Bukhara

As this week is spring break we had the opportunity to travel again within Uzbekistan. The boys and I decided that we did not want to go on too long of a trip as we really also want to rest and just enjoy our holiday. Thus we left on Friday on the night train to Bukhara, and returned on Sunday night, once again on the night train. The boys and I had a really great time. I enjoyed their excitement of traveling and welcomed the opportunity to be with them in an interesting new place. We had a full two days of seeing the sites, eating excellent Bukharan shashlik, and spending some quality time with colleagues from school with whom I don't always get the chance to spend time with.

I really had no idea what to expect for our train ride. I knew we would have sleeping berths, and that we would travel through the night. I had booked the whole cabin just for us so we would not have to share with an unknown Uzbek man, and felt very comfortable. One of our friends cancelled and we ending up giving our extra bed to the second friend who otherwise would have been alone in a cabin with two men. Because there were two extra beds in the room next door, she let the conductors know that they were available, and they were able to make a little extra money selling them to people coming on the train without a place. As a result of that we were treated like kings with the conductors catering to all of our needs, and checking that everything was good for us. We joked that we had given them an early Navruz gift. (Navruz is the Uzbek celebration of the Equinox on the 21st.) The boys loved the experience of sleeping on the train, and could hardly settle down in both directions on the trip. Although fuzzy due to the train movement, is a picture of the cabin and the boys in their beds.

We were met in Bukhara by the son of our B&B's owner. We quickly showered, and then sat down to a most delicious breakfast with eggs, cottage cheese, fresh bread, and delicious apricot jam. We had been offered the opportunity to take a trip outside of Bukhara first to some locations that have a lot of historic and religious interest. The first location was the Bakhauddin Nakhshbandi Ensemble. It is the burial place of one of the founders of Sufic Islam. The most interesting part of the location was the remains of the tree that is said to have sprouted out of his tombstone where people come and circle the tree, kiss it, put threads into its knots, and make wishes for their lives. It is also said that many of the "trees of life" found in the mosques here come from this original tree. We also put threads into the tree, and the boys made some wishes.

The boys also enjoyed the area of Masouleums here as it was almost like walking through the Labyrinth that they had read about in the Percy Jackson series. They were excited to be able to see it from the top, and amazed at the vastness of the area.

Below is a picture of our group. Note that we were all in coats, the boys and I had four layers on (!), but we were still a bit cold.

Our next stop was the Emir's Summer Palace. As we did not pay to take pictures there, I only have the few outside shots. Interestingly enough here we met the peacocks that we would find prevalent in this area. The boys also saw a peacock with its feathers proudly strutting and of course commented on how they now understood why peacocks were said to represent Argus' eyes. We also bought some peacock feathers that the local sellers had gathered. At this location we began to notice all of the birds in and around Bukhara.

The third location we visited (and this was all done before noon!) was Chor Bakr. It is the resting place of three brothers who are directly descended from Mohammed. This is one of the few locations in the area that has not been restored, and does not seem to have a lot of visitors coming and going. Yet we found it interesting especially for this reason, as in the restored areas it is often hard to imagine how things might have been early, and how much work and effort has been put into the restoration of the buildings.

It is rare to see the symbol of Islam still remaining on these monuments.

A wild peacock living in the ruins.

In this picture you can see how white the soil is from the amount of salt that is in this area.

We returned to Bukhara at this time, and ate at the most popular location across the street from our B&B. We ate here both days for lunch as we had enjoyed the food and the service. Plus they had the most delicious shashlik! The first day we ate inside as it was quite cold outside, but the second day outside. Here are pictures from that day.

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It amazes me how long posting here sometimes takes. I think resizing and finding the right pictures takes the most time. I have been working on this for two hours now, and had hoped to do the two days within that time. I will have to continue later. Hopefully this time I will get to it as I realize that many of posts say that I plan a three post combination, but never quite finish up. A lot of that had to do with my old computer crashing all the time. Now I have the new computer, hopefully it will be easier to finish up the job. :-)