Pack Your Bags for the Mysterious East

TASHKENT - There is a Russian saying about Central Asia: "You come to the East in disgrace, despair or exile." Traditionally Russia has been the doorway to Central Asia, in particular Uzbekistan, home of the fabled Silk Road. This part of the world has always been one of the supreme challenges for the footloose, with its cruel deserts, lush oases, mighty mountains, and larger-than-life history.

Independent Uzbekistan is trying to break this dependence on Moscow, and two of its greatest Silk Road cities are celebrating their 2500th anniversaries this year, under the sponsorship of UNESCO - Khiva and Bukhara.

Bukhara's long history has made it a holy pilgrimage spot just a step below Mecca and Medina. There is a saying that while in general light descends from heaven to earth, in Bukhara it ascends 'from earth to heaven'. It is a city which combines stunning examples of Islamic art (more than 200 mosques) and a unique living Persian culture, which has stubbornly remained intact despite being surrounded by the very different Uzbek traditions century after century. The faces of locals will strike you immediately - handsome, dark, fine features, very different than the lighter-skinned more oriental Uzbeks of the rest of the country. They are to a large extent descendants of slaves brought there over the centuries, and speak a dialect of Tadjik.

Little is known of Bukhara before Central Asia was converted to Islam in the 8-9th c. The first Englishman to reach Central Asia and leave any account was Anthony Jenkinson, a London merchant who in December 1558 journeyed to Bukhara by way of Russia, looking for an alternative route to Cathay. British India was still a century away. It took him more than two years, and included a visit to the young Tsar Ivan the Terrible. His caravan of 1000 camels on the last desert leg of his journey was attacked more than once, but in a story that would repeat itself again and again, modern technology won the day - guns vs bows and arrows, and they finally reached 'the Citie of Boghar in the land of Bactria'. Jenkinson was disappointed, as the Silk Road was well in decline by this time, and the fabled markets of gold and silk were already part of history.

Bukhara next captured the West's attention in the 19th c, when it was the setting for a most bizarre episode in the Great Game, when the empires of England and Russia began to close in on each other - the former from India, the latter slowly, cautiously, overland from the Urals. There are wonderful travel books recounting this and other cloak and dagger stories of the period. I recommend Colin Thubron's The Lost Heart of Asia. You can visit the infamous bug pit (it was actually a well) where the hapless English spy Stoddart was imprisoned for several years in the 1840s until he lost his mind and was executed by the wildly sadistic Emir Nasrullah.

If you want to get a sense of Jenkinson's trip - the vastness and for the most part desolation of Central Asia - it is possible to take a train from Moscow. Traditionally Westerners have included Central Asia as part of a Russian tour, and trains leave every day from Moscow - the express takes 2 1/2 days. From forest to steppe, desert, and mountains, at a steady grudging 60 km/h, there's no slower or more romantic way to witness the transition from Europe to Asia. It is chaotic and sooty, but when I did this, there were enough open windows and friendly fellow travellers to make it a delightful trip and a great way to make friends with a few locals. However you get there, you are entering a time warp - think Soviet in the East.

The most conspicuous monument in Bukhara is the lovely Kalyan minaret. Built in 1127, it rises above a complex of religious buildings to a height of nearly 150'. No doubt an imam first spied Jenkinson from up there. The more sadistic emirs reeked their cruel justice by having their victims flung from its heights. The Ark, a small city unto itself, the palace of the emir, still dominates Bukhara, as if hovering 60 feet in the air on a magic carpet. In 1920, the last emir, Alimhan, who was particularly decadent, fled to Afghanistan, abandoning most of his 400-strong harem of women and boys, and Bukhara became the Bukharan Peoples Soviet Republic.

The harem provided a distinct dilemma for the Bolsheviks: the contents did not want to be liberated, it seemed, and refused to leave. Finally a revolutionary proclamation was issued declaring that any soldier who would take a former inmate for his wife would receive a grant of land and some cash to cultivate it. The soldiers lined up and the women dutifully left with their new husbands. Unfortunately, when the emir fled, he set the Ark afire and much of it was destroyed, leaving many of its secrets tantalizingly unknown.

Alimhan built a lavish summer palace, completed only in 1919, a melange of East and West, full of imported Dutch this and English that. The summer palace has been lovingly preserved, complete with peacocks strutting across the lawns. Our guide Noila Kazijanova had met two sons of Alimhan and nephews now living in Canada just a few days before we visited Bukhara (his descendants number 620). Her stories of the family's adventures - the flight to Afghanistan, the three sons left behind (one became a Major General in the Red Army), the trickle of offspring returning to find their roots made the Ark come alive with ghosts of the past.

The water of the little river Zarafshan that flowed through Bukhara produced worms 'an ell long' in the legs of those who drank it, and Jenkinson explains how these had to be coaxed out at the ankle and rolled up, an inch a day, without breaking them; if they broke, the patient died. This was the fearsome rishta or Guinea worm, which was not eradicated till after the Russian Revolution more than 3 centuries later, when the swampy haus or pools of Bukhara were drained, sewage systems introduced, and medical standards raised. A fascinating exhibit at Job's Well (yes, even Job visited Bukhara) recounts this rare bright page from the Soviet past. You can still see traces of the traditional haus - some of them are being restored as part of the architectural renewal program under the direction of UNESCO.

