Off on an adventure in Uzbekistan! (page 4 of 6)

Same here—I’m way more easily captivated by landscapes than cities or monuments, but still... Uzbekistan...

Like you and Franck, I’m way more into nature and landscapes than cities... but I do love it when we can mix in some old stones. Iran has always been a dream for me, but I’ve definitely ruled it out 😕. Uzbekistan, on the other hand, is still on my mid-term travel list.

April 16 - Day 12

There’s the pilgrimage to Lourdes, the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, the pilgrimage to Stade Vélodrome... Two months ago, we set off to climb Mount Moses in Sinai, Egypt. And today, our adventure is as varied as Martine’s albums! This time, it’s Franck and Flo on a pilgrimage with the Uzbeks! We’re blending into the procession of pilgrims to join them on their spiritual quest to the cave of Hazrati Dovud! But what on earth is this all about?

As you diligently learned in catechism class, David is a biblical figure. He was also adopted in the Quran as the "prophet Daoud." According to legend, Daoud was on the run and hid in a crack between two mountains. Here’s a handy tip: To turn a cramped 10 square meters into a two-room apartment, just do like him and push the walls apart with your hands. In his case, he left his handprints on the walls of the cave that became his refuge.

That earned him a direct promotion—he was named the patron saint of manual trades: goldsmiths, engravers, blacksmiths, mechanics, boilermakers, gunsmiths, taxi drivers, truckers, car rental agents, valets... represented by thousands of pilgrims who come to pay their respects every day in his famous loft at the top of Mount Mirankoul, accessible via a *chemin de croix*—or, as the protesters call it, a staircase of nearly 2,000 steps (1,500 according to the police)!





After a short hour’s drive from Samarkand, we begin our own path of penitence. The atmosphere is exactly what we expected: stairs packed with Uzbeks dressed in their Sunday best, of all ages, shapes, and smiles—some with teeth, some without. The sun beating down just right, we notice a few dropouts among the oldest and heaviest, but faith on an IV drip works wonders here! And the foreign tourists? Well, only two blond heads stand out in this colorful crowd—two French dragsters forced to respond to every "bonjour" and "bienvenue" along the way! In short, we’re way off the beaten path, and we love it!







At the summit, it’s an Uzbek sausage fest! Ice cream vendors, bingo lotto, bags of popcorn, souvenir photo ops of Grandma Josette on a camel at the top of Hazrati Dovud, an imam reciting Quran verses on loop... All to keep everyone entertained while they wait to visit the magical cave everyone’s here for!





Speaking of the cave—here we go! You queue up, enter with your group, sit on the floor, listen obediently to an imam tell you super important things in Uzbek, nod along like everyone else, contribute to the loft’s upkeep with a mandatory donation, and then you’re out!

Day 12 (continued)







After that, all that's left is to head back down the mountain... unless, like us, you want to keep the adventure going by getting even closer to God! Just keep hiking a bit higher up into the mountains!













All in all, we added about twelve kilometers to the odometer, surrounded by sheep and flowers, hitched a ride back "home," and had yet another plov to make Flo happy! If you're up for joining us, our taste buds are in love with the best plov in Samarkand at Mahalla Osh... Oops, too late, we just got back...

At the top, it's a sausage fest

Reminds me of arriving at the temple on Pavagadh Hill in Gujarat! 😏

And all those steps in Palitana... 🤪

The Uzbek version of plov seems heartier than the Kyrgyz one. At least, with more ingredients!

At the summit, it's a sausage fest

That reminds me of arriving at the temple on Pavagadh Hill in Gujarat! 😏

And all those steps in Palitana... 🤪

The Uzbek version of plov seems heartier than the Kyrgyz one. Well, with more ingredients!

Or Adam's Peak in Sri Lanka... I love these spiritual vibes! For plov, I haven’t had the chance to try the Kyrgyz version yet, but the Uzbek one is delicious!

Spiritual, spiritual—easy to say! 😄

I’d call them more commercial...😇

But that’s probably just my atheist side talking...

Spiritocommercial !

India seems unbeatable from that perspective.😉

April 17 - Day 13

The hourglass is relentlessly ticking away as we’re already starting the thirteenth day of our Uzbek adventure. To address this, an emergency planning meeting was organized by the leadership team first thing in the morning! The situation is serious—we’ve only got four days left, normally set aside for a trek in the southern mountains, but Mother Nature is trying to talk us out of it with forecasts of torrential rain for tomorrow and the day after. Hiking in the mountains in the rain with zero visibility? We love that as much as smashing our testicles with an iron bar... So, we’re interrupting our plans to announce the verdict: In agreement with the unions, the decision has been made to cancel the trek and activate some compensatory Plan Bs.

So, ready or not, here comes the sun! Since the big yellow ball is still with us today, we’re kicking off the first Plan B with a visit to Shahrisabz. Behind that slightly barbaric name lies the birthplace of Tamerlane, just a two-hour drive south from Samarkand. On paper, Shahrisabz holds its own against other Silk Road cities since, like its sisters, it’s a UNESCO World Heritage site. But once you’re there, it’s clear Brahim Asloum isn’t boxing in the same league as Mike Tyson!

But don’t get me wrong—I’m not saying the walk through the historic city isn’t super interesting! Proof of that is the inscription Tamerlane had placed at the entrance of the Ak-Saray Palace: "If you doubt our greatness, look at our buildings." Even though the palace is now in ruins, it’s not hard to imagine how imposing it must have been back in the day!











