Sunday Spotlight: Bukhara

Bukhara streets

Hello! And welcome to the Sunday Spotlight. Each Sunday I aim to provide a post about somewhere in the world I’ve visited that is pretty darned awesome, in my opinion at least. I hope this Easter everyone is safe and enjoying a relaxing weekend with their families and friends. As for me, well, I am off to Mount Fuji today, finally getting up close and personal with this iconic landmark of Japan.

Main Square in Bukhara with lake.

But it’s too Uzbekistan I’m taking the blog to, and the Silk Road city of Bukhara, an ancient place with a middle eastern feel. It’s really the perfect place to appreciate Islamic Architecture and feel a part of history that many tourists worldwide have never considered and have never heard of. And Uzbekistan has loads of this sort of stuff, but the old quarter in Bukhara is quite self contained, great to roam the streets and alleyways, and is somewhat away from the bustle of the larger, more modern part of the city.

Getting there? Well the train from Tashkent, when I visited a couple of years back now, took around 7 hours, but they have since bought Talgo trains so the journey should be somewhat faster.

Sleep where? I slept at a great little guesthouse called Sarafon Bed and Breakfast. Uzbekistan has a great collection of Bed and Breakfasts, and this is no exception. Rooms are $25-30, comfortable, have bathroom and air conditioner, and the owners are friendly and eager to help. Good location in the old town.

Eating – Plenty of restaurants around, try the one in the main square Lyabi Hauz, I had a good meal with a couple of drinks for around $8.

Some of the things to see in the town include (from my ebook ‘Short Journeys: Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan’ –

Kalon Mosque

Kalon Mosque and Minaret from outside.

Wandering the streets is, on its own, a real highlight of visiting Bukhara. Dusty streets, high walls, many of them were pretty much deserted as I wandered around and then suddenly – Bang! A tour group. But I also passed Medressas and mosques in the amazing streets of Bukhara. The Kalon Mosque has a striking minaret which you see above the houses and walls in the area north east of Lyabi-Hauz. It’s kind of nestled between houses and such and it springs up on your out of nowhere.

Inside, the Kalon Mosque continues to impress with its great beauty. It features wondrous high arches and a blue dome, and isn’t quite as popular with the tourist as some of the other attractions in Bukhara. It’s big and mosaic work is exquisite. There are lots of corridors with arches in what are sort of cloisters, it’s also really peaceful. A real highlight of Bukhara.

The Ark

‘The Ark’ – with a name like that, I expected a big boat! Except of course that I’d researched already and knew it wasn’t. It’s actually a big citadel, reputedly the oldest part of Bukhara that was bombed by the Soviets in 1920. So what you see today is mostly rebuilt. But nevertheless, it’s very impressive.

From Lyabi-Hauz you walk past the Kalon Mosque and Minaret, through to the Registan area. The Registan is the square outside the Ark. You’ll see the Ark rising above the buildings as you close in. Then past a whole stretch of tourist shops selling artefacts and carpets and if you’re lucky postcards (postcards in Central Asia are rarer than hen’s teeth. Well, almost!).

Then there she is, rising out of the sand with huge turrets, a huge entrance, it’s almost a sand castle that got bigger than the kids had intended and will now stand forever. What’s inside? Well it starts with an impressive passageway past the opening gate opening up at the top with various buildings and so forth to explore.

Central inside the citadel is the Juma (means ‘Friday’) Mosque. It’s not massive, but it is interesting. It dates back to the 17^th century and inside are many different Korans. There are a couple of courtyards you’ll find once you start exploring. Everything may have basically been rebuilt, but it’s still quite striking and impressive. Be aware if you are there in summer as I was it will be very hot, and as in all of Bukhara there is very little shade.

If you explore the buildings and courtyards you will come across a couple of different museums. I always find the history of the last century or so more interesting than that of ancient times with broken pottery and the like, both are on show here. Perhaps what is best though is the view across Bukhara. Definitely worth the admission price (double if you have a camera) to get up there and look out across this amazing city that was once part of the Silk Road.

Bolo-Hauz Mosque

Pretty much opposite the Ark, you’ll find the Bolo-Hauz Mosque. It’s a really nice place inside, and worth a peak. If you’re lucky you won’t have too much company, although the tour groups kept coming in and out of there whilst I was there sadly. Its façade features thin wooden columns and a sort of lattice-worked wooden roof, then you enter and look up to a beautiful white dome. There are many arches, and the floor is covered with interesting carpets. It dates back to the early 18^th century and was specially built for the Emir of the time.

Outside there is something of a pond and a water tower between the mosque and the Ark. Apparently you can climb the water tower for great views. I didn’t, I hate heights and no-one else was climbing whilst I was there so decided it probably wouldn’t be a good idea.

If you’d like to learn more about Uzbekistan and my experiences there, check out my ebook available on Amazon Kindle – Short Journeys: Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

False Spring

Although the hills look quite beautiful today, I must admit to being rather sick of winter. Today was supposed to be the first day of spring!
Oh well, Ichinoseki can be quite beautiful even with snow!

Top Ten Countries Number Five - Central Asia

Zenkov Cathedral, Almaty

Yes, I am going to cheat here and instead of specifying a country, I am going to lump ‘Central Asia’ together in my top ten. Technically I already cheated when I included the UK, right? But for me, Central Asia was the ultimate in ‘different’. I visited Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan over six weeks back in May-June 2011 and had a wonderful time. I visited three countries bordering each other with dramatic differences. Beautiful mountains, flat steppe and searing desert.

