After my last post about how great Samarkand was, Mike and I headed back to our hotel to hang out until our train left at 1:43 am. Mike and I started an epic card game tournament. We've played about 50 games up to now and he's still ahead. But not for long. Anyways, a taxi came to pick us up at 00:30, and we caught the train to Bukhara. Katy and Josh had a cushy 4-person sleeper car, but we opted for cheap and got 4th class seats, "obshy vagon" in Russian. Tickets were 5500 sum instead of about 20,000 for a sleeper cabin, but it became clear why when we got there. It was a mostly open train car, with 9 benches in each section. We got on midway during the train journey (the train had started in Tashkent) so it was mostly full- there were people sitting and lying EVERYWHERE. It smelled horribly of B.O. and socks, and there were no lights on so we were wandering around in the dark, trying to find a place to squeeze in. We finally found a spot on the end of a bench. It was a semi-padded bench, but there was no backrest or anything, and we just had to stuff our bags and shoes on the floor in front of us. There was barely any place for anything, and I tried to find a place for the loaf of bread we'd bought from a babushka at the train station. I tried to put it behind me and under my legs, but it wasn't comfortable. The guy sitting across from me took it from me and just put it onto the table, which was already covered in loaves of bread.
Mike fell asleep quickly, and I was just looking around, amused by the fact that it was the middle of the night and we were in a crowded train, surrounded by Uzbeks going home for New Year's to be with their families. The boys across from me kept saying words quietly in English, so I knew that it would only be a matter of time before they tried talking to me. Finally one of the guys said, "Excuse me, are you from England?" and then a semi-awkward conversation started, where I had to answer the usual questions... my name, my age, if I'm married (and then I have to explain in detail WHY Mike and I aren't married and why we don't have children...), if I have any brothers or sisters, and what I think about Uzbekistan. His English was mediocre, but he wasn't afraid to try.
Pretty soon another man walked by and heard us speaking English, so he stopped to talk too. His English was really good because he worked for an international bank in Tashkent. The boy across from me asked him to translate something that he didn't know how to say in English, and he asked me why I'd tried to put the bread under my legs. Apparently this was a big faux pas because bread is very very important to Uzbek people, and I disprespected it by putting it under my legs. I got a lecture from the good English speaker about why this was bad to do, and how I shouldn't do it again. He actually said, "These men here think it's just INCREDIBLE that you would do something like that to bread." I remembered having read in Lonely Planet that you never should put bread on the ground or throw it away in public, but I didn't really think about it as I was trying to find a place to keep the bread. I apologized and the guys weren't angry as much as surprised that I didn't have the same respect for bread as they did. Sorry Central Asia, I didn't mean to be a stupid ignorant American tourist...
The man on our bunk eventually got off the train, so for a few hours Mike and I had a bench to ourselves and we were sort of able to sleep. When we got to Bukhara we met up again with our friends. The same English speaking man from the train asked where we were going to stay, and when I told him the hotel that the man in Samarkand had recommended to us, he found a taxi driver that knew exactly where the hotel was, and he bargained a cheap price for our taxi ride into town.
We got to the hotel and Mike and I immediately went to sleep since we'd only gotten a couple of hours on the train. The room had single beds, but a space heater that made the room absolutely toasty. We ventured out of the room around 13:00 to find lunch. We went to a horrificly tacky touristy restaurant near our hotel, which had good laghman made with egg and tomato sauce, but was decorated like a place where you'd have a cheap wedding reception. There were bright blue satin seat covers, pastel decorations on the walls, and big balloons. Our hotel was in the Old Town, and it was super touristy. There weren't that many tourists per se because it's off-season, but every other building was a hotel or a money exchange office, and there were souvenier kiosks set up everywhere. Since Bukhara is basically desert, it was really cold and windy. Mike and I walked around and saw that best sites, but couldn't handle the cold for very long and went back to the hotel by 16:00. We had satellite tv, so we spent hours just lying around watching Italian, Arabic, and German channels.
For dinner we went out with Katy and Josh to a cafe nearby, and we had AMAZING friend meat and French fries. It doesn't sound like much, but it was the best meat I've had since being in Central Asia, and the French fries weren't cold like they usually are. We went back to bed and fell asleep unreasonably early.
The next day we went to buy night train tickets for our trip back to Tashkent that night. We found a ticket office in the city so we didn't have to travel 12 km to get to the train station itself. Then we had plov for lunch with Katy and Josh, specially cooked just for us since it wasn't usually on the menu. After lunch Mike and I set off to do some more siteseeing, and saw the Ark, which was mostly ruins and an archeological site totally not worth the 4$ admission fee, and a mosque with 4 minarets, which was pretty cool. We found a little cafe, drank tea, and continued our card tournament. Mike won some more. Blah.
We got our bags from the hotel and went to the train station, where, for the 12 hour train trip back to Tashkent, we "splurged" and got a 4-person sleeper car with Katy and Josh. I slept really well all night, and we arrived early early yesterday morning to Tashkent.
It's time for us to catch our train to Kazakhstan, so I'm off! More later... we'll likely be spending New Year's 00:00 in a night train from Turkestan to Almaty, so there won't be much going on with me then. Happy New Year's to all and have a great start to 2009!
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Friday, December 26, 2008
There are not enough superlatives in any language to describe Samarkand.
Amazing. Marvelous. Beautiful. Magnificent. Mahtava. Ihana. Klassno. Krasivyi. Wunderschoen. Abdan Jakshy. Etc... but they still don't even scrape the surface of how amazing everything is here in Samarkand.
To backtrack... our second day in Tashkent was great. The weather was better and the roads weren't as wet. We looked into getting train tickets, but we couldn't until we had our passports, so we had to wait until evening. We ran into a really nice guy in line who gave us his business card and told us to call him if we had any problems at all in Uzbekistan. The people here are unbelievably friendly. We took a streetcar to the old part of town, and wandered around the bazaar. It was bigger and much better organized than bazaars in Kyrgystan- the different sections are labelled, so you know where to find what you want, rather than having to wander around aimlessly, hoping to happen upon an aisle that has what you want. There was a domed room full of spices, and all the sellers were really friendly and interested in foreigners. People tend to stare at us because it is definitely not tourist season, but they are mostly friendly stares. Children talk to us, and many people say "Hello!" when we walk by. After the market, we walked north of the Old Town to Khast Imom, a mosque. As we walked down the winding streets of the Old Town, there was an open door into a courtyard, which just happened to be a cafe. It wasn't labelled at all, and we never would have found it if the door wouldn't have been open at that moment. We ate great shashlyk and then went to the mosque, which was really beautiful, even though it was sort of overcast.
We then needed to catch a cab to get to the Kazakh Embassy by 17:00 to get our visas. A cab stopped without even being flagged down, but quoted us too high a price. It's great in UZ that all cars are cabs, even if they aren't licensed cabs. So as soon as the first car drove away, the next car pulled up and asked us where we wanted to go. All wanted too much money, so we walked out to the main street and haggled one regular person (not a cab) down to a price we wanted. He drove us to the wrong place at first, only one block from where we wanted to be, but instead of just letting us get out and walk a few minutes, he turned around and brought us right to the door of the Embassy. We had to wait a while for the doors to open, but we picked up our transit visas and paid our $20, no problems. Our transit visas are actually for 1 month, rather than 5 days like I'd been told. Too bad we have to get back to work on January 5th!! We walked back to the train station to buy our tickets. We first had to register in the immigation office, and then we bought tickets to Samarkand, and Evan to Nukus, in the Western part of UZ and close-ish to the Aral Sea. We bought some bread from a babushka in the station, and then got on the train. Mike and I had a 4 person sleeper room, which we had to ourselves for most of the time, except maybe 20 minutes when a nice guy from Karakalpakstan, the western region of UZ, came in and talked to us in Russian. It's incredible how friendly the people are in UZ!
And now about Samarkand...
Mike and I arrived on the night train at about 1:45 am 2 days ago, after a 5 hour ride from Tashkent. We left Evan on the train. We were approached but a cute/creepy old lady at the train station who offered us a homestay for 12000 som for the night, which was super cheap, but we decided against it because in Uzbekistan, you need to register with immigration for every night you spend, and hotels do it for you, but this woman couldn't. So we turned her down and caught a cab to a hotel listed in Lonely Planet, Hotel Registan. The write-up was pretty negative, but it seemed like a pretty standard Soviet hotel. It wasn't as bad as Lonely Planet made it sound, that's for sure. The next morning we walked into town to find a new hotel. We chose Antica, which was Lonely Planet's pick for the best hotel. And it was amazing. It's located in an old part of town, with cobblestone alleys and courtyards. I imagine that in summer, when all the fruit trees are in bloom, that it's absolutely amazing. We got a cute room with a view of one of the many blue-tiled mausoleums, breakfast included, a double bed, and a really modern private bathroom with a great shower. It was $40 for the 2 of us, but totally worth it. We had tea at the hotel and then set off to wander around Samarkand.
