Central Asia, a part of the world that is pretty unfamiliar for us West Michiganders and place Jordy nor I had traveled to before.  Both our wives are saints and allow us to take time away from our children and dog to explore some of these far flung destinations. Jordy and I have similar interests in that we enjoy Islamic architecture, the hustle and bustle of city life and the tranquility of the mountains. 

The first portion of the trip was Uzbekistan, which was once a part of the former Soviet Union and borders Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Tourism in Uzbekistan has skyrocketed in recent years and for good reason! 

We drove to Chicago to fly out of O’Hare en-route to Tashkent, Uzbekistan. After 20 hours of travel, we arrived in Tashkent, the sprawling capital of Uzbekistan and the largest city in Central Asia. Upon landing, we snagged our 40 GB SIM cards for a whopping $4, grabbed a Yandex (Uzbek version of Uber) and arrived at Sapiens hotel at 1:45am. $80/night put us in the city center and the hotel had a rooftop bar and restaurant. Bar closed at 2:00am and a cold beer 5 minutes before closing after a day of travel sounded great.  

Jordy and I both have tattoos and on Door Bros Trip 1.0, we got tattoos in Lahore, Pakistan (still need to write the Door Bros Trip 1.0) and it was one of the best memories from the trip. We wanted to repeat that in Uzbekistan. After many Instagram searches, we finally landed on Pintados Tattoo Studio. They were willing to work with our short time frame and zero Russian language abilities. Katerina did an excellent job on our Uzbek architecture inspired tats.

Later in the afternoon we toured the Minor mosque, a modern mosque with towering minarets and a turquoise dome. Our first glimpse of Tashkent!

Friday evening we hit the town looking for a local craft beer. We found it at a place called Beerkovich which had a local American pale ale and an IPA. The craft beer scene in Uzbekistan is different than the US but it’s on its way! Uzbekistan is an Islamic country and is more conservative than the US. We found out that rather than go to a taproom and hang out at the brewery, most locals grab a bottle to go and drink at home. The “taprooms” consist of tiny storefronts with a couple tables indoors and a small outdoor patio. The shops usually have a cooler with a variety of craft beers and 20+ taps where people get a 1 liter plastic bottle filled with their beer of choice. In American terms, people basically fill a growler of craft beer and take it home. We decided to grab our plastic liter ($2.15!) and enjoy it on the outdoor patio. Looks just like pee!

The next day was our first full day in Tashkent and it was all about seeing the sights. We spent the morning grabbing coffee and exploring the Hazrati Imam complex, which is the religious heart of Tashkent with fully restored mosques and madrassas (former Islamic schools). We strolled through the bustling Chorsu Bazaar with hundreds of stalls selling local food, clothing and household items. Great experience to people watch and get a feel of the local day to day life in Uzbekistan. 

From Tashkent, we took a 4 hour high speed train to our second stop, the ancient Silk Road city of Bukhara. We arrived late at night and wandered through the dark alleys of the old town in search for our stay at the Minorai Kalon hotel. For $85/night we had a room with a view of the most famous landmarks of Bukhara and a rooftop restaurant. 

Bukhara is famous for its old town filled with charming alleyways, covered bazaars and ancient neighborhoods. The most famous landmark is the Po-I- Kalyan Complex, which includes a courtyard surrounded by the impressive Kalyan minaret, Miri Arab Madrassah and the Kalyan Mosque. The sheer size and detail in the ceramic tiles in the architecture is amazing. We enjoyed spending the morning, golden hour and evening watching the colors change on the buildings while also trying to snag an Instagram worthy photo :).

Other notable sites in Bukhara included the Ark of Bukhara, which is a massive fortress overlooking the old town. We also spent afternoons drinking the local green tea and smoking shisha overlooking the beautiful Lyabi-Hauz pond.

We walked outside of Bukhara old town to taste the legendary and most popular food in Uzbekistan. Plov! The recipe is pretty simple and consists of long grain rice, carrots, onion and lamb cooked in sheep fat. The recipe is cooked in a giant Kazan or cast iron cauldron. No trip to Uzbekistan is complete without stuffing yourself with Plov. So good.

After 2 days in Bukhara, we took an afternoon train to Samarkand, one of the oldest cities in Central Asia and home to the country’s most famous sites. We stayed in a quaint boutique hotel for $100/night within walking distance to the sites.

Uzbekistan has to be one of the most affordable countries we’ve ever visited. My brother and I could have a delicious meal of grilled lamb, vegetables and potatoes for less than $10 for both of us. Again, our first night we were on the prowl for some grilled souvlaki (kebabs) and a craft beer. We didn’t find much for craft beer, but we did run into two Russian pilots who were eager to discuss politics and practice their English. We had a great evening exchanging cultural and political differences AND similarities with our new Russian friends.

