Uzbek Tales pt. 5: Urgut Bazaar

Urgut Bazaar is one of the most authentic market we visited in Uzbekistan. The roads were muddy and dirty and everything from fabrics, to carpets to goat heads were sold. A truly original place and somthing that would be hard to emulate.

Queenie in Urgut Bazaar

Getting There

Getting to Urgut from Samarkand is easy: just take the bus. Many people suggested we rent a driver for a day, or hire a Mashrukta but at the end of the day we asked around and figured out which bus to take. It wasn't that hard! The bus was fairly cheap and since we were among the first to get on, we did manage to get seats. The trip itself from Samarkand to Urgut was (if memory serves correctly) about an hour, and it wasn't too uncomfortable although the bus did fill up the closer we got to Urgut.

Urgut Bazaar

Urgut Bazaar

The Lonely Planet we had says of Urgut that the town is "one of the best places to buy silk and old textiles in the country." However, the Lonely Planet continues saying "some readers report being disappointed by this markt, but that may be because they showed up on the wrong day. This market in only happening on Sunday and to a lesser extent on Thursday." Well we were definitely not disappointed, and we went on a Tuesday. The market itself was a hustle bustle of activity. From the crowded traffic in the street in the market entrance, to the bustling business of all the vendors and stalls in the market, the market itself was filled with color and sound. As the two videos show, the market is busy and the people incredibly friendly.

Outside Urgut Bazaar


Inside Urgut Bazaar

As you can see from the video above, the market is crowded with people and different foods. Actually, we found the market to be divided into distinct sections: food, fabrics, clothes, carpets etc. It was fairly interesting to drift through the different sections and see the different wares for sale. We later learned that the cotton for the fabrics and clothes was produced in Uzbekistan and shipped to Korea/China to be woven into fabrics and clothes. These were then shipped back to Uzbekistan to be sold. The controversy was that instead of building a fabrics/clothes factory, the government had invested a significat amount of money into building a car factory when they didn't have the technology or experience to do that.

Goat Head


Bread Stands


Spice Sellers


Oil Vendors


Fruit


Fruit


Bread


Fabrics


Fabrics


Carpets


Clothes

Lunch in Urgut Bazaar

One of the highlights for me was eating in the bazaar. We walked into the restaurant area of the market and found a restaurant serving shashlik (skewered meat) and plov (a traditional Uzbek rice dish). bearing in mind the market and restaurant didn't have the highest standards of hygiene, we were a little concerned but decided to try the food anyway. The food turned out to be awesome and we didn't get sick so the risk was worth taking.

Lunch in Urgut Bazaar



Plov - Part of our lunch


Fellow Diner - this guy helped us order and chased off beggars

The People

Of course the best part of the market (as always) was the people. Always friendly, always smiling, always waving at us. We really did feel welcome and although we did draw a lot of attention our way, at no point did we feel uncomfortable. We were warned we should be careful of pickpockets so we made sure wallets and valuables were stashed away properly so nothing would get stolen but we we felt safe all the time.

Tajik Girl - notice the single drawn in eyebrow which is considered attractive in Tajik culture


Market Boys - these kids were so excited to see us and have their picture taken. They were really friendly.


Vendors

Market Worker


Reviewing Videos


Mother and Daughter


Out Shopping


Vendor


Old Man


Market Workers


Family


Market Girl

One of the great things of walking through the fabric section of the bazaar was the color of the sunlight streaming through the fabrics. The light was soft and colored and almost magical and seemed really surreal and out of place in a place like Urgut. Truly magical and added to the color and the splendour of the market.

Streaming Light

Fabric Shimmer in Urgut Bazaar

The Bus Home

So after drifting around the market for a couple of hours it was time to head off back to Samarkand. We found the bus (pretty easy) and jumped on. Now the conductor on this bus was really funny: the bus filled up pretty quickly and when a lady with a baby got onto the bus he insisted I sit down and hold the baby. The baby was horrified. No matter how much we protested he wouldn't let us stand. Even when old ladies got on the bus he insisted we sit and berated anybody who tried to take our seats. He also berated anybody who didn't want their photo taken and took photos of everybody (we haven't included those here). The bus was pretty full but by the time we got back to Samarkand it had emptied out.

With the kid on the Bus


Crowded Bus


Bus Passenger

All in all it was an awesome day. We went to the market on the Tuesday and were duly impressed and would encourage all travellers to Samarkand to go to this market. It is colorful and loud and raw and real and it is what you are in Central Asia to see. Later on when we were in Bukhara we went to the local markets that were highly sterilized, super hygenic shopping places that show some level of modernization is creeping into Uzbekistan, but Urgut will take you back a few years, and its fun!

Thinking About Easter Island

Queenie and I were chatting the other day about where to go next year on our annual trip. I suggested the crazy idea of going to Easter Island, one of the most remote places in the world. However, a trip there seems to be extremely difficult and the marginal benefits of going to an island that can be covered in a day by car might make it not worth it at this point of our lives.

