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Bukhara, Uzbekistan

The first stop on my tour of Uzbekistan’s ancient silk road cities is Bukhara. Like most of the region it has a long (2500yo) history of hosting numerous civilizations, most of which had rulers fond of chopping off heads. Their is no one more passionate about Bukhara than guesthouse owner Mubijon, an old retired Olympic sprinter who is slowly restoring his 240 year old courtyard house. He doesn’t speak much English but his eyes and playful chuckle communicate plenty.

“How many days? Two, three, on week? Ah Bukhara fantastique!” I tell him two or three nights and he seems satisfied, but my friend Rie can only stay one night and he seems disappointed. It’s only 7:30am but he glances at his watch as if to say, “why aren’t you out sightseeing already?” He’s that proud of his town.

The old town is a maze of mud brick houses great for wandering and soaking up all the friendly hellos. Scattered all over town are restored medressas; old Islamic schools, and a few minarets; towers used for calls to prayer and in some cases lookouts for defense. A huge fortress, the Ark, sits half restored on the north side of old town and like many of the old buildings it is overrun with curiosity shops and hawkers. The town feels very touristy.

The best part about the place is the people. While tourism is growing the tourist fatigue present in some places isn’t here yet and people are very willing to strike up a conversation or even invite you into their homes as Mansur and Sayid do for me. The story of Mansur I’ll relate later. Sayid stops me on my way home on my last evening in Bukhara and won’t let me leave until his 84 year old mother has fed me bread, cheese, two pots of cheese, and three apples. He is 50 and obviously a stroke victim as he struggles with speech and walking.

Me and Sayid
But regardless of language barriers or disabilities I’ve found Uzbeks to be amazing communicators. Maybe it’s the trading spirit or the country’s location at the crossroads of the continent that has necessitated this trait, or the fact that they’ve nearly all bilingual having learned Russian. Those that speak other languages like english, French, or German are really eager to practice and local language major students will offer free tours in exchange for notes on their pronunciation and grammar. This would be a fun place to teach English.



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