May 2024
If someone had told me, maybe five years ago, that Uzbekistan would be on my list and I would actually go, I don’t think I’d have believed them. I may even have been ignorant enough to not properly know where it is.
My in-laws were the first people that brought it to our minds as they went in about the early 2000s. I suspect they were quite a rare site, two British visitors in this part of the world.
Because it is a part of the world we were a little unfamiliar with, we wanted to really get to know the place, so we booked our trip with Intrepid which gave us ten days with a guide being taken to the main cultural parts of the country; Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva.
I had crazy romantic connotations of Samarkand, with it being shrouded in ancient history and beautiful architecture, but sometimes when you set these levels, you end up being very disappointed. Not so!
The colours in Samarkand were phenomenal, the shades of blue so vast and intense, it was a real feast for the eyes.
Much as I loved this city, I think my favourite was Khiva. Khiva is literally (if you can excuse the cars and the satellite dishes), as it was in biblical times. The city wall is wattle and daub and extensive care has been taken to ensure restoration follows the original and it is phenomenal. We even got the chance to stay in an old Madrasa. It just filled me with utter awe.
We travelled by highspeed train between Tashkent and Samarkand, taking a mere 4 hours (Uzbekistan is huge!), we then used a coach for the remainder of the trip which was very bouncy, hot and long, particularly through the Kyzyl-Kum desert. But again, there was a cool sense of ‘adventure’ and being somewhere a bit off the beaten track in a van in the desert. There is also a surreal reminder here that this was under the occupation of the Soviet Union for many years with deserted train carriages or trucks left to the mercy of the wind and scorching sun.
I would highly recommend this country and other stans to anyone. Tashkent was so clean, so beautiful and lots of variety of food, so not just Plov, albeit a good Plov is delicious. The country will soon have highspeed rail from Tashkent to Khiva making it a really easy way to independently travel, however, do it soon. Once people realise how incredible this place is, it will change and perhaps not completely for the better.