You can't look anywhere without seeing at least one blue cupola/dome from one of the many mosques or minarets. We went first to the Registan, which is probably what Samarkand is most known-for. It's a group of three Medressas, built between the 15th and 17th centuries. Entrace was 6500 sum ($5), so we decided to just check it out from the outside, and save going in for the next day. We then wandered down to some other mosques and the bazaar. We saw Bibi-Khanym Mosque, which it's said was built by one of Timur's wives as a surprise for him, but the architect fell in love with her and refused to finish building the mosque unless she gave him a kiss. The kiss left a mark on her face, and Timur saw it when it got home and had the architect executed. From that point forward, he decreed that women must where headscarves to avoid tempting men. Who knows if it's true, but it's a good story anyways. Again we didn't go inside, because it doesn't seem like there was really much to see other than a courtyard. We then went to Shah-i-Zinda, which is said to be one of the most moving sites in all of Central Asia, and a place that Muslim pilgrims visit because the cousin and good friend of the Prophet Mohammed is buried there. It's just a bunch of mauseleums, but there is great tile-work and a huge cemetery to walk through. We ran into our friends Katy and Josh from Bishkek! We knew they were spending vacation in UZ also, but had no idea what their plans were. Even crazier was that they were staying at the same hotel as us, in the next room! They had also been approache by the creepy/cute old lady in the middle of the night at the train station, and they actually stayed with her! They said she lived in a really scary part of town near the train station, and that when they said that they weren't married to each other, she started talking super religious and even got out a Bible and read them the Ten Commandments! So I'm very glad that Mike and I didn't stay there.
After we parted ways with them, Mike and I wandered around the cemetery for ages, reading gravestones and looking at the pictures of the deceased that are lasered onto many of the stones. Some plots were really intricate, with roofs and lots of decoration. There was even one man who had a life-sized statue of him on his grave! We grabbed schwarmas for dinner and went back to the hotel. There's a big New Year's tree set up in a square near the hotel, and many people just were hanging out there, talking to their friends and setting off little fireworks. The people here just are so much friendlier and not nearly as aggressive or intimidating as Kyrgyz people.
This morning, we got up at 9 and had breakfast at the hotel with Katy and Josh. We wandered around the mausoleum housing the tomb of Timur and checked out the Timur statue, and then we set off to the train station to buy tickets for the night train to Bukhara. Since it's close to New Years, the trains are likely to be full. We got a bit confused and I thought the ticket man told us we had to come back at 1 am to buy tickets for the 1:45 am train, but it turned out he meant 1 pm. We didn't figure this out until we'd gotten into a marshrutka to head back to the center of town, but we got off and walked back to the train station. It was amazing weather today- sunny, complete blue skies, and warm enough that I had my coat off for most of the time. We bought cheap cheap seats and then caught a marshrutka back to the Registan (we'd decided that it would be worth it to pay the 6500 sum entrance fee). As we were taking panorama pictures, a policeman approached us and offered to let us into a locked part of Ulugbek's medressa to walk to the top of one of the minarets. Lonely Planet said that this would happen, and Katy and Josh said they were approached too, and they did it for 10,000 sum (talked the cop down from 20,000) and that it was amazing, and totally worth it. We weren't going to pay that much, so we declined and walked to another part. I left Mike alone for a few minutes to check out a different room, and when I saw him again, he was surrounded by 6 Uzbek children. It turns out they were an English primary school class with their English teacher, hanging out at the Registan hoping to find some tourists to practice English with. Mike and I sat down with them for about an hour, just asking and answering simple questions. They were all about 15, and had only elementary English skills. But their teacher was young and had great English, and was fun to talk to.
Then we learned all about Uzbek textiles from a nice seller, who tried to get us to buy some fabric from him, which of course we didn't do. As we went out to the center of the 3 medressas, yet another cop approached us, offering us entrance to the minaret for 2000 sum apiece. Still not wanting to spend more money, since we're going to run out anyways and we have to get money western unioned to us, we declined again. The first cop came to us again and said that I could go up for free since I was so beautiful. We left the medressa, but the cops kept whistling after us, trying to get us to go up the minaret. The cop was hilarious- he asked if we were married, and then said that if we went up the minaret, maybe we'd get married. He asked how many girlfriends Mike had, and when he said 1, the cop said that after going up the minaret maybe he could get more. He asked if we had any children, and then said if we went up the minaret, I'd probably be pregnant. It was great to joke around with policemen. We went back in and bargained to get up the minaret- I'd get in free, Mike would pay 2000 sum ($1.50), and I would have to kiss each of the policemen on the cheek. That was too good a bargain to pass up, so we went back in and up the minaret. We climbed lots of scary stair to the top, and the view was beautiful. Mike and I still aren't married, we have no children, and he still (unfortunately?) only has one girlfriend, but it was great. The cop walked part of the way with us, making sure we were careful stepping on the crumbling, unrenovated steps. He gave us his phone number, and said that when we come back in June we should call him up. I did kiss him on the cheek as promised, and got a picture of me doing it. It's not everyday I get to kiss a policeman, especially in a "Police State" country with supposedly scary policemen. The other policeman came up and got his kiss too, and then gave me his address and asked me to send him the picture. He also said that when we come back in summer, we should ask for him at the Registan and that we can stay in his house instead of a hotel. The Registan had closed by this point, but a friend of the cops took us into his souvenier and gave us information about getting a cheap hotel in Bukhara. He wrote down the address, told us how to get there, and even called ahead to make sure that we could get a double room with hot water, breakfast, and a tv for $20 for the 2 of us, rather than $40! I wanted to buy a postcard from him, but he gave it to me for free! It was amazing. One of the cops stood with us while we took night pictures of the medressas, and told us more information about the history of the medressas.
Samarkand is just AMAZING! I wish we could just stay forever, joke with salesmen and policemen, visit mosque after mosque, and eat glorious plov. I'm glad Mike and I will be coming back through Uzbekistan at the start of our land journey to Turkey next summer.
We set off to Bukhara tonight, and it will be beautiful there as well! Happy Boxing Day to all.
To backtrack... our second day in Tashkent was great. The weather was better and the roads weren't as wet. We looked into getting train tickets, but we couldn't until we had our passports, so we had to wait until evening. We ran into a really nice guy in line who gave us his business card and told us to call him if we had any problems at all in Uzbekistan. The people here are unbelievably friendly. We took a streetcar to the old part of town, and wandered around the bazaar. It was bigger and much better organized than bazaars in Kyrgystan- the different sections are labelled, so you know where to find what you want, rather than having to wander around aimlessly, hoping to happen upon an aisle that has what you want. There was a domed room full of spices, and all the sellers were really friendly and interested in foreigners. People tend to stare at us because it is definitely not tourist season, but they are mostly friendly stares. Children talk to us, and many people say "Hello!" when we walk by. After the market, we walked north of the Old Town to Khast Imom, a mosque. As we walked down the winding streets of the Old Town, there was an open door into a courtyard, which just happened to be a cafe. It wasn't labelled at all, and we never would have found it if the door wouldn't have been open at that moment. We ate great shashlyk and then went to the mosque, which was really beautiful, even though it was sort of overcast.
We then needed to catch a cab to get to the Kazakh Embassy by 17:00 to get our visas. A cab stopped without even being flagged down, but quoted us too high a price. It's great in UZ that all cars are cabs, even if they aren't licensed cabs. So as soon as the first car drove away, the next car pulled up and asked us where we wanted to go. All wanted too much money, so we walked out to the main street and haggled one regular person (not a cab) down to a price we wanted. He drove us to the wrong place at first, only one block from where we wanted to be, but instead of just letting us get out and walk a few minutes, he turned around and brought us right to the door of the Embassy. We had to wait a while for the doors to open, but we picked up our transit visas and paid our $20, no problems. Our transit visas are actually for 1 month, rather than 5 days like I'd been told. Too bad we have to get back to work on January 5th!! We walked back to the train station to buy our tickets. We first had to register in the immigation office, and then we bought tickets to Samarkand, and Evan to Nukus, in the Western part of UZ and close-ish to the Aral Sea. We bought some bread from a babushka in the station, and then got on the train. Mike and I had a 4 person sleeper room, which we had to ourselves for most of the time, except maybe 20 minutes when a nice guy from Karakalpakstan, the western region of UZ, came in and talked to us in Russian. It's incredible how friendly the people are in UZ!
