a museum (it also has an amazing crooked door that no one could explain.
From opulence we headed back into Bukhara, where, after skirting an amusement park in full swing (literally and metaphorically) we found one of the only other buildings that Ghengis Khan missed knocking over, the Samanid Mausoleum. This mausoleum dates to around 8th or 9th Century, and spent many years buried in mud, improving its preservation. Its style and construction make it pretty unique, not just for Bukhara but for all of Central Asia: baked bricks, geometric brickwork, different dome construction, a modest 10m square base rather than a large complex, possibly very elaborate for its time but pales in comparison to later efforts.
From the mausoleum we had a short stroll through the park to a more traditional mosque (with wonderfully carved wooden columns) and museum about water in Bukhara: there’s a story that this was the site one of the early prophets came to and seeing the people lacked fresh water, dug a hole and placed his staff in there, and water sprung forth. Opposite the museum was a modern mausoleum, stylistically shaped like an open book and dedicated to Chasma Ayub who sought to restore Bukhara’s libraries after the Mongols burnt them all down.
Then it was the Ark, Ark meaning castle. pretty much the Bukharan Alamo, where the defenders made their last stand against the Bolshevik Army in 1920. A massive structure built up over the centuries, with a clear view over the city, in years gone by it would have been nearly impregnable. However in 1920 the Bolsheviks had artillery and aircraft so it wasn’t a fair fight. As the Ark was effectively a city within a city, a symbol of defiance, and held the Emir’s Winter Palace, the Soviets didn’t leave much standing (seems to be a common theme in Uzbekistan and indeed many parts of the world). A small part of the Winter Palace has been restored and serves as a museum and souvenir shop, however the best views of the old city are from the ruins.
At this point we headed for lunch, saying goodbye to our guide and driver, who dropped us as close as possible to our hotel given there were a number of road closures around the old city, maybe because it was Sunday. We had lunch at a nearby restaurant, another one of those places that looks like a tourist trap but was also full of locals. They did a decent plov, and also had the salad/soup chalop: it appears on menus as salad but is a a lot of tomato, cucumber, dill, and corriander swimming in a bowl of natural yogurt. Delicious, fresh, and is a great contrast to the heavier plov — not that Bukharan plov is that heavy in comparison to the Tashkent variety, like Samarkand they use less oil.
After a nap we hit the old city to do some shopping, as it’s that time of the trip where we’re now got an idea of what an Uzbek Som is worth and what reasonable prices are for souvenirs. L found a shop that makes wonderful traditional garments and the lure of the gorgeous fabric was too strong so she ordered a custom coat after they promised they could make it tonight.
Noodle 1.1: Laghman (Aladdin restaurant)
Dinner was at a cute little slightly tourist place called Aladdin, just off the main strip but the menu had a few custom items and didn’t list absolutely every Uzbek dish, so we figured it wouldn’t be over the top. I figured it was time to give fried laghman another go, and it was a good choice. These noodles were robust, each one must have been at least 40cm long, amazingly elastic (sorry coeliacs, this one is a win for gluten) and soaked up the sauce well. In addition to the standard beef, capsicum, and tomato accompaniments, this time it was topped with a fried egg. I find it interesting that despite Uzbekistan’s long association with the Silk Road, many dishes use minimal spice, some paprika, pepper, salt, cumin seem to be the staples so far (my poor tastebuds are going to be woefully prepared for Thailand). They use lots of fresh herbs, especially dill, coriander and parsley, but otherwise their cuisine is a lot about making the best of a few ingredients. Aladdin also had a band playing traditional music, a dancer, really good rose tea, and a few very playful and friendly kittens running around.
We wandered around after dinner, browsing the stalls, admiring how well lit the large minaret is at night, listening to some local street musicians, before heading back to the clothing shop. The jacket wasn’t ready, and after some discussion they agreed to bring the finished jacket to our hotel. So we headed back to blog, pack, and wait for the fabulous jacket that did eventually arrive.
