Can the Stans handle the Merck girls?

September 29: Bukhara to Samarkand

Now here’s some more history, about one of the most fascinating rivalries in world history. Have you heard of the “Great Game”? It was essentially a 19th-century geopolitical chess match between the British Empire and the Russian Empire, fought not with armies on battlefields, but with spies, explorers, and diplomats across the vast, remote lands of Central Asia.

Here’s the story in a nutshell…..

By the early 1800s, Britain ruled India, the “jewel in the crown” of its empire. Meanwhile, Russia was expanding southward, conquering one Central Asian khanate after another.

To the British, this looked ominously like the first steps toward an invasion of India. To the Russians, it was about securing their southern frontier and gaining prestige and influence — possibly even access to warm-water ports.

So began the “Great Game,” a shadow war of espionage, mapping, intrigue, and diplomacy, roughly from 1813 to 1907.

Now why am I telling you all this? Because Bukhara features in this story.

One of the most infamous places from the era of the Great Game, was a real dungeon in Bukhara called the “bug pit”.

In 1838, the British sent Major Charles Stoddart to Bukhara. His mission was diplomatic: to win the emir’s friendship and secure British influence before the Russians could.

But things went wrong from the start.

• Stoddart arrived without gifts or letters of introduction, which was a grave insult to the Emir
• Worse, he failed to dismount his horse before the Emir — a major cultural faux pas.
  The furious emir ordered him arrested and thrown into a filthy dungeon: the Zindan (“Bug pit”) near the Ark Fortress in Bukhara

There were other cells in the prison, like guard’s cell and the debtor’s cell.

But the  Bug Pit was the worst cell in the prison. It was a deep pit — dark, damp, and crawling with vermin. Prisoners were lowered into it by rope, and once inside, they lived among bugs, lice, rats, and scorpions,human waste and decaying food and barely any light or air. You can just make out the replica body in the pit.

Another  British officer,Captain Arthur Conolly, came to Bukhara to negotiate Stoddart’s release, but he too was placed in the bug pit. Eventually, they were both beheaded on the ramp leading up to the Ark Fortress.

Enough history…. We travelled by train from Bukhara to Samarkand. It’s meant to be a high speed train but didn’t match up to the Japanese Shinkansen.

Train stations here are all called Vokzal….Bukhara Vokzal, Tashkent Vokzal and so on. The story goes that an Uzbek official was waiting at a train station in London called “Vauxhall” and he thought that this was the British name for stations, so he brought that description to Uzbekistan!

Had one of our best lunches today at a restaurant called Zaytoon

Staying at a lovely hotel at Samarkand. Problem is it does not sell any alcohol ( Marg and Lisa are not happy!) because it wanted to be a halal hotel and this was one of the conditions. Presumably there’s more business from sober Saudi Arabians than happy drinking Australians!