"yout" camp or non-nomadic nomads

"Yout" camps or non-nomadic nomadsFriday October 16, 2009 We are heading out of town today to spend the night at a “yout” camp. Took me a bit to realize that our guide meant Yurt Camp. I had spent a night in Mongolia in a yurt camp and enjoyed it as the scenery was grand, the camp gave us some real insight into nomad life and our guide regaled us there with tales of Mongolia yurt customs and etiquette. I had hoped that this one would be the same. We have a couple of stops on our way. On the way out of Bukhara, we stopped at the Chor Minor Madrassah which is quite small but with 4 minarets. As with many of them, it has been turned into a shop. For a mere 500 Zum, we could go up on the roof and take photos of the minarets from up close and personal. Our next stop is the Sandoba water station. It has been totally reconstructed and in doing so, the workers somehow damaged the flow of water. They can't figure out how to fix it so while during the caravanserai times, the water was clean and clear, now it is kind of yucky. The caravanserai across the street is just a façade now and our guide said it would not be safe to go over there and look at it. Just after he said that, a private tour screeched to a stop in front of it and two tourists got out and wandered into the caravanserai. Hmmm. We never saw them come out so maybe it wasn’t safe. We stopped in Nurata for lunch and this is in someone’s back yard basically but they served good food and what seems to be the national dish of plov which is rice and mutton and some veggies and usually differently spiced depending on where you get it. So far it’s always been tasty. We had another stop but I’ll cover that later. To get to the yurt camp we had to stop in the closest village and transfer to jeeps as the drive is 7 kilometers over desert sandy road. As the jeeps don’t hold very much, we had each brought a smaller bag with what we thought we needed for the night. And as the jeeps also only hold 4 people each and there were only 2 jeeps and 12 of us, suddenly I am left at this village house with our guide and our drivers and everyone else has gone off to the camp. No worries, I just stood around and looked lonely and forlorn and tried to pet the lamb that was there and watched the family interaction. When I got to the yurt camp after one of the drivers came back to get me and the other 3, I was sent to a yurt to pick out a bed. It is quite different from Mongolia and I have to say I was not going to enjoy it. No beds but pads on the ground, no brightly colored and happy chests for the blankets, and we are all in two yurts even though there are enough there that we could each have our only. The only lovely spot is the outhouse has a seat. We are asked who wants to ride the camels for 20 minutes and that it is already paid so I say I’ll go. I’ve ridden many camels and it’s never that comfortable but it is something to do. It was nice to see that these camel drovers were the first men I have ever seen have a genuine bond with their animals. As we are walking and the drover is leading two camels, he is constantly scratching their ears and rubbing their necks and the camels are leaning into to get the attention. That was cool. Temperature is dropping when we get back and soon it’s time for dinner which is a serve yourself buffet of typical salads and some meats and bread. Then the vodka comes out. What else is there to do in the desert. And by 8 p.m., we were all in bed! It was a very disappointing experience. We found out that there are no more nomads in Uzbekistan or any of the old Soviet republics. When all these countries came under communist sway, they were forced to settle into villages because you cannot control people if you don’t know where they are. So the whole “yurt camp” is a tourist sham and we all agreed we could have done without it. Several of the group had been to the Mongolia yurt camps which are also tourist shams but at least they are more authentic and you can actually see and talk to some nomads there.