1. Bukhara.
Having seen hardly any tourists earlier, it was
quite a shock to see so many in the otherwise
nice old city centre of Bukhara, maybe induced
by the 3-day Silk&Spices festival.
We stayed in a lovely old house managed by
Mubinjon, a former sprint athlete/coach, and
quite a character on top of that.
2. Butcher shop, Bukhara.
So this is the place where I somehow
formatted my camera picture card and lost
all the Iran, Turkmenistan and some Uzbek
photos: stupid cow!!
 
3. Khiva
Although out of our route, we decided to make
a detour by bus to this mystical desert city.
In former times it was a mighty fortress and home
to ruthless khans, where travellers awaited an
uncertain future after a dangerous and arduous
desert crossing.
The old city has been heavily restored and turned
into an open air museum, with the normal town and
activities surrounding it. The buildings were maybe
interesting enough, but not worthwhile the detour
and high entrance fees, although we stayed at a
pleasant guesthouse and met some nice fellow travellers.
4. Climb to Samarkand.
From Bukhara we took the long way to Samarkand.
First through rolling desert hills, along a
national park with a special kind of antilope,
via the surprisingly pretty and comfortable city
of Qarshi and then over a nice country road with
snow mountains on one side to this rockface that
we climbed on a hot and busy day. A lot of people
on weekend trip hanging around in the many small
teahouses and picnic areas along the way, where
we stopped to eat,rest and refresh ourselves.
  
5. Samarkand.
Another mystical name on the Silk Road.
This city has a quite modern and green center
with some historical sites spread around.
The quality of the monuments was definitively
the finest we have seen, leaving us one day
dazed from all the blue tiles and detailed
masonry. The Bahodir guesthouse was a very
friendly place were backpackers and overlanders
from all countries (with car,bicycle or motorbike)
found a home away from home, sipping green tea
and eating home cooked meals in the quiet courtyard.
6. Tashkent.
We came here by train from Samarkand, since we
intended to handle our visa business asap.
Unfortunately the embassies, regulations,
weather and hotel made it for us a horrible
place. There are however many pleasant modern
and green areas and we had our good moments.
One night we went to see a nice concert in the
opera building where we had very good seats for
2.5USD! And a very nice farewell Korean dinner
together with two fellow victims of the same hotel!
Don't ever stay in the AliTour Hotel unless you
like vodka/beer/boys free of charge, a drunken host
and young Russian hookers with old men in the sauna,
which happened to be part of our room!!
Our second stay in Tashkent was in all aspects the
opposite: the guesthouse was nice, it was hot and
sunny and we managed to arrange ALL our visas!
7. Climb to Ferghana Valley, Angren.
Having stayed the night in a small cabin (total charge
1.5USD incl dinner&breakfast), we started the 60km long
climb to a 2300 high pass in warm, sunny weather.
We descended into the Ferghana Valley in our raingear
and handgloves, but arrived in beautiful weather again,
stayed in another teahouse, before reaching Qocan and
the next day Ferghana, close to the meandering borders
of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
8. Silk factory, Margilan.
Being on the Silk Road, this is of course a must!
It so happens that the city has been around for a
long time, but with few historical buildings remaining.
In this silk factory though the traditional fabrication
techniques have been kept; from boiling the cocoons
to the time consuming carpet handweaving/knotting.
Some of the best quality silk comes from here.
Most interesting was to hear that one 3-4cm cocoon can
produce several hundreds of metres of silk thread!
Not to mention the 300kg/day of mulberrie leaves that
the mature worms eat, making the farming a very
exhausting business!!
9. Kebab.
Always and everywhere the smoke and smell of grilled kebabs.
Pick your choice!!

Let's go: