Okay, today’s blog will again be relatively short on sites, as today was another general travel day. Today was the long ride to Samarkand.
A nearby village on our way out was our first stop. Here we visited a family-owned ceramic workshop. This workshop has been a multi-generational business, making all forms of ceramic items (plates, bowls, cups, etc.) We were invited in and given a tour by the current owner the great-grandson of the original founder.
Below is the owner standing next to one of his craftsmen who was in the process of turning a bowl. You can see below the work area, the foot operated pedestal he utilized to keep the bowl spinning.
In the forefront were three samples of clay chunks (one white, one red, and one yellow) that are ground up and placed in water. They then stain the piece to a consistent background color, prior to firing and subsequent painting. Behind and to the right of these chunks, are completed pieces that are just the uniform gray clay without any staining. Slightly behind and to the left are examples of stained pieces, one plain white, one plain red, and a yellow stained, albeit it had also been painted, so it is harder to see the base yellow.
In the next room was a mule-driven grinding stone, where they grind all the clays to powders. The owner commented that the mule had the best job in the world, as he only worked roughly 2-days a month, grinding all the powders needed for that month, and not needing to work again until the following month when they needed the following month’s powders.
Towards the back of the large workshop, outdoors (but covered) was the kiln area, where they fired (dried) the newly made items. There were several kilns, with openings in the top. When firing, a large thin fire brick is placed over the top to keep the heat in. When done, the kiln must go through stages of cooling down gradually. The farthest kiln (that he is standing on) is in an intermediate stage, where the covering is slightly propped up to allow some heat to escape. Eventually the cover is fully removed to let maximum heat dissipate out of the opening.
After leaving the ceramic workshop, we then headed to Samarkand, which took most of the day to reach. We arrived in Samarkand in late afternoon, and immediately went to the most majestic location in the city, Registan Square.
This also was arranged in a square layout as we noted yesterday, however, the kosh (and therefore all the structures) was fenced off from casual entry, as they charged an admittance fee in order to visit Registan Square.
There is a nice observation deck to observe and take pictures, so the first couple of pictures below are from outside the fencing, followed by pictures after we paid to enter.
It seems we often are at the picturesque places that soon-to-be newlyweds like to take their engagement or wedding photos, as evidenced by all the brides we’ve encountered (and photographed) over the years.
Registan Square was no different, with this lovely couple having (what we assumed to be) engagement type pictures taken.
There were also many students present, both high school level as well as college level, looking for foreign visitors that spoke English. They would come up to you (very respectfully) and ask if you spoke English. If you answered yes, they would explain they were taking an English class in school, and as an assignment, they were supposed to interview a native English speaker. They would further ask if they could video record the interview for their class.
We were all happy to help them, as education is never a bad cause, although our guide did shoo several of them away, explaining that while he appreciated our willingness to share our language with them, that we were also on a very tight timeline to experience the culture of “their” country, and to be careful not to deprive ourselves of that opportunity by continually agreeing to interviews.
Here was one such college group, that after several interviews (including Tim), agreed to provide us a group picture to remember them by.
Inside was an exquisite golden hued blue marvel, although regrettably it was so crowded it was hard to get very many decent pictures. Below is a sample of the gold and blue together:
Even here (as we’ve previously described), our group was like rock band or perhaps just a magnet, attracting the desire for “selfies with the foreigners”. Many would walk in front of our group, thinking they were slyly taking selfies as they passed by. However, some like this girls class, had the gumption to just ask if they could take pictures with us.
Again, they were sharing their country and culture with us, so we were more than happy to share back with them, plus it’s hard to say no to school kids who are polite enough to just ask.
One last item of interest to share, was in the middle of one of the courtyards was a shiny brass sundial. While not using it to tell time, Tim thought it made a great “reflecting piece”, as good as any lake or pool of water.
Finally, after what felt like a long day (despite having sat on a bus for most of it), we headed to our hotel, Hotel Alexander. Rough story for the hotel owners… it was a brand-new hotel, constructed in 2019, and due to Covid, it never opened. It has sat empty until recently (with Covid restrictions easing), and though it is technically 3 years old, is still a brand-new hotel just being occupied in its first season.
It is identified as a complex, as it is behind a water park which is also associated with the hotel, although the water park has yet to finish construction and open.
Partly due to it’s still being new, partly due to the exceptional landscaping and outside amenities, as well as partly due to the very nice finish they had used, it felt like we were staying in quite a fancy hotel.
Here are some pics:
We once again hit the jackpot, and received a suite, with a couch, sitting area, etc.
While our room was wonderful, our trip mates did have some ummmm, interesting stories of things not finished, including exposed electrical wiring and no hot water.
We did slightly question the interior design capacities of whomever decorated, as this was the picture hanging above our beds, which was not the most comforting or relaxing:
Dinner was in the adjacent hotel dining area, and although the meal was wonderful as usual, there was nothing special or spectacular about the settings (it looked like a cafeteria setting).
As just stated, the meal was again wonderful, Uzbekistan has the BEST fresh vegetables and fruits. Here is an example of one of the lovely fruit trays provided:
(We’ll discuss this beautiful fruit tray more tomorrow…)
While this is where we’d normally sign off, our guide (and more importantly our wonderful bus drivers) decided to give us a treat that wasn’t on the agenda for the day.
Registan Square has an evening light show, and they offered to drive us back down so that we could see / experience this light show. The light show starts at 9 pm, so we arrived early (8:45ish) to make sure we didn’t miss anything.
Tim was super glad that we did because he thought that the regular night lighting was more spectacular than the colored, light show lighting.
Here is pre-9 pm:
And here is after 9 pm (with the varied light colors changing about every 5 seconds):
Now it’s time to say goodnight… see you tomorrow.