Yvonne and Payson Rowell, June 2015

Silk Road Treasure Tours provided us with a wonderful vacation in Uzbekistan that we will treasure forever! Zulya Rajabova and her team took great care of us from our initial registration and Uzbekistan visa applications throughout the trip itself, and including the post-travel discussions.
After a terrific travel experience in Tashkent, Uzbekistan we flew to Nukus, in the middle of the desert to visit the world-class Savitsky Museum (The Museum of Forbidden Art) with its amazing relics from nearby archeological digs and Russian avant-garde art collection. During the Stalin era the painter Igor Savitsky collected thousands of these magnificent paintings and secreted them away from the Soviets. It was a highlight of our Uzbekistan trip!
Uzbekistan is a shopper's paradise, fun and easy in Uzbekistan. In the magical city of Khiva there was wonderful woodcarving. Bukhara was full of beautiful silks, embroidery, ladies' fashions and art. It was fascinating for Yvonne, who is an artist, to see paintings where coffee was used as the medium. We visited an artist in his studio in Samarkand who is well known for his miniatures, a centuries-old Central Asia art form. Samarkand was spectacular, with Tamerlane's Gur-i-Amir Mausoleum, Shah-i-Zinda Ensemble and the centerpiece, Registan Square, among the many intriguing sights.
Back in Canada, our friends and family ask us "what was the highlight of our Uzbekistan trip", but there were so many...the Kizilkum desert and the meandering Amu Darya river; meeting the hospitable Uzbek people on a drive into the mountains; watching two women in Khiva start a fire in their beehive-shaped oven to bake wonderful flatbread; dining and dancing in the home of a family in Bukhara; admiring the artistry of the tile work in the many medressahs, mosques and mausoleums, and most importantly, interacting with the friendly, hospitable people.
The legendary Silk Road has always intrigued us and here we were amidst all of this history, visiting the monuments left behind by the multitudes of people who have travelled this route through the centuries; and now it was our turn!
Thank you Zulya Rajabova and Silk Road Treasure Tours team for making this a trip of a lifetime. We have gained a friend in Zulya.
Yvonne and Payson Rowell,
Canada, June, 2015