And a bonus point I haven’t mentioned yet—our stroll through the historic park was completely solo. Just us, with the only interruption being schoolkids in uniforms welcoming us!

Day 13 (continued)











Four hours of sightseeing is enough for the mosques, mausoleums, and crypts on offer—ice cream included! Now we need to find a way back to our base camp in Samarkand.







Except that, for the first time on our Uzbek adventure, hitchhiking isn’t working out as well as we’d hoped. We go from shared taxi to shared taxi with exchanges and communication that are still just as... hit-or-miss. We’re also walking a lot between each lifesaving ride... Add it all up, and you’ve got the 90 kilometers back. So you can rest easy—Flo’s gonna get to indulge his newfound passion again tonight: "Faaast, a plov!"

April 18 & 19 – Days 14 and 15

I'm singing in the rain, just singing in the rain... Two days of rain they’d forecast... and unfortunately, the forecast wasn’t lying! So instead of trekking under the sun in the mountains near Tajikistan, we’re living the "day in the life" of a Samarkand local: between downpours, a quick trip to the market, plov, laundry, little cultural visits, more plov, naps to digest the plov, and even more plov... Not exactly the stuff of an action-packed travel journal, but two days to recharge our batteries!

Did you book the train trips in advance, or did you buy the tickets at the stations just before departure?

Did you book the train trips in advance, or did you buy the tickets at the stations just before departure?

For the first 2 trains at the start of our trip, we bought them just before leaving. For the last one between Samarkand and Tashkent, we got it on the spot.

How fast! 😏Which site for buying train tickets?

Uzbekistan Railways | Home

Thanks 😉

April 20, 2025 - Day 16

With our rest capital exceeding the regulatory quota after these two days of forced lazing around, we decide to sacrifice some of it by taking a third-class train from Samarkand to the capital Tashkent at three in the morning, starting our night on the wooden benches of the station. Four chaotic hours on the train and a night mostly spent seeing white later, the loop is complete—we arrive back where it all started two weeks ago. This wasn’t in our initial plans, as we were supposed to return only in the evening after crossing the finish line of our trek. Our flight back to France isn’t until tomorrow morning at five!

So, what do we do today, Easter Sunday, in this already-visited capital of a Muslim country?... Wait a minute... Uzbekistan... Soviet Union... Russia... so Orthodox religion... There must still be a hint of Russian heritage in the capital for one of the biggest Orthodox celebrations to be held somewhere, right? Picnic dummy, it’s you who’s the fool: Off we go to the Dormition Cathedral, a bit on a whim. And luck welcomes us on the steps with open arms and a big smile since the Easter service has just begun, and everyone is busy outside organizing what looks like a procession.









All the cliché ingredients showed up to the party! Religious icons galore, gold everywhere, long-bearded Orthodox priests, incense in our nostrils, kulich cakes for our taste buds... And for the occasion, the entire dressed-up Orthodox community has obviously gathered here—well, except for Mrs. Thatcher, of course!





Ladies and gentlemen, in a moment, it’s going to start... The procession begins in swirls of incense. Here’s the lineup: Looking possessed, the first priest recites psalms while swinging his incense burner, while the second splashes holy water on the crowd and the food presented to him. Oh, and I almost forgot the third guy in the background, raking in the cash! "Well, holy water doesn’t come cheap, my little friend!"







For our part, we wisely keep our money to invest in a kulich, the traditional Orthodox Easter cake. Uh, now that we’ve nearly choked on this cake-thing and the rest served as a basketball for practicing free throws into a trash can, we’re thinking we’d have preferred a double splash of holy water!

Day 16 (continued)

What’s our solution to get rid of the taste? Stuffing ourselves with the 792nd and final plov of our trip, of course! After that, to kill the time we have left, off to Disneyland! Or at least the Uzbek Disneyland Wish—Magic City! You can’t miss it in Tashkent; the place sticks out like a McDonald’s sign on a North American highway!



It’s blinking like a Christmas tree, Pepsi-sponsored billboards are plastered all over the city, and kitschy music blasts from it! Once inside, there’s a little Vegas vibe with water fountain shows, a touch of Washington with statues of great Uzbek figures, a bit of Venice with gondola rides, a London-esque bridge over the "Thames," and even a nod to Uzbekistan with a recreation of the Registan.









Flo was expecting an amusement park with a Chernobyl-esque vibe where two rusty swings would duel with a mechanical Ferris wheel powered by an old Uzbek guy, but in the end, we loved it and are leaving the country on this high note!











To wrap up this adventure, the whole country only earned top marks despite its quirks: crepe paper as toilet paper, Uzbek women in pajamas 24/7, Christmas decorations in the streets all year round, never a knife at the table, gold teeth as a status symbol for everyone... but the people are so endearing! And that architecture—exceptional doesn’t even cover it! Did I mention how exceptional the architecture is??? This country was plopped here, I’m convinced, just to impress passersby. And guess what? We were passing through and were thoroughly impressed. Instant love for Flo, instant love for me. Ladies and gentlemen of Uzbekistan, thank you for your warm welcome! We’ll surely cross paths again! Give yourselves time to improve your English a bit, and we promise—we’ll grab another meal together! Oh, how about a plov?

never a knife at the table

Same in Kyrgyzstan! !🤪

We only had to deal with it once or twice.

gold teeth for everyone as an outward sign of wealth...

I also noticed that charming detail when I met some Uzbeks in Osh. 😏

Did the women talk to you?

The only Uzbek women I spoke to only addressed me, never speaking to or looking at my companion ????