Uzbekistan has a lot to live up to - Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva; just hearing the names of its cities conjures up such strong images of the Silk Road, of traders from India, Persia and China all mingling and bartering goods, of Alexander the Great capturing the Sogdian Empire, of Genghis Khan raising the cities and of Timur's near mythical rebuilding of Samarkand to be his capital. Its all so exotic in my imagination. Luckily I liked Uzbekistan the second we crossed the border. It has a wonderful lived in feeling and is such a contrast to the almost sterile white marbled Turkmenistan. Neat brick built, mud rendered, white painted houses line the road. The front gardens are all neatly tended vegetable patches with structures for growing vines. For sure it is much poorer than Turkmenistan, there
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