Bukhara is a fascinating city. One side of it is modern, very soviet, with its tree-lined boulevards and blocks of identical unimaginative apartments. The other side takes you backto the Arabian nights with narrow alleyways, madrassas and caravansarais.
We got into Bukhara in the evening after driving all day from Khiva. I walked around the new town a little, and it reminded me of an Indian city in the eighties, with its soviet-style architecture. There wasn’t much to see other than some interesting fountains, stadiums, etc. and in the evening made my way over to the old town.
At the old town, I met up with some of my fellow-travelers for a tree hour dinner by a pond on a very comfortable diwan, and had some really good kebabs. While we were having dinner these two kids came up to us, trying to sell us paintings that they said they had made. Just to test them we asked if one of themcould draw somethign then and there. With a twinkle in his eye, and without skipping a beat, this little kid, who must have been no more than twelve or thirteen took my pen and drew a beautiful caravan scene, then and there. He also very candidly did business, bargaining on my behalf, reducing his price even before i made an offer. I ended up buying two paintings for what was a lot of money for him, and hardly anytrhing for me. What made my day though was when as we were leaving, as a parting gift he gave two miniatures that he had painted of my favorite person from that era, Omar Khayyam!
Tonight I really got to reflect on how exotic and magical this trip is. Even though, unlike Turkmenistan or other places, Uzbekistan has a more developed tourism industry, with almost a million visitors expected this year, its not in-your-face and harassing like Egypt, and is in fact a veryenjoyable experience. Add to that the charm of traveling around in a big red truck y road, and you really have a magical experience.
