Samarkand

Samarkand is one of those mysterious and fabled cities that encapsulates the pure romance of travel in its very name, let alone in its architectural treasures. For me it was perhaps the place I was most excited to visit at the outset, and part of the purpose of my going AWOL from the truck was to buy some extra time in the city.

These days Samarkand is a small and largely modern city, but throughout it are dotted the great buildings which have made it famous, centred on the astonishing Registan Square which must rate as one of the most beautiful public spaces in the World. In fact much of what you see is the result of intensive and at times rather dodgy soviet restoration work, which has brought many crumbling buildings back to life but has perhaps stolen some of the romance of the place at the same time. Nonetheless, when I bribed a guard to let me climb a minaret on one of the Registan medressahs at sunset to view the buildings in perfect evening light, the sight was really something to see.

My favourite visit was to a narrow street of tombs from the 14th and 15th centuries, all madly decorated in colbalt blue tiles and domes with intricate geometric patterns and Koranic script. The jumbled nature of the place and the relative lack of restoration gives it an especially appealing atmosphere which the showier sites perhaps lack.

This post finds me in Tashkent - something of a culture shock after what has come before. It's a big ugly Soviet era city with few sights of note, though I did manage to talk my way into a mosque that houses the Umar Koran, an enormous tome which is reputedly the original Koran written in his own hand in the mid-7th century by Umar, the third Caliph after the Prophet Mohammed. The librarian pointed out to me the blood of Umar stained on the book - a relic from when he was hacked to death while reading it. There don't seem to have been a lot of happy endings in Islamic history.

We heard last night about the bombings in London which came as a shock to one and all and brought a sombre atmosphere to the group - not a common occurance. It is strange to be heading into the Fergana Valley in the next couple of days, the area of Uzbekistan which has been the focus of religious unrest, and yet still feel safer here than at home.