(Picture by Nicolas de Camaret)

Just thinking about the route, there are two (maybe three options). The first is to fly from Taipei to Taihiti, and then from Taihiti to Easter Island (I hear you say why not just stay in Taihiti). The second option is to fly either to Lima (Peru) or Santiago (Chile) and then take a flight from there to Easter Island (and here again I hear you - why not just stay in Peru/Chile). The problem with the South American options I believe is that we would need to still fly to the Western seaboard of the United States and then from there head to Lima or Santiago. And from Santiago to Easter Island the flight is apparently something in the region of six hours. We would really have to spend a lot of time in the air to get there and back. Not sure how long but certainly more than 30 hours.

The main reason to go to Easter Island are of course to see the Moai statues carved out by the original Polynesian settlers on the island. The second reason to go would be to experience the remoteness of the island and see a part of the pacific at its wildest and most remote. Below I have linked to a five part play list of Richard Attenborough's documentary: The Lost God's of Easter Island. Its pretty interesting

The Lost God's of Easter Island - Richard Attenborough

I recently became interested in Easter Island again after reading Jared Diamond's Collapse where he uses Easter Island as an apocalyptic parable warning against the inconsidered and unhindered use of both renewable and unrenewable natural resources arguing that the Easter Islanders completely used their resources which led to a ccatastrophic collapse in their society. Diamond argues that they (stuck on a remote island with no contact with anybody else) like us (stuck on a single planet with no contact with any other intelligence) were all alone and completely self sufficient. They got it wrong and the consequences were tragic in the extreme. Will we get it wrong, or right?

Anyway to get there seems to be quite a challenge and would need to be coupled with a week in Santiago or some other place in Chile. The distance is too far to go without staying for a longer period of time. I can also imagine that the cost of the airline tickets would be pretty high and not sure what the hotels would cost. Anyway, we are thinking about it but still not sure.

If anybody has any suggestions or ideas, let me know. Hopefully we will make up our mind soon.

Picture of Us

Our niece Rochelle is growing into a wonderful artist and she has been selected for a special art class after school. She is really and enthusiastic about the class. The other day we visited and she painted our portrait. I thought I would share it here.

Its a great picture I am sure you would agree.

Hiking to Shek O (石澳) - Dragon's Back Trail

As mentiioned in an earlier blog post(Shek O (石澳) Beach), we recently went on a hike to Shek O (石澳), a small fishing village on the southern peninsula of Hong Kong island. Our good friend Sam invited us on the hike that was, by my standards, pretty easy but done at a mellow pace. Apparently the Dragon's Back Trail was declared as the Best Urban Hike in Asia in 2004 by TimeASIA

Sam, Queenie and Paul above Shek O (石澳)

Our friend Sam kindly invited us to go hiking on Saturday morning (08 October,2011) after a very late night at a KTV. We met at Taikoo MTR stop and then carried on to Shau Kei Wan station where we jumped on the No. 9 bus to Shek O. The bus was fairly full but we managed to find some seats and enjoy the pleasant drive to Shek O. Shortly before arriving at Shek O we jumped off the bus and started trekking towards the Dragon's Back trail.

Our Friend Sam

Sam and Paul

Sam on the Trail

Queenie on the Trail

All of us on the Trail

The initial part of the trail seemed daunting: there were a lot of steps and we thought, since we were walking to a peak, this would be the norm for most of the hike, fortunately it wasn't. Once the initial set of stairs were negotiated the trail flattened out quite a lot and we were walking on a flat, smooth trail, under beautiful sub-tropical vegetation in a cool breeze. It was a beautiful place to be walking and surprised us a great deal as to how relaxing, and easy the walk was, especially since the internet site we referred to suggested the hike was really difficult.

The first part of the trail was mostly undercover and therefore very pleasant with a cool breeze blowing through the trees. We also had some good views of Stanley and the Stanley peninsula. All in all it was a fairly good day for hiking in the mountains. We did see quite a few people on the trail but it wasn't too noisy and for the most part (at least in the initial stages) we felt as if we were alone.

Stream in the Forest

Covered Trail

We eventually reached a fork in the road that would take us around the back of the mountain or up the Dragon's Back trail. We chose the Dragon's Back trail so named I imagined because of all the jagged rocks on the path. The path goes up to Shek O peak and gives tremendous views of Big Wave Bay, Shek O golf course, Shek O, Stanley and of course the ocean.

Dragon's Back Trail

View of Shek O

View of Shek O

Shek O Golf Course

Big Wave Bay

View from the Trail

We spent time at the top enjoying the view and just fooling around. There was a pole in the ground that we all decided to try and stand on. It wasn't that tough and Sam decided to go ariel and jump off

Sam Jumps

Yoga Pose

As you would expect in a sub-tropical climate like Hong Kong there was plenty of wonderful vegetation to see. From some colorful flowers to many different shades of green. Some of it was interesting and some beautiful. We had an awesome time just stopping and enjoying the vegetation along the way. Some pictures of the vegetation is shown below:

After walking for about 4 hours at a really slow pace we finally arrived back on the road where we started (just a little further down) and decided to go to Shek O for lunch.

The Bus Stop

We had a really great hike and are thankful to our friend Sam for taking us out there. It was fun.