Uzbekistan - Silk Road Gems
- 3 hours ago
- 8 min read
We had a fairly smooth crossing into Uzbekistan. The customs officials were pretty helpful and our inspection wasn't too thorough. The thing they are most concerned with here is having a drone which are totally banned in Uzbekistan. We assured them we are too old for that sort of stuff.- they didn't disagree. One customs guy told me 'be careful - as a tourist you will be ripped off'. I replied 'at least the people here do it with a nice smile'.
Some facts about Uzbekistan:
It is one of only two countries that is double land-locked (meaning every country bordering it is also landlocked). The other is Lichtenstein by the way.
It once had a sea coast but the shrinking of the Aral Sea created one of the worlds largest environmental disasters. Today fishing boats sit stranded in what is now desert (Sadly this isn't in our plan to see on this trip)
Uzbek plov (the national dish) is so important that it's seen as much more than a meal. It's a symbol of hospitality, community and national identity.
We had about a two hour drive to Bukhara - one of Central Asia's oldest cities and the central historic area is still incredibly well preserved. It has more than 140 protected monuments. As we reached the central area we gasped at the sight of the old fortress, then realised this is where we will be parking for the next few days. We just about squeezed our way onto a back street to fill up with water. before we parked up. Before we knew it we had an audience of children and an old man who confirmed we were welcome to use the tap. While Colin was getting wet trying to hold the tap connection onto our hose, I had the young children asking me questions. As we left I offered the oldest one ( a very tall 11 year old) to take some sweets for them. I was very surprised when she handed the bag back with the remaining sweets saying thank you. When I said she should keep them she shook her head.
There were a few other overlanders parked up when we arrived - a large German expedition vehicle, two Italian motorhomes and a UK VW campervan.
We wasted no time having a walk to the Poi Kalan - just a 5 minute stroll away - a beautiful square/complex with a minaret (built in 1127 and standing at 47 metres tall - Genghis Khan was so impressed when he saw it that he ordered it to be spared during the Mongol invasion), the Kalyan mosque which can accommodate up to 10,000 worshipers at one time, and a Madrasa (an educational institution focused on Islamic studies) with beautiful turquoise domes and tiling which is still an active Islamic school. It was very reminiscent of Iran for us, but Persian influences in Bukhara are strong. It felt strange seeing so many tourists after Turkmenistan as well. We definitely felt like we were on our holidays.
It was a warm evening so we sat outside Lolly with a drink and some snacks. A local who had parked his car up next to us started chatting about where we were from, with Premier League football getting the conversation going as so often happens. The Uzbeks are very proud that Khusanov, one of their own, is playing for Manchester City and had helped them to win the FA cup this year. Uzbekistan are the only Central Asian team in the World Cup this year, so we will have to make them our second team for the tournament. The guy was a sous chef for a local restaurant, and after a phone call we were joined by his wife and sister. We were a bit overwhelmed by whole friendly vibe of the place. When they departed, Simon, the owner of the other UK van appeared. He is touring the Central Stans in his VW T4. He recommended a few places for dinner, and we said we'd have to join him for dinner while we were there.
The following day was a relaxed day, dropping laundry off at a local hostel (with two incredibly cute playful white kittens), with just a brief look around town as we had a walking tour booked for the following morning. Colin went off in search of a place to buy vehicle insurance which was a challenge but he finally succeeded. We arranged to go for dinner with Simon, and beforehand in the late afternoon we visited the fortress which houses a museum showcasing the jewellery and clothing for this region. There were nice views of the old town from here too. There was a stage constructed next to our car park for the International Festival of Gold Embroidery and Jewellery, which is one of Uzbekistan's most distinctive cultural annual events and stalls were being constructed nearby. In the mornings and evenings we could here them practicing dances and music for the event, which was going on for a few days. We had a nice dinner with Simon learning more about his travels.
It was a sunny hot day for our walking tour which, over four hours, took us around the key sites in the old town. The guide explained the history of the old buildings including the Madrasahs, clothing, local customs and handicrafts.
We had a brief look in the bazaar after the tour, then in the evening rewarded ourselves with a much needed refreshing cold beer, and had dinner at a rooftop restaurant.
On the way back to Lolly we sat in the Poi Kalan soaking up the atmosphere and enjoying seeing the buildings lit up in colourful lights.
