Baking Bread in Khiva

I had the opportunity to see how the traditional bread is baked in Khiva, an old town in Uzbekistan.

The traditional oven is made of clay. It is heated from within; wood ist thrown into the fire in the oven from above. The walls and the hot embers below bake the flat bread / roti.

The dough had been prepared before and are formed round and flat; some parts on one side are pierced with needles, that are put together looking like a brush. The dough is watered on the other side and then padded on the interior wall of the oven. Soon one can buy the fresh bread.

Actually the day has been hot and the heat of the oven has been nearly unbearable. I admire the ladies doing the work!

Two traditional ovens

Heating the oven

To needle the dough

The bread is taken out of the oven

Fresh bread

Seyit Jamal Addin in Anau

Seyit Jamal Addin is the remains of a monument build in the 15th century. What you can see in the pirtures are the remains of the citadel mosque at Anau, about 15 km outside of Ashgabat. Local people go there as a pilgrimage to Seyit Jamal Addin. That's the reason why nearly all women wear a head scarf, which is in this percentage unusual for Turkmenistan. There's a small mosque in front of the remains and there are underground ruins, which you can visit, but you should keep quiet as people are praying there, which is quite interesting as the prayers or short parts of the quran are usually sung.

Outside there's a huge area to fortify the pilgrims with food and drink. 

The small mosque in front of  the remains of Seyit Jamal Addin (which is currently under reconstruction)

At the pilgrimage

Rest and picnic

Char Minar in Buchara

I'd like to show you a small mosque in Buchara called Char Minar. The mosque isn't easily to be found, unless you look around for the signs directing you through the alleys. It has been architectured to resemble a mosque in Haidarabad. Four sturdy minarets surround the mosque to let it appear rather small. Around the mosque is a garden, which is tended by the people leiving around the mosque as it lies within a suburb. 

Schichtwechsel or Change of Shift

If shifts are changing, we call it Schichtwechsel in German. Normally it's done to refresh the workers in between to get a break or at the end of the shift to call it a day. The service, however, shouldn't be impaired as this ruins the business.

After crossing the Kyrgyzstan - Kazakhstan border on foot carrying the baggage I tried to change money in the small Kazakhstan border town. Quite near at a gas station I saw a money changer. There had been a little queue already and I joined the people there. Then I saw the Russian scribbling on an A4 piece of paper: 20 minutes - change of shift. As I was travelling with a group, we decided to better try at another money changer in town. Actually there were quite a lot. The first of our group changed money and then they popped up an A4 piece of paper: 20 minutes - change of shift. Actually that was the only moment I watched the Russian speaking guy in front of me to freak out.

Let's see it this way: in some places in the world the satisfaction of employees is more important than the saticfaction of customers, Schichtwechsel is more important than business.

Finally we’ve got to a money changer without change of shift.

The Very Basic Guide to Languages of Central Asia

I had in mind to write on each language of some of the countries (Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan), I've just visited in Central Asia, but ... you'd fare much better, if you concentrate to spend more time on the the Very Basic Guide to Russian, as Russian is still more widely spoken in these countries than English let's say in Germany or France. On the other hand, I'd like to give a few handy examples of the Central Asian languages.

Uzbek

Peace be with you (a common greeting) - assalomu alaykum

Hello! - salom!

Good bye! - Xayr! (x is pronounced like ch in Scottish Loch or German Ach!)

Welcome! - xush kelibsiz

Please - iltimos!

Thanks! - rahmat (don't forget to voice the h)

I come from - men ... dan keldim

I am from the the US - men Amerikadanman

Who? - Kim? (so don't just answer Kim but Kim Jong Un, if you want to talk about the North Korean dictator)

Sorry - kelchirasiz

Yes - ha

No - yoq

Turkmen

Hello! - salom!

Good bye! - sag bol

Welcome - koş geldiniz

Please - baş ustyüne

Thank you! - sag bol! (!)

Yes - hawa

No - yöq

I am from the the US - men Amerikadanman (as in Uzbek!)

Kyrgyz

Hello - salam

How are you? - kandaisiz?

Fine, thank you - jakshuh, raxmat

Please - suranych or otunuch

Thank you - rahmat

Yes - ooba

No - jok

I'm sorry - korushkoncho

Goodbye - jakshuh kalgula

You're welcome -echteke emes

(Not as close as Uzbek and Turkmen!)

