Samarkand - Day 1

My Old Silk Road journey starts here. Which i think is a pretty cool starting point. Arrived at 5am, got some local currency at the airport's atm and quickly found a taxi to my hotel and passed out.

Got going again at 1:30pm and immediately to the very nearby Registan right outside my hotel. Walked in and out of the 3 huge impressive madressas. Got directions from a local to the other ancient sites and off i went.

Super hot and sunny but lots of nice parks to walk through along the way too. Stumbled across the massive Bibi khanym mosque. Then the much smaller but pretty Hazrat Hizr mosque with great views of the city. And finished at Shah I Zinda mausleums area, which was easily my favorite. The detailed mosaics covering each building plus the striking blue domes throughout are quite something to witness

After that trek through ancient sites, i needed some food so i just stood next to a crazy busy road and within seconds an unmarked car pulled over and took me to the "russian town" of samarkand where there are lots of restaurants and nightlife. 30 min drive in heavy traffic cost me $2.

5pm seems to be too early here. Many places closed or i was the only one there. Eventually found a newly built beer garden and made that my home for a few hours as i caught up on messages and figuring out some logistics for the next number of days. Nice surprise that they had excellent beer too!

On my walk home found a 24 hour car rental place, so made arrangements for tomorrow for $25 including insurance. Much cheaper than the $75 driver plus guide i was gonna hire. And just before my hotel i found a craft beer place. Nice spot to finish my day. Totally exhausted from the long trip, and so many km of walking today too.Read more