Richard AmmonTashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan with modern and ancient buildings and lifestyles. From donkey carts to Mercedes-Benz (a few) the city is a complex mix of ugly Soviet-style apartment blocks, sleek modern office buildings and historic Islamic-style mosques and museums. There is a wide range of fine hotels from plain two-star digs to five-star luxury splendors. The city bustles with commerce and capitalism with the usual behind-closed-doors corruption, political privilege and police bribes. But most tourists have a positive adventure as they follow the famous Silk Road route from Tashkent to Samarkand to Bukhara to Khiva–and perhaps to the dried-up Aral Sea that has rusting ships in the sand.
(See other photo galleries: http://www.globalgayz.com/asia/uzbekistan/)
