Uzbekistan, one of the best trips of my life. A country out of the ordinary, one of those that make you enjoy your physical and mental freedom. Landscapes steppe deserts, bright blue and sand, the elegance of the majolica in the domes of the Registan that clashes with the Russian architecture that reigns supreme in the streets, in the immense avenues, in the parks. Which makes everything flat but only apparently. This was the strongest sensation I had in Central Asia, everything seemed flat, linear, gray.
Life does not throw itself on you as it happens in India, it does not violate you with its colors or smells, people are discreet and mild but they are very curious and want to know everything about you.
Indeed, I will be more precise: for three women alone as we were, the usual questions were:
"Where are you from?""Are you married?""Do you have children?”” Do they make you travel alone?"
And so, after this little theater that we were now fond of, the people have become the flagship of this journey made of meetings and real contacts; talk to them, go to the hairdresser, get your hair cut (I did) or get your Uzbek eyebrows - yes, because in this country only married women, with the exception of tourists, can pluck your eyebrows! And so it is, that in a moment, the word spreads that three foreigners are in the shop and all the women of the neighborhood run and without knowing how, you spend three hours among the most beautiful of your life, chasing from the hairdresser in a mix of Italian-Russian-English-tajiko and absurd gestures, laughing a lot.
But now we come to us. Our tour did not deviate much from the classics Turistic itineraries, also because the most important cities are the same.
We got to Tashkent with a Turkish Airlines flight, with a comfortable stopover in Istanbul and there our driver from the Advantour agency was there to welcome us, as I had mentioned in the post Uzbekistan, do it yourself itinerary; punctual, polite, spoke good English. He handed us the train tickets and the invoice. We paid for it in cash. I therefore confirm that everything was respected and the agency was absolutely efficient: to be taken into consideration for a trip to Central Asia.
About the money, I haven't seen many ATMs, however, we had no problem exchanging both dollars and euros in hotels or at official exchanges. Many will propose less official exchange rates, especially in the markets. To you the choice.
A Samarkand we slept for two nights at Ideal Hotel (150 euros the triple with breakfast for two nights) in a duplex room with one bathroom only, clean, very hot with refrigerator and air conditioner, free wi-fi, abundant buffet breakfast, both sweet and savory, eggs, rice, meat, fruit, bread, yogurt and honey. Hot drinks of your choice.
If you just arrive you are interested in buying one sim for your phone, be aware that as a tourist you cannot do this, but the hotel staff offers to do it for you for a small surcharge. However, we are talking about a few dollars and then you can easily top up your mobile all over the country. There are many small shops where they do this.
If you don't like walking, look for a hotel closer to the Registan, where all the madrassas and the bazaar are concentrated: the tourist area par excellence. From the Ideal you take a nice 30 minute walk.
In the morning we left on foot and in the evening we used the taxi. obviously you have to bargain; if you can learn a few words of Russian before you leave this will help you. English is absolutely not widespread except among some employees of hotels or local agencies and some taxi drivers could not take us to our destination even with the map in front.
Two days in Samarkand are enough, the Rajasthan complex can be easily visited in one day. Find the ticket offices at the entrance to each site and the cost for the camera it is always apart.
The Registan is the heart of the city, considered the commercial center of medieval Samarkand; I highly recommend the Bibi Khanym Mosque, considered one of the largest mosques in the Islamic world and the Shahi-Zinda, the most impressive monument in Samarkand.
If you want to take it easy the next day, you can take a tour of the agricultural market of Siab, where they mainly sell food, bread, lots of bread, very good, decorated. You will see this everywhere and you will eat it with every meal. And then lots of sweets, dried fruit and meat. Compared to Southeast Asia, here i markets are immaculate and sorted.
From Samarkand we took a train that took us to our second stop in three hours: Bukhara. Many recommend staying at least 3 days because it is considered one of the most beautiful cities and I agree with this tip. If I have to be objective and you have a few days, like a week to do the tour with internal flights, in two days you will certainly see the historic center. Three days are more relaxing and you will have more time to immerse yourself in the local culture.
In Uzbekistan the stations are militarized, safe, clean: you cannot enter without a ticket. Everything is fully functional and efficient. We had taken second-class tickets and, as soon as we got on, a railway employee tried to get paid extra in dollars by taking us to first class and continuing to tell us the only word he knew in English "luxury, luxury" pointing to us with insistence the first-class cabin. Be firm and refuse with kindness. Do not miss the experience of local informality in second class and the thrill of being the stars of the carriage for three hours! Also on this occasion, everyone wanted to know where we were from and we gave big smiles but we received just as many. It felt like a party! Even a lady brought her daughter to us because she absolutely wanted to introduce her.