And now about Samarkand...
Mike and I arrived on the night train at about 1:45 am 2 days ago, after a 5 hour ride from Tashkent. We left Evan on the train. We were approached but a cute/creepy old lady at the train station who offered us a homestay for 12000 som for the night, which was super cheap, but we decided against it because in Uzbekistan, you need to register with immigration for every night you spend, and hotels do it for you, but this woman couldn't. So we turned her down and caught a cab to a hotel listed in Lonely Planet, Hotel Registan. The write-up was pretty negative, but it seemed like a pretty standard Soviet hotel. It wasn't as bad as Lonely Planet made it sound, that's for sure. The next morning we walked into town to find a new hotel. We chose Antica, which was Lonely Planet's pick for the best hotel. And it was amazing. It's located in an old part of town, with cobblestone alleys and courtyards. I imagine that in summer, when all the fruit trees are in bloom, that it's absolutely amazing. We got a cute room with a view of one of the many blue-tiled mausoleums, breakfast included, a double bed, and a really modern private bathroom with a great shower. It was $40 for the 2 of us, but totally worth it. We had tea at the hotel and then set off to wander around Samarkand.
You can't look anywhere without seeing at least one blue cupola/dome from one of the many mosques or minarets. We went first to the Registan, which is probably what Samarkand is most known-for. It's a group of three Medressas, built between the 15th and 17th centuries. Entrace was 6500 sum ($5), so we decided to just check it out from the outside, and save going in for the next day. We then wandered down to some other mosques and the bazaar. We saw Bibi-Khanym Mosque, which it's said was built by one of Timur's wives as a surprise for him, but the architect fell in love with her and refused to finish building the mosque unless she gave him a kiss. The kiss left a mark on her face, and Timur saw it when it got home and had the architect executed. From that point forward, he decreed that women must where headscarves to avoid tempting men. Who knows if it's true, but it's a good story anyways. Again we didn't go inside, because it doesn't seem like there was really much to see other than a courtyard. We then went to Shah-i-Zinda, which is said to be one of the most moving sites in all of Central Asia, and a place that Muslim pilgrims visit because the cousin and good friend of the Prophet Mohammed is buried there. It's just a bunch of mauseleums, but there is great tile-work and a huge cemetery to walk through. We ran into our friends Katy and Josh from Bishkek! We knew they were spending vacation in UZ also, but had no idea what their plans were. Even crazier was that they were staying at the same hotel as us, in the next room! They had also been approache by the creepy/cute old lady in the middle of the night at the train station, and they actually stayed with her! They said she lived in a really scary part of town near the train station, and that when they said that they weren't married to each other, she started talking super religious and even got out a Bible and read them the Ten Commandments! So I'm very glad that Mike and I didn't stay there.
After we parted ways with them, Mike and I wandered around the cemetery for ages, reading gravestones and looking at the pictures of the deceased that are lasered onto many of the stones. Some plots were really intricate, with roofs and lots of decoration. There was even one man who had a life-sized statue of him on his grave! We grabbed schwarmas for dinner and went back to the hotel. There's a big New Year's tree set up in a square near the hotel, and many people just were hanging out there, talking to their friends and setting off little fireworks. The people here just are so much friendlier and not nearly as aggressive or intimidating as Kyrgyz people.
This morning, we got up at 9 and had breakfast at the hotel with Katy and Josh. We wandered around the mausoleum housing the tomb of Timur and checked out the Timur statue, and then we set off to the train station to buy tickets for the night train to Bukhara. Since it's close to New Years, the trains are likely to be full. We got a bit confused and I thought the ticket man told us we had to come back at 1 am to buy tickets for the 1:45 am train, but it turned out he meant 1 pm. We didn't figure this out until we'd gotten into a marshrutka to head back to the center of town, but we got off and walked back to the train station. It was amazing weather today- sunny, complete blue skies, and warm enough that I had my coat off for most of the time. We bought cheap cheap seats and then caught a marshrutka back to the Registan (we'd decided that it would be worth it to pay the 6500 sum entrance fee). As we were taking panorama pictures, a policeman approached us and offered to let us into a locked part of Ulugbek's medressa to walk to the top of one of the minarets. Lonely Planet said that this would happen, and Katy and Josh said they were approached too, and they did it for 10,000 sum (talked the cop down from 20,000) and that it was amazing, and totally worth it. We weren't going to pay that much, so we declined and walked to another part. I left Mike alone for a few minutes to check out a different room, and when I saw him again, he was surrounded by 6 Uzbek children. It turns out they were an English primary school class with their English teacher, hanging out at the Registan hoping to find some tourists to practice English with. Mike and I sat down with them for about an hour, just asking and answering simple questions. They were all about 15, and had only elementary English skills. But their teacher was young and had great English, and was fun to talk to.
Then we learned all about Uzbek textiles from a nice seller, who tried to get us to buy some fabric from him, which of course we didn't do. As we went out to the center of the 3 medressas, yet another cop approached us, offering us entrance to the minaret for 2000 sum apiece. Still not wanting to spend more money, since we're going to run out anyways and we have to get money western unioned to us, we declined again. The first cop came to us again and said that I could go up for free since I was so beautiful. We left the medressa, but the cops kept whistling after us, trying to get us to go up the minaret. The cop was hilarious- he asked if we were married, and then said that if we went up the minaret, maybe we'd get married. He asked how many girlfriends Mike had, and when he said 1, the cop said that after going up the minaret maybe he could get more. He asked if we had any children, and then said if we went up the minaret, I'd probably be pregnant. It was great to joke around with policemen. We went back in and bargained to get up the minaret- I'd get in free, Mike would pay 2000 sum ($1.50), and I would have to kiss each of the policemen on the cheek. That was too good a bargain to pass up, so we went back in and up the minaret. We climbed lots of scary stair to the top, and the view was beautiful. Mike and I still aren't married, we have no children, and he still (unfortunately?) only has one girlfriend, but it was great. The cop walked part of the way with us, making sure we were careful stepping on the crumbling, unrenovated steps. He gave us his phone number, and said that when we come back in June we should call him up. I did kiss him on the cheek as promised, and got a picture of me doing it. It's not everyday I get to kiss a policeman, especially in a "Police State" country with supposedly scary policemen. The other policeman came up and got his kiss too, and then gave me his address and asked me to send him the picture. He also said that when we come back in summer, we should ask for him at the Registan and that we can stay in his house instead of a hotel. The Registan had closed by this point, but a friend of the cops took us into his souvenier and gave us information about getting a cheap hotel in Bukhara. He wrote down the address, told us how to get there, and even called ahead to make sure that we could get a double room with hot water, breakfast, and a tv for $20 for the 2 of us, rather than $40! I wanted to buy a postcard from him, but he gave it to me for free! It was amazing. One of the cops stood with us while we took night pictures of the medressas, and told us more information about the history of the medressas.
Samarkand is just AMAZING! I wish we could just stay forever, joke with salesmen and policemen, visit mosque after mosque, and eat glorious plov. I'm glad Mike and I will be coming back through Uzbekistan at the start of our land journey to Turkey next summer.
We set off to Bukhara tonight, and it will be beautiful there as well! Happy Boxing Day to all.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Tashkent
We made it to Tashkent without any more dead bodies. The staff at the Osh Guesthouse arranged a taxi to take us all the way to Tashkent, so we didn't have anything to organize ourselves. The border crossing took about an hour, and we didn't have to pay any bribes. We stopped for lunch at an Uzbek restaurant, and ate some wonderful plov. I chipped off a big hunk of one of my molars, but I didn't expose a nerve, so thankfully I hopefully won't have to pay a Kyrgyz dentist a visit. Uzbek currency is ridiculous- 1$ is about 1500 sum, and the largest bill is a 1000 sum note. So we changed 50$, got 74,000 sum, all in 1000 sum bills. We are all carrying around giant wads of cash. It's comical.
We stopped at a car repair shop, and sat around for more than 30 minutes while our driver had something under the hood checked out- we think he was getting his lights changed (?). We just sat around in the car slowly freezing.
