Landed at Islam Karimov Tashkent International (TAS), 12km south of the city. The airport was emptier than I expected — five international flights had arrived that afternoon and the immigration hall had maybe 50 people. Stamped through in under 10 minutes. No visa needed for my nationality. No questions asked.
Taxi to my hotel via Yandex Go: 25,000 UZS (~$2). The driver played Uzbek pop music and drove with the casual disregard for lane markings that I'd soon learn is standard.
First impressions: wide boulevards, Soviet apartment blocks, surprising amounts of green space, and a temperature of 36°C that hit like opening an oven door. This is a desert city. April or October would have been smarter months.
Dinner at a local restaurant near Amir Timur Square: lagman (hand-pulled noodle soup, 25,000 UZS), bread, and tea. Total bill: 40,000 UZS — about $3.30. I checked the receipt twice.
Spent the morning at Chorsu Bazaar. The turquoise dome rises above a market that's been trading for centuries. Spice mountains — cumin, saffron, sumac, black sesame — piled in colorful mounds. Dried fruit sections with apricots, raisins, and mulberries sold by the kilogram. Flatbread stacked in towers. The butcher section is not for the squeamish.
Bought a bag of dried apricots (15,000 UZS/kg) and ate them all day. They were the best dried apricots I've ever had, and I say this without exaggeration.
Afternoon: rode the Tashkent Metro end to end. Each station is a different museum. Kosmonavtlar has cosmonaut portraits in ceramic tile. Alisher Navoi has literary scenes in blue and white. Mustaqillik Maydoni has chandeliers that belong in a palace. Entry: 1,500 UZS — twelve cents. Photography was banned until 2018 because the stations also served as nuclear bunkers. Now you can snap freely.
Woke early and went to the Plov Center (Osh Markazi) at 9AM. Five enormous kazans (cauldrons the size of bathtubs) were bubbling with rice, lamb, carrots, chickpeas, and cumin. Each kazan produces 70-100 kg. Men with shovels (actual shovels) stir and serve.
A plate that could feed three people: 35,000 UZS (~$2.90). I finished it. I shouldn't have finished it. I walked very slowly back to my hotel and didn't eat again until 8PM.
Evening: Khast Imam Complex. The world's oldest Quran — the Uthman Quran, 7th century, with visible stains — sits in a glass case in the library museum (25,000 UZS). The compound is serene: tiles, fountains, madrasas, and almost no tourists. I had the courtyard to myself for 20 minutes.
The Afrosiyob train departed at 7:30AM. 2.5 hours, 90,000 UZS (~$7). Comfortable, punctual, air-conditioned. I read a book. This is what train travel should be.
Samarkand hit me like a wall of blue tiles. The Registan — three massive madrasas facing each other across a plaza — is one of those places that photographs well but is genuinely more impressive in person. The scale of the tile work, the geometry, the 600 years of sun-bleached grandeur. I stood in the center of the plaza for ten minutes just absorbing it. Entry: 40,000 UZS.
Shah-i-Zinda (Avenue of Mausoleums) is even more moving — a narrow street of Timurid tombs with the finest tile work in Central Asia. Each mausoleum is different: turquoise, cobalt, gold, geometric, floral. The light in the late afternoon turns the tiles into something that looks wet, liquid almost. 25,000 UZS.
Bibi-Khanym Mosque was once the largest in Central Asia. Partially collapsed, partially restored, still enormous. 25,000 UZS.
I stayed overnight in Samarkand (hotel: 350,000 UZS / ~$29) and spent the second day wandering the Siyob Bazaar (huge flatbreads, more dried fruit) and the Gur-e-Amir mausoleum (Tamerlane's tomb, 30,000 UZS). The jade sarcophagus is surprisingly modest for a man who conquered half of Asia.
Returned to Tashkent on the evening Afrosiyob.
TV Tower observation deck (50,000 UZS): the 360-degree view with Tien Shan mountains in the distance was worth the elevator ride. The revolving restaurant was empty at lunch and the food was decent.
Minor Mosque: a modern white marble mosque that photographs beautifully. Free entry outside prayer times.
Last dinner: I found a tiny restaurant in the old town serving grilled kebabs and fresh bread. The owner spoke no English but gestured enthusiastically at a plate of lamb skewers that cost 45,000 UZS and were the best meat I ate all week.
Uzbekistan surprised me more than any country I've visited in the last five years. The Silk Road history is genuinely world-class. The food is outstanding and absurdly cheap. The people are warm in a direct, unselfconscious way that feels rare.
Tashkent isn't beautiful in the way Samarkand is — it's a Soviet city slowly shedding its concrete skin. But the metro stations, the bazaars, and the plov kazans give it a character that grows on you. And the train to Samarkand costs $7 and delivers you to one of humanity's greatest architectural achievements in 2.5 hours.
I'll be back. Bukhara and Khiva are next.
Give Tashkent at least 3 days before you rush to Samarkand. The city doesn't have the architectural jaw-drop of the Registan, but it has a personality — Soviet bones, Silk Road soul, and a food culture that's quietly world-class. The metro stations alone are worth half a day. The plov is a genuine life experience. And the $7 train to one of humanity's greatest architectural achievements makes Tashkent the most underrated base camp in Central Asian travel.
Pack light. Eat heavy. And download Yandex Go before you land — it'll save you more money and frustration than any other single tip on this list. The blue tiles of the Registan are burned into my memory. The $2.90 plov plate is burned into my soul. Uzbekistan, I'll be back.
