In Uzbekistan, at last. It’s funny how people’s images of travel are different, and for no apparent reason. My friend Brian, for example, said he imagines wooden huts over jungles when he thinks about traveling. For me, it’s always been pretty buildings over slightly alien landscapes. In other words, somewhere in the Middle East/Persia/Central Asia area. No idea why. It just happened that why. And that strange association brought Cindy and me to Uzbekistan.

Cindy at the Almaty airport

Our first stop is Khiva, a former slave trading capital along the Silk Road in western Uzbekistan. It’s beautiful, like unbelievably beautiful. The city’s mud brick walls are intact and circumscribe countless madrassas, mosques, and minarets. We arrived a little late in the day (Almaty to Tashkent to Khiva), but managed to snap a few photos at dusk (see top photo). Behold, Khiva.

Unfinished minaret next to madrassa

Khiva streets at night

Madrassa at night

On a less architectural note, Uzbekistan is also home to a wildly fluctuating currency. A Snickers bar, for instance, costs about 3,000 som. A meal for two is around the 40,000 range. The highest denomination is the rare 5,000 bill, and the most common is 1,000. So imagine paying for a hotel room in som. This means two things–1) everyone is carrying around a duffel bag of cash and 2) Uzbeks are lightning fast at counting money.

Behold, 50,000 som or something like that

At first, it was fun to receive a bill and then flip out a brick of bills like Walter White. Then it just became annoying as our poor, unaccustomed USA fingers slowly counted the cash. We even have to check each other’s work because we’re so atrocious at it. The feeling of counting out $50,000 in front of people is also a little bit odd, until we noticed that the table next to us was struggling to do the same thing. Of course, the Uzbek restaurant staff always rescue us by flying through our money as if they have 30 fingers. Does anyone need an accountant? I know where you can find some good ones.