There was another mountain pass we had to get through, and it was blizzarding horribly for most of the pass. We had to drive slowly, and at one point the road in the other direction actually closed down. There were a few bulldozers plowing the road in the other direction, and quite a few dump trucks full of dirt, with men in the back shoveling onto the road. There were many cars that had 2 or 3 people perched on the hood or trunk of the car, covered in snow because of the blizzard. We weren't sure if they were just hitchhikers, or if they were picked up from cars that got stuck in the snow. There were also some lonely-looking donkeys wandering down the road, covered in snow. Mike made up a song about them. It was cute. We had a Daewoo just like most of the rest of the drivers in Uzbekistan, but miraculously we made it up and down the mountain without getting stuck.
We got to Tashkent around 20:00 and went to a hotel at the train station that Lonely Planet recommended. Rooms were 10,000 sum (about 8 dollars), and I was in a woman's dorm and Mike and Evan in a man's dorm. It turns out that we both had the rooms to ourselves, but we couldn't just stay in one room in case others came in during the night. Since it's close to the train station, locals seem to appear if they have hours to kill between trains. There were no other tourists there at all. There was a great housekeeper who spoke English and helped us out. We had dinner at a nice Chinese restaurant.
This morning we set out pretty early because we wanted to go to the Kazakh Embassy to apply for our transit visas. We did, and the process was painless and quick- we just needed to get copies of our passports. We have to go back tomorrow evening to pick them up. We got 5-day transit visas, so Mike and I will have time to stop in Turkistan and Almaty like we'd been hoping. The Kazakh Embassy in Bishkek is a nightmare, so I'm really glad we waited until we got to Uzbekistan.
The weather was terrible today- dismal, cloudy, cold, and wet. It turns out that both pairs of shoes that I brought leak, so I've had to suffer with wet feet the entire duration of our trip thus far, and for the next 10 days too, unless I buy new shoes at a bazaar somewhere. Blah.
Today we just wandered around. We had lunch at an amazing Turkish restaurant, where I had the best Iskender Kebab I've ever had. We then found the statute of Amir Timur (Tamerlane) and went to the Uzbekistan History Museum, which was fairly interesting and actually had captions in English! We're staying at the same hotel tonight, Tomorrow we're going to check out the Bazaar and the Old Town,and if all goes well with our Kazakh visas, we'll pick them up at 5 pm and then Mike and I will take the train to Samarkand, where we'll spend Christmas Day and then head to Bukhara.
Merry Christmas! I miss you all and I'm glad that you read my blog and are interested in my life here in Central Asia!
We stopped at a car repair shop, and sat around for more than 30 minutes while our driver had something under the hood checked out- we think he was getting his lights changed (?). We just sat around in the car slowly freezing.
There was another mountain pass we had to get through, and it was blizzarding horribly for most of the pass. We had to drive slowly, and at one point the road in the other direction actually closed down. There were a few bulldozers plowing the road in the other direction, and quite a few dump trucks full of dirt, with men in the back shoveling onto the road. There were many cars that had 2 or 3 people perched on the hood or trunk of the car, covered in snow because of the blizzard. We weren't sure if they were just hitchhikers, or if they were picked up from cars that got stuck in the snow. There were also some lonely-looking donkeys wandering down the road, covered in snow. Mike made up a song about them. It was cute. We had a Daewoo just like most of the rest of the drivers in Uzbekistan, but miraculously we made it up and down the mountain without getting stuck.
We got to Tashkent around 20:00 and went to a hotel at the train station that Lonely Planet recommended. Rooms were 10,000 sum (about 8 dollars), and I was in a woman's dorm and Mike and Evan in a man's dorm. It turns out that we both had the rooms to ourselves, but we couldn't just stay in one room in case others came in during the night. Since it's close to the train station, locals seem to appear if they have hours to kill between trains. There were no other tourists there at all. There was a great housekeeper who spoke English and helped us out. We had dinner at a nice Chinese restaurant.
This morning we set out pretty early because we wanted to go to the Kazakh Embassy to apply for our transit visas. We did, and the process was painless and quick- we just needed to get copies of our passports. We have to go back tomorrow evening to pick them up. We got 5-day transit visas, so Mike and I will have time to stop in Turkistan and Almaty like we'd been hoping. The Kazakh Embassy in Bishkek is a nightmare, so I'm really glad we waited until we got to Uzbekistan.
The weather was terrible today- dismal, cloudy, cold, and wet. It turns out that both pairs of shoes that I brought leak, so I've had to suffer with wet feet the entire duration of our trip thus far, and for the next 10 days too, unless I buy new shoes at a bazaar somewhere. Blah.
Today we just wandered around. We had lunch at an amazing Turkish restaurant, where I had the best Iskender Kebab I've ever had. We then found the statute of Amir Timur (Tamerlane) and went to the Uzbekistan History Museum, which was fairly interesting and actually had captions in English! We're staying at the same hotel tonight, Tomorrow we're going to check out the Bazaar and the Old Town,and if all goes well with our Kazakh visas, we'll pick them up at 5 pm and then Mike and I will take the train to Samarkand, where we'll spend Christmas Day and then head to Bukhara.
Merry Christmas! I miss you all and I'm glad that you read my blog and are interested in my life here in Central Asia!
Sunday, December 21, 2008
You'll never believe all of this.
Mike, Evan, and I made it safely to Osh.
We took a cab from home to Osh Bazaar (in Bishkek), the best place to get a cab for a long-distance journey. There were Kyrgyz men left and right trying to get us to go with them to Osh. The first driver we agreed on a price with (1300 som per person) then told us once we sat in the car that we either would have to wait for a 4th person to come and fill the car, or if we wanted the car for the 3 of us, we'd have to pay 1300 som for the extra seat. So we got out and tried a new driver. This time he agreed for the 3 of us, the whole car, 4000 som. BUT as soon as we set off, he said he had to stop at home to pick up his son, who would come to Osh with us! We obviously didn't want that, so we got out. We found someone finally who agreed on 4000 som ($100) for the car, no children or extra people. Bartering for a cab is great Russian practice, and our driver was super friendly and nice and talkative and I got to practice a lot of Russian with him.
We got out of Bishkek pretty quickly up into the mountains. It was snowy and the roads were pretty slippery. According to Lonely Planet, the highest pass we reached was 3580 meters or something like that. Our driver was really skilled at snow driving and manuevering down the mountain turns. At points it was snowing heavily, other times it eased up. We were driving in the mountains for hours and hours, and there were beautiful views everywhere we looked, assuming we could see through the snowfall. Our back seat windows were darkly tinted, so I had to look out the front windshield to see much. Darkness fell quite early, and going was slow anyways because of the bad roads. We stopped for some good food along the way, but mostly drove straight through. We called and arranged for sleeping at Osh Guest House, a Soviet block apartment building turned into a backpackers' dorm. Driving got really dangerous around 20:30, where there was lots of fog on the mountain roads and white-out snow falling, like the PC screensaver with the stars coming at you. I was getting stressed out for the driver just remembering what it's like to drive in weather like that. There were times we were just guessing where the road was and hoping a car would come in the opposite direction to light our way. Sometime in the middle of all of this, there was a bad car accident in the middle of the road. We stopped and our driver got out to see if he could help. He ended up telling us that we had to take 2 bodies with us in our car. There were other Kyrgyz men at the crash site, and it took quite a few of them to carry one old woman and dump her in the trunk of our station wagon, and the same amount of men to take another woman and put her in the back seat with Mike and me. Mike was in the middle, so he was propping her up and checking her pulse every time the driver asked him to. There was no pulse the whole time, and no movement or sound from the old woman in the trunk, either. One of the cars in the accident was horrible damaged; it looked like it had been a head-on collision. There was an old Kyrgyz man sitting in the passenger seat of the other car where the old women had come from, and he was conscious and talking, but didn't look too well. We drove for about an hour, with Mike constantly situating and re-situating the old woman, who was passed out/dead and slumped over onto him. We finally got down the mountain and into the village/town of Ozgun, where we drove around looking for the hospital.
Finding a hospital in this village was like finding a needle in a haystack. Our driver stopped every few minutes to ask directions from some of the many people who were out wandering the streets at midnight on a Saturday. We found some buildings, but people kept sending us to other buildings. Finally we arrived at a place where men in white doctor coats came out to the car. They brought out a stretcher and sort of dumped the woman from the trunk onto the stretcher and carried her inside. Then there was lots of wandering around, smoking cigarettes, writing down our license plate number, and then finally someone came out to get the woman leaning on Mike. The doctor asked how long she hadn't been breathing, and we tried to explain that we didn't think she'd been breathing the whole time she'd been in the car with us.
