Uzbekistan - Bukhara - The Crossroads of the Silk Road

Today I could talk about the monuments and trading halls of Bukhara, situated on the crossroads of the Silk Road - North to Russia, East to China, South to India, West to Constantinople and Europe. Or about the well where two thousand women and children were slaughtered by Genghis Khan on his sweep across Asia. Or haggling for silks in the bazaar.











But this afternoon we went to a very strange basement room for a tea ceremony. Accompanied by a parade of very beautiful young women in amazing clothes, overseen by a fierce matriarch and the most random decor of high bling mannequins, kitsch temporary, antiques, paintings of semi or fully naked women and a life size model of Genghis himself. It was....not your average Wednesday.






Still in Bukhara, the next day was museums and mausoleum, parks and palaces, peacocks and swans. Lots of climbing steps to high places on the hottest day so far. A unique mosque with four towers (there is a grander pair in India) and a memorial building built in 999AD, that spent most of the 20th century buried under sand. Tomorrow, East along the Silk Road in the steps of Timur (Tamerlane in Western history) and on to Samarkand.


















Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Iguazu Falls - Argentina and Brazil

Image
Farewell Buenos Aires and another internal flight, this time north into the rain forest and two nights staying in the only hotel in the Iguazu National Park. By fluke, I was perfectly seated in the bus when we arrived for the view through the lobby across the valley to the Iguazu Falls themselves. Holy crap..... this trip would be worth it for that view alone. The largest waterfall complex in the world, higher than Niagara, wider than Victoria, with a continual thunder of falling water, viewable from multiple walkways through the trees, surrounded by exactly the tropical birds and wildlife you might expect. The hotel is built to embrace the view, even the infinity swimming pool placed perfectly to see the falls. The security notices are possibly unique: balcony doors and windows must be locked at all times to prevent raids by the local capuchin monkeys who have learnt to open doors and fridges in search of food and soda. What you can't see are the hundreds of tourists filling the...
Read more

Rio De Janeiro

Image
Farewell Argentina, Hola Brazil. Where it is currently raining at a rate that makes Scotland feel like a desert, despite being a ridiculous 24° even at 10pm.  I'm not sure I've ever been on the 37th floor of a hotel before but with a view along Copacabana Beach I'm sure I'll cope... Tomorrow, a city tour here. The guide has suggested raincoats. The Scottish crew have laughed. Those of us of a certain vintage will remember when Bond movies were released every two years, with the book locations increasingly replaced by an exotic vista. According to lore, the Broccoli family chose a location and then worked out how to place Bond into it. Those of us of a certain vintage will also probably remember the fight with Jaws (the man, not the shark) on a cable car below Sugarloaf Mountain in Rio in Moonraker. (That particular film also featured Bond hang gliding off the Iguazu Falls, while Jaws went over them, but that detail had escaped my memory). At the time of filming, t...
Read more

Southern Caucasus - Dilijan to Tbilisi

Image
  Another day, another border, this time back into Georgia. I've acquired a lot of stamps in my passport these past two weeks. The rain and thunder continued all night so we abandoned the planned monastery visit near to Dilijian and went to Samahin instead, a tiny village perched high on the hill above the abandoned copper smelters we saw on our first day. A solitary cable car still hangs over the river from when it was the primary route to work for the villagers. Off the beaten track in the rain, we have the place to ourselves. Part ruined monastery, part functioning village church, with multiple chapels, library and study rooms. On the wet hillside above sits the village cemetery, from ancient headstones to modern black stone bearing an image of the deceased, a local tradition that I find touchingly human. At Tbilisi Airport, the majority of the group head for departures and their homeward journey to Heathrow. I, and the other Edinburgh bound traveller, are met by local driv...
Read more