2003
2008
As we grow better traveled, we find ourselves returning to places we’ve been. Second and third visits give you the benefit of familiarity, an opportunity to examine a place in greater depth with perhaps greater knowledge/context, and the perspective of time. I thought worthwhile a post comparing our visit to Bukhara in 2003 with our visit in 2008, with these topics in mind. (Cf. my post of 3.6 on changes in Varkala, India over the same period.)
Perhaps the nicest, most immediate feeling of returning to a place is familiarity. All of us are to a certain extent creatures of habit, and there is something comforting about seeing a place you know, as long as your prior experiences were positive. Having loved Bukhara on our first visit, it felt more personal and charming on our second. Working our way through the streets, we felt a closer connection, because we ourselves had already had history in the place. We recalled memories from our prior trip, where we had stayed, what we had seen, whom we had met. We tried to figure out where we had bought our embroideries, where we had changed money. Most fun of all, we tracked down a girl who had sold us some souvenirs in 2003 and impressed us so much with her charm and smarts that we had often thought of her in the intervening years. She was still there, selling souvenirs, and we spent a great deal of time chatting with her and her friends, and finally inviting them to a dinner out. (See photographs at the top of this post to see how she matured!)
Our favorite building in Bukhara, the Ismail Samani Mausoleum, thankfully unchanged
Repeat visits also provide an opportunity to see things you didn’t on an earlier visit, either because you didn’t have time or because you didn’t recognize what was before you. On our past trip to Bukhara, we knew of the historic Jewish community but didn’t seek out any specific Jewish sites. Having been introduced to the Bukharan Jewish community in New York CIty since, and seen Jewish areas in India and Syria, I am far more interested now in discovering Jewish sites, in particular those that are geographically remote or have been largely abandoned by their Jewish former inhabitants. This time, not only are we staying in a bed and breakfast in a formerly Jewish home, but we tracked down a local synagogue (unfortunately closed when we visited) and a Jewish cemetery. I wondered how many of the people buried had relatives living in Queens.
Interior, Akbar House, a former Jewish home
Jewish Synagogue
Jewish Cemetery
Other things may have been before you the whole time, but you recognize it because you’re a little older and more experienced. In 2003, it wasn’t immediately apparent to me exactly how unreligious Uzbeks are, because I had nothing to compare them to, my experience in Islamic countries being limited. Now, especially after traveling in Iran, it is almost shocking to see how secular Uzbekistan is, its mosques and madrasas still for the most part standing empty as museums or filled with souvenirs for sale, rather than being places for worship and religious study. Being part of the former Soviet Union, alcohol flows relatively freely. You rarely hear the call to prayer. On the other hand, some Islamic traditions remain–but we had not identified them as Islamic before. The headscarves that women wear here seemed to us in 2003 more a secular cultural habit than a religious requirement–but having come from Iran it is clear to us now that the covering is intended as a sign of Muslim modesty, not just a fashion statement. The bearded men also carry a special meaning, of religious piety, that was perhaps less obvious before.
The layout of the old city of Bukhara also meant something to us that it hadn’t before. Bukhara contains these standalone structures called “trading domes.” In our first visit we found them incredibly romantic, as relics of the silk road trade. The trading domes are still used to sell merchandise, and as Derek saw once in some old photographs the merchandise is surprisingly the same–people back then wanted to buy in Bukhara items quite similar to what tourists want to buy today, crafts, luxuries, souvenirs. (Having recently been to India and Iran, it was fun trying to identify where various items for sale had originated. There were Kashmiri embroideries similar to what we had seen in Kerala and Iranian handicrafts identical to what is on sale in Esfahan’s bazaar. Goods from Iran and India being sold in Bukhara is of course nothing new.) On this visit, we even changed money (with a shopkeeper) in the moneychangers’ dome, the bank in the old city having burned down. But having visited Iran, and seen bazaars that are intact and active, we understand now that Bukhara’s trading domes must have been mere pieces, junctions if you will, in what must have been a huge bazaar network that stretched through much of the heart of the old city. Bukhara’s bazaars must have been systematically destroyed, probably in the early twentieth century, leaving behind just the domes.
Trading islands, the second sadly with a parking lot in front.
In my post of 3.6, I considered how Varkala, India had changed from our visit in 2003 to 2008. I am surprised to see the extent to which the rise in international tourism has affected even Uzbekistan, a country in the middle of the middle of Asia and one that has fallen considerably out of favor with the west, politically, since 2003 (due to the 2005 Andijon massacre). When we were in Uzbekistan in 2003, there were of course tourists but quite few–a handful of overland backpackers and maybe two or three tour groups of elderly Europeans. The number of European tour groups has expanded dramatically, and added on now are casual vacationers, flying in and out of Uzbekistan on a week or two-week trip. Some French men that we ran into explained that Uzbekistan is “quite trendy” in France, and we were told that there are flights from Paris to Urgench (to facilitate a one-way Khiva to Tashkent trip) and, get this, from Verona to Samarkand. Along with the tourism has come some unattractive development–big new hotels surprisingly close to the center of the old town and some ugly life-size plastic camels located in the central square. But it’s hard to begrudge a place as special as Bukhara its popularity–let’s just hope that they keep a reign on new buildings in the old city lest the city lose its special charm. Only time will tell whether Bukhara will remain frozen in our minds in its current state or if we will find an excuse to visit yet again.