So they unceremoniously pulled her out of the car and plopped her down onto a stretcher, and then accidentally shut her foot in the door as they were closing it again. Evan, Mike, and I just sat in the car for about 30 minutes, waiting to see what was going to happen. We wanted to call the guesthouse and tell them we were going to be late, but weren't sure if we were going to arrive at all that night or if we were just going to overnight somewhere in Ozgun. We actually had no idea how far we were from Osh at all. So we just waited. At one point a nurse came out of the hospital and dumped a big pail of blood into the snow next to our car. I will say here and now that I will NEVER allow myself to be admitted to a Kyrgyz hospital- I'd rather give myself surgery, or just die. It seemd ridiculous and disorganized and people were smoking the patient rooms.
Finally our driver came out and we set off again. Both of the women had died, either before they got into the car with us, or sometime along the journey. There was no sound or movement out of either of them the whole time, so at least it didn't feel like they were dying in our presence. It was still not a good thing to experience. I'd never seen dead people before, except at open-casket funerals, which is a bit different. I'm having so many new experiences in Kyrgyzstan!
Our driver talked to the guesthouse staff, and they met us in Osh when we finally arrived around 1:30 am and took us to the apartment. It ended up being about a 14 hour trip (usual time is about 8 or 9 hours). But the taxi driver was fun to talk to, funny, and a really good driver, so I was sad to see him go. What an experience to share! I wish I had gotten his phone number so that he could be my next long-distance journey taxi driver also. I'll just have to go back to Osh Bazaar and search for him.
Today Evan, Mike, and I have just wandered around Osh. There's not much to see here, but we went to the bazaar, which is said to be one of the best in Central Asia, and climbed Souleyman Mountain, which is very sacred to Muslims because it's said that Mohammed prayed there. It was a beautiful sunny day, Osh is covered in a pretty blanket of white snow, and we had great cheap Uyghur food for lunch. We're going to eat at "California Cafe" for dinner, and then head back to the guesthouse.
Tomorrow morning we're setting off to Tashkent by taxi! Hopefully that journey will be less surreal and snowy, and there will be no dead people involved.
We took a cab from home to Osh Bazaar (in Bishkek), the best place to get a cab for a long-distance journey. There were Kyrgyz men left and right trying to get us to go with them to Osh. The first driver we agreed on a price with (1300 som per person) then told us once we sat in the car that we either would have to wait for a 4th person to come and fill the car, or if we wanted the car for the 3 of us, we'd have to pay 1300 som for the extra seat. So we got out and tried a new driver. This time he agreed for the 3 of us, the whole car, 4000 som. BUT as soon as we set off, he said he had to stop at home to pick up his son, who would come to Osh with us! We obviously didn't want that, so we got out. We found someone finally who agreed on 4000 som ($100) for the car, no children or extra people. Bartering for a cab is great Russian practice, and our driver was super friendly and nice and talkative and I got to practice a lot of Russian with him.
We got out of Bishkek pretty quickly up into the mountains. It was snowy and the roads were pretty slippery. According to Lonely Planet, the highest pass we reached was 3580 meters or something like that. Our driver was really skilled at snow driving and manuevering down the mountain turns. At points it was snowing heavily, other times it eased up. We were driving in the mountains for hours and hours, and there were beautiful views everywhere we looked, assuming we could see through the snowfall. Our back seat windows were darkly tinted, so I had to look out the front windshield to see much. Darkness fell quite early, and going was slow anyways because of the bad roads. We stopped for some good food along the way, but mostly drove straight through. We called and arranged for sleeping at Osh Guest House, a Soviet block apartment building turned into a backpackers' dorm. Driving got really dangerous around 20:30, where there was lots of fog on the mountain roads and white-out snow falling, like the PC screensaver with the stars coming at you. I was getting stressed out for the driver just remembering what it's like to drive in weather like that. There were times we were just guessing where the road was and hoping a car would come in the opposite direction to light our way. Sometime in the middle of all of this, there was a bad car accident in the middle of the road. We stopped and our driver got out to see if he could help. He ended up telling us that we had to take 2 bodies with us in our car. There were other Kyrgyz men at the crash site, and it took quite a few of them to carry one old woman and dump her in the trunk of our station wagon, and the same amount of men to take another woman and put her in the back seat with Mike and me. Mike was in the middle, so he was propping her up and checking her pulse every time the driver asked him to. There was no pulse the whole time, and no movement or sound from the old woman in the trunk, either. One of the cars in the accident was horrible damaged; it looked like it had been a head-on collision. There was an old Kyrgyz man sitting in the passenger seat of the other car where the old women had come from, and he was conscious and talking, but didn't look too well. We drove for about an hour, with Mike constantly situating and re-situating the old woman, who was passed out/dead and slumped over onto him. We finally got down the mountain and into the village/town of Ozgun, where we drove around looking for the hospital.
Finding a hospital in this village was like finding a needle in a haystack. Our driver stopped every few minutes to ask directions from some of the many people who were out wandering the streets at midnight on a Saturday. We found some buildings, but people kept sending us to other buildings. Finally we arrived at a place where men in white doctor coats came out to the car. They brought out a stretcher and sort of dumped the woman from the trunk onto the stretcher and carried her inside. Then there was lots of wandering around, smoking cigarettes, writing down our license plate number, and then finally someone came out to get the woman leaning on Mike. The doctor asked how long she hadn't been breathing, and we tried to explain that we didn't think she'd been breathing the whole time she'd been in the car with us.
So they unceremoniously pulled her out of the car and plopped her down onto a stretcher, and then accidentally shut her foot in the door as they were closing it again. Evan, Mike, and I just sat in the car for about 30 minutes, waiting to see what was going to happen. We wanted to call the guesthouse and tell them we were going to be late, but weren't sure if we were going to arrive at all that night or if we were just going to overnight somewhere in Ozgun. We actually had no idea how far we were from Osh at all. So we just waited. At one point a nurse came out of the hospital and dumped a big pail of blood into the snow next to our car. I will say here and now that I will NEVER allow myself to be admitted to a Kyrgyz hospital- I'd rather give myself surgery, or just die. It seemd ridiculous and disorganized and people were smoking the patient rooms.
Finally our driver came out and we set off again. Both of the women had died, either before they got into the car with us, or sometime along the journey. There was no sound or movement out of either of them the whole time, so at least it didn't feel like they were dying in our presence. It was still not a good thing to experience. I'd never seen dead people before, except at open-casket funerals, which is a bit different. I'm having so many new experiences in Kyrgyzstan!
Our driver talked to the guesthouse staff, and they met us in Osh when we finally arrived around 1:30 am and took us to the apartment. It ended up being about a 14 hour trip (usual time is about 8 or 9 hours). But the taxi driver was fun to talk to, funny, and a really good driver, so I was sad to see him go. What an experience to share! I wish I had gotten his phone number so that he could be my next long-distance journey taxi driver also. I'll just have to go back to Osh Bazaar and search for him.
Today Evan, Mike, and I have just wandered around Osh. There's not much to see here, but we went to the bazaar, which is said to be one of the best in Central Asia, and climbed Souleyman Mountain, which is very sacred to Muslims because it's said that Mohammed prayed there. It was a beautiful sunny day, Osh is covered in a pretty blanket of white snow, and we had great cheap Uyghur food for lunch. We're going to eat at "California Cafe" for dinner, and then head back to the guesthouse.
Tomorrow morning we're setting off to Tashkent by taxi! Hopefully that journey will be less surreal and snowy, and there will be no dead people involved.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Last post before a MUCH needed vacation!
One more day of teaching and I'm off to Uzbekistan!! Mike and Evan and I are getting a taxi Saturday morning to Osh in Southern KG, and then we'll overnight twice there. We'll explore on Sunday and go to the bazaar, and then Monday morning get a taxi across the border and to Tashkent. Beyond that, we have NO plans. At all. We'll wing it and see how it goes! We're going to try to get a Kazakh visa in Tashkent, and we might try to venture all the way to the Aral Sea (or what's left of it). We'll see.
We had our first real winter snow last night! It was beautiful to wake up to, but now the sidewalks are frozen and walking is dangerous. All day it was slushy and horrible and brown, but the trees look pretty.
I got one package from home, a St. Nicklaus envelope, but I guess 6 parcels are somewhere between America and here, or more than likely lost forever.
Nothing else is new. I'm power-knitting a scarf for my friend Ben, and I really have to be done by tomorrow, because he's going home to England before Mike and I get back from Uzbekistan... but I have a long way to go still.
On Saturday all the teachers went to Ala-Archa National Park to frolick in the snow. It was great fun just wandering around, climbing on an old metal bridge, watching the river, and looking at the snow-covered mountains. Pictures will come, at some point.
