It took two flights leaving Munich at 10 AM, passing through Istanbul and arriving in Tashkent at 1 AM local time the next day to get us to a part of the world we had not been to at all. Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan (UZ), a former Soviet Union State landlocked in central Asia. Part Turk, part Persian. The two most important stops on the ancient silk road are located here in UZ: Samarkand and Bukhara connecting China with Iran, Irak and Europe through a land route.
We arrived at 1 AM at Tashkent airport and who had ever thought that at that time an airport must be empty was sorely mistaken. Our plane from Istanbul arrived together with what felt like ten other flights and long lines at the immigration and passport control had formed.
We spent a good 90 minutes in line and until we had our luggage (luckily all made it safe and sound) it was close to 2.30 AM. Inom, our local guide waited patiently until we were out and drove us straight to a small cosy family run B&B, The Gulnara Guest House.
Tired as we were we fell straight asleep knowing that we only had a few hours of shut-eye before we were supposed to head out to our horse trekking trip in the Chimgan mountains.
