A Big World Out There

So, back in Tashkent after an amazing tour. I can't quite believe that it's actually time to come home. It's an incredible country with the friendliest most hospitable citizens I've ever met, and so many layers to discover. Now I'm home, there are a million things I could write about Uzbekistan (that I won't because it would bore you). Here's a few though. The country truly is like nowhere you've ever seen. The people are incredibly friendly, beyond anywhere I've been before. You're a guest in their country and they're isn't enough they can do to make sure you're happy and safe (except speak much English!). The depth of history is astounding, going back to the "Dark Ages" of European history in buildings, temples, books and art. It's a secular Islamic society: alcohol is served, clothing ranges from traditional robes to modern Western but reasonably modest. From deserts of the West and south, to the mountains, to the ...

The Registan in Samarkand. Sometimes referred to as the Eighth Wonder of the World. It doesn't really need any more description than that. The Registan at night deserved its own recognition. It was even worth the front seat ride in a Samarkand taxi. More Samarkand - some places very crowded with school trips, full of polite teenagers very keen to take selfies with the funny looking foreigners "you on Instagram, yes?". Also an encounter with one of the many gas powered cars in the country, don't think too closely about the consequences of a rear end Collision. A little bit of blackmarket currency trading as well, via the bus driver, guide and a man on a street corner... Dinner last night was in a beautiful restaurant overlooking the Bibi Khanum Mosque. The other 60 guests were the Samarkand WI on an iftar night out...there was a lot of dancing and singing. I got to sit down for about 10 seconds before my new best friend decided I should join them, and there was n...

  Imagine... The year is 1403. You're the ambassador of the King of Spain heading to the court of Amir Timur, ruler of much of Western and central Asia, one of the greatest military tactician and conquerors in recorded history. Your journey has taken many months, the last few of them over hundreds of miles of unending desert and scrubland. Finally ahead of you, rising up from the sand, you see the thick red mud walls of a fortified city. The gates are opened to you, to the sight of the great White Palace of Timur, 50 metres high, with a soaring archway between two towers, minarets another 20 metres higher still, and fountains that fall from upper to lower storey then down to three pools tiled in blue and gold. Are you dreaming?

Today I could talk about the monuments and trading halls of Bukhara, situated on the crossroads of the Silk Road - North to Russia, East to China, South to India, West to Constantinople and Europe. Or about the well where two thousand women and children were slaughtered by Genghis Khan on his sweep across Asia. Or haggling for silks in the bazaar. But this afternoon we went to a very strange basement room for a tea ceremony. Accompanied by a parade of very beautiful young women in amazing clothes, overseen by a fierce matriarch and the most random decor of high bling mannequins, kitsch temporary, antiques, paintings of semi or fully naked women and a life size model of Genghis himself. It was....not your average Wednesday. Still in Bukhara, the next day was museums and mausoleum, parks and palaces, peacocks and swans. Lots of climbing steps to high places on the hottest day so far. A unique mosque with four towers (there is a grander pair in India) and a memorial building built i...