Uzbekistan - Samarkand & Tashkent -from the old to the new

It was time to move on to our third Silk Road city, Samarkand, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world (why do I feel like I've said this several times already on this trip?), and for centuries was a key stop on the Silk Road linking China, Persia, India and Europe. We'd been in touch with Rik and Kris, the Dutch couple, and found we'd be crossing paths as they were heading from Samarkand to Bukhara, so we pinned our locations on Whats App. On the way we passed 2 cycle tourists, so we pulled over to see if they needed some water and realised it was a French couple that we'd met in the Russian Visa Centre in Tbilisi.

We continued on the road that had no refreshment stops as far as we could see, and at a junction in the distance we spotted the Suzuki Jimmy. We couldn't believe that there was a small kiosk selling cold drinks and tea/coffee right here. We had a catch up for an hour swapping details on what we'd done and enjoyed. Like us, they are heading to Tajikistan next, but being in Europe they are visa free unlike the UK - thanks again Brexit.

We continued on towards Samarkand. Simon had warned us that the main road was horrible and he wasn't wrong. We had a brief stop for lunch and we managed to hit rush hour as we arrived in Samarkand, which was made even worse by a huge downpour which flooded the roads and caused even more chaos with the local drivers. The modern part of the city looked very nice with wide avenues and parks.

It was quite a relief when we found our parking spot that Simon had recommended. It wasn't pretty, but was just a 10 minute walk into the old town and had a security guard.

Once the rain had stopped we walked down to the Registan Square - the iconic centre-piece of the old city, and many consider it to be one of the most beautiful public squares in the world. It was a 'wow' from us. We had a walking tour booked for the following morning where we'd learn more about the history of the square, so we spent a couple of hours just wondering around the three madrassa, all of which are absolutely stunning with even more beautiful tiling than we'd seen in Bukhara and Khiva.

Simon had contacted us to say he was heading back to Samarkand, after he had been turned away from the Tajikistan border today. He had applied for an e-visa, but after more than two weeks he had not had confirmation, despite sending them emails each day. They had taken the money, so he had thought he'd chance his luck at the border, but sadly it was a big 'no'. We had read most tourists have bad experiences getting the e-visa, so our plan now was to visit the Tajikistan embassy in Tashkent to see if we could get a visa on the spot. We met Simon for dinner near the Registan and got caught in a huge hailstorm.

The following day the sun was out again for our 4 hours walking tour. There as just 3 of us on the tour, the other being a French guy who was in the region for work.

We met at and visited the Gur-i-Amir Mausoleum where the tomb of Timur rests, who made Samarkand the capital of his vast empire in 1370. The tombs of two of his sons and grandsons are also here. The mausoleum has a beautiful tiled portal and fluted azure dome.

The next stop on the tour was back to the Registan, where our guide talked us through the history and uses of the three stunning madrasas. The oldest, the Ulugbek Madrasa, was built in 1420 and was where mathematics, theology, astronomy and philosophy were taught.

The second madrasa, Sher Dor (Lion) Madrasa, was finished in 1636, and is decorated with lions (that look more like tigers). The third madrasa, Tilya-Kari (Gold Covered), was completed in 1660 and has a nice garden courtyard and mosque full of intricate blue and gold designs.

We continued on to the Bibi Khanym Mosque, built after Timur's invasion of India, and was once one of the largest mosques in the world.

Next door to here is the Siab Bazaar, Samarkand's largest market. Our guide took us through a touristy section where we sampled some delicious fudge like sweets, but when we went back by ourselves there were lots more colourful areas with spices and fruits.

After over 3 hours, we were starting to flag in the heat and with information overload, but the final place we visited was probably our highlight. The Shah-i-Zinda is a stunning avenue of mausoleums decorated with some of the richest tile-work in Central Asia. We entered tomb after tomb, which all had slightly different colours and styles of beautiful tiling.

We parted company with the guide here, and in need of a cold drink and bite to eat, we headed to a vegetarian cafe that Colin had spotted earlier. If we're being totally honest, after a few weeks in Central Asia our taste-buds are dying with the traditional food options of plov and shashliks (meat skewers). Seeing a menu with flavoursome salads and wraps was just what we needed. The cafe is owned by two lovely ladies from Islington, who when travelling around the region spotted there are no other vegetarian or vegan restaurants in the city, and bravely set about opening their cafe, SamarKind, in April this year. They had a steady stream of tourists coming in while we were there, all loving the delicious food offerings and great coffee. When we mentioned how hard it was for us to get our visas for Tajikistan, they suggested we talk to the guy in the tour agency next door to the cafe who runs tours into Tajikistan. We did just that, and the guy said he obtained e-visas regularly for his customers, and doing it in the tour agency's name seemed to be a quicker option. We said we'd confirm with him later, to give us a chance to do more research as to whether this would be a better option than going to the embassy in Tashkent.

We came back to the Registan in the evening to watch the light show they put on each evening to music. Colourful, but a bit dull after 10 minutes.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/a868c8_bd0bfa1b9afa4772b4a91e2d04cbb45e/file

The following morning we walked back into the old town to visit the travel agent and get a good coffee and breakfast at SamarKind. The guy in the agency wasn't there and his colleague was a bit vague about when he was due in which was a bit frustrating. We tried messaging him but got no response. We hung around nearby , outside the big mosque and in the bazaar. By midday there was still no sign of him, so we gave up and decided we'd have to arrange it all via Whats App and phone calls.