Mike and I went to Osh Bazaar, my favorite place in Bishkek, on Sunday. I bought some amazingly warm and cozy winter lined jeans, and Mike and I got a backpack to take with us to Uzbekistan.
Tomorrow I'm going to call Conti and test of the IP-telephones for the first time. It's her birthday on the 23rd! I'll do some sort of Xmas lesson and then it's VACATION! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
We had our first real winter snow last night! It was beautiful to wake up to, but now the sidewalks are frozen and walking is dangerous. All day it was slushy and horrible and brown, but the trees look pretty.
I got one package from home, a St. Nicklaus envelope, but I guess 6 parcels are somewhere between America and here, or more than likely lost forever.
Nothing else is new. I'm power-knitting a scarf for my friend Ben, and I really have to be done by tomorrow, because he's going home to England before Mike and I get back from Uzbekistan... but I have a long way to go still.
On Saturday all the teachers went to Ala-Archa National Park to frolick in the snow. It was great fun just wandering around, climbing on an old metal bridge, watching the river, and looking at the snow-covered mountains. Pictures will come, at some point.
Mike and I went to Osh Bazaar, my favorite place in Bishkek, on Sunday. I bought some amazingly warm and cozy winter lined jeans, and Mike and I got a backpack to take with us to Uzbekistan.
Tomorrow I'm going to call Conti and test of the IP-telephones for the first time. It's her birthday on the 23rd! I'll do some sort of Xmas lesson and then it's VACATION! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Christmas is just around the corner.... eek!
It's hard to believe that there are not too many more days until Xmas! Only 6 more teaching days and then we have 2 weeks of vacation. Mike and I got our Uzbek visas, so now we just have to work out the logistics of what we'll do for 15 days and how we'll get around.
We decided not to get a Kazakh visa here in Bishkek, because the bureaucracy apparently makes it really complicated. We'll wait until we get to Tashkent, and then see if we can get a transit visa there- thorntree says that it's much easier there. If we can't get one, we'll just amuse ourselves in Uzbekistan for a few more days. We'll start by getting a marshrutka/taxi down to Osh, the second-largest city in Kyrgyzstan, only 10 km from the Uzbek border. Spend a day or two there, then get a taxi across the border to Tashkent. After that, we haven't decided yet. It doesn't really matter, because whatever we do, it will be wonderful!
Last weekend was a three-day weekend, because Monday was Kuman Ait, marking 40 days since the end of Ramadan. Kyrgyz people don't do much on the holiday except eat lots of food and visit friends and family. Some go to pray in the main square downtown. I wanted to go and watch, but slept right through 8 am and missed it.
Mike and I spend the weekend just hanging out in Bishkek. On Saturday, we went to Dordoi, the biggest bazaar in the city. I was looking for some lined jeans for winter, but of course ended up getting other things that I didn't really need. I bought two pairs of beautiful, hand-knit, Fair-Isle-style warm socks, just because they were cheap and beautiful- one pair is teal, and the other is orange! I also got a fuzzy sleeveless sweater-dress. It's a style worn by all the people who work at the bazaars- it must be very warm. The bottom hem is angled like a cavewoman dress, so I look quite amusing in it, I'm sure. But it's really warm! Mike said that it sums me up as a person when I wear it because it's eclectic. I like it. I'll post pics when I get around to it- I'm still a few weeks behind my facebook albums. Some night I'll pay 80 som and stay at the internet cafe until I've posted them all.
I mailed some Xmas cards over the weekend, and Mike bought a new camera! We went to the main department store, Tsum, and wandered around the electronics floor until he found one he wanted. It's exactly like the one he had last time (the one that was stolen), only a newer model with a better zoom. He managed to haggle 25$ off the price, so he was happy. The salesman was super adorable and nice and spoke cute English, and I cried because Mike lied to him: "But today's my birthday! Can't you give it to me for 8000 som?" But hopefully he just felt like he made some foreigners day by giving him a good deal.
We also went to the National Museum. We paid extra to get a permit to take pictures, without which it totally would have been boring. There were almost no signs in English, so we just wandered around taking sometimes inappropriate pictures with the Soviet statues. The second floor was devoted to the Soviet era, with lots of ceiling murals and copper-colored statues. Again, I'll post pictures when I get around to it! The top floor was devoted more to Kyrgyz history, with petroglyphs, old coins, jewelry, and felted rugs. There was also a yurt set up, with the inside set up with blankets the way people traditionally lived in them. Afterwards, we bought some Christmas cards in the gift shop.
We went back to New York Pizza, which has pizza that rivals even Willington Pizza. It's pretty expensive for Bishkek, but totally worth it.
We also went to a "gay club," located in the Red Light District near the circus, with Evan and Alex, a British guy here studying Russian. We met up with Alex's Kyrgyz friend Anton there. I put it in quotes because it was the least gay gay club I've ever been to. There were some men who probably were gay, but there was no outward proof of it- men didn't even dance together! The only hint of non-straightness didn't come until after 1 am, when men came out dressed as old babushkas- the drag show! There was a man dressed like Jasmine and a man in a fat suit with huge balloon breasts and a hideous green floor-length dress. It would have been only a mediocre night, except that we met a Scottish professor who looked EXACTLY like my dad. Anton had found him upstairs, and brought him downstairs to our table to meet us. He didn't know it was a gay club and had been brought there by his colleagues, and he said it definitely was a new experience for him! He said he'd love to have us over some night for dinner, so I'll have to make sure I get a picture with him to prove the resemblence. He said he's been to America only once, and he visited some friends in Connecticut. He said he had a horrible time, and his impression of Connecticutians is that they're hypocritical and serious and religious. I will have to show him how wrong he is!
It was a warm weekend so we walked a lot around Bishkek. We ate cheeseburgers and schwarmas from the stands near our house, and watched a lot of movies. It was a good holiday weekend!
On Tuesday night, we had a going-away party for Derek, who is returning to America on the 12th. It was also our Xmas party, where we exchanged white elephant gifts. I ended up with exactly what I brought- a DVD of 10 Russian language movies and a Kyrgyz slipper Xmas tree ornament. Mike got a CD of over 1000 Kyrgyz songs, which will take a while to get through. Hopefully Salam Kyrgyzstan is on the CD, but since all the song titles copied to iTunes as symbols rather than Cyrillic, it will be hit-or-miss if I ever find it! The best gift was a framed picture of Derek wearing a kalpak (traditional Kyrgyz hat), with the words "We are Young People" written across it in marker. The quote is an inside joke, but the picture is great even without understanding the reference. It was stolen from Mike during the white elephant, and Andy ended up with it. It's now displayed in his classroom, and he's going to bring it back to England when he goes for Xmas, to show to his family as the description of Kyrgyzstan in a nutshell. Derek also cooked his last meal for us, champagne chicken, which was, as always, wonderful.
On Saturday the school is organizing a trip for all the teachers to Ala Archa, where we'll frolick in the snow and wander around in the mountains. I hope it won't be as strenuous a trek as the one we took in September, because I was exhuasted after that day! It's also the final weekend before everyone goes away on holiday, so we will go out to celebrate. Ben is going back to England on the 3rd of January, so it's our last weekend with him.
The weather is still very mild for December- at this rate, it will never snow! There are still days when I can wear my fall jacket rather than my winter coat. It's wonderful, and it makes it more likely that we'll be able to get from Bishkek to Osh by car. If there's too much snow the road will be closed, so let's hope for our sake that the highway stays clear.
We decided not to get a Kazakh visa here in Bishkek, because the bureaucracy apparently makes it really complicated. We'll wait until we get to Tashkent, and then see if we can get a transit visa there- thorntree says that it's much easier there. If we can't get one, we'll just amuse ourselves in Uzbekistan for a few more days. We'll start by getting a marshrutka/taxi down to Osh, the second-largest city in Kyrgyzstan, only 10 km from the Uzbek border. Spend a day or two there, then get a taxi across the border to Tashkent. After that, we haven't decided yet. It doesn't really matter, because whatever we do, it will be wonderful!
Last weekend was a three-day weekend, because Monday was Kuman Ait, marking 40 days since the end of Ramadan. Kyrgyz people don't do much on the holiday except eat lots of food and visit friends and family. Some go to pray in the main square downtown. I wanted to go and watch, but slept right through 8 am and missed it.
