Another few days in Uzbekistan. So much to see!

Shahrisabz

More architecture

More goofiness

And more rules.

Meals continued to be an adventure. It’s not that hard to be a vegetarian in Uzbekistan, but it’s not common, and you need to pick your restaurants with that in mind. We generally did not pick our restaurants with that in mind. Fortunately I’m only vegetarian-ish these days.

I ordered a lot of weird things, like “CMAK”. It’s sometimes a cheesy eggy snack, and sometimes a pile of meat. Compare and contrast this menu picture with what I was served in Shahrisabz:

I’ve honestly really enjoyed the food, and I got more adventurous as the trip continued. Our driver Bakhti insisted that the plov we ate later in Margilan wasn’t the quality you’d get in Bukhara, but I thought it was pretty good.

Samarkand

More architecture, some from the top of another minaret

And more markets.

I’d been trying to find a voltage converter in various markets during the trip, and Cherf wandered into one of the stalls in Samarkand while I was trying to get the idea across to a bemused shopkeeper. It turned out they both knew Russian, and once he understood what we were looking for he told us to wait and rushed off into the market. He came back empty-handed ten minutes later, but I appreciated the effort and the experience.

I had my first real haggling experience with this gentleman

and Bee said he would have gone lower, but I was pretty pleased with how well I did.

Finally, here’s our Samarkand album cover shot – that’s one of our local guides on the right.

Margilan

We took the high-speed train from Samarkand to Tashkent, and then drove to Margilan the next day.

The Fergana Valley had a different feel to it, more conservative and less touristy. We’d also hit Ramadan by then, which limited our dining options; our ad-hoc dinners were pretty good under the circumstances.

I’ll leave it at that for now – I’m on an 8 hour flight and it’s a sunny 11 pm; I need to stop thinking for a while. It’s been a great trip and I’m looking forward to being home.