The seats are comfortable and spacious and on board the train there is a bar. The railway employee passes by to distribute free fruit juice and sweets to all passengers.
Once we arrived, the driver sent by the hotel booked from Italy was there to welcome us and I can say with absolute certainty that the one in Bukhara was the most beautiful hotel of this trip.
Boutique Hotel Minzifa (187 euros triple room with breakfast for three nights) The beauty of Minzifa is that when you arrive you simply see a door, the kind that when you open you remain with your mouth open and you can only say "Wow how wonderful!". It is located in the old town, just 15 minutes from the most important monuments. We have always moved on foot, day and night, with extreme tranquility and I want to emphasize that we have never felt a sense of danger. This applies throughout the trip.
The interior of the hotel opens onto a courtyard onto which the rooms overlook. It has been completely decorated with traditional motifs making everything very elegant, both the courtyard and the colorful and spotless rooms. In the courtyard there are two tables with benches where you can sit and relax with a drink. The staff at the reception (open 24 hours a day) is very kind, helpful and speaks excellent English. Breakfast is served at the time you want (they are flexible): cucumbers, tomatoes and cheeses, juice, hot drink of your choice and every morning a different hot treat: pancakes, rice or apple fritters. All very good. There is no buffet but the staff is ready to offer you an encore of whatever you want. In the morning you will find your table ready.
During the three days spent in Bukhara we visited the Registan square: the mausoleum of Ismail Samani e Mazar Chashma Ayub the sacred place of the healing spring, Poi-Kalyan with the beautiful minaret and the Lyabi- Khauz complex. Everything will leave you speechless for the cheeky beauty and the blue domes of the mosques that blend with the blue of the sky: being with your nose up will be inevitable.
We also granted ourselves thehammam, booked directly by the hotel staff: the Bozori Kord Hammam, one of the oldest in Central Asia. It is worth going there just for the magnificence of the structure inside. Two nice ladies (with whom we communicated only by gestures) after having washed, rubbed and massaged with one ginger scrub, they will offer you both hot tea and a towel and you can stop as long as you want to relax, perhaps after spending a day among monuments and bazaars! Cost per person: dollars 25 to have a silky skin!
Last noteworthy thing about the Minzifa Hotel is that they have a valid travel agency inside.
Ask directly at the reception and they will be able to organize every move within the country. At this point of the trip we had the last 3 days off, so we had nothing planned except the internal flight back to Tashkent directly from Bukhara.
Actually, if your intention is to take a classic tour, I don't recommend making this choice as if you want to visit Khiva, it would be better to book the return flight to the capital from Urgench, saving you the km (albeit exciting landscape) that we made.
We therefore decide to leave for the Yurt Camp and then visit Khiva. Cost $ 140 each for a 1000 km round trip by car from Bukhara with driver and overnight stay in a yurt with three meals. Khiva hotel not included; we found us a small hotel without infamy or glory, perfect for the potion, a few meters from the old city walls, clean, with wifi and breakfast included, friendly staff. Old Khiva Hotel (triple with breakfast $ 60).
Khiva is often visited within a day. To enter it is necessary buy the ticket as soon as you arrive at the old city: we did it for two days and almost all the monuments are included with the exception of a few mosques.
If you can, stop one night and do as we do: wait for most of the tourists to leave and for the thousand stalls and shops to be closed. Only then will you be able to realize that you are really walking in an open-air museum: the Ichan Khala, the inner city, declared UNESCO heritage. Among the cities of the Silk Road, Khiva is the one that has the most intact historical center but it is also the most touristic.
Lose yourself walking among the Kalta Minor minaret (a riot of turquoise tiles), the fortress of Kunya Ark (residence of the rulers of the city with the stables, the arsenal, the hammam and the mosque), the Amin Khan Madrasa and, not to be missed, the superlative Juma Mosque with its 218 wooden columns (also known as the Friday Mosque). Everything seemed surreal to me, in a thousand and one nights atmosphere.
It deserves a separate note Yurt Camp, we have chosen that of Ayaz-Kala, in the western region of Karakalpakistan.
Il starry sky by Ayaz Kale I still dream of it at night.
Our trip has almost come to an end, after the 3 days of excursion, we return to Bukhara with our driver, the trusty Ismael, taking the same road and greeting the desert with much melancholy. A Uzbekistan Airlines flight takes us back to Tashkent where we spend only a few hours before taking the international flight that takes us back to Turin.
I still feel Uzbekistan, but I start thinking about my next trip so as not to get too sick of melancholy.