Mike and I spend the weekend just hanging out in Bishkek. On Saturday, we went to Dordoi, the biggest bazaar in the city. I was looking for some lined jeans for winter, but of course ended up getting other things that I didn't really need. I bought two pairs of beautiful, hand-knit, Fair-Isle-style warm socks, just because they were cheap and beautiful- one pair is teal, and the other is orange! I also got a fuzzy sleeveless sweater-dress. It's a style worn by all the people who work at the bazaars- it must be very warm. The bottom hem is angled like a cavewoman dress, so I look quite amusing in it, I'm sure. But it's really warm! Mike said that it sums me up as a person when I wear it because it's eclectic. I like it. I'll post pics when I get around to it- I'm still a few weeks behind my facebook albums. Some night I'll pay 80 som and stay at the internet cafe until I've posted them all.
I mailed some Xmas cards over the weekend, and Mike bought a new camera! We went to the main department store, Tsum, and wandered around the electronics floor until he found one he wanted. It's exactly like the one he had last time (the one that was stolen), only a newer model with a better zoom. He managed to haggle 25$ off the price, so he was happy. The salesman was super adorable and nice and spoke cute English, and I cried because Mike lied to him: "But today's my birthday! Can't you give it to me for 8000 som?" But hopefully he just felt like he made some foreigners day by giving him a good deal.
We also went to the National Museum. We paid extra to get a permit to take pictures, without which it totally would have been boring. There were almost no signs in English, so we just wandered around taking sometimes inappropriate pictures with the Soviet statues. The second floor was devoted to the Soviet era, with lots of ceiling murals and copper-colored statues. Again, I'll post pictures when I get around to it! The top floor was devoted more to Kyrgyz history, with petroglyphs, old coins, jewelry, and felted rugs. There was also a yurt set up, with the inside set up with blankets the way people traditionally lived in them. Afterwards, we bought some Christmas cards in the gift shop.
We went back to New York Pizza, which has pizza that rivals even Willington Pizza. It's pretty expensive for Bishkek, but totally worth it.
We also went to a "gay club," located in the Red Light District near the circus, with Evan and Alex, a British guy here studying Russian. We met up with Alex's Kyrgyz friend Anton there. I put it in quotes because it was the least gay gay club I've ever been to. There were some men who probably were gay, but there was no outward proof of it- men didn't even dance together! The only hint of non-straightness didn't come until after 1 am, when men came out dressed as old babushkas- the drag show! There was a man dressed like Jasmine and a man in a fat suit with huge balloon breasts and a hideous green floor-length dress. It would have been only a mediocre night, except that we met a Scottish professor who looked EXACTLY like my dad. Anton had found him upstairs, and brought him downstairs to our table to meet us. He didn't know it was a gay club and had been brought there by his colleagues, and he said it definitely was a new experience for him! He said he'd love to have us over some night for dinner, so I'll have to make sure I get a picture with him to prove the resemblence. He said he's been to America only once, and he visited some friends in Connecticut. He said he had a horrible time, and his impression of Connecticutians is that they're hypocritical and serious and religious. I will have to show him how wrong he is!
It was a warm weekend so we walked a lot around Bishkek. We ate cheeseburgers and schwarmas from the stands near our house, and watched a lot of movies. It was a good holiday weekend!
On Tuesday night, we had a going-away party for Derek, who is returning to America on the 12th. It was also our Xmas party, where we exchanged white elephant gifts. I ended up with exactly what I brought- a DVD of 10 Russian language movies and a Kyrgyz slipper Xmas tree ornament. Mike got a CD of over 1000 Kyrgyz songs, which will take a while to get through. Hopefully Salam Kyrgyzstan is on the CD, but since all the song titles copied to iTunes as symbols rather than Cyrillic, it will be hit-or-miss if I ever find it! The best gift was a framed picture of Derek wearing a kalpak (traditional Kyrgyz hat), with the words "We are Young People" written across it in marker. The quote is an inside joke, but the picture is great even without understanding the reference. It was stolen from Mike during the white elephant, and Andy ended up with it. It's now displayed in his classroom, and he's going to bring it back to England when he goes for Xmas, to show to his family as the description of Kyrgyzstan in a nutshell. Derek also cooked his last meal for us, champagne chicken, which was, as always, wonderful.
On Saturday the school is organizing a trip for all the teachers to Ala Archa, where we'll frolick in the snow and wander around in the mountains. I hope it won't be as strenuous a trek as the one we took in September, because I was exhuasted after that day! It's also the final weekend before everyone goes away on holiday, so we will go out to celebrate. Ben is going back to England on the 3rd of January, so it's our last weekend with him.
The weather is still very mild for December- at this rate, it will never snow! There are still days when I can wear my fall jacket rather than my winter coat. It's wonderful, and it makes it more likely that we'll be able to get from Bishkek to Osh by car. If there's too much snow the road will be closed, so let's hope for our sake that the highway stays clear.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
School Trip
This past weekend, Evan, Mike, Nicola, Andy, Kole, and I went away to a village at Lake Issyk-Kul with our boss, her husband, and their daughter. We stayed with her husband's brother and his family, and it was a wonderful weekend.
We left around 21:00, after having a plov dinner cooked for us in the school canteen. It was the start of a food-filled weekend. We played Boticelli in the car the whole way, which has become our favorite car pasttime thanks to my introducing it! We got in around 1 am, and instead of just going straight to bed like we've done in our last 2 homestays, there was "tea" ready for us, but it was actually a giant feast- wonderful Kyrgyz bread, homemade apricot jam, cookies, salad, and tea. Power was out, but candlelight created a nice atmosphere. It was the first night I've slept without Mike in over 2 months, so it was cold and lonely.
Next morning we had a giant breakfast- a potato/meat/vegetable dish, and again bread, jam, cookies, and tea. Then we drove for 2.5 hours to a waterfall, near the Chinese border and quite close to where the Canadian gold mine is. Again, we passed the time with Botticelli. There are SO MANY famous people I don't know! Half of the questions involve "World Snooker Champions," which is a sport I had never even heard of! Apparently it's like pool/billiards I guess. It pays to have British friends- I learn so much from them!
We walked up into the mountains to see a waterfall, which was almost completely frozen. It was fun to take pictures and throw snowballs and poke halls in the surface with a stick. I'm basically a child when it comes to playing in the snow...
After the waterfall we went back down to the van, where Kendje's brother-in-law made us yak shashlyk. We had more bread, jam, onions, tea, and vodka shots. We walked around a little before lunch was ready- there was a statue to the first Russian cosmonaut, a non-frozen river, and lots of pine trees. After packing up the picnic, we drove back to the village. It was known as Karl Marx during Soviet times, and I think the current name is Kara-Koo, on the south shore of Lake Issyk-Kul, quite close to Bokonbaevo and Kadji-Sai, where I went on my last two excursions to Issyk-Kul.
On our way home, we stopped at a resort that is being built at Issyk-Kul, near Kadji-Sai. The northern shore of Issyk-Kul is very developed with hotels and resorts, but the southern part is mostly untouched. In the middle of sand and water, there were many concrete yurts and tall walls, painted to look like Kyrgyz shyrdaks (rugs). There was a big iron reindeer statue, and also a baby cradle, as well as a statue of the wife of Manas (Kyrgyzstan's epic poem hero. We walked inside, and closer to the lake was sort of an arena- marble steps leading down to a flat open area, surrounded by giant paintings of the first Kyrgyz ballerina, the first Kyrgyz composer, a snow leopard, a giant snake sculpture, and some other paintings. We walked all the way down to the water and I got to touch Lake Issyk-Kul for the first time, and practiced skipping rocks.
When we got back to Uran's house, we just about immediately had dinner! It was a Kyrgyz noodle and potato dish, and again bread, salads, jam, vodka, and tea. We ate enough food to feed a team of marathon runners, and all we'd done all day was walk a few minutes to a waterfall, and sit in a car for 5 hours. After dinner the village children sang to us- first the Kyrgyz national anthem, and then they each performed individually. Some of them had amazing voices, and I got great videos of their performances. Then it was everyone else's turn to sing. Kendje made up a drink concoction with tea, vodka, and a piece of bread, and it was the singing cup. It was passed around and whoever got it had to sing. As many of you know, I do NOT sing. In fact, there is little that makes me more uncomfortable than the thought of singing in public. So I had a mini-panic attack, even though we'd been warned by other teachers who had already visited the family a few months before that it would happen. Mike passed the cup to me and I asked if I could just drink it instead of having to sing. Kendje told me that I couldn't, because it would mean that her husband and his brother after me wouldn't get to sing, but that Mike could sing for me. So he did, which was wonderful and saved me from certain suicide. Luckily we only went around the table twice, and people didn't pass it to me the second time. We played cards, amused ourselves with Kendje's 3-year-old niece who loved playing with us, and I worked on a scarf I'm knitting for my friend Josh.
