October 3- October 13, 2022. Central Asia, the stans. I admit that for a long time this was a blank space in my head. You have Europe and Asia with the Middle East below. Uzbekistan is in this space. Part of the old Silk Road, the crossroads between east and west. Goods and ideas have passed through for millennia.

So why Uzbekistan? I watched a travel series about Uzbekistan by the Vagabrothers and was hooked. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiJVQZmLaHE) It looked beautiful, remote and somewhere to visit before crowds of tourists arrived. Since visiting, my mind has changed a bit. Yes, it is beautiful and far away for Americans, but the infrastructure is so good. It really isn’t that remote. Tashkent is a clean and modern city, there are large boulevards and green city parks, and the sidewalks are covered with cafes. It just felt nice. I was expecting something rougher.

My organized tour with Intrepid Travel started on the evening of October 5. I arrived two days early and stayed in a hostel in Tashkent, the capital city. The most interesting part for me was interacting with some of the men fleeing Russia. The draft was forcing men to leave first then have their families follow. Tashkent was absolutely full of them. At my hostel during breakfast we had conversations about the reality of life in Russia. A man I talked to opposed the war and went to a protest but it was suppressed by the police. He was trying to find a safe place to live before his pregnant wife was grounded (many airlines won’t let you fly after 32-36wks pregnant). The discussion really humanized the war for me.

Our first stop of the tour was Bukhara. It’s been a city for over 2,000 years. It mixes medieval with Islamic education. Genghis Khan conquered it in 1220. Temur, Uzbekistan’s hero, conquered it in 1370. Bukhara then became a royal city. I loved this town. Much of the old town has been preserved. In one square, you can see a caravanserai, a bathhouse, and a combined mosque and synagogue. A caravanserai is a roadside inn with a large courtyard that allowed caravans to rest overnight on their journey across Central Asia. Since Bukhara was an education center, there are lots of madrasas (Islamic schools that taught math, sciences and humanities as well as religion). It’s a beautiful town and I can imagine arriving with a camel caravan in the medieval period. My favorite part was visiting the 16th century women’s hamman. It still functions as a traditional bathhouse. I got scrubbed and polished just like a wealthy woman would have experienced in steamy, warm caverns underground.

Then we headed into the desert. We spent a night in a nomad camp. We rode camels in the desert, slept in traditional yurts, sang songs around a camp fire, stargazed, and just enjoyed the wildness of the camp.

We left the nomad camp for a home stay in the mountains. The mountains were still arid and dry but occasionally springs popped up and turned the valley into an oasis.

The final city we explored was Samarkand. This is the well known Silk Road city. It became powerful after Bukhara did. The Timur dynasty picked Samarkand to be the capital. This led the city to become a center for scholarship and arts. The mausoleums and mosques are spectacular and covered with blue and gold mosaics.

The whole tour got sick while we were in Samarkand. My guess is contaminated water and food at the home stay. Thankfully, I wasn’t as sick as most people! Maybe my body is building some resistance after the multiple bouts of food poisoning this year?

Traveling through Uzbekistan was a wonderful experience. I especially enjoyed seeing a secular Muslim majority country. Most people spoke Uzbek and Russian so having a tour guide was helpful. This was another trip organized by Intrepid Travel (https://www.intrepidtravel.com/us/uzbekistan/uzbekistan-adventure-126377). The people along the way really made the trip. I lucked out again with a wonderful roommate from the UK. The mix of ages in the group was really nice and led to engaging discussion about politics, religion, family structures, and life goals. With small group trips, normal societal barriers are removed and people become open in sharing their beliefs.