6/22/07
I left my hotel early this morning to catch a 9 am flight to Bishkek (a.k.a. Frunze, a.k.a. Pishpek), the capital of Kyrgyzstan (or the Kyrgyz Republic). First off, it’s slightly ridiculous how far you have to walk (without any carts) to reach the terminal. I flashed my passport and walked into the terminal. So far so good. But then there were no Uzbek Airways (O’zbekiston Hava Yollary) counters open. I was there the two hours in advance required, but no one else was. Shortly after I noticed a blond-haired guy with a backpack. I quickly befriended Chris (from Zürich, Switzerland) as we sat atop our backpacks and waited for the counters to open. Naturally the two foreigners got there on time, but no one else had.
Somehow a line had formed while our backs were turned. So we joined the queue and began filling out our customs declaration forms. This is where things started to go awry. I was leaving Uzbekistan with more money than I entered with. This is not a good thing. I couldn’t decide whether it was better to lie and declare an equal amount or to be honest. After much debate I chose honest. Wrong answer.
I showed the customs officer my two customs declarations (the one from entering and the one from exiting) and they stopped both Chris and me (poor Chris). Why? Because my forms did not match up. They were not happy. They asked me to hand them USD 700 and then I could go through. I was not about to give any Uzbek government official 700 dollars. Then they made me count all my money in front of them. Chris at this point had been cleared to pass, but was kind enough to wait behind with me. I asked them to call the US Embassy and have them clear it up. I explained that I had more money now because of a wire transfer (true) and that I was just being honest by declaring my money (also true). They still weren’t happy. By now I had attracted another customs official (I was up to three and the airline representative). Fortunately this female customs agent seemed a bit smarter than the others. She looked at Chris’ form and realized he was leaving with less than he came with. Chris, my saviour, stepped in to ask in Russian if we could both fill out new forms. She agreed and I quickly tore up my incriminating declaration form into many tiny pieces and stuffed some in various pockets and ate a few. We both set about filling out new forms in duplicate and she insisted that I physically hand over the 700 dollars to Chris until we left the country. I obliged and Chris was kind enough to return the money once onboard the bus to the airplane. Crisis resolved. For a while I was sure I wasn’t boarding that plane and all my bags were going to be searched. In the end I wondered if I should have just lied and declared the same amount of money. I guess if that happened and they had searched me, I would have had to forfeit that money. But still, it was an unpleasant incident. I’m just happy I didn’t finance someone’s retirement slush fund.
The flight itself was good. It was interesting to see the geography and topography from 30,000 ft. From Tashkent you set out seeing vast plains and soon it turns to what look like sand-dunes; it’s the beginning of the Tienshen mountain range I presume. What was really interesting is that surrounding this hills and desert plains you can see rivers winding through valleys and forming oases. So you’ll see all yellow and brown and then a large green area with a river through it. Gives you some perspective on oases, the desert, and the general landscape of the region. I was hoping we would fly over the mountains, but upon seeing our airplane I was relieved to see that we didn’t. Actually, the airplane was just fine, but I don’t think it was built for alpine peaks.
I’m looking forward to seeing the Syr Darya River (Jaxartes), which starts in the Tien Shen mountains and winds its way down into the Fergana Valley (where I already had a glimpse) and through northernish Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan to reach the Aral Sea. It too, like the Oxus/Amu Darya, has played an important role in the development of the region. I’m sorry I didn’t fly over the Amu Darya. When Alexander the Great came this way and his army crossed the river, it was 5 miles wide. Imagine that! Now, it’s still a half mile in some places, more in others, and as I’ve already written, much less in others. The Oxus was historically the divide between the Persian and Turkic worlds. Transoxiana is used to describe the land between the rivers, which was always home to settled life and periodic nomadic invasions. North of the Jaxartes is where nomadic life thrived the longest. It is on these steppes that the Kazakh and Kyrgyz tribes wandered, although most nomadic life was destroyed by the collectivization in the 1920s and 30s. That being said, Kyrgyz nomadic life has survived the most intact out of all of Central Asia and I’m going to the mountains and summer pastures to stay in some yurts next week.
I spent my last day in Tashkent taking it easy and seeing a few things. I went to the Fine Arts Museum for a couple hours in the morning. It was far more interesting that I had anticipated. The second floor was particularly interesting because it houses all the crafts that are made in Uzbekistan. What was great for me, having just finished two weeks in the country, was to see and compare side-by-side the different textiles from different regions and across time. There were suzani embroideries, silks, carpets, skullcaps, dresses, miniature paintings, ceramics and more. Also interesting and worth mentioning is how the quality of the craftsmanship took a real dive during the Soviet era. There is a noticeable difference in colors and skill. This happened as I presume most of the handiwork was moved to mass production factories and the real skill was lost. But again, it was a real treat to see all this art work displayed across region and time. Next I met up with an ex-pat whose name I’m intentionally omitting. She wanted to show me Center Plova or Plov Center. It was insane, there were six giant woks filled with rice (and oil) and people were coming in by the dozens to get their favorite plov. Definitely the most lively market place I’d seen. Next up I went to the Amir Timur museum, which was rather uninspiring. But it did have a great quote by Islam Karimov: “If somebody wants to understand who the Uzbeks are, if somebody wants to comprehend all the power, might, justice, and unlimited abilities of the Uzbek people, their contribution to the global development, their belief in future he should recall the image of Amir Timur.” Weird.
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