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The Bicycle box

UZBEKISTAN

Mar
2004-09-14 15:10:54

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He was in the Olympic team for the Soviet Union but during the training just before the Olympics he damaged his leg forever.

Amin is our guide for today. He arranges a car and driver and brings

us to all ancient sites around town. He tells us as well about present

Uzbekistan and about his plans to study political science in a foreign

country. And now that we are loosing the role distinction of tourist and guide anyway, we ask him to translate some words that will be quite important for us, the Central-Asian Phrasebook doesn’t say anything about sugar, salt, diesel, chain oil, map of Ferghana Valley or sun cream. Back to the

lowerlevels of Maslovs pyramid, we are in need for the basics.

Buchara best represents the Silk Road on our journey. Its located halfway Xian (China) and Venice (Italy), the outmost eastern and western trade cities of the network of roads that we now name the Silk Road. Marco Polo must have been on this square where we are right now, what a feeling! The square is called Registan, just like all trade squares in the oases of the Silk Road. The palace of the Emir of Buchara is located at the Registan. Its a massive fortress with thick walls. The living area is not open for public but with a little help from our wallet we can take a look at a place that is fully bombed in 1920 by the Red Army of the Soviets.

We leave Buchara with a hanger with 7 Arabic wishes against the Bad Eye. A personal present from Amin.

Meeting the Uzbeki’s

A man moves towards us and wants to shake hands with Raymond, left hand on his hart as a tradition for expressing respect and sympathy for the other. Raymond replies with the same. “Where are you from?” asks the man in Uzbek. “Gollandia”. “Aaaaah” with a high tone that clearly expresses excitement. “Gullit, Gullit? Ajax Amsterdam?”, Raymond smiles. “Gullit is ...