Samarkand

 Yes, I really do visit these places, even though I don't have many pictures of myself to prove it. I opted for guided tours of Samarkand and Bukhara over a long weekend, so my guide in Samarkand took this one for me. In the background are three medressas (Islamic schools) established by Ulugbek, one of the most famous scientists of his time. This area is called the Registon, and it has a wide public square in front where markets were.

We went inside the medressas to see the study rooms and living quarters that students experienced. Most rooms were quite small and unfriendly to the taller tourist. However, they also now contain souvenir shops, and I found some nice, hand-woven decorative cloths. This time of year is slow for tourism, so we had time to talk to the shopkeepers who were happy to have visitors.

The rest of the pictures here are from Amir Temur's mausoleum. Central Asia is earthquake prone, and the building suffered a lot of damage over the years. However, a good portion of the original work still exists, and much more has been restored.

One of the things I really enjoy about Islamic art is the amazing tile work. The entryway, with its three-dimensional qualities was something I hadn't seen before. My guide told me that was a Persian style of architecture. In the mausoleum room, there were markers for Temur and several members of his family. The black one is Temur's. The bottom two photos give you an idea of how amazing the craftsmanship was that went into the design and construction of the mausoleum. The blues and greens in the tiles are still used in Uzbek pottery that is made today.

Visit to Uzbekistan

As my time in Central Asia grows short, I'm trying to do some of the things that remain on my list of "to dos". Visiting Uzbekistan and seeing some of the historical sites was an important one, and a temporary assignment to our office in Tashkent, the capital, allowed me to check this off the list.

All of Central Asia is very interesting for a variety of reasons, and Uzbekistan is the most interesting of the four I've visited so far. The top picture shows Amir Temur, or as I learned his name in history class -- Tamerlane or Timur the Lame. In the background is the Hotel Uzbekistan. I was told some horror stories about tourists getting hassled by police for taking pictures that inadvertently included government buildings, so I was hesitant to take this photo. A couple of policemen were hanging around, and I didn't see anyone else taking pictures. Eventually, I saw another couple of people take some shots, so I finally took this one and left.

Uzbekistan works hard to insulate itself from the rest of the world. Rather, the country is more like Hotel California for foreign investment. They like foreigners to come and spend money in the country, but they don't really like people to take money out of the country. Because it's difficult to get foreign currency out of Uzbekistan, changing money is (ahem) interesting. The government of Uzbekistan sets the official exchange rate, but the unofficial rate is significantly higher. I stayed at a few different hotels in the country. All quoted rates in dollars, but they didn't all use the official exchange rate for payment in local currency.

Another interesting part of using money in Uzbekistan is the fact that the highest value of a bank note is 1000 soum. The official exchange rate is about 1800 soum to the dollar. This results in people carrying around stacks of bills like the one in the middle picture. That's $100 in Uzbek soum. While I was disappointed that the weather wasn't warmer during my trip, it did mean that I had a coat with plenty of pockets to stuff cash into.

Prior to coming to Kazakhstan, many of my colleagues who had been here before told me to make sure I had plov, a rice dish with various ingredients depending on the region where you get it. Most plov has horse meat and chickpeas. Sometimes, it will come with raisins, and I had some that had hard-boiled quail eggs in it. However, during my 18 months in Central Asia, I had never had plov that I considered that good or worth getting a second time. Uzbekistan is known for having excellent plov, so I knew that if I didn't find it on this trip, it just didn't exist.

The bottom picture shows the exterior of a restaurant that had excellent plov. The only one where I would get it again. I'll add a picture of the plov later, but I just thought this was the type of place that would have great plov. There were three businesses operating in this building. On the left was a car wash, and the restaurant is in the middle. I didn't get a chance to see what the other business was, but if you didn't know this place was here, you'd never find it. I was told the secret ingredient was yellow carrots. Whatever it was, it tasted great.

Ded Moroz and Snegurochka

Now that the holidays are over, I wanted to post about the New Year's tradition of Ded Moroz. From my days in Macedonia, I recall the Santa Claus equivalent called "Dedo Mraz" or Grandfather Frost, and they have the same tradition in Kazakhstan. Here, the Russian name is "Ded Moroz" and translates the same as the Macedonian. One difference is that Ded Moroz is assisted by Snegurochka, his granddaughter.

I asked my local friends for more information on Ded Moroz to see what the similarities and differences are, and there are some interesting differences. Ded Moroz does not live at the North Pole, and he doesn't have elves to make the toys for him. He lives in the forest, and the forest animals help him make the gifts for the children. I mentioned to my friends that Santa Claus leaves lumps of coal for the bad kids, and I asked what Ded Moroz leaves for the bad kids. The response was that there are no bad kids. I wondered how parents get their kids to be good for the month leading up to New Year's.

As I was trying to clarify Snegurochka's role, I learned that people here don't know that Santa Claus is married. My friends said that Snegurochka was basically someone to help Ded Moroz and keep him company. They felt sad for Santa because he's all alone, so I told them that he had Mrs. Claus with him up at the North Pole. They seemed relieved to know that Santa wasn't alone.

One More from Thailand

Here's a pocketbook designed for people who want to curb their spending. The clasp is the claw from a crocodile, complete with talons. It looks cool, but maybe not too practical.

Yet Another Trip to Bangkok

As I mentioned somewhere earlier, our mission in Thailand is a training hub, so I've been there three times in the last year, and I just finished my last required training course. Still, every time I go, I see something new. Here are some photos.

Some notes: the top photo shows ceramic chickens in some kind of cock fight (no, I did not see actual cockfighting while I was there); and no, I didn't see any crocodiles floating in the flood waters of Bangkok; Mom -- I thought you'd like seeing that can of Prickly Heat, something they apparently still use for foot massages in Thailand; this photo of the river is as close as I got to flood waters while I was in Bangkok.

Congratulations to Dave and Jennifer!

About a week after my trip to India, I was back in the US for Dave and Jennifer's wedding. I was there just long enough to get over the jet lag before returning to Kazakhstan, but I was glad to be there. All the best, guys!

More from India (finally!)

As promised, here are some more photos from Delhi, but so much time has passed since I was there, I don't have much to say now.  The second picture here, I took because those girls were diligently typing away at old electric typewriters (the kind I learned how to type on -- so long ago). I thought it was interesting to see old school technology still hard at work in India, but I didn't notice the computers on the sides of the room until I looked at the picture after I got home. Most likely, these girls are learning to type. I think Ms. Arnold from Bis-Henn would be proud.

The bottom two pictures are from a mausoleum in Delhi that is similar to, but predates, the Taj Mahal. There wasn't enough time for me to see the Taj, but this was still an interesting piece of architecture.