The mini-van we hired picked us up at our hotel in Khiva and whisked us 430 kilometres south to the ancient city of Bukhara.  The journey started off across secondary roads passing through villages and modest agricultural fields but once we crossed the sprawling Amu Darya River the landscape turned to stark, dry and forbidding desert.  Luckily our Russian driver kept the A/C on full blast and the six of us travelled in comfort until we reached the old town in central Bukhara.  And talk about ancient splendour, didn’t it look great!

We dragged our bags through the narrow alleyways of this historic centre and checked into our cute little boutique family-run hotel.  We then turfed it down to the beautiful 16^th century plaza called Lyabi Hauz, centred by an ancient pond called Divan Beghi, which in turn is lined with age-old mulberry trees and features a pretty fountain. Cold beers were enjoyed and another bland dinner was endured in a wonderful peaceful setting. 

Like many cities in this region, Bukhara rose and fell depending on which emirate or khan or king ruled it and which invading raider, tsar or group of Bolsheviks attacked it.  Some ancient buildings stretch back to the 9^th and 10^th centuries but most have been rebuilt and destroyed many times with the most recent iteration of structures sometimes only stretching back 100 years.  Never mind, the place looked great and we were keen to see more of it.

We have fallen into a familiar pattern with these ‘free’ walking tours as a way of getting a good introduction to the cities we visit.  These tours are free to start but of course the guide expects a payment at the end.  Some guides are better than others but of course a good guide makes all the difference.  And luckily the next morning we met Hamza who was our guide for the next three and a half hours.  Hamza turned out to be full of interesting information delivered in a clear manner with perfect (accented) English and we gave him top marks.

We faithfully followed Hamza around the ancient buildings of Bukhara, trying not to let the 34°C (93°F) heat melt us before the morning was over, absorbing all we could about the historic ebb and flow of this famous and fascinating city.

The numerous madrassas, or schools that focused on Islamic teachings, that we visited featured beautifully blue-tiled facades with arched windows and turreted corners, sometimes one khan outdoing a previous khan by building a bigger and better madrassa.  The markets were all lively with various colourful clothes, ornaments, rugs and other stuff that would prove totally useless when you get home.

We looked up at the huge walls of the citadel and wandered through covered food markets.  The atmosphere of the walking streets and the historic buildings was first class, even if their relatively recent renovations made them look a little artificial at times.

My favourite for the day was the 18^th century Bolo-Hauz Mosque with it’s pretty fountain out front, it’s 20 old wooden columns on the front side and beautiful tiled walls on the inside.  All the buildings we visited were outstanding but this one won my prize.

After an afternoon rest period to avoid the worst of the heat we reconvened at the historic plaza for more liquid repast and more of the same for dinner.  While we are not really foodies when we travel we can recognise good food and fun food and different food when we see it.  Unfortunately the Stans of Central Asia don’t seem to feature good, fun or different food. 

We still had a couple of places to check out the next day so started early to beat the heat.  First we weaved our way through some back streets to the photogenic Char Minar, a gatehouse built in 1807 which was part of a now-abolished madrassa. 

We then made our way to the Kalon Mosque, the largest in Central Asia and said to house more than 10,000 worshippers at a time, and again admired their beautiful patterns of blue and green tiles in the large courtyard. 

Finally, we climbed the ramp and entered the Ark, or Citadel, which was originally built in the 5^th century, really a town within a town, sacked by Genghis Khan in the 13th century, home to the ruling Khan right up until the Bolsheviks bombed it in 1920.  We sharpened our elbows to fight off the Italian and Russian tour groups while exploring this huge place. From the Citadel’s walls we gained expansive views over the city, getting a sense of the grandeur of this place a few hundred years ago.

But the heat and the shopping got the best of us and we retreated to more downtime in our hotel, followed by the usual drinks and dinner that evening.  We were like a hand in the well-worn glove of Bukhara, we were getting to know it well and it felt great.

