When we were denied boarding of our flight to Uzbekistan, we missed the Tashkent part of our tour. Now we are to complete that part with a GAP guide of our own, at the end of our time here.We flew back to Tashkent in close to 40 degree heat, checked into our hotel and 30 minutes later we were meeting our lovely vivacious guide, Maria and heading off by taxi. The sights and monuments in Tashkent are quite spread out so our tour included taxis and the underground....

The Kalta Minor Minaret in Khiva looks like a bejeweled turquoise and gold....... Nuclear Reactor!We've seen plenty of reactors on this trip so we know the shape well.When the Khan, who commissioned the building of this minaret died, work ceased, leaving it at 26 metres when it should have been 71 meters, and the shape somewhat like a nuclear reactor. During our time in Khiva we used it as a meeting place and referred to it as the "Nuclear Reactor". I think t...

White mulberries? Yes, the trees are everywhere and in fruit in Uzbekistan. Luscious and juicy, but without the stains on the fingers and clothes, we enjoy eating heaps of them. Another quirky thing about Uzbekistan is the money. The highest value note in circulation is 1,000. This is around .50c Australian. So to carry around money requires a huge stack and lots and lots of counting. Dinner for the two of us would cost maybe 25,000 Lek so we need to count out 2...

There is a legend in Uzbekistan that to build the Registan in Samarkand, Timur, the ruling King, needed to get the best bricks from Bukhara, some 300 kms away in the quickest possible time. Donkeys were too slow, and Elephants didn't work well in the bitterly cold winters. So he made a human chain stretching for the 300 kms and the bricks were passed one by one all the way.Could this be true?It seems anything could be true when you see the fairy tale sight of...