After regrouping in Qarshi and sorting ourselves out, we decided that we needed to see more of the touristic highlights in Uzbekistan. When people come to Uzbekistan, they\u2019re mostly there to see the dozens of large, blue tiled madrasas that conjure dreams of a Silk Road oasis. Since only two of the three towns were on our cycling route (Bukhara and Khiva), we needed to hitch a ride to Samarkand. The evening before we left, we discussed how we could manage to go to Samarkand with our host and he offered to set us up with a taxi.<\/p>\n
The next morning, we got our things ready \u2013 leaving the non-essentials at the hotel \u2013 and headed out to the taxi stand in Qarshi. In Uzbekistan, there are some \u2018formal\u2019 (this term is really loose) yellow taxis who will quote a price per kilometer, or \u2018shared taxis\u2019 that will take a group of people going a longer distance. Some men will drive a certain route between cities as their job, or people use the opportunity to make a little money through carpooling. Basically, any car that is not yet full (of humans, bags, or sheep [yes, we have seen sheep]) can be turned into a taxi just by waving at it.<\/p>\n
The hotel owner was kind enough to drive us to the taxi stand in the morning and negotiate reasonable price to get to Samarkand ($4.50 per person for a 2-hour ride). Once our car was full, with two other riders, we set off. Just as we were pulling onto the road, I made a joke to C\u00e9dric asking whether we needed to pray for getting to Samarkand safely (because we\u2019ve seen how reckless Uzbek drivers are), but right on cue, the three other guys in the car raise their palms to their face and say a short prayer. I suppose it\u2019s the Uzbek form of \u2018Jesus take the wheel.\u2019 Our ride was fast, and I had white knuckles the entire time. In Uzbekistan (and the rest of Central Asia), there are few to no seatbelt regulations, so the back seat of older cars have no seatbelts (I guess that save a few dollars of the car price\u2026), and the two in the front seats don\u2019t wear theirs either. Even if there is a police checkpoint, the belts are utilized for maximum 2 minutes as drivers go past, and police checkpoints are fixed, so all year-long at the same place \u2013 in short, seatbelts are a complete nonsense for an Uzbek. To complement the lack of safety, the ability to pass people seems to be an extension of manhood (my observations), so at every given chance, the driver will accelerate, no matter what the current speed is, no matter the road condition, no matter the traffic, no matter how close to the limits the Lada currently moves. I was uneasy barreling down the highway in the middle seat without any sort of protection. C\u00e9dric, however, managed to pass the time by nonchalantly playing games on his phone \u2013 \u201cThere\u2019s not much I can do anyway, so Alhamdulillah!\u201d.<\/p>\n
Once we arrived safely in Samarkand, we dropped our things off at our guesthouse and then went to explore the city. We first stopped at the most iconic part of Samarkand: the Registan. Located in the heart of the city, the Registan is composed of three separate madrasas, dating back to the 15th<\/sup> and 17th<\/sup> centuries. As soon as we stepped into one of the buildings, we saw that the renovated buildings are now used to bunker dozens and dozens of souvenir stalls. I suppose in some sense, it\u2019s nicer having them contained rather than sprawling all over the streets. Afterwards, we wandered to Gul-e-Amir, a mausoleum of Timur the Lame, a 15th<\/sup> century ruler. Uzbekistan revers Timur as its greatest hero, but the rest of world agrees to say that this ruler was seriously insane \u2013 he killed during his reign 5% of the world population\u2026 History is full of controversial figures heroes somewhere, madman a few hundred kilometers further. For lunch, C\u00e9dric and I got the tourist experience by getting ripped off by a restaurant that conveniently didn\u2019t have a menu with prices (meaning that we had the most expensive plov so far), we probably had spent too much time with trustworthy Tajiks and Kyrgyz.<\/p>\n