On day 3 of our Uzbekistan tour, we had breakfast on the rooftop terrace of our hotel. There were sausages, eggs, pre-made omelettes, bread with honey, cheese, milk and other goodies. There’s never a shortage of meat or bread for breakfast!
We left Tashkent at 6:30 am and went by bus through the Uzbek mountains towards Samarkand. The roads were so bumpy that my Fitbit congratulated me on hitting 8,000 steps just 1 hour after leaving Tashkent.
Our bus drove through the mountains and on the right side ran a river that was mostly dry at this time of the year. Our guide in Tashkent told us that we would be taking the same ancient silk road as many had taken thousands of years ago.
It also made me think of The Journey to the West which is a Chinese novel based on the pilgrimage of Xuanzang. Xuanzang was a monk who traveled to Central Asia and China to obtain Buddhist texts to bring back to China. The fictional novel itself is about a Monk who does the same but is protected by three disciples - the Monkey King, Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing. On their journey west, they encounter all sorts of demons and challenges. The Monkey King has special powers to help protect them. There have been very famous movies, tv series and comics based on the Journey to the West. Xuanzang reportedly passed through Tashkent and crossed the desert to Samarkand. It was impressive to think that there was so much history between these mountains and how people would have passed through them by horse or camel.
It took about 4 hours to get to Samarkand. We went to a Madrasa, then lunch, then an Observatory.
Unfortunately, our guide in Samarkand didn’t speak any English (but he did speak Russian and Italian). We visited the Guri Emir Mausoleum, Registan Square, Observatory of Ulugbek and Mausoleum of Shahi Zinda. I think it was the Mausoleum of Shahi Zinda that was my favourite. It's so worth going upstairs where it is like a mini city with multiple buildings that house many different rooms all very beautiful, uniquely different and ornate.
At the Observatory, there were women selling “special bread”. A ton of the women on the bus bought 2/3 rounds of it. The best way for me to describe the bread (in my ethnocentric way) is that it looked like spanikopita but without the spinach. It was round and flakey like a Phyloo pastry. They said that the bread doesn’t go bad for a month. The rounds were larger than my head!
By the time we got to Registran Square it was getting dark and we couldn’t see all the colours on the buildings. It does light up later in the night though. I would recommend going there before sunset, and again at night.
We had dinner at a hotel (but not our hotel). Our meals at dinner consisted of 3 salads that were already placed on the table. (They should do this in Canada because you’re so hungry by the time you sit down.) There was a soup, steak and mashed potatoes, and a chocolate cake.
We stayed at a hotel outside of the city but it was larger and newer than our first hotel. I would also recommend this hotel if you have access to a vehicle or don't mind taking taxis. At each hotel, they register your passport and give you a small slip of paper. Remember to keep these with you. I read that you might need them when crossing the border out of Uzbekistan (although we weren't asked for them).