Bukhara, Uzbekistan: The Desert City Where You Step Through Time

Although I took to Google images to see what awaited me in Samarkand and other destinations along my Central Asia route, I decided not to do the same for Bukhara. Instead, I asked around and was curious to hear people’s descriptions of a place I had heard so much about – yet did not know what it looked like. Fellow travellers described it as being very different from Samarkand and often referred to it as their favourite, so I knew there must be something special about this notable Silk Road city. My arrival in Bukhara was unexpected in more ways than one. Greeted by a wall of heat, I was shocked to notice the difference in temperature compared to Samarkand, which was at a higher elevation. Initially, I thought I had gotten off at the wrong station since this train station appeared to be located in a town called Kogon, nearly 15 km from Bukhara. After a bit of Googling, I realised I was in fact at the right location. Bukhara behind the carved doors: (Ozbalci / iStock) I sweated profusely under a tree as I attempted to get shade from the blistering heat, whilst trying to organise a Yandex (the equivalent and much cheaper version of Uber). One thing I noticed was that the number of ta...