Samarkand

The fast train to Samarkand was pretty great. We were initially a bit leery of what economy class on the train would be like, but we had enough bum- and leg- room, there was hot water and instant coffee, and they even gave out free snacks! The only thing tight was the luggage space, but because we boarded early, we got our cases in.

The train zoomed through the stretch of Tashkent suburbia and then out into fields, hills, villages, and eventually into Samarkand less than three hours later.

We met our new local guide, N, at the train station, and she swept us into a dizzying historical tour of the city, where I sated my craving for blue tiled mosaics. They were glorious!

We started with the mausoleum of our pal Temur. The vision of the great noble hero introduced by our Tashkent guide was given a bit more nuance here, where we found out that he started out as an illiterate mercenary and through a bunch of invasions and strategic marriages, he became a king who did some good things for the area, like giving women a bit more freedom and power, even though they were still used as political pawns.

Then it was on to another of the jewels in the tourism crown of Samarkand – Registan Square. Huge, imposing facades housing internal courtyards which are now a collection of tourist shops. Even the mosque (not in regular use anymore and now turned mostly into a museum) had stalls of souvenirs amongst the exhibits, making it tricky to work out what was an historic artefact and what was tourist tat! We also kept tripping over instagrammers posing for their glamour shots in pseudo- traditional garb with additional ten metres of train blocking the doorways.

Nevertheless the numbers of tourists weren’t nearly as many as we’re used to in Europe or South East Asia, and we managed to find a few quiet corners to take our own ‘glamour’ shots with the blue tiles.

Our next visit was another restored mosque, this one supposedly built for Temur by his wife while he was off fighting somewhere. The story goes that she tried to hurry the artisans along but the head tile glazer had the hots for her and said he’d only hurry it along if she’d kiss him. Needless to say, that went down a treat!

We popped into the Siab Bazaar next door and had a browse of the sweets, greens, groceries and souvenirs, but we weren’t keen to buy anything and headed to the last stop for the day, the necropolis. So much gorgeous blue mosaic!

Our second day in Samarkand involved a little less mosaic, instead starting with handcrafts at a water-powered handcrafts village. We watched a demonstration of traditional mulberry paper making, then linseed oil milling, saw a grain mill, and then headed to the ceramics workshop to have a quick pottery demo. I was excited to have a go with the kick-wheel they had there, but it had been converted to electric. Our teacher showed us how to make a little bud vase, with varying results! We then hit the gift shop and bought a couple of smaller plov bowls as souvenirs.

Our next stop was the observatory, then the coffin of the prophet Daniel, which has a 600 year old pistachio tree growing next to the mausoleum, and a blessed spring at the bottom of the hill. The final stop of the tour was at the Afrasiab museum where we saw artefacts of the excavations in Samarkand, including a set of really old dice… and a souvenir shop squeezed in between the exhibits, of course.

Then on to a very late lunch at the huge Samarkand Restaurant, which has multiple dining halls and a big courtyard full of tables. The food was good – we had grilled skewers again, and a pot of delicious strawberry tea.

The rest of the day was quiet, with a bit of laundry and a rest.

Our final day in Samarkand was also pretty chilled, starting with a wander around the neighbourhood. We checked out a mall full of phone shops, saw a random chicken hiding under a car on the Main Street, wandered through the Central Park, then headed up past the stadium and a closed water park with a giant pomegranate in the middle, to another tiny mall. We stopped at the supermarket where I finally found a Coke Zero (interestingly, this country has barely any diet soft drink, only the sugary stuff, even in the supermarket!) and then stopped at a patisserie called Chocolate so R could try a pastry. I was also very happy to see some local kitty cats.

On the way back to the hotel we got a message from the tour company to say that our wine tasting had been rescheduled so we had time for a nap beforehand.

We tried ten different Uzbek wines, liqueurs and spirits. The lighter wines weren’t really to my taste, but the heavier and sweeter ones were better, although the ‘cognac’ and balsam were pretty strong! I ended up buying a bottle of the late harvest red that tasted like a fortified wine. Apparently the winery hasn’t been able to produce it for more than a decade because climate change has brought the temps up and the grapes don’t freeze anymore. We’ll see if it gets home safe and sound!

Our last stop for the day was supposed to be a cooking class, but ended up being a meal at home restaurant run by a local family which also demonstrated Uzbek folkdance and music. So while we didn’t find out much more about making plov than we had already seen in Tashkent, at least we got to see some dance. They also didn’t get the memo from the tour company about needing GF food, so I couldn’t try half of the foods on the table. Thank goodness plov is GF!

Next up we’re back on the high speed train to Bukhara.