Nukus Art and Commerce

Oct. 23, 2023-Nukus Art and Commerce I was unprepared for the experience that was the Savitsky Museum. We rode by bus four hours through desert, rain, and corduroy roads to spend equal time at a museum. Our docent spoke five languages. Her English was stellar. Of the 100,000 works in the collection, Savitsky saved 80,000. We must have seen 60,000. I couldn’t stop taking photos of the obscure works by tortured and imprisoned artists who never knew the notoriety their life’s work achieved. Along with paintings and sculpture, Savitsky saved ethnographic art such as weaving, embroidery, and jewelry. One wedding robe was made of a familiar looking fabric. On close examination, it was denim. Three hundred years ago, Karakalpak people were making what old Levi Strauss turned into an unparalleled fashion mania. This is a small city. Everything is walkable. With recovery almost complete our group now had pep in their step. I’m pleased to say David is not and hasn’t been the slowest. We walked to lunch and had one of the best yet. The usual salads of roasted eggplant and veggies appeared as well as cheese flatbread and lentil soup. We were spared another stew. We had various kabobs. They’re not served on skewers but are piled on a platter. There was lamb kofta, beef cubes, chicken, lamb cubes, tomatoes, and flatbread with spicy paprika and ground beef. Dessert was pistachio baklava. We rolled out of there and on to the city market. What I like about Yura is that he takes us to different specialty areas of each market, so we’re not always looking and produce or fish. This time we went to the gold section. It’s set up like a pawn shop where jewelry brought by sellers is weighed by the buyers. Prices are based purely on weight. Women working there wanted to know how old we were and were amazed that we were so spry. They then asked if we had our real teeth and showed off their gold ones. Off we marched to the tobacco sellers. This wasn’t cigarettes, but loose tobacco combined with chicken and camel poo. It’s placed under the tongue or between the lips and teeth, is extremely addictive, and carcinogenic. The smell is primarily of poo. Yura is a man of many talents. Although he comes from a wealthy family, still owns and runs his father’s factory with 150 employees, and works as a guide, his father wouldn’t let him be spoiled. He learned to do manual labor and was skilled enough to build his own house. That came in handy last night when he fixed the A/C in one of our rooms. DInner was at the home of a family that is in the restaurant business. They also cater dinners in their home for tourists. The house had oversized rooms decorated in brocade wallpaper and gilt. Food was sumptuous with literally soup to nuts spread on the table when we began. The main course was besh barmak, a noodle dish with turkey cubes. It is indigenous and served once a year at special occasions. Happy early Thanksgiving. WIne and local vodka was freely poured as was Coke and Fanta. David pronounced the vodka “very smooth.” A professional trio played local instruments and did throat singing. If I had to describe the sound the singer made, I’d say gargling while trying to speak. We had special packing instructions for our internal flight. We don’t have to take off our shoes, all liquids and aerosols must be in checked luggage, computers must be in carry-ons, and there are two x-ray checkpoints. Tomorrow, we fly back to Tashkent for a day before our flight to Kazakhstan. Toby