The next day we headed to the Bokhara train station to catch a ‘fast’ train to Samarkand.  I wouldn’t say this was a bullet train of Europe or Maglev of China or Shinkansen of Japan but it was a very cool and efficient fast train which stopped only once before depositing us amongst more bandit taxi drivers in Samarkand.  After the usual argy-bargy we ended up at our hotel on the other side of town.

As always, there’s plenty of time for markets in Bukhara…

The bland, boring and repetitive food of this region had finally done us in so we opted for Indian and found a great restaurant serving food with flavour which was a big win for us.  We then headed into the main square of the old town called Registan which features not one, not two but three ancient madrassas all facing each other and all in their full beautiful glory. 

After buying our ticket and sitting on the steps of one of these wonderful buildings we watched the modest sound and light show where different lights were displayed on the madrassa walls while punchy local music was played.  It was a good introduction to what is probably the cultural and historical highlight of this entire region.

The next morning we met our free walking tour guide Fayoziddin at the Amir Timur Mausoleum.  Timur, also known as Tamerlane, was in some ways the 14^th century equivalent of Genghis Khan from the 13^th century.  He and his army rampaged through modern day Afghanistan, Iran and parts of India and China, creating an enormous empire at the cost of millions of lives but was known for his war tactics and the fact he was never defeated.  His mausoleum is spectacular and was absolutely packed with tourists all following around their guide, just like we were.

Over the course of four hours in wilting heat Fayoziddin took us to the Registan, the main historic square of the town where we saw the sound and light show, and then down to the Bibi-Khanym Mosque, one of the largest and most significant mosques in the world in the 15^th century, through the Central Bazaar and finally to the Hazrat Khizr Mosque which is on the site of the first mosque in Uzbekistan.  In all that’s a whole lot of history to absorb and a wonderful overdose on magnificent blue-tiled Islamic buildings. No doubt about it, Samarkand has the goods.

That evening we found a craft beer pub (yes, really) followed by a slightly upmarket restaurant that served different food than just the standard plov, lagman, kebab or shashlik dinners.  That makes it a really good day.

Luckily we had another day in Samarkand because this sparkling city had much more to offer. The next morning we went back to the Registan and immersed ourselves into what I think is the absolute jewel of this region.  The three madrassas, amongst the world’s oldest, form a grand open area as they look in at each other.  While the oldest dates from the 15^th century and the other two from the 17^th century they all feature magnificent blue mosaics of the most exquisite design, proudly shouting the genius of their creators. 

Julie and I took our time exploring each of these beautiful buildings, including the peaceful inner courtyards where students once studied and today are lined with souvenir shops, and in particular gazed in awe at the magnificent domed gold ceiling of the mosque attached to the Tilla-Kari madrassa.  The whole setting was just stunning, one of the great privileges we’ve had in all our travels. 

Reluctant to be drawn away, but drawn away we must, we walked down through the Central Bazaar again to explore more of it’s vast corners and continued down to the last of our major targets for Samarkand, the Shah-i-Zinda mausoleums.  This cluster of elaborate mausoleums, including that of a cousin of Mohammad the Prophet, featured more beautiful blue domes and stunning terracotta glazed mosaic tiles, giving us a deeper appreciation for these wonderful architects, engineers and artists who operated a thousand years ago.

We finished our time in Samarkand with a last glance at the three imposing madrassas that make up the Registan Square, truly one of the great sites of world travel, followed by a fun dinner in a Turkish restaurant.

I make a couple of final points about our special time in Uzbekistan.  It is clearly the tourist drawcard for the region with Khiva, Bukhara and Samarkand all delivering the goods for anyone who ventures this far from home.  If nothing else, put Uzbekistan on your list. 

But beware: without a Yandex account, the Uzbek equivalent to Uber, you are constantly subjected to the risk of the dishonest taxi drivers.  And Yandex or not you will always be exposed to the very limited and bland food that is featured in this region and the monopoly money which saw us spend more than one million Soms per day and be constantly fidgeting and flustering over 10,000 Soms which is really only A$1.20.  All part of the wonderful fun of any visit to Uzbekistan.