Reaching Bukhara, and Our Western Limit

We’re in Bukhara, a faded (now-restored) outpost of the once-vast Persian civilization, and site of one of the last independent Turkic emirates in Central Asia. This is where we stop, take a good look facing west, and turn around.

Postcards from Samarkand

asalamu-alakum! from Samarkand, where we have been spending enough time in medrassas to make the US Department of Homeland Security sweat through their collective collared shirt. Okay, none of these ancient Islamic schools here are anything extreme except beautiful to behold; they were built hundreds of years ago, and now serve only as monuments for tourists to ogle.

In Tashkent, From Russia with Plov

On our second night here in Tashkent, we ventured out to a chaikhana for tea and dinner. At this traditional restaurant–the likes of which can be found all over the country–we reclined on a tea bed and ordered up some…well, we had some communication issues with the waiter, so we think we ordered bread, tea and plov (national dish of rice mixed with vegetables and mutton and held together with mutton fat). We sat back and waited to see what showed up.

In the Fergona Valley, Enjoying the Fruits of Our Neighbors

Crossing into Uzbekistan is easy, if you speak Uzbek or Russian. It’s not so easy if you don’t. And it’s worse still if two members of the family are dealing with a little case of E. coli picked up in Kashgar, and the one not wearing a diaper has to go to the bathroom. Bad.