Kazakhstan is the biggest of the three, in fact it is the 9^th biggest country on Earth. From the cultural Almaty to the mind-blowing capital, Astana, Kazakhstan is full of surprises. Almaty is a wonderful city, the ‘soul’ of Kazakhstan. Wonderful museums and theatre – I went to see traditional dancing there, friendly people, beautiful parks. The Russian influence is unmistakable, but it definitely has a European feel to it. The small but interesting Kazakh Museum of Musical Instruments was an unexpected highlight, where I got to witness a small concert of traditional instruments played. This is in the beautiful Panfilov Park, where stands the impressive and decorative Zenkov Cathedral.

Almaty is surrounded by stunning mountains, I headed up to Medeu one day, a favourite play-area in winter, but also lovely in summer. Kok Tobe is a peak not that far from the middle of town, where bronze statues of the Beatles stand (and sit!), and a cable car takes you up and down the big hill.

Inside Dostoevsky's old digs.

Semey was also a very interesting place. Behind my hotel is a park full of statues of communist figures such as Lenin and Marx. For a time Semey was home to Fyodor Dostoevsky, and today the house in which he lived is a small museum to the great Russian writer. The number one writer in town, in fact all of Kazakhstan is Abay though. This poet was also responsible for translating countless works into the local Kazakh language, and is a national hero.

Palace of Peace and Accord, Astana.

But is he a bigger national hero that Nazabaev, President of Kazakhstan since it became independent of the Soviet Union? Perhaps not. Nazabaev is a man of daring vision, and it was his vision that saw the capital moved from Almaty to the more central Astana. Now Astana is one of the more amazing cities of the world, with countless daring buildings designed by architect Norman Foster. This includes the Palace of Peace and Accord, a giant pyramid inside which are conference halls, a giant atrium and a concert hall, the Byoterek, a 97 metre tall tower resembling an ice cream cone, and the Khan Shatyr, a giant shopping complex enclosed in a tent-like structure, the likes of which you are unlikely to see anywhere else in the world. Come to Astana to be impressed, to be wowed, or even just to wonder ‘why?’ It’s simply an astounding place.

National Museum in Bishkek reminds us of the past.

I headed south from Almaty to Kyrgyzstan. I was now travelling by small mini-buses called marshrutkas for the most part, and every journey was an adventure. The capital of Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek, is a really pleasant, smallish city which I liked very much. An interesting museum there revealed that possibly Kyrgyzstan thought that the Soviet Union was still going, but the parks brimmed with a different kind of life, and art. People played table tennis on outdoor tables whilst others took wedding photos by fountains. In the evening, for a dollar or two, I saw an opera in town. Those are my lasting impressions of Bishkek.

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Kyrgyzstan boasts great natural beauty. Lake Issyk-kul, a huge freshwater lake 182 kilometres wide (by 60 metres) gives life to a whole region of the country. Around it I went to reach Karakol on the far end, an interesting and pretty if somewhat ramshackle town with some amazing old houses and a striking wooden orthodox church. I took a jeep up the mountains to a place called Altyn Arashan, and stayed a night in an old, large, wooden shack. It was party night there, the place had a big gathering, and despite the lack of electricity, it was a great night. The next day I took in the stunning and very European mountains as I hiked back to Karakol.

Bukhara.

Tombs in Samarkand.

I had to go via Bishkek and again Kazakhstan to get to Uzbekistan. That journey in itself, going from marshrutka to taxi to taxi to taxi, crossing two borders in one day, was an incredible adventure I won’t forget. Bukhara and Samarkand both proved to be amazing places, from the old silk road, with incredible Islamic architecture. Uzbekistan felt very different from the other two Central Asian countries I visited. It was very dry and hot – Bukhara was over 40 degrees, Samarkand just under it.

Statue of Temur, Tashkent.

Despite the heat (and the heatstroke) I adored Uzbekistan. It reminded me a lot of Iran, and there were a number of friendly people I met there on my journey. Tashkent was more like the other countries, its boulevards very wide, and it even had a working metro-system! The parks were the highlight, as were the statues of the greatest Uzbek hero of all, Temur! I visited his museum too. Again there were impressive monuments and fantastic parks, where people cooled down from the heat. Swimming in the fountains was an extremely popular way to escape the heat in Uzbekistan, especially for but not only for, the children.

 

Tashkent

I’ve rolled three countries into one today, which doesn’t do any of them full justice. They are three amazing countries in the world, at one time they were one country with the rest of the Soviet Union. As individuals, I’m not sure they would make my top ten (they wouldn’t be far off) but together, they are just a brilliant travel experience. You can trek, you can see cities, history, culture, the future. Admire Islamic architecture or breath the mountain air and think you were in Europe. Central Asia offers the traveller so much. The tourist – maybe not so much, but for those willing to go the extra mile in paperwork, Central Asia rewards in bucketloads!

Writings :

Short Journeys – Kazakhstan (Amazon Link)

Coming February/March 2014 – Short Journeys: Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan

The top ten so far:

10 – Slovakia

9 – Romania

8 – Mali

7 – The United Kingdom

6 – Japan

5- Central Asia