I love markets - todays was Chorsu Bozor and was amazing 🤩

Salmon trimmings with chicken breast, greens and keto rice

Good luck Heather ☺️

Fabulous ferris wheel at Navrus Park, Tashkent, Uzbekistan 😁

Business class on train to Tashkent worth a try - most comfortable train ever!

Samarkand railway station really impressive. The 8:06 to Tashkent is on time

Today’s Uzbek highlights

Shashlik in Samarkand, Uzbekistan 😋

Here’s an extract from my travel commentary today….it was fun! First my hotel reception desk directed me to the wrong Tashkent train station, so I got scammed by taxi touts at the entrance screaming about how I needed to pay three times the local fare in order to get in their car immediately to the right station and ensure I did not miss my 4pm train. Sure enough, I got to the Tashkent South station on time and managed to chill on a train sleeper bunk bed for four hours. But then things istarted going wrong again - train stopped 15 minutes then trundled along really slowly eventually arriving 40 minutes late which didn’t seem too bad. Nearly everyone got off even though this was just the fourth stop at 8:45pm on an all-night sleeper train travelling right across the country. It was like a party on the platform. Whole families swarmed around kiosks that had specially opened for the drop off to sell food to the passengers. Managed to find my way through the crowds but struggled to find the exit, following a Chinese man with the same dilemma up some steep stairs with my heavy suitcase in darkness. We both found the gate was locked at the top, went back down through countless stairways and reached the exit, where I was harassed quite heavily by several aggressive taxi drivers while I tried booking a “Yandex-Go taxi (local version of our Uber app) It arrived - the Russian driver put his foot down hard and drove like crazy with music blaring out really loud to completely the wrong place miles away up a quiet residential dead-end lane. I got a bit worried what he was doing. He was speaking Russian and no English and just took my suitcase the car boot and drove off. Luckily a kind young boy appeared from nowhere. He asked if I was English and helped me rebook a taxi to the right address - he explained there are two places with exactly the same names which was why I arrived in the wrong area! It then started lightning ⚡️ and raining hard while I waited for another taxi which took half an hour. The boy chatted about how he was studying to get a place in an English university which he said was his dream🥹. Got to the right place in the second taxi but couldn’t find the guest house on arrival because it’s not signposted and not on Google. I dragged my suitcase through the thunder and asked several sets of local people - first in an ice cream parlour then two local restaurants - and none of them could could work out themselves where my place was using my booking dot com app on my iPhone. Finally found someone who directed me there at 10pm When I finally arrived the place was quiet - doors were open and a guy was asleep near reception in a kitchen area with loads of wine bottles strewn around the floor. I had to wait for another 20 minutes trying to wake him up. Looked in the lounge nearby because I really needed the toilet only to find a woman asleep on the sofa. Eventually he woke up and showed me to my room at 11pm 😂🤣

On the train from Tashkent to Samarkand Cool bunk beds 👀👌

There are a lot of Uzbekistan people in this metro station 😅

Tashkent Uzbekistan underground is the best metro architecture I have ever seen

Hazrati Imam complex - huge religious site in old town, Tashkent , Uzbekistan Hazrati Imam Complex. A peaceful hub of Islamic heritage with restored architecture and courtyards and a major pilgrimage site. Tashkent’s main spiritual center in the old city. Named after 10th-century scholar - Hazrati Imam This 16th–20th century collection includes the Kaffal Shashi Mausoleum, Barakhan and Muyi Muborak madrasas, Tilla Shaykh and Hazrati Imam mosques, and a library holding one of the world’s oldest Qurans (Uthman Quran).

Chicken thighs with chunky salad

Salmon fillet with lemon and stir fire egg and spinach on a bed of keto zero m-carb spaghetti