Blogs from Bukhara, Uzbekistan, Asia

My latest adventure with Trekkup was a whirlwind weekend tour of Uzbekistan: Silk and Spice weekend. I had been trying to do this popular trip for over a year now (thanks Covid and Saudi!). I was a little mentally exhausted due to my busy busy work schedule, but I needed to do this one. Initially we only had 5 or 6 people sign up in our group; at first, I was bummed because this is supposed to be one of the more popular trips, but then I was a bit relieved - with my mind not exactly in the right place to be uber social. However, a few days before, seven people were added to our group - they were supposed to have been six couples who knew each other but all the husbands backed out ... read more

Riding six hours in a new bullet train from Khiva to near Bukhara was an experience. The cars were new, the wide and comfortable assigned seats were new, but the bathroom in car #2 was as smelly as any poorly kept outhouse. Our tour director, Anait, cleverly circumvented part of the potential problem of boredom leading to complaints by offering us "morning coffee": paper coffee cups filled with vodka and juice, heavy on the vodka. It certainly mellowed people, and predictably led to many of us falling asleep for a long morning's nap. Still, a few of us were ready to deboard much earlier than the train trip's end. Watching the desert as we rode along was the first time I felt we were in Silk Road countries; that train route truly follows the Great Silk ... read more

Our shared taxi driver arrived promptly at 9am. He didn't speak English. Emma now had a few sentences in Uzbek but it made for a quiet journey to Urgench. We're always asked if we speak Russian when people realise we don't speak Uzbek, after that they might ask if we speak German. Basic English is only really spoken in the main tourist centres. Lots of vehicles run on gas here – including buses which often have a series of gas bottles on the roof - so our first stop was the gas station. All passengers have to get out of the vehicle outside of the station and only drivers can go in, we presume that's because it's deemed dangerous. Gas vehicles have a sticker in the rear window to warn other drivers they are a bomb ... read more

Hello from South Africa! Oups, I'm sorry, I'm still blogging about early August....in Uzbekistan! No diving today, but we had an amazing number of hammerheads over the week-end....blog coming...on day! After small size Khiva, here I am in Bukhara. Good news, the old city is also pretty much manageable on foot. Took me most of the day to get taxi from Khiva to Bukhara. There was not wait to go to Urgench, but than I wasted a good 2 hours before we finally left for Bukhara. It's close to 500km, and it took us close to 7 hours, with a nice little lunch stop in the middle. Not a lot to write on the drive, beside that fact that this is a pretty dry place! In Bukhara, I stay at the Amulet hotel. Had to negotiate ... read more

In the wake of the successful 2014 trip to 2 'stans, namely Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, another 'stan was on the cards, this time in the shape of Uzbekistan. A flight from Tashkent's domestic terminal to Bukhara's (only) terminal kicked off the first leg of the journey, and the first glimpse of the city made it pretty clear that this was the essence of the Silk Road of traditional times, which has barely been altered by the onslaught of modernization. Lunch at a local chaikhana (canteen) was quickly followed up by a flash tour of three attractions on the city's outskirts which typify the traditional and grand nature of Uzbek architecture and style. Throw in a local market with bargain-basement prices for good measure, and it all served to make the already-evident charms of the Emir's palace ... read more