Samarkand

After a delayed departure from Dushanbe due to road construction in a 2-km long tunnel, which eventually turned out to be bad lit, covered with water and potholes covered with water, and more water pouring from roof and walls even though it wasn't raining outside, we reached Penjekent at 10pm. This is the last town on the Tajik side before crossing to Samarkand on the Uzbekistan side.
The crossing was by a combination of taxis and foot, and included the payment of a US$20 "contribution" to the Tajik customs official, which was eventually negotiated down to US$10.

Samarkand is a large city. A part of it is very soviet: wide avenues with tall trees and large monuments. The other part is a handful of historic buildings: mosques, medrasas and mausoleums from islamic times. These sites have been restored and they look very impressive. We went to the Registan, a group of 3 medrasas/mosques, and a couple of other mausoleums and mosques. The highlight is their size and the fantastic blue and turquoise tiles everywhere. They look beautiful.

We stayed at a B&B called Hotel Davr owned by Shuhrat, who was an incredible host. He personally drove us to one of the sites, took us to the black market to exchange USD for UZ sum at an 1800 rate instead of the official 1400, checked the notes received from the exchanger to make sure that they were in pristine shape, had his sister-in-law cook the most amazing dinner we had in Central Asia hands down, spoke fluent Portuguese so he kept talking to me instead of Simon (he enjoyed the chance to practice), had a taxi drive us to the train station, then the taxi stand (because there was no train), and since the taxis where too expensive, then the bus station, and made sure that we got on a bus to Bukhara, all of this logistics nightmare while he was on the phone from a friend's wedding. Shuhrat was great, and we enjoyed his peaceful hotel a lot.

In general, there's a different feel in Uzbekistan compared to Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. I think that the economy in this country is doing better, and that they have a stronger tourism infrastructure. All this makes travelling easier: lots of hotel options, restaurants, and English-speaking locals. The downside is that they try to rip you off every time: taxi drivers, buses, street stands, etc. There is less genuine hospitality than what we found in the other two countries. Still, its sights are worth it.

Mercedes