Hotel Zarina Samarkand

... mainly as shops. Guess it&#8217;s not so strange to turn them into shops as the Registran Square was a large trading place in its heyday. I think that you will have to go to my flickr sight to see the photos of this place as it&#8217;s going to be hard to describe it all but I haven&#8217;t been able to upload any yet so wait awhile then you can see it all.<br><br> But here&#8217;s a shot at some explanation of the ...

... of life design for a customer which was almost done but had taken 1 ½ years. I didn&#8217;t ask how much it was and wish I had. They also did one of somebody&#8217;s dog.<br><br> After talking with the ladies and many photographs, we went downstairs to the showrooms and they pulled out carpet after carpet and flipped them onto the floor. Red is the most common color but my friend was looking for NOT ...

... local people there today but it is Sunday and they have the day off and can do this.<br><br> The last mosque was not being used itself and you can tell it is a working mosque because it had the green carpet on the floor. Apparently here all working mosques will have a green carpet for the men to pray and it is usually rolled up when it is not a time to pray. Green is the color of paradise. Also to get into this part ...

20 hours on a train, Tashkent to Urgench, October 12-13, 2009<br><br> Ok, maybe I am exaggerating, not really the longest journey but by far the longest one we will have on this trip and I think it was actually only 19 hours. We boarded a train last night in Tashkent with the purpose of going all the way to Urgench which is 1100 kilometers from Tashkent. In older times ...

... and Uzbekistan, who are experienced with truck life. It is only two weeks we remind ourselves as the bleaters start complaining about the overcrowding. I think a normal tour for these guys would have been a lot better. It certainly would have been better for the truckies.<br><br>There is one major bonus with a crowded truck. With more people we get more cooking and cleanup teams so we should be able to have some time to relax each day as the tasks are shared. Mixing the personalities will ...

... it is more beautiful than I ever imagined&#8221;. The city was once the capital of the powerful state of the Sogdians and then to numerous other empires, including the Samarid, Qarakhanid and Shaybanids. Later it became the centre of Tamerlame&#8217;s great empire. And the mighty Tamerlame is very much the ancient face of this city today. <br><br>In Samarkand Alan and I became truly addicted to the amazing history of Tamerlame and his grandson the gifted Ulugbek, the descendent ruler ...

... of our English and Israeli friends who were part of the bus tours. Unlike a German bus tour group we met in Khiva, they were very happy with their tours and a pleasant group to be with. At this stage we were beginning to think more about our coming trip to Pakistan. There were awful reports on the television about more bombings by the Taliban, the Pakistan government&#8217;s attempts to purge the insurgents and the evacuation of 1.5 million people from ...

... thought it was funny. The car ride to Shakhrisabz (a town with more blue domes) was great for the fact I got to drive through a mountain pass at 3000m, see some green on trees and get to witness some traditional uzbek villages in action - it seemed moving the cows was what was happening that day. And lastly i have to saw hello to the three crazy Irish bikers heading to the Olympics ...

Uzbek Story: It's Like That, Life At dusk, I exited the Sobir Rakhimov Metro to look for a shared ride to Samarkand: this was the place to get that ride. One man came up to me, asked if I needed a ride, then said to his buddies in Russian: "he's a foreigner, let's rip him off." "How much?" I asked. He quoted a price five times more expensive than usual; I laughed. Another man came over: "Can I ...

Hello Everyone! A lot have happened since the last time I wrote. To begin with, we celebrated Women's Day on March 8th. On that day, women receive presents from friends and family. Most families seem to exchange flowers and the women still get to cook and stuff. Not in my family!! We received many presents and the men cooked dinner (shashlik) and cleaned up afterwards! I received two scarves, a fan made out of atlas material for this ...