Happy Holidays 2015

I am getting an early start on my newsletter this year because I am spending a month in Arizona and California over the holidays.  I’ve always wanted to go to The Rose Parade and this year I hope to be in the crowd as it passes down Orange Grove Boulevard so watch for me on TV.

I started the year off by planning a trip to The Five Stans.  Whenever I mention it to people they say ‘Where is that?’  It is along The Old Silk Road and takes in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.  It was a great trip and covered a lot of territory and a lot of diversity in the things that we saw.  

In April I set off to visit Ozgur and his family in Istanbul for a few days before flying to Almaty in Kazakhstan. We visited a falcon farm where they train raptors for hunting, 

and the Museum of Musical Instruments where we saw the various types of instruments from ancient times up to present day, most of which were hand-made.

After the Museum we continued through the park to the Zenkov Cathedral one of Almaty’s few surviving tsarist-era buildings, built entirely of wood, including the nails, and restored with colorful icons and murals, this one made entirely of pearls. 

We spent some time at the Green Market, central to everyday life in Almaty, where we got to sample some of the local specialties.   We decide to pass on the horse meat and fermented camel’s milk though in favor of the chocolate they are famous for.  We had lunch in a yurt high up in the mountains where they have year round skiing and ice skating near Central Asia’s top skiing center. 

In Kyrgyzstan some of the highlights were the ancient petroglyphs at Cholpon-Ata from the Neolithic Period which have just been open to the elements for centuries and only recently money was gifted by the German Government to build a fence around the majority of the area.  Before that people would take the rocks with the petroglyphs on them for their construction projects with no thought to their historic value. 

We traveled along the shores of Lake Issyk Kul for a couple of days with the magnificent Tian Shan Mountains on both sides of us.  It is the world’s second largest alpine lake, after Lake Titicaca, and the lake and the mountains made for some spectacular scenery.  

We also had fun at the horse games which consisted of three games where we cheered on the participants.  Since they are very famous for their horses and horsemanship it was an interesting look at their culture. 

Then on to for Bishkek, the capital city, where the evening entertainment at the restaurant featured these women playing their traditional instruments and dressed in their beautiful costumes.  

In Uzbekistan we enjoyed the Magilan market where we were greeted by people selling bread so ornately decorated that several people had to buy the stamps they use to make the designs in the bread.   

At the Yodgorlik Silk Factory they showed us how they dye individual threads and then weave them into a pattern. It was amazing to think that the colors come out in the correct proportions to create a specific design. 

One day we had lunch at the home of a famous ceramics artist, where we ate a delicious lunch amongst his beautiful hand-painted plates and after lunch his son demonstrated the making of pottery and hand-crafted tiles.   We actually had a lot of meals in private homes. 

This is the palace of the last Khan of Kokand. It was built between 1863 and 1874. Upon completion, it was one of the largest and most opulent palaces in Central Asia. Nineteen of its original one hundred and thirteen rooms survive and it has become a museum.  Everywhere we went the tile work on the mosques and madrassahs was exquisite and the embroidery and ceramics were outstanding. Amazing when you see the exterior is all tile work and the interior has this painted ceilings.

Everywhere we went there were beautiful hand-painted frescos, exquisite tilework and amazing architecture. 

At the Meros Silk Paper Factory they demonstrated the method for making silk paper that is more than 1000 years old. The process involves no electricity, and no added colors, chemicals, or ingredients – the final product consists only of the bark’s fibers, from the mulberry tree, and water. Silk paper, which was used for many Arabic manuscripts in the 9th and 10th centuries, is water-resistant and said to last for 2000 years (as opposed to the 100 year life-span of typical printing paper).  Here you see silk paper clothing and silk paper money.

Just before dinner one night we were invited to the home of a famous designer for a beautiful fashion show where the she designs fabulous clothes using scarves.

We visited a puppet factory and learned how the puppets are made, then hand-painted, dressed in costumes and then were given a demonstration of how they work.    

At a carpet factory we watched the young women making silk carpets. It takes 2 or 3 girls one year to make the large sized carpets.  

In Bukhara we were also treated to a jazz concert by some local musicians.  There were a lot of musical and dance performances in our honor with colorful costumes and several fashion shows that were put on for us. 

Traveling across the Kyzyl Kum or Red Sand Desert we had to drive through a sandstorm which made it all seem pretty authentic. The desert is the 16^th largest in the world and covers 115,000 square miles.  It must have been hard to be out there on a camel especially in a sand storm.

