Samarkand, Buhara and Khiva do not let you down in your expectations of their beauty. Like open books, these cities talk about history of ancient times as you get lost in their mud brick streets or observe the detailed carving in the walls of the Registan.
Great cities of old kingdoms since the time of Alexander the Great, they were caprices of great kings like Timur Leng, who decided to make of them pure architectural master classes; or conquerors like Genghis Khan who overwhelmed for their beauty decided to change his usual way of destroying to conquer and keep them as pearls of the vast territory he ruled.
Nowadays, these cities are main attractions for tourism and hordes of it arrive everyday in their hired buses which unload them to take photos of every single corner, where locals with turbans and wrinkled faces have learnt to make a living being the perfect subject to have in the photos of your exotic holidays in Uzbekistan...
Searching tranquility we reached the plateau of Fergana Valley, a rural region surrounded by impressive Kyrgyz snowed peaks, where crossing from one part of some villages to the other can be the difference between being a tourist in Uzbekistan or an illegal immigrant in Kyrgyzstan without papers if you do not have the visa for this last one.
After enjoying its amazing local bread, the fresh vegetables, learning a bit about the hand made silk production and specially laugh and enjoy the hospitality of the villagers of Nanay, it is time for us to go back to Tashkent and collect our awaited visas for Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan and have a closer look of the mountains now far in the horizon.
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