Just the mention of Samarkand instantly conjures up evocative images of the Silk Road. Founded in the 6th century BC, Sumarkand’s stunning architecture hints at its former status as one of the most important cities in Asia and is particularly noted for its architectural remains from the 14th to the 17th century. One of the beauties on the Silk road.

Firstly we visited Registan Square, where Amir Timur and his successors went to trade. This place flourished in the turquoise blue coloured tiles all over. The left side of the grounds was built for education, the middle was for guests to stay while doing their trades and to the right was where they would pray. We spent about two hours here listening to the stories of how they use to live back in the 14th century, getting a lesson on how they would create tiles for the buildings. We bargained with the talented ladies who hand made our new ponchos and tasted some small bites in the local market, we throughly enjoyed this place.

Next was Lunch at a local residents house, as we were pulling into the driveway, the family came out to greet us. They were all standing in a row  welcoming Mrs G, the tour guide and myself. We sat in the courtyard and enjoyed their nibbles of local food before the rest of the group joined us.

As Uzbekistan families are always quite large, they sure knew how to dine us. The mother cooking in an extremely large pot in the yard, firstly in goes the meat, then spices consisting of cumin, a few unknown spices to myself, garlic, onions, yellow carrots and then the rice… Tones of rice! It was sweet watching the family all coming together standing around the mother, watching her stir the water over the rice, waiting for meal to be ready. Then finally the father cuts the meat and the children begin to serve it.

They made me a tasty pumpkin samosa as I’m so fussy with meat. I was surprised how kind and happy they were inviting us all into their home.

Finishing this lovely lunch we then went to the next destination, Bibi Khanum, being the most beautiful mosque I have ever seen. The inside covered in gold and blue, I’m beginning to really adore Samarkand. There is pastel blue everywhere!!

Walking through the arch way of this sacred place, stopping in awe of the magnificent colours on the outside, listening to the hundreds of tiny birds chirp and fly around, we were practically the only ones there. How lucky we were. We began to walk into the mosque when two elderly muslim ladies dressed in their finest clothes, came out from the entranceway. They stood and smiled at the three of us, like they had never seen two blondes before. Having our guide direct us in, we stopped at a map of where the history was drawn up of the places Amir Timur concord. Our very Russian accented guide explained who Amir Timur was before taking us further into this incredible place, where we had the opportunity to sit and take in the surroundings.

Having looked at the time, we needed to make one more stop. Our driver took us to a factory where they made silk rugs. We got shown from scratch how they make these beautiful rugs, from the dye of vegetable’s, the thin strands of threads from the silk worm cocoon, to the procedure of weaving the threads with special instruments. Girls resting their knees on the pillowed planks while hand weaving the different coloured threads. There are four girls for each rug made. An average rug will take one and a half years to make, four girls every day for eight hours per day. I sure can understand why there extremely expensive now!

A quick stop back at the train to change clothes and get ready for tonights live band fashion show!

Wow what a wonderful traditional restaurant, we where greeted with men playing different instruments while singing in Uzbek language. ‘Rackmand’ I kept saying as we walked to our table before putting on our traditional hats they had waiting for us on our seats. They were smiling and nodding there heads, looking pleasantly surprised I said thank you in their language.

Having had such a big lunch we weren’t so hungry, however with all the food they had on the table and constantly offering us more we managed to almost demolish yet another massive meal. Whilst watching the models walk past in the beautiful Uzbekistan designer clothing, we thoroughly enjoyed our meal. Yes I did come out with an item, being a hand embroidered black and pastel blue patterned jacket. It sure was funny though, one of the Australian woman came up to me while I was on my way to haggle down the purchase of the jacket and said ‘are you going to buy that?’ I said “yes, its beautiful’ and she said ‘Can I have a look at it?’ coming into try snatch it from my hands. I looked at her with a cross face and she asked if she could just try it on. I laughed and walked away from her. I may be blonde but I certainly am not stupid,  I know how ladies and fashion are. You snooze, you loose! Sorry lady, this is mine, I said to myself walking away and from then on I wore it the rest of the night.