Next morning, we again had a giant breakfast with potato soup, and then drove just a few minutes to Issyk-Kul to go horseriding. I don't feel good on a horse, so Mike and I opted to just wander around instead of riding. We were followed (chaperoned) by two little village boys, who skipped rocks better than I did and wrestled each other. I collected shells and sea glass, we practiced skipping, and we wandered around for a few hours until the horseriders came back. Then we went back to the house for lunch- plov and all the fixings. It was like 3 days of Thanksgiving! I'm sure we all gained lots of weight, just eating and doing little else. After lunch we drove back to Bishkek, playing Boticelli again the whole way back.
It was a free weekend since the school paid for the trip, and it was really good again to get out of the city. Weather was pretty warm so it was comfortable to be outside for long periods of time, and I look forward to going to Issyk-Kul in the summer when it will be warmer to go swimming! Mike and I brought our bathing suits, but it was just too cold to think about trying it. If there had been a sauna, I'd have done it for sure.
Other new things in Bishkek: We had planned on ordering 2 turkeys from a local restaurant for Thanksgiving on Thursday, but somehow the restaurant forgot to make our order, so we went out for Turkish instead. It was good, and it was nice that we weren't competing with homemade American Thanksgiving food, since there's no way it could have compared.
Josh, Nicola, Mike and I applied for our Uzbek visas on Friday, and supposedly we can go pick them up from the tour operator on Friday. For Americans, it's $145 dollars plus a 10$ service charge to the tour agency. Mike and I are hoping we can get Kazakh transit visas, so we can go to Uzbekistan through Almaty, Shymkent, and Turkistan, but we'll have to wait until we get our Uzbek visas sorted out before we can go to the Kazakh embassy. That will have to be next week- it's hard to believe that time is flying! I've been in Kyrgyzstan for almost 3 months now, which is just insane to think about.
My friend Derek flies back to the States next weekend, and like I wrote before, won't come back next semester like he'd been originally planning. So next Tuesday we're going to have a going away party/early Christmas party, and we'll do a White Elephant grab bag to exchange gifts.
The weather has gotten colder again here, so winter is probably back to stay :( Once snow comes it will be alright to handle.
Happy December all! It's almost Itsenaisyyspaiva (Finnish Independence Day)/ St. Nicholas Tag, so I'll find some way to celebrate both.
We left around 21:00, after having a plov dinner cooked for us in the school canteen. It was the start of a food-filled weekend. We played Boticelli in the car the whole way, which has become our favorite car pasttime thanks to my introducing it! We got in around 1 am, and instead of just going straight to bed like we've done in our last 2 homestays, there was "tea" ready for us, but it was actually a giant feast- wonderful Kyrgyz bread, homemade apricot jam, cookies, salad, and tea. Power was out, but candlelight created a nice atmosphere. It was the first night I've slept without Mike in over 2 months, so it was cold and lonely.
Next morning we had a giant breakfast- a potato/meat/vegetable dish, and again bread, jam, cookies, and tea. Then we drove for 2.5 hours to a waterfall, near the Chinese border and quite close to where the Canadian gold mine is. Again, we passed the time with Botticelli. There are SO MANY famous people I don't know! Half of the questions involve "World Snooker Champions," which is a sport I had never even heard of! Apparently it's like pool/billiards I guess. It pays to have British friends- I learn so much from them!
We walked up into the mountains to see a waterfall, which was almost completely frozen. It was fun to take pictures and throw snowballs and poke halls in the surface with a stick. I'm basically a child when it comes to playing in the snow...
After the waterfall we went back down to the van, where Kendje's brother-in-law made us yak shashlyk. We had more bread, jam, onions, tea, and vodka shots. We walked around a little before lunch was ready- there was a statue to the first Russian cosmonaut, a non-frozen river, and lots of pine trees. After packing up the picnic, we drove back to the village. It was known as Karl Marx during Soviet times, and I think the current name is Kara-Koo, on the south shore of Lake Issyk-Kul, quite close to Bokonbaevo and Kadji-Sai, where I went on my last two excursions to Issyk-Kul.
On our way home, we stopped at a resort that is being built at Issyk-Kul, near Kadji-Sai. The northern shore of Issyk-Kul is very developed with hotels and resorts, but the southern part is mostly untouched. In the middle of sand and water, there were many concrete yurts and tall walls, painted to look like Kyrgyz shyrdaks (rugs). There was a big iron reindeer statue, and also a baby cradle, as well as a statue of the wife of Manas (Kyrgyzstan's epic poem hero. We walked inside, and closer to the lake was sort of an arena- marble steps leading down to a flat open area, surrounded by giant paintings of the first Kyrgyz ballerina, the first Kyrgyz composer, a snow leopard, a giant snake sculpture, and some other paintings. We walked all the way down to the water and I got to touch Lake Issyk-Kul for the first time, and practiced skipping rocks.
When we got back to Uran's house, we just about immediately had dinner! It was a Kyrgyz noodle and potato dish, and again bread, salads, jam, vodka, and tea. We ate enough food to feed a team of marathon runners, and all we'd done all day was walk a few minutes to a waterfall, and sit in a car for 5 hours. After dinner the village children sang to us- first the Kyrgyz national anthem, and then they each performed individually. Some of them had amazing voices, and I got great videos of their performances. Then it was everyone else's turn to sing. Kendje made up a drink concoction with tea, vodka, and a piece of bread, and it was the singing cup. It was passed around and whoever got it had to sing. As many of you know, I do NOT sing. In fact, there is little that makes me more uncomfortable than the thought of singing in public. So I had a mini-panic attack, even though we'd been warned by other teachers who had already visited the family a few months before that it would happen. Mike passed the cup to me and I asked if I could just drink it instead of having to sing. Kendje told me that I couldn't, because it would mean that her husband and his brother after me wouldn't get to sing, but that Mike could sing for me. So he did, which was wonderful and saved me from certain suicide. Luckily we only went around the table twice, and people didn't pass it to me the second time. We played cards, amused ourselves with Kendje's 3-year-old niece who loved playing with us, and I worked on a scarf I'm knitting for my friend Josh.
Next morning, we again had a giant breakfast with potato soup, and then drove just a few minutes to Issyk-Kul to go horseriding. I don't feel good on a horse, so Mike and I opted to just wander around instead of riding. We were followed (chaperoned) by two little village boys, who skipped rocks better than I did and wrestled each other. I collected shells and sea glass, we practiced skipping, and we wandered around for a few hours until the horseriders came back. Then we went back to the house for lunch- plov and all the fixings. It was like 3 days of Thanksgiving! I'm sure we all gained lots of weight, just eating and doing little else. After lunch we drove back to Bishkek, playing Boticelli again the whole way back.
It was a free weekend since the school paid for the trip, and it was really good again to get out of the city. Weather was pretty warm so it was comfortable to be outside for long periods of time, and I look forward to going to Issyk-Kul in the summer when it will be warmer to go swimming! Mike and I brought our bathing suits, but it was just too cold to think about trying it. If there had been a sauna, I'd have done it for sure.
Other new things in Bishkek: We had planned on ordering 2 turkeys from a local restaurant for Thanksgiving on Thursday, but somehow the restaurant forgot to make our order, so we went out for Turkish instead. It was good, and it was nice that we weren't competing with homemade American Thanksgiving food, since there's no way it could have compared.
Josh, Nicola, Mike and I applied for our Uzbek visas on Friday, and supposedly we can go pick them up from the tour operator on Friday. For Americans, it's $145 dollars plus a 10$ service charge to the tour agency. Mike and I are hoping we can get Kazakh transit visas, so we can go to Uzbekistan through Almaty, Shymkent, and Turkistan, but we'll have to wait until we get our Uzbek visas sorted out before we can go to the Kazakh embassy. That will have to be next week- it's hard to believe that time is flying! I've been in Kyrgyzstan for almost 3 months now, which is just insane to think about.
My friend Derek flies back to the States next weekend, and like I wrote before, won't come back next semester like he'd been originally planning. So next Tuesday we're going to have a going away party/early Christmas party, and we'll do a White Elephant grab bag to exchange gifts.
The weather has gotten colder again here, so winter is probably back to stay :( Once snow comes it will be alright to handle.
Happy December all! It's almost Itsenaisyyspaiva (Finnish Independence Day)/ St. Nicholas Tag, so I'll find some way to celebrate both.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)