HOMEWARD

Sorry folks for not writing more but internet is not that reliable and it is very slow . We are fine and just about ready to finish our time in Uzbekistan and move onto Turkemnistan tomorrow. Uzbekistan has been interesting in many ways for instance In Ferganana Valley we looked at mainly handcrafts ,ceramics and woodwork and silk culture .Tashkent very proudly showed us the “modern” side of the country including its metro which is very grand in design We had a great guide for a day in Tashkent who shared with us many stories of his life during the soviet times .How as a young man he was first motivated to learn English through the Beatles and how owning a pair of Levis [cost three months salary ] was but a dream and how as a young father the treat for the family was to go to the park for a Coca Cola………….and this wasn’t that long ago We then traveled through to Samarkhand which has had major restoration and was the seat of incredible learning when Europe was still in the dark ages …Bhukara with its thousands of shops and then through the desert to Khiva. Lots of minarets, mosques and madrssses [I think we are pretty well m and m and m out by now and have a huge number of photos of blue tiles] .We now decline going to the bazzars which are full of the same chinese goods everywhere Khiva until early 20th century was the centre of the slave trade and had particularly blood thirsty rulers there have been 48 of them , of these 1 died of natural causes 47 were helped on their way to wherever . Minarets evidently had three uses One for calling prayer ,two as lighthouses for caravans traveling through the desert and of course a third as dropping off places for “ursurpers” who were wrapped in sacks and pushed over [If they didn’t die the first time they were taken up and dropped again ] . During the trip we have a macabre interest in the number of monuments that are proudly displayed in spite of the fact that these people were dictators and mass murderers or slaughtered millions of people . The cities are sitting in a desert with not obvious resources except mud and a little water but with the help of thousands of slaves [who were executed for working too slowly] they constructed amazing cities. So we are moving from the lands of Minarets and mosques and Madrasses to the land of meglomaniacs .Will keep you in touch