After 2 hours and 24 mins of smooth train ride, we arrived in Samarkand. Hot bliss suddenly surged upon us. Wow! the heat was something else here but it’s summer, what did you expect!? I pushed my luggage along many other tourists that I believed were Westerners maybe Americans. The memory of Marrakesh came back to me; the time we arrived by train from Rabat. The same summer heat, the same crowd vibes and the same historical expectations from an ancient city.
But this’s Samarkand, once being the centre of civilisation that made us wonder how did they do it? That was in the past more than 2700 years ago. Is the modern day Samarkand still hold the same tale to tell?
The afternoon traffic in the city was heavy and my taxi driver drove like he owned the street. Then we went through a back-lane street where he manoeuvred through an impossible passage and managed to squeeze us out of a deadlock. My heart sank but he looked normal maybe just another day for him; no swearing or the angry sound of honking.
As we arrived late in the afternoon, the activity must start soon. So after dropping some bags at our accommodation we immediately headed out to the mountainside.
“Oh no! not another mountain shit!”, I mumbled under a tired breath. But shoved my ass in the back seat anyway. As the car steered away from the crowded city, I was hoping this could be different. The road seemed better and the drive was smooth and comfortable. Definitely this gonna spell differently in my blog; I carved a wide happy smile.
The time for lunch so we went straight to a restaurant. Perched on a high mountain side, the restaurant gave an unbelievable view of the surrounding landscape. I looked into the horizon and the views just took my breath away. We were seated on a large seating bed with a table in the middle — a traditional dining setting. A short while after we ordered, the food came with out of this world smells—-shistalik was here. Then lamb tandoori was brought in soon after and the rest is history.
