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How deep is the pond? vol.1


Splash ... Splash! Two young men dive into the water reservoir in front of a minaret (a tower of mosque). I capture the beautiful archs with the camera. Then they ask me if I dive into the pond together. The sunshine is strong enough skipping the spring and already the summer here in Bukhara, Uzbekistan. I feel like follow them. No, I should not. I'm physically old enough to jump in short for reaching water. Instead I would slap my belly on the stone steps. They say the pond itself has enough depth to dive. Of course, I can't see the bottom through the brown water.


Well, my impression for the Uzbekistan is something like this pond. I don't know the depth at all. It still has police authority system of the old Soviet Union. Is the people strict for religion? Are they Asian or Westerner? How are they look like? How much the country modernized.
So I decide to pre-study on a travel Uzbekistan. Let's see ... a blog says "The passport control on the Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan border is so restricted. You might be thoroughly checked even a picture in the smartphone. If you have even one mistake on the immigration card, then it becomes a subject to a fine, or bribe. The border post is full of Uzbekistan people. It can takes several hours for getting through ..." I'm depressed as going on reading.


But I get a reassuring partners, who are Russian and Kazakhstan tourists. We share a taxi from Symkent of Kazakhstan to the border. They are repeat tourist for Uzbekistan. However, they put the words at the end. "Listen. There is no democracy on the border. Just chaos" Is that true the stories on the blogs?
Although the passport control is quiet and smooth. It's normal immigration scene like anywhere else in the world. No long waiting lines. We just shrugged each other. After all, we didn't make sense why the situation was dramatically changed. No patience was happy to us, anyway.


Many policemen actually stand on every corner of the street, although I've never been tried to hustled the bribe. The religious commandments are milder compare to, for example, Iran. There is no adhan (the announcement which tells prayer time) from the speaker settled on the minaret. I've heard the adhan every Muslim country which I had visited, but I don't in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Because the adhan made me feel more exotic, it's a little bit regretful to me. Instead the five prayer times each day is told on the message board in the entrance of each mosque. I saw a person who rushed into a mosque in time. It's because no adhan is announced, I guess.




Oct. 2018



Today's piece
" Water reservoir "  Bukhara, Uzbekistan  2017




fumikatz osada photographie