We had about a 300km drive to get to the capital city of Tashkent, which with the rough road surfaces meant we'd be unlikely to make it before dark. It was a bit of a slow painful journey. We finally got a photo of a gopher - the small burrowing rodent (also known as Gordon) which normally dive underground when you see them. As the light was fading we pulled into the town of Buka, and ended up getting permission to park up outside the football clubs building and ground.

Several overlanders had told us about the Uzemfermer vineyard on the outskirts of Tashkent that allows motorhomes to park for free on their grounds, so it didn't take much persuasion to decide to head there. There were four other German vehicles there when we arrived, but they didn't hang around for long - was it something we said? After a couple of weeks stopping in city car parks it was great to be able to get our chairs out, wander around the grounds, which had a fishing lake, and landscaped gardens, and sample some of their wines - verdict - drinkable, but no as good as the Georgian and Armenian wines we'd tried.. There was also a restaurant on site (it was a hotel as well), but the food and service were so so. 'Hair by Colin' (a useful service provided during Covid lockdown) reopened for business while we were there.

While we were there, we spotted there was some damage to Lolly's bike box. We were a bit baffled how it had occurred, but then both remembered when we were driving towards Tashkent we had heard a large knocking sound in the back and had assumed it was something falling with all the vibrations of the bad road, but we now realised we'd probably been clipped by a wing mirror of a passing lorry. One of the Germans also spotted we had a nail sticking out of one of our tyres. Colin asked the manager of the vineyard if there was somewhere local he could go to get both items fixed, and one of the groundsmen went with Colin to a couple of local workshops who sorted the problems, probably not to Colins standards.

After a couple of days relaxing and doing truck jobs, we caught a taxi into Tashkent. We'd asked the tour agent in Samarkand to proceed with getting our e-visas asap, but we still had the issue that we had read of other right hand drive vehicles being refused entry into Tajikistan in the last year. All the research suggested that while right hand drive vehicles are forbidden for permanent import into the country, temporary import by tourists is OK. However it seemed that customs officials at the borders were not interpreting the rules that way and were turning away any RHD vehicles at the border from Uzbekistan into Tajikistan. We had a plan B, that another English couple had used last year, who went into Kyrgyzstan first, and were then allowed across at a border from there. We'd prefer not to go this route, as the natural flow of our planned onward route works better coming in from Uzbekistan.

Anyway, we had the brain wave that while we were in Tashkent, we'd call in at the Embassy and ask them for clarification of the rules, and assuming we were correct, we'd ask them for an official letter of confirmation that we could show the border guards - simples.

The taxi dropped us off that the Tajikistan Embassy - on closer inspection we found it was closed and there was a small sign saying they'd moved to a new location two months ago. I rechecked their website and Google etc etc - there was no mention of this. We had to take another taxi to the new location (Tashkent is a very spread out city). There was a sizeable group of people waiting outside. We were told to register at a kiosk where they had put seating in front of the window - Colin tried to explain that we weren't here to apply for/collect visas, and that we just had a simple question. A young guy who was waiting for a visa and spoke good English helped with the translation. After the guy in the kiosk had logged Colin's details (I wouldn't be allowed in), another guy by the entrance gate wrote his name in a book and put a number by it and we were told to wait our turn. We waited for 2 hours, then were told it was lunch break, and all those lucky few who had made it into the interior of the embassy were evicted back out. It was a scorching hot day and we had to walk a way to find a cafe where we could get a drink and a snack. We eventually found one, and were invited to sit with a young guy and his mother. He was studying International Law at Tashkent University and we had a lovely chat about his studies and our travels.

We walked back to the Embassy, where we found their lunch break was longer than we'd been told. We waited in the throng for probably another hour before Colin was eventually allowed in. He must have been in there for over an hour, and when he reemerged he did not look happy. He said it had been absolute chaos inside, with everyone being passed around different windows. The guy Colin eventually spoke to said he would have to ask the big boss to confirm the RHD rules. When he finally got hold of him the answer was 'it is whatever the border guards say it is'. So our bright idea had been a complete waste of six hours - we rued how naive we are.

Feeling hot and not in the best of moods probably wasn't the best time to explore Tashkent.

We started on a tour of some of the Soviet era underground stations which are decked out in marble and granite with different themes. An unlimited ticket costs next to nothing. We started at the Kosmonavtlar station with images of cosmonauts including Yuri Gagarin and Valentine Tereshkova, the first man and woman in space. We visited 3 or 4 others to get comparisons. They were interesting, if not maybe as special as the ones in Moscow.

We followed a 5km walking route along the canal that runs through the city taking us from Independence Square past Soviet era monuments in parks, and finishing at the city's most famous plov restaurant, Besh Qozon. We've already alluded to the fact we're not number one fans of plov, which is basically a pile of rice, carrots, quince and meat swimming in lamb fat and oil - are you salivating at the sound of this? Uzbekistan has persuaded UNESCO to add it to its list of Intangible Culture Heritage of Humanity items. A series of huge wood fired cauldrons churn out 6000 servings a day at this restaurant.

We had to haggle hard to get a taxi back to the vineyard. We certainly regret wasting so much time at the Embassy, as we probably missed the more interesting sites in the city, like the bazaar, mosques, museums and the new Centre for the Islamic Civilisation. We didn't have the will to come back into the city for another day and were itching to move on again.