This year, Christmas is going to be weird. Not because I’m spending it in a flat near the outskirts of Pohang or in a Korean beach-side pension with many of my dear friends. Not even because I’m spending it on a beach in Thailand belting Johnny Cash tunes out across the waves. No, this year is weird …
uzbekistan
Six Things to See in Samarkand
The Crossroads of Cultures. The popular nickname for Samarkand is an apt one; the city is a storied Silk Road hub held in awe by travelers and dreamers alike, known for its bustling bazaars, towering minarets, and magnificent architecture. The former capital of Timur the Lame–who was known to the West as Tamerlane–Samarkand is a …
Carpet Weaving in Khiva
As I mentioned in my first post about Khiva, a large part of the reason I decided to go there was Christopher Alexander’s excellent book on the UNESCO sponsored carpet weaving workshop he helped set up there. He spent seven years in the city, most of which were spent at the workshop. Throughout the book, readers …
Sunset in Khiva
The sun was setting on my first full day in Khiva, and I was sitting on a ledge watching it sink behind a horizon punctuated by minarets and mosques. The day had been a full one, wandering through the Ichon-Qala fortress which encompasses most of the remaining Old Town. Now, merely sitting and watching the …
A Walk Around Khiva
I almost didn’t go to Khiva. Deviating from my planned Bukhara to Samarkand route to the tiny, northern desert oasis meant enduring a 10 hour shared taxi ride from Bukhara and a 14 hour overnight train onwards to Samarkand. It wasn’t until I read ‘A Carpet Ride to Khiva’ by Christopher Alexander that I decided to …
Ten Things to See in Bukhara
For centuries, Bukhara was a critical hub on the fabled Silk Road. Controlled by the Russians, the Bukharan Emirate, the Timurids, the Sogdians, and even the Mongols; it has long been caught up in the ebb and flow of power in Central Asia. Fortunately, many architectural legacies of its past have been preserved and/or restored, …
Bukhara: Mosques, Madrasahs, and Minarets
After my ridiculous taxi trip to Bukhara from the border between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, I took a little time and enjoyed a delicious breakfast at my B&B, Rustam and Zukhra. Afterwards, I felt surprisingly awake–enough to head out and start exploring the city in lieu of collapsing onto my bed. The sights started almost immediately …
The Long Road to Bukhara
Getting into Uzbekistan was the easy part. Taking a shared taxi to the Zarnisar Bazaar in Dushanbe, finding a ride to the granitsa (border), and waltzing through a series of checkpoints was mostly painless; I was even forced asked to play my ukulele while the Uzbek officials checked my bags. Emerging from the border buildings with a grin …