 

One day we traveled through fields of red poppies and stopped at a farm to visit with a local family.  We watched several women making wall hangings and carpets that decorate their yurts and another woman making bread. 

We were fascinated by the fake police cars along the highway.  They are made of cardboard with what looks like a policeman inside – we figure they must be to slow down traffic but one look at them and you would know they are fake. 

Emir’s Summer Palace (Palace of Moon and Stars) built by the Russians in 1911 for the last Emir Alim Khan, as an inducement to get him out of the Ark fortress and safely ensconced in a strategic and cultural no-man's-land on the edge of town.  The palace is quite beautiful as we walk through the various rooms.

 

Char Minar Mosque Each of four towers that form a square has its own original design, but all are topped by stunning, harmonizing blue tiled domes.

At the Desert of Forbidden Art we learned how Igor Savitsky rescued the artwork of 40,000 forbidden fellow artists and created a showplace for them in the desert of Soviet Uzbekistan, a collection that is now worth millions. During lunch in the museum we also had a lecture by a geologist who is a member of a small group of people concerned about the drying up of the Aral Sea. He was very interesting and very informative about the sobering details of what used to be the third largest inland sea and which is now 10% of its former size. 

Before we got very far into Turkmenistan we were hearing about the First President and the Current President and how all the old buildings have been torn down and new buildings, built with white marble, are everywhere.  We spent four days exploring the city and the nearby countryside.  

One day we drove out into the country to see the famous Akhal-Teke horse breeding farm.  Each horse the owner brought out to show us was more beautiful than the one before. They are known for their speed, endurance, and intelligence.  Adapted to severe climatic conditions they are thought to be one of the oldest existing breeds of horses dating back 3,000 years.

Another day we flew to Mary for the day so we could visit the ruins at Merv, an oasis city along the Silk Road in the 12th century which covers 600 hectares. Very little of it has been excavated and it would probably take hundreds of years to do so.  They think the ruins covered 9 cities, and more than 300 villages and traces of prehistoric life back to the 3^rd century BC have been found there. This spot known as the girls’ fortress from the 3^rd century was where 44 women barricaded themselves in the hopes of evading the army of Genghis Khan.  You can see the hole created when the army catapulted the wall and the women didn’t have a chance.  They jumped to their death rather than be captured.  Unfortunately the birds have taken over and are destroying what is left of the walls.  

In Turkmenistan I was captivated by the beautiful traditional dresses which the ladies wear had to buy one for myself at one of the fashion shows. 

Well that is probably more than you wanted to know about The Five Stans.  As you can see it was quite an extensive tour and hard to condense into a few paragraphs – there was a lot more but those are some of the highlights. 

In May there was a wedding in the McCullem family when Ryan and Evangeline got married near Seattle.  It was a beautiful wedding and fun to be part of the McCullem clan gathering. 

We had a spectacular summer in Seattle with next to no rain and a nice long hot summer.

In September I was off to my niece’s wedding in Golden, BC.  Jamie and Graham were married at a resort with a beautiful outdoor venue overlooking the mountains and river for the ceremony.  If you have ever been to Banff you will know how beautiful it is around that area.  We had three days of celebrations and I had fun making a video of their wedding and reliving all the festivities once again through my film.

In October we had to say goodbye to my mom as she passed on.  She had a wonderful, long life and was able to be in Invermere where my brother and his family live for the past few years.  It was her time and we have wonderful memories of her long life.

I went to Salt Spring Island with my former roommates for our get-a-way this year but unfortunately there were just the three of us as Judy got sick at the last minute and couldn’t join us. Salt Spring is one of the Gulf Islands between Vancouver Island and the Mainland.  It was a charming little village with interesting shops, great restaurants and we had a lovely condo overlooking the harbor.  

I went to the Husky football game with Robert and took Ana Lilia to Disney on Ice which she really enjoyed since she is now a figure skater herself. For her birthday she had a ‘high tea’ for six little friends.  They wore my hats and scarves and Robert was the waiter.  One of the mom’s does henna and after the tea she did beautiful henna designs on their hands and arms. 

So all in all it has been a great year.  I am happy, healthy and enjoying my friends, family and most importantly good health.  I wish you good health and happiness in the coming year and look forward to keeping in touch. 

P.S. If you haven’t seen enough photos and you have access to Facebook I have more albums of my travels on Facebook