I'm kind of early morning person but I had to stay in caused the weather seem harsh to me! Samarkand was even cooler than Bukhara and we had experienced snow falls yesterday.
I've more than 80 pictures for this entry of the first day in Samarkand. We only had barely a full day today in Samarkand and early tomorrow morning we will be going to Chimgan. Even though today's trip start at 10 in the morning, we had visited most of the main attractions and then finished the day shopping at Siyob Bazaar.
After the breakfast, we went outside as we saw several others were playing on the ground. Snow starts to fall again, yes, we were so excited since it was our first. Mr Ilham said that this weather condition is the best as the snow is not heavy. It was at peak of the winter season in mid January.
Picture on left : Nu'man @ Amir Timur Mausoleum
First stopped was the Gur-e-Amir Mausoleum, the conqueror of Asian, also known as Tamerlane. Apart from the Tamerlane's tomb, his sons Shah Rukh and Miran Shah as well as his grandsons Ulugh Beg and Muhammad Sultan also buried here. The complex built in early of 14th century also comprising of a madrasa and a khanaka, the gathering place for the sufis. Enough said! Let's the pictures do the talking
Apasal Nu'man muka masam?
Gur-e-Amir from the distant
Nu'man's roommate in Uzbekistan
Mixed of Persian-style architecture
The spectacular view of the mausoleum frontage
This is the earliest part of the complex build by Muhammad Sultan
Ceramic tiles embedded into the wall
The dark-green jade in the center is the Temur's stone
Part of the crypt turned to souvenir shops
The shops were rather small
I've made a snow ball!!
An architectural complex with its azure dome from far
Four kilometers from the mausoleum, we stopped at Shah-i-Zinda besides a Muslim cemetery. This necropolis complex was formed since 14th century until the 19th and the legend said that Prophet Muhammad's (PBUH) cousin, Kusam bin Abbas, is buried here. The complex consists of lower, middle and upper section connected with chartak.
Shah-i-Zinda means The Tomb of Living King
The portal of late Amir Temur's mother was decorated with glazed terracota
Prophet Muhammad said "Kusam Abbas is more than any other person looks like me by character and appearance"
The Kusam mausoleum courtyard.
A mosques situated besides the Kusam's mausoleum
The three pictures above are sister and niece of Timur tombs, said to be the most beautiful
In the middle section of Shah-i-Zinda
Backed to the lower section
Even though it looks more like a normal cafeteria, but the plov would never failed us at Samarqand Osh Markazi. Full with local people having lunch of the tasty seasoned plov, but a bit oily for me.
Perfectly cooked and juice meaty, and not to forget the tasty yellow carrots
Chillin’ with the elders at Plov Center.
While the morning we visited the Temur's mausoleum, after lunch we went to the Registan square. I must say the view from far was majestic. While most of the architectural buildings we visited, this is the most spectacular complex, with huge square and huge portals. It comprises of three madrasah built at different times, Ulugh Begh Madrassa (1420), Sher-Dor Madrassa (1636) and Tilya-Kori Madrassa (1660).
This Ulugh Begh Madrassa was designed by architect Kavomiddin Sherozi
The inner courtyard of 14th century building
The Tilya-Kori Madrass built in 16th century
I wished to have more time to spend here
A simpler Sher-Dor Madrassa courtyard
Tilya-Kori Madrassa
Sher-Dor Madrassa has higher minaret
Meeting point with the rest of the group
Late afternoon, we walked around 800 meters to the Siyob Bazar, passing through Chorsu Trading Dome and long walking path with dozens small shops in both sides. Then we stopped at Bibi-Khanum Mosques for pictures. The mosques was exposed to several problems with structural integrity and has been under restoration even until now.
Bibi-Khanum Mosque besides the bazaar.
Entrance of Siyob Bazaar
Nu'man bought his small dagger...
and the Uzbek hat
The bazaar offers good bargains from nuts, halwa (sweets) as well as it's souvenirs
As usual, the Uzbek dinner
We had dinner at one of the local and were entertained with Uzbek dance!
Thinking of the same idea as what Zarin did in his wrapping up post, I'll do the same for the sake of my own record. This post will be updated from time to time. Some of the trip may have a specific write-up and you may click on the travelling month. Here is the world travel map, courtesy of TripAdvisor. A bit of Statistics: Total countries visited = 22/195 [Last updated : September 2023] Our Travel Map. [Courtesy of TripAdvisor. According to them, we only covered 13% of the Earth at the moment :P .... still long way to go and we didn't show USA map as to when we will be there]
Sarapan pagi kat airport We had been rotating to visit the Southeast Asia country each year and this is the fourth time visit to Indonesia after Bali (2010), Bukittinggi (2012) and Bandung (2014). Looks like we made a return every 2 years, that's interesting! We may need to consider other countries like Brunei, Philippines or Cambodia in the near future. Three hours later, we arrived Lombok International Airport at noon. We were welcomed by Pak Ibrahim's staff shortly after clearing immigration and collecting our luggage. The weather that day was slightly overcast. En route to Teluk Kodek Port, we stopped at Sukarara Weaving Village. By the time we reached there, it was raining heavily. It is a traditional craft of weaving center located in Lombok West Nusa Tenggara. Not much seen as it felt, we had ayam taliwang for lunch at Taliwang Alam Nyaman restaurant, known for its famous local dish. Alpukat Jus (Avocado Juice) is also a must try whenever you vi...
Watch out! It is a zika-free :P trip to the city of light that we had on the 2nd mid-term school holiday, apart from the 'balik kampung' to Ipoh and JB on both week end. My wife managed to secure a stay for 2 nights at the 'Rumah Peranginan Persekutuan' where it supposed to be a big family trip with my siblings. It was a big vacation house, which I believe can cater at least 15-20 people. For some reasons, they had to turn it down. Note: Pictures taken are not in the best quality as I'm still get my hands on the new DSLR camera.. wink.. wink..
I'm kind of early morning person but I had to stay in caused the weather seem harsh to me! Samarkand was even cooler than Bukhara and we had experienced snow falls yesterday.
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