The following day it was Colin's birthday. We'd planned a gentle day revisiting some of the sites we'd seen on the walking tour. Things didn't quite start as planned when we were told we had to move our vehicles. We weren't quite sure why, but as we knew we were going to be blocked in while the festival went on and it was incredibly noisy, in the end we decided we should move to another car park just outside the central area. We parked up with Simon in a car park next to an amusement park and while we were having breakfast coaches were turning up depositing tourists for their day tour of the city. One of the coach drivers gave us a fridge magnet of the Uzbekistan flag which we displayed on our door.
It was the first day of the festival and as we walked into the centre there were groups singing, playing music and dancing on every corner. We wandered around the old historic centre soaking up the atmosphere. We bought ourselves a small painting to hopefully join our collection that still needs to be hung at our home in the UK - our joint birthday present to each other.
In the evening Simon joined us for a beer and dinner in the old town. There were individual tents for the different nations taking part in the festival who were generally displaying jewellery and artifacts from their countries. In the evening we found the GB tent was empty - Simon said he'd popped his head in earlier and found out the small contingent were from Slough. The fairground was in full flow when we returned to the vehicles, but we needed an early night as we had a very early start the following day to catch a train to the next Silk Road gem of Khiva.
Khiva is around 450km East of Bukhara, and it is another highlight to visit in Uzbekistan. Train travel is very cheap in Uzbekistan, so we decided to leave Lolly parked up in Bukhara and catch a train to Khiva (2 return tickets around £40), have a night in a hotel and return by train the following day. Our train was at 7.30 am, and Simon, who was moving on, very kindly gave us a lift to the station that was surprisingly far from the historic centre. Although it was daytime, the whole train was a sleeper train. We only just made it onto the train and one of the guards offered us an 'upgrade' to a private compartment. We soon cottoned on that it was his compartment and he wanted some cash in hand for it - we declined as it was incredibly stuffy We had only been able to get 3rd class seats/beds, but the train was clean and comfortable. Everyone got a pack of clean bed linen and a towel. There was a group of young Uzbek children opposite and I worried they'd make a nuisance of themselves, but I couldn't have been more wrong. They took a pew on the end of my bed for a bit, but they were always mindful not to make too much noise. Even more impressive was how they folded away all their bedding when they left the train at the stop before Khiva without any prompting from adults - we couldn't imagine many children their age doing this in the UK.
It was a 6 hour train journey and when we arrived in Khiva we caught a taxi to the old town which was a much shorter journey than in Bukhara. We’d read the taxi drivers would be likely to overcharge us, so when the first one offered us a price that was less than half that we were expecting we jumped at it. Our hotel was within the walled old town and looked very new and clean.
We had a walking tour booked later in the afternoon, so we had a stroll into the heart of the old town first. Khiva is a fantastically well preserved walled city, with stunning architecture - tiled madrasas, minarets, mosques and palaces, but it had a very different feel to Bukhara. The walled city is much more compact than Bukhara, but has just as much atmosphere.
A bit of a sandstorm blew in just before we started our tour, so the air was quite hazy. We met our guide just outside the city walls and found it was just the two of us on the tour which took us around all the main sites. We were encouraged to try on the regional head gear which was a bit too warm when the weather was more than 30 degrees C. I think Colin liked his Boris Johnson look though.
After the tour we tried to get a table at a popular rooftop restaurant, but it was fully booked, but they let us have a table for half an hour to get a cold beer and enjoy the views.
We dined at another touristic restaurant and strolled around the streets again which looked lovely lit up at night.
The following morning we had a walk on the city walls. We thought we could walk right round the walls perimeter, but soon discovered that wasn't possible. The old town was buzzing with groups of students and school children. Our guide had told us the coming week was the last week of term, and it was tradition that the classes come into the old town to visit museums and take photos of each other.
While we were sat taking it all in, a local got chatting to us. When he asked where we were staying and we told him the name of our hotel, he said 'oh - I think my friend told me he'd taken you there in his taxi yesterday and you paid him 40 som (£2.50). I could take you back to the station for that price this afternoon'. Well we clearly had been ripped off after all if it was local news!
Our train back to Bukhara was at around 4pm. We felt the 24 hours we'd had there were enough to see the sites and absorb it. The guy we chatted to did pick us up with another mate. The train wasn’t quite so full as the outbound journey, but it was a stiflingly hot 6 hour journey. Back in Bukhara Colin had to barter hard to get a sensible price for the taxi back to Lolly - the taxi driver said ‘ you are not English - you must be Uzbek’ to him. The town was still rammed with festival visitors when we got there so it was another noisy night.
Our next destination is the third jewel in Uzbekistan's Silk Road cities - Samarkand.
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