The Lonely Bible said that near Samarkand was the city of Urgut, and that one of the largest bazaars in Central Asia could be found in Urgut. Our hostel instructed us to wait at a certain street corner for all drivers at that location take passengers to Urgut. We found the street corner but didn’t see any taxis. Soon, an unmarked car pulled up and asked, “Urgut?” I guess this is how it works.

After finding two more passengers (two old women who, I’m sure, paid less than we did for the same ride), our driver sped off towards Urgut. That is, he sped until he encountered the potholes. Then he stumbled the rest of the way to Urgut. Upon arrival, we immediately noticed that the Urgut bazaar is as massive as advertised. Stalls and shops stretched to the horizon. While completely open, the above Roman aqueduct looking thing marked what I think is the official entrance. That’s where Cindy and I started wading through the people.

Dark photo of bazaar

I didn’t take many pictures because I think it’s intrusive to take pictures of people and their businesses. I try to opt for super wide pictures with no obvious groups of people in the foreground. This bazaar didn’t lend many of those opportunities. There were no separate floors, no big openings or squares. Everything was just walkways and alleys, all of them very narrow. The Urgut bazaar was obviously a functional and “real life” bazaar. Everything from food, to batteries, to power tools, to clothing was sold and every inch was crowded with people. Commerce actually happened here. It wasn’t just a place to sell stuff to tourists.

Cindy and I had no plans to buy anything, and certainly not a table saw. When we got tired of walking around, we tucked into a hole in the wall restaurant and used the four words of Uzbek we knew to order some lunch. Our bread, salads, pilaf, and kebabs cost something like $3.

Lunch

The only other activity we wanted to accomplish today was to buy our train ticket for Tashkent. Our guidebook said the tourist information office near the Registan sold tickets for a small upcharge. Better than taking a taxi to the train station. We walked to the office only to discover that it was closed. Cindy bought a few postcards from a nearby vendor and we decided to go back the next morning.