Our first day’s ride from Bukhara was fairly uneventful, with one exception. I managed to get completely lost, I ignored my navigation and just carried on the main road at a lovely speed with the wind behind me. Blissfully unaware that I had just added an extra 20km to my journey! I eventually caught up with Seb and Ollie, I always leave early because I am slower. Luckily, it was only a short ride after our siesta, the afternoons were getting hot. We found an old caravanserai on the side of a main road with a restaurant opposite.
However, the next day we jointly decided the main road was a terrible place to ride and opted to go North from Navoi to a road south of the Narutau mountains. We were looking for a field with poppies for a picture but the farmer had changed the crop that year! However, Ollie had found Samsa (a round pastry filled with meat and potato usually), and he had to fill his addiction.
Hospitality strikes again
At the same time, a group of children found us and the eldest, a 16-year-old, spoke perfect English with a London accent. Like many teenagers in Uzbekistan, they are pursuing English so they can go to University. However, I have found it is mainly the women who put more effort in. Another local offered us somewhere to stay, the first of several.
Further down the road we found a shop with a seat outside and decided to stop there for lunch. The owner, upon realising I was English, called her daughter to speak to me. It is not the first time the daughter has been called to talk to me. The parents like their children to practice English and a native speaker is an opportunity not to miss. The mother also gifted us a bottle of water, coke, 3 ice creams and some vitamin sweets. Obviously, we looked malnourished!
Our next day’s riding was much the same but with a short break in Kattakurgan to meet a cyclist, Cyprian from Switzerland, going the opposite way. We decided to have lunch together and found out the road to Samarkand is difficult.
The last part of our ride that day was to a pilgrimage site and mosque; however, the road was arduous and took the last out of me. I made the site with light starting to fade, Ollie and Seb were still about 30 minutes behind me. The caretaker of the site offered us a room to stay, I only asked for somewhere to pitch the tents. Whilst making our dinner, the evening prayer was called, and after a local teacher offered us breakfast in the morning at his house.
Samarkand arrival and visa-runs
Samarkand has huge historical significance as one, if not the main, trade city of the Silk Road. It was also the centre of Amir Timur’s empire. Riding into the city was difficult; the traffic was another step up from anywhere else we had been in Uzbekistan. Drivers seemed to not care that you are there and the roads seem to blur into one. We make it in and to our accommodation Tasmin MEXR hostel, rather difficult to find, but has a lovely courtyard and a great location next to the Registan.
With only 2 days left on the clock before I overstay my visa-free allowance, of 30 days; I need to make a visa-run. Ironically there are no visas involved in a visa-run! But I do have to cycle to the local border, approx. 40km away, and leave Uzbekistan into no-man’s land and re-enter to get a new stamp in my passport, along with another 30 days.
The issue was no one is sure if this can be done with Uzbekistan. 30-day visa-free holiday allowance is new for Uzbekistan since the end of the pandemic and no one has tested it. I guess I would be one of the first to give it a try. Before leaving Uzbekistan I made sure I had food in case of a prolonged stay in no-man’s land; I had no visa for Tajikistan so I would need consular assistance if there was an issue.
I checked with a border guard that it was possible and he said yes, but you never know if they truly understand what you are saying. Luckily it all went well, with one exception a guard had wanted me to go through the body scanner and seemed to think I was carrying a lot of money! I had another 30 days and I could continue my journey through Uzbekistan, a country I was beginning to love even more.
Tourism and the stars
The Registan is the standout attraction of Samarkand. Three large madrassahs with their fronts of symmetrical designs facing each other. They represent the main collection point for all tourists in Uzbekistan and also feature a music and light show in the evening. As with many Islamic buildings, you have mosaics across them with occasional Arabic writing, usually a phrase from the Quran or a famous poet.
The Sher Dor madrassah has the most striking of designs, involving lions chasing deer with the Mongolian-faced, Zoroastrian-inspired suns. All three are beautiful from the outside, but on the inside, a lot of the student’s rooms have been devoted to stalls of people selling touristy items. Tilla-Kari had a small cafe but very little place to just sit and take in the courtyard and mosque, it did have a small collection of artefacts, but right next door to someone selling pottery!
Ulugh Bek’s was the one I was interested in most. This madrassah taught over 200 students with the teachings of Ulugh Bek, a Sultan and grandson of Amir Timur. Ulugh Bek was foremost one of the leading astronomers and mathematicians of his time and produced corrected star catalogues after realising many errors correcting for precession. He also built an observatory on the edge of the town. He could not get lenses, so to get more accuracy he built an bigger sextant, 30m in length.
Mausoleums and Mosques
Seb and I set off first for the Shah-I-Zinda necropolis. It’s a beautiful example of the various mosaic styles throughout the ages as the site has grown throughout the centuries. Moving around the twisted complex of mausoleums and even smaller paths is made hard with the number of tourists (go early) but is rewarding with all the mosaics and realising the people buried here come from all walks of life. But were usually related to the royal families or military generals. One exception is the mausoleum of the wet nurse of Amir Timur’s court. A mosque was added to her mausoleum, for women to pray in for increased fertility.
We also visited Amir Timur’s mausoleum, which includes Ulugh Bek’s body as well. The mausoleum stands on the opposite side of the city from the necropolis but is a large complex in itself. The facade has the mosaic style you can find elsewhere in Samarkand but the inside is a step up. Plated in gold leaf combined with the mosaic style found elsewhere it stands out versus other mausoleums.
There are several mosques within Samarkand but the two which stand out are the Hazrat Khizr and the Bibi-Khanym. The first has wooden pillars carved with symmetrical designs and Arabic writing which surround the mosque. It is also the place of burial for the first president of Uzbekistan. The second has been restored but is never-the-less still worth a visit. They have also left parts un-restored so you can see the level of work which was undertaken.