Uzbekistan for Indian Travellers: Your First-Timer's Guide to Samarkand, Bukhara and the Silk Road

Indian passport holders get a visa on arrival at Tashkent's Islam Karimov International Airport. No prior application, no embassy visit. You pay USD 50 at the counter, show your return ticket and hotel booking, and you're through in under 30 minutes on most days. The e-visa option (evisa.e-gov.uz) is also available and costs the same, apply three to five days before travel and collect a printout. Either route works.

Flights from Delhi to Tashkent run under four hours. IndiGo operates direct services; Uzbekistan Airways flies from Delhi and Mumbai. Tashkent is the hub, but Samarkand has its own airport with connections from Tashkent if you want to skip the capital entirely on your first trip. Most first-timers do Tashkent one night, then train to Samarkand, then Bukhara, then fly home from Bukhara or backtrack to Tashkent.

The Afrosiyob high-speed train between Tashkent and Samarkand takes two hours and fifteen minutes. Samarkand to Bukhara on the same line takes another hour and a half. Book tickets on the official UzRailPass website or through your hotel, trains sell out on weekends, especially in April, May, September, and October, which are the best months to visit.

The Registan, three madrasas facing a central square, is the image every travel brochure uses, and it still stops you. What photographs don't convey is the scale. Each madrasa facade runs roughly 35 metres wide and 30 metres tall, covered in geometric tilework in cobalt, turquoise, and gold. The Sher-Dor Madrasa on the right has tigers with human faces on its spandrels, a deliberate break from Islamic aniconism that the local ruler pushed through in the 17th century.

Go at 7 AM before the tour groups arrive. The square is open and the light is flat and clean. By 10 AM it is crowded. By 2 PM in summer it is brutal.

Gur-e-Amir, the mausoleum of Timur (Tamerlane), is five minutes by taxi from the Registan. The interior dome is covered in papier-mache stalactites painted gold, a technique called muqarnas, and Timur's actual tomb is a slab of dark green jade on the floor. Shah-i-Zinda, a necropolis of 11 mausoleums connected by a narrow lane, is the third essential stop. The tilework here is older and less restored than the Registan, which makes it more interesting to anyone who cares about the actual Silk Road period rather than the 17th-century reconstruction of it.

Budget two full days for Samarkand. One day for the Registan and Gur-e-Amir, one day for Shah-i-Zinda and the Ulugh Beg Observatory on the city's edge, where the 15th-century astronomer-king built a sextant 11 metres in radius into the hillside to measure the solar year to within a minute of modern calculations.

Bukhara is older, smaller, and less polished than Samarkand. The UNESCO-listed old city has been continuously inhabited for 2,500 years and it shows, the lanes are narrow, the houses are mud-brick, and the Kalon Minaret (built 1127) still stands because Genghis Khan, who razed the rest of the city, reportedly looked up at it and bowed before ordering it spared.

The Ark Fortress, a walled city-within-a-city that served as the emir's residence until 1920, is worth the 20,000 som entry fee. The museum inside is thin, but the view from the ramparts over the old city is the best in Bukhara. The Bolo Hauz Mosque across the road has a wooden iwan (columned porch) with 20 carved wooden pillars reflected in the pool in front, one of the more quietly beautiful things in Central Asia.

The covered bazaars, Tim Abdullakhan and the Trading Domes near the Kalon complex, still function as actual markets. You'll find suzani embroidery (the large hand-stitched wall panels that Uzbek women traditionally made as part of a dowry), silk ikat fabric, dried fruit, and ceramic work. Prices are negotiable. A good suzani panel runs USD 40 to 150 depending on size and age. The ikat silk scarves are around USD 10 to 20. These are not tourist trinkets, the craft traditions are real and the production is local.

One day is enough for Bukhara's monuments. A second day is for wandering the old city lanes in the early morning, when the light is low and the streets are empty except for locals heading to the Kalon Mosque for Fajr prayer.

The Uzbek som is not convertible outside Uzbekistan, so don't try to get it before you leave. USD cash gets the best exchange rate at official exchange counters in hotels and airports, the rate is consistent and legal. Cards work at larger hotels and some restaurants, but carry cash for bazaars, trains, and smaller eateries.

The food will feel familiar in structure if not in spice. Plov, rice cooked in cottonseed oil with carrots, onion, and lamb, is the national dish and it is eaten for breakfast as often as for lunch. Samsa (baked meat pastries) and lagman (hand-pulled noodles in broth) are everywhere. Vegetarians will find it harder outside Tashkent; the default assumption is meat. Ask specifically for vegetarian options and expect eggs, bread, salads, and dairy to be your staples. The non (flatbread) baked in a tandoor oven is exceptional and costs almost nothing.

Indian travellers should note that Uzbekistan is a Muslim-majority country with a largely secular government and relaxed social norms by regional standards. Alcohol is available. Dress codes at mosques require covered shoulders and legs, carry a stole. The call to prayer is audible in the old cities; most hotels near the Kalon Minaret in Bukhara will have you hearing it at 4:30 AM in summer, which is either atmospheric or disruptive depending on your sleep habits. Book accordingly.

The currency: as of the last available data, 1 USD converts to approximately 12,700 to 12,900 Uzbek som. Budget roughly USD 50 to 70 per day for a mid-range trip covering accommodation, meals, entry fees, and local transport. Samarkand and Bukhara are cheaper than Tashkent.