Blogs from Uzbekistan, Asia - page 8

Yesterday we took a 2 hour tour of Tashkent. As you can see, Tashkent is more than 2000 years old, but it holds beautiful, new monuments and many parks. During yesterday's tour, we got to see the modern part of Tashkent, including Hotel Uzbekistan and the statue of Amir Temur in Independence Square, the Museum of Victims of Political Repression, and the Minor Mosque.... read more

beautiful samarkand... read more

I left Samarkand bound for Sentyab, a small village at the Nuratau Mountains. I sought information on the internet because I wanted to experience some Uzbek countryside too. Getting there wasn’t very simple. Luckily I had an Uzbek sim-card and I was able to keep in touch with the people of nuratau.com, the organization I arranged a homestay in Sentyab with. First I had to take a taxi to the place where shared taxis leave Samarkand to different cities and towns. You’ll wait until the shared taxi fills up and then it leaves. The drive took about an hour and I was dropped off in Jizzakh, from there I had to take another shared taxi to a village called Yangikishlok. I thought those taxis leave from that exact same point where I was dropped off, but ... read more

The Republic of Uzbekistan is a Central Asian country surrounded by five others namely Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. While the majority of its economy is focused on producing commodities such as natural gas, its government has slowly paved the way for the country’s expansion in the tourism industry. Because many of the cities in Uzbekistan were part of the Silk Road route, the country has become rich in terms of cultural and historical treasures that have been well-preserved. Thus, despite the unforgiving desert climate, Uzbekistan still draws a plethora of tourists every month. Below are among the top three places that we loved in the country when we travelled there with James from Silk Road Tours : Tashkent This city is the modern gateway into the country. Unfortu... read more

On the train to Tashkent midday October 28, 2014 As we speed towards the capital of Uzbekistan, the scene has changed dramatically not in form, there is still plenty of flat steppe, but in colour. There is snow on the ground and all the vegetation is white with frost. Where are we going? Samarkand was our second Uzbek city and a pattern is emerging, most extreme in Samarkard, where you can see how they have or are sanitising the tourist centres. A lot of the medressas, mausoleums and mosques have been heavily restored and one can see the point of that. What the authorities have also done is remove any remains of normal life away from these areas and in the case of Samarkand try and keep it at bay behind walls. So whilst the Islamic ... read more