People I met on grand adventure (1): the young men who intruded my solo photo
旅途上遇見的人們 (1)：在希瓦和我同框的烏茲別克青年
（中文版寫在英文版後面，閱讀中文者請移駕下方繼續閱讀）
On the fourth day (5/10) of my adventure, around 5pm, I was at Kunya-Ark Citadel, a former Khanate palace in the Uzbek ancient city Khiva. There is an overlook above the citadel. Since it was nearly 40 degree Celsius (above 100 degree Fahrenheit), I hid myself in the shadow of the building for an hour while overlooking the entire city. Meanwhile, some other tourists also came up to take photos. As a solo traveler, I rarely get photos of myself; but in order to have something to share with my family, I asked some locals with gestures to take a photo for me. Surprisingly, while one of them got my phone, and another young man walked over to stand besides me, without hesitation. He had one arm on my shoulders and the other thumb up. Consequently, I expected a solo photo but ended up getting two with locals, which is even better!
The landmark on the right of the photo behind me is the Islam Khoja Minaret. Minaret is a tower where Muslims are called to worship. This minaret was planned to be 70 to 80 meters (210 to 280 feet) high, but the construction stopped at 29 meters (78 feet). The completed part doesn’t really look like a tower, but more like a giant water tank; but even if it were a water tank, it would be the prettiest water tank in the world. Other parts of the city are also filled with Islamic architecture covered by blue tiles. Probably due to their prohibition of images and icons, their gift of art is thoroughly demonstrated in those delicate and appealing tileworks.
I walked around the city for 5 times during the one afternoon and one night I spent there. It was exciting to see such densely populated Islamic architectures, but what excited me even more is the people there. Near the citadel, I ran into a boy who was playing the game of “letting a coin come down on a slope”. Upon seeing me with my DSLR, he picked the coin up to let me take a picture of him with a beautiful smile. In addition, many other kids are playing among buildings made of mud bricks. While taking sunset pictures from the top of the city wall, this scene reminded of my childhood in Hengchun, another idyllic town with a city wall in southern Taiwan, where I had lived for 3 years.
旅行的第4天（5月10日）下午5點，我在烏茲別克古城希瓦（Khiva）西隅的Kunya-Ark Citadel，也就是過去的汗國皇宮，那裡有座遊客可以上去俯瞰全景的瞭望台。當時氣溫接近攝氏40度，我索興躲在瞭望台的陰影中耗了整整一小時，期間許多遊客也上來拍照。那時我想，雖然一個人旅行拍不到什麼照，至少還是要生出幾張照片和家人分享吧？於是鼓起勇氣，比手畫腳請幾位烏茲別克當地人為我拍照。只見他們其中一人接過手機，另一個人則毫不猶豫的站到我身邊，一手搭在我的肩上、另一手豎起大拇指。我本來想要的是一張獨照，結果卻意外的獲得兩張和當地人的合照，比我原本想的更好。看來語言不通有時候還是有些意外的好處的。
照片裡最醒目的是我右後方的宣禮塔Islam Khoja Minaret，是叫喚穆斯林前往禮拜用的高塔。本來應該要到蓋70至80公尺高，卻在29公尺處就停工，留下的未完工部分不像高塔，反而像是個大水槽；但就算它真的是個大水槽，絕對可以被稱為全世界最漂亮的水槽，城裡其他地方也無處不是貼滿了藍綠色磁磚的伊斯蘭式建築。或許是因為伊斯蘭教不允許聖像存在，他們的藝術細胞似乎全部都投注在這些精美細緻的幾何圖案裡了。
在希瓦待了一個下午加一個晚上，把整個城繞了至少5圈。初次見到密度這麼高的伊斯蘭建築固然讓人興奮，但更讓我喜歡的是在這裡生活的人們。在前述的瞭望台附近碰到一個小男孩，反覆的玩著「讓硬幣從斜坡上滾下」的遊戲；一見到我拿著單眼相機，就毫不怕生的拿起硬幣讓我拍照，還很有誠意的附上相當天真的微笑。此外，大部分地區仍然保留著土造建築的面貌，傍晚孩童在街上嬉戲的景象和台灣鄉下所見並無二致，讓我走在城牆上不禁想起曾經居住過三年的屏東縣恆春鎮，一個同樣有著一座古城的小鎮。