The locals are not yet spoiled by the as yet trickle of tourists, and a bit of Uzbek or Russian and a smile will result in many delightful acquaintances. There are many young people learning English, so even the Russian is not always necessary. A stroll in the old city of Bukhara in the moonlight is quite unforgetable, though it's probably not a great idea for a single female tourist. As a mildly Muslim country, it's best to wear long trousers and for women to travel in company.

There are at least 5 comfortable bed and breakfasts open now in the old part of Bukhara, charging about $20, unlike the large Uzbektourism hotels, which are about a 20 minute walk from the old city. According to Mila Akhmedova, a douty Tatar Bukharan who has successfully established what is probably the first truly independent tourist agency in Uzbekistan, Bukhara Visit, "Uzbektourism discourages this competition, though they are beginning to realize that there's lots of room for both of us."

Khiva, after Bukhara, is the most spectacular oasis settlement. A taxi ride between Bukhara and Khiva is a viable and pleasant alternative to the plane. We did this for US$120 in May, and thrilled at spectacular desert expanses, dotted with spring flowers and bustling with turtles, lizards and other denizens of the desert. It is almost like traveling by boat across a great sweltering ocean. The thousands of discarded tires littering the desert highway confirmed my suspicion that every bus ride includes the traditional changing of the burst tire. I experienced this 'Eastern tradition' once on a bus ride, and was told to be grateful the bus made it at all, as they are known to break down and be abandoned. So the age old problem of travel here, legendary from the days of the Golden Horde and the early intrepid western tourists, continues.

Two and a half millenia ago this oasis on the Amu Dariya became a flourishing part of a Persian empire. It was here, supposedly, that the faith of Zoroaster was born. It is especially remote in this remote part of the world. And shifting, like the sands, as the river changed its course. This remoteness and fragility meant there were no massive monuments built, but the settlement developed a style and charm which continues to enchant. It was used as the Eastern setting in the film Orlando.

Due to its remoteness it took Russia 2 centuries to finally subdue it. Russian troops steamrolled through Central Asia from 1868 onwards, ruthlessly killing and looting, bringing all but Bukhara to their knees. Wrote General Skobolev: "I hold it as a principle in Asia that the duration of a peace is in direct proportion to the slaughter you inflict upon the enemy. The harder you hit them the longer they will be quiet after." Fortunately, the troops did not get carried away in their looting and pillaging.

Present-day restored Khiva is exquisite. It was restored in the 1960s by Soviet archeologists, to become a museum city. But it has little of its mystery left; it is more like a stuffed elephant - lovely but lifeless. Perhaps Russia's revenge for all those humiliating defeats?. Still, a walk along the top of the city wall in the moonlight is every bit as magical as the film Orlando suggests. Coincidentally, during our stay at the guest house Arkanchi (literally Hemp Weavers), we met members of an Italian-French film crew at work.

Bukhara and Khiva have long traditions of craftsmanship - gold embroidery, copperware, silk and carpet making, that was never totally lost during the many periods of stagnation before and after the Soviet occupation, and which are actively being revived now with state support. I bought traditional fur hats in Khiva recently for $15 each. The crafts are surprisingly inexpensive, partly because of the Uzbek currency, the sum, being as yet unconvertible.

For all its lamentable features, Soviet communism reversed the decay of the most spectacular monuments, and delayed the ravages of commercialism. The Society for the Preservation of Ancient Monuments now works closely with UNESCO not so much on ambitious restorations, but on trying to achieve an atmosphere in these ancient, historic city-centres that reflects their beauty and does not contribute to their further deterioration. There is a magic in ruins that a squeaky-clean refurbished edifice can never reproduce - a bustling market beside a magnificent mosque is much more exciting than a fenced-off museum.

A tour to Central Asia would not be complete without a few days in Samarkand, the capital of Amir Temur's 14th c empire. Tashkent is less tourist-friendly and less historically interesting, but it IS the main hub here, the 4th largest city in the CIS, with relatively easy access to all the other republics and merits a day or two. Be sure to visit the National Museum of Art, which holds the last Russian Governor General Nikoaev's private collection of mostly 19th c Russian art.

In 1888, Lord Curzon visited Bukhara via the newly opened Transcaspian railway and lamented: 'Westward civilisation in its Eastward march suggests no sadder reflection than that it cannot convey its virtues alone, but must come with Harpies in its train, and smirch with their foul contact the immemorial simplicity of Oriental life.' What better words to repeat today, as Central Asia gingerly opens its doors to western commercialism.

Tours can be book through through Canadian Travel Abroad in Toronto, or directly through Mila Akhmedova at Bukhara Travel (email: visit@b1.silk.glas.apc.org) or Uzbektourism representatives in London (fax: 44-71-935-9554), which will make all visa arrangments. Jules Verne, Explore and Regent travel companies in England run economical charters directly to Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva, bypassing Tashkent. Exodus Expeditions in London offers adventure trips to the mountains of Uzbekistan. If you want to rough it on your own, it's possible, though requires all the patience that travel in the former Soviet Union did, and it you must buy vouchers on the border to get your visa. Russian is still the lingua franca, though English is gaining ground.