The top attraction in all of Uzbekistan and one of the main reasons we chose to go to Uzbekistan was to see the Registan Square. The Registan Square is a large plaza consisting of three madrassah’s or Islamic schools facing the center of the plaza built from beautiful color tiles. It was truly breathtaking. Again, we wanted to experience this site at all colors of the day. We spent the morning and evening walking through the courtyards and trying to grasp the sheer size of the buildings.

Other sites in Samarkand included the Amir Temur Mausoleum, the Shah-i-Zinda and the Siab Bazaar.

Uzbekistan was fantastic. We decided to opt out of hiring a guide and decided to do it all on our own. We enjoyed going at our own pace and taking as little or as a long as we wanted touring the sites. It was extremely affordable and the sites were some of the best in the world.

Second half of the trip was crossing the border by foot into Tajikistan.

We took a 45 minute $3 Yandex (uzbek version of Uber and ridiculously cheap) to the Samarkand – Panjakent land border crossing, which was surpisingly very fast and efficient. After passport control for both sides, we were walking our way into Tajikistan. Before the trip, we booked a 4 day guided tour which included a private car from the border to the town of Panjakent. From Panjakent we’d drive to the 7 lakes, also known as the Marguzor Lakes and the Fann Mountains. The trip also included a hostel-homestay accommodation overlooking the sixth lake and finally, a private taxi to Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. Keep in mind,  I booked directly with the owner of the outfit, who through whatsapp, typed perfect English. More on this in a minute…

We were pumped, we had crossed the border with no problems and looking for our guide on the other side. Turns out the guide was 85 years old and didn’t speak one word of English. Apparently the Russian to English google translate works amazingly. OK, we can deal with this. We’re sure we’ll be hooked up with an English speaker as soon as we get to the homestay. Well, we were wrong. Through google translate, our 85 year old guide turned us over to another driver and we also picked up his 80 year old sister. Again, both of which didn’t speak a lick of English. Just have to roll with it! The drive up to the homestay was a 5 hour, scenic roadtrip. And when I mean scenic, I mean a one-way road along mountain cliffs with one foot of gravel separating us and the river 500’ below. We even got stuck behind a landslide for an hour!

We passed lakes one through six, which were high-alititude blue and beautiful, and finally made it the homestay. The homestay was situated overlooking the sixth lake and provided an amazing view of the lake and the whitecapped Fann Mountains in the distance. Our room was very basic with barely any running water, but we had a bedroom view of the scenery. The 80 year old sister turned out to be our cook and we feasted delicious local meals, which included local lamb dumplings, all around a floor table above the rooms….couldn’t even stand up!

Although the views were second to none, we were a little thrown off by the tour. The tour was supposed to include a guide, hikes and scenic trips to the lakes. Unfortunately, we didn’t know any Russian and our hosts didn’t speak any English, and absolutely zero WIFI for google translate… on top of that, we were the only two tourists at the hostel. We decided to make the best of it and explore the grounds, lakes, and hikes ourselves. By the end of the next day, we had seen all we could on our own two feet and decided to cut the tour a night short. It just wasn’t what we thought it was going to be. Thankfully, two Russian tourists came late at night who spoke a bit of English and we were able to negotiate our ride to Dushanbe for the following day.

The ride to Dushanbe from the Fann Mountains was worth the price of the whole tour. We first stopped at the seventh and most impressive lake of the seven lakes. We spent time wandering around the lake and admiring the peaks of surrounding mountains.

The drive to Dushanbe from the hostel was a hair raising, white knuckling drive along the cliffs for 8 hours. The drivers are insane. We were holding on for dear life and thought our driver would take the hint and give us some breathing room, but no, our driver put the pedal to the metal and continued the crazy drive. I’m so thankful I’m alive to type this blog!

The drive consisted of multiple stops to view the mountains and we even got stuck in a traffic jam….of sheep! Epic road trip.

The conclusion of the trip ended in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. We arrived a day earlier than we expected so we had to find a café with WIFI to find a hotel. We booked a brand new hotel in the center of the city for $60/night. What a deal! Turns out Tajikistan is even cheaper than Uzbekistan. Our last night was a Friday night, so again, we were on the lookout for a craft beer…not much of a craft beer scene in Tajikistan. We settled on the cheapest food and beer in the world and drank for a local pint for a whopping $1.15.

Even though Dushanbe isn’t the world’s most popular tourist destination, we spent the day walking the city and checking out the local sites which included Rudaki Park, the National library of Tajikistan, Rudaki Avenue and the Ismoili Somoni Monument.

What a trip for the Door brothers! Definitely off the beaten path, but we loved every minute discovering the ancient mosques and madrassas and the unique daily life of the cities. Epic!