Bukhara

(6/13)
Today I spent a second day touring around Bukhara. More and more the city reminds me of Safed. I'm not sure if it's the old and new on top of each other. Perhaps it the number of artists who sit around a draw the beautiful semi-ruins of the city or the craftsmen that sit and produce amazing goods ( Bukhara bests Safed on this one). Maybe it's the colors. And then of course, maybe it's the striking similarity between one of the main centers (historic and modern) of Sufism and one of the main centers (again historic and modern) for studying the Zohar. Both cities have this mystical feeling to them and a living history.

The day started off with a visit to the bank. My traveller's checks are worthless (thank you Citibank), but my mother figured she could change some of hers. The process took a while, but was certainly not the funniest part of the experience. That would belong to the sole ATM located inside the bank. Automated Telling Machine (Teller?). Either way, at the National Bank of Uzbekistan the ATM is in fact, not at all automated. There is a bank attendant there who puts your card in, asks you for your pin, asks how much money you'd like. Then she gives it to you along with your receipt. I'm not quite sure what the point of having a manned machine is. I guess full employment?!

In general I find Central Asia to be way behind the times in terms of money. I suppose a large part of this is due to the Soviet system. But there is no electronic money here. Not one ATM on the street (and apparently not one real ATM either). Not a single place accepts credit cards. This is a 100% cash economy. I hear Tashkent has a few places that accept credit cards.

Here's another great money item. The exchange rate is 1255 Som (pronounced soom) to the dollar. The largest note in circulation is…1000 Som. So roughly an 80cent note. Which of course would be fine if things here cost 100, 200, 500 Som. But they don't. And you end up carrying wads of this money around. And counting it out usually in 500 notes. Another point on the exchange rate. And this is for all you monetary theorists out there. The difference between the buying and selling rates is 2 Som. 1255 vs. 1257. 2 Som is what? A fraction of a penny? Why even bother.

I did do other things today besides think about currency issues. After the bank we went to visit a Sufi shrine built to a scholar, Nachshbandi. It's located a few km outside of the city. It had a very cool old tree that has grown more out than up. People circle the tree as they do graves or buildings that are holy. Only this time people would go under. It looked like an Uzbek limbo. Sometimes they would crawl along too. I think this tree gives barren women children. I have some pictures of the limbo.

Next up on our day was visit to the Emir's Summer Palace outside of Bukhara. This was really interesting, because the buildings are very European looking from the outside, but inside still look Asian. The grounds also have peacocks, which I enjoyed. They protect you from the evil eye. Did you know that the evil eye is the official reason given for the sacking of Bukhara at one point? Superstitious place. Right, so the palace. There is again, amazing design detail. Inside one building they had this white hall; very aptly named. But there was some great lattice work and all this was built by the Russians for their new vassal, the Emir.

These last emirs of Bukhara were some of the most savage rulers ever. They killed close friends and family members just to see what would happen. For instance, one would ponder, "can an ax really cleave someone in half?" And then, as if they were great scientists, they would carry out this experiment on their closest advisor. I suppose it's no wonder why they succumbed to Tsarist rule in the 19 th century.

The Summer Palace grounds also had two other interesting buildings. The one located in the guest house was devoted to the dress at the time of the last Emirs. The other was devoted to this intricate embroidery they do here, suzani. There were some beautiful suzani in the museum and some less beautiful ones for sale. Apparently the building where the suzani are located was possibly a harem (although that is disputable).

Next up I saw a necropolis. It was very hot and I don't remember much. There was a nice minaret, that's about all. After this we headed back into Bukhara proper to visit the Ark, or Fortress and Winter Palace. It was here that Stoddard (perhaps Conolly, I'm tried and getting my story confused) rode into town on his horse (only something the Emir can do) and then didn't bring any gifts for the Emir. His last mistake was to turn his back toward the Emir. For this, he landed up in the bug pit and eventually was executed in the Registan just outside of the fortress walls…on top of which btw the Emir has a throne where he could watch these executions first hand. After all, what is the point of being a blood-thirsty regent if you cannot watch you subjects die?

Large parts of both the Summer and Winter Palaces were destroyed by the revolution here in 1920 and in fighting with the Red Army, which is unfortunate because I think that these palaces would accurately display the wealth amassed by these Silk Road cities and Khanetes.

The last stop on our tour was Chor Minor (Four Minarets). They are not quite minarets, but more domed towers. The Chor Minor used to be an entrance to a mosque, which was subsequently destroyed. I imagine that the Chor Minor are prettier now than they were because they would have been partially obscured by the mosque itself.

All in all it was a pretty full day of touring. We also did a bit of suzani shopping and found some nice jackets with pomegranates. I also went back to the spice shop to buy some spiced tea. The owner has a Chaikhane (I think I wrote about this already) nearby that has the spiced tea. I went inside and instead opted for cardamom coffee. Bad Choice. BUT, this was still super productive, because they give you candies with your coffee or tea and they were delicious. You know those sesame candies. Long and rectangular shaped with really sweet sesames? These were of the homemade variety with toasted almonds, sesame and fruit presumably made in blocks and then chopped up into cubes. Delicious! I bought some. But I somehow doubt that they will make it back to the US with me.