PS. Mistakes are my mistakes!

Links:

The Very Basic Guide to French http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2014/05/the-very-basic-guide-to-french.html 

The Very Basic Guide to Russian http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2012/10/the-very-basic-guide-to-russian.html

The Very Basic Guide to Japanese http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2013/03/the-very-basic-guide-to-japanese.html

The Very Basic Guide to Mandarin Chinese http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2013/04/the-very-basic-guide-to-mandarin-chinese.html

The Very Basic Guide to Spanish http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2013/05/the-very-basic-guide-to-spanish.html

Turkmenistan

Allow me to stop at a typical German peculiarity concerning Turkmenistan. In English it's Turkmenistan and Turkey, in German it's Turkmenistan and Türkei. The country itself writes Türkmenistan, so where's the umlaut in German? Maybe that's as bizarre as the country is.

Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan, is a city of representational buildings, some of which you aren't allowed to photograph. And all buildings, I mean ALL buildings, are covered with white marble as the president likes it this way. He likes his city broad and full of parks and avenues. But ... the streets and parks are empty just like in Pyongyang and North Korea.

At nights there is a difference to Pyongyang, however. Pyongyang at night is nearly black, dark, and sombre. Ashgabat is bright and full of changing colours, which you can already see from the plane, provided you reach Ashgabat after nightfall.

Dictatorial regimes crave being recognized by the world. Some try to excel in sports, some try to appear in the Guinness book of records. Ashgabat had the highest flagpole until the dictator eh president in Baku erected a higher one. But you can enjoy the world's largest indoor Ferris wheel. It is opened only on Saturdays and Sundays - so we were lucky to go there on a Sunday. The price for a ride is a trifle and therefore I had been expecting throngs at the ticket booth, but hardly anyone was waiting. As it is indoors, you can try to peek through the windows. Oh, don't forget not to photograph to the left side as there are restricted buildings!

The first president Turkmenbashi loved being presented in golden statues, some of which are still to be seen. I hope the late president doesn't mind the turtle dove shitting on his head.

At the end of our sojourn in Turkmenistan we planned to visit Konye Urgench far in the North. We got up in the middle of the night, took a flight to Dazavauz, and ... there we were: "Houston, we have a problem." The president was in town or expected in town. The only road to Konye Urgench goes right through the middle of the small town and all roads were blocked for traffic. We were happy to have a bus; a South Korean group didn't even have their bus. The roads were cleared of every vehicle, even the connecting roads were free of people and cars. Save for a policeman at every crossing and the four gentlemen dressed in black staring into a canal as if they expected a frogman surfacing any moment. And I shouldn't forget to tell you that the cell phone net in the North had been shut down, too.

So we went to the border to leave the country. Leaving the country! We didn't know if the border wasn't closed, too. It was, but it opened an hour later.

Crossing the border I had to show my passport quite often:

01. Guard in front of the border

02. 2nd guard in front of the border

03. Baggage and passport (customs), including X ray

04. Passport to get the exit stamp

05. Guard in front of barbed wire and the barrier

06. After a taxi ride through no-man's-land (we were lucky, otherwise we had to carry the baggage for about 1.5 km) control by a guard

07. Medical control

08. Passport and custom's declaration

09. Passport and entry stamp

10. Guard in front of Uzbekistan

OK, some controls where on the Uzbekistan side of this overland border.

But all in all, the impression of Turkmenistan as a bizarre country remains.

The Eagle Hunter

In Kyrgyzstan I had the opportunity to visit an eagle hunter. No, he doesn't hunt eagles, though he sometimes catches a young eagle or has to get an egg. And he doesn't sell eagles. He hunts with eagles.

Normally I listen to The Eagles' Hotel California, but this time I've got very close to a stone eagle. In the pictures you can see the magnificent bird, which weighs about 5 kg. He has to take her out every day to hunt. She even attacked a lynx, which is to big a predator to hunt for an eagle, but the eagle hunter, Astan is his name, helped her with this large prey. He is of course interested in hides, which he sells.

After a display of his two eagles, we were having freshly baked bread with варенье (homemade jam out of apricots or black currants) and tea in the beautiful garden. The trees were heavy with red cheeked apples. A wonderful sight in a country, which soon will be covered in snow.

We didn't eat the wasps, of cours!

Astan with his mother and children 

Later in Kazakhstan I was able to watch steppe eagles, but wasn't able to take a photograph of them.