PARTYING WITH THE UZBEK'S OF THE SILK ROAD (Traveling Khiva, Uzbekistan) 🇺🇿

Good evening from a chilly Tashkent, actually. We're just about to order a taxi to get to the train station after spending a couple of days in Tashkent. We're off to Khyber and we're getting a night train. Salam alaikum. Excellent. Rahpat. What is this? How much was it? Nine. No, it's seventeen. No, no, no. No, stop it. Stop it. No, it's not fair. Here's ten. Yeah, it was like that. Thank you. That's it, sister. Take it, take it. That's it. Thank you very much. You too. Thank you. Goodbye. Okay, that was the nicest taxi driver in the world. Chatting to us the whole way. So nice. And then he was, like, refusing to take the money. And we were, like, throwing it at him. And he was trying to give it back to us. It was unbelievable. We had Rahpat from having an old man screaming at the other man who was wearing shorts. Like, he didn't have any... We weren't there. It could have been a lie. He was, I don't know... Everyone here has just been so friendly. Very chatty. Genuinely interested. They ask you so many questions. We went for a walk earlier. And we walked quite a lot. So we sat down on the bench. And two men were walking past. And, like, we said hello. They started chatting to us. And he was, like, I'm just going to walk around for a little bit. And then we can go and have some food at my house. Just out of the blue. We'd been talking to him for about two minutes. And he was, like, yeah, obviously you're coming to our house for dinner. We're, like, we're actually getting on the train tonight. But we might come back here when we're back in Tashkent. And wait for you just here. See if you come back. People are just too nice. Like, why would you be refusing to take the fee? The fee for the taxis. It makes me feel so rotten. Yeah, yeah, because we're paying for a service. Anyway, we are at the station. And we need to go through. There's a massive queue up ahead to get in. And then the train is 10 past 8. So the train's in 50 minutes. Right, so we just pulled off. We've got 14 hours ahead of us. The space is a lot less than we thought. So it could be a cramped line. But thankfully we walked quite a lot today. So both of us are pretty knackered. Fingers crossed we nod off quite early. So we're not far out of Khyber. And we just wanted to show you this out the window. We're in the very south at the moment. And there's an area around Khyber which is full of Uzbekistan's biggest export. Which is cotton. Literally everywhere. Growing on every single side. And now there's a load of houses. Here comes the cotton again. Survived. Welcome to Khyber. So this part of town we're in is obviously not the very old part. From the times of the Silk Road. But it's been built to look the same. Hasn't it? It looks really really beautiful. It's not like we're walking out into a modern city and then the old city's next to it. It seems like the whole, or certainly this part of the city has been continued. The theme's been continued. Which is really really nice. We just checked in into a guest house. Dropped all our bags off. Got changed. And now let's go and find some food. Salam alaikum. We're in the middle of the day. And it's not hot today. It's quite hot. It's like 25. It's not 40. And there's no one out. Apart from some of the locals walking around. Khyber so far is really atmospheric, isn't it? See over there? Tea's a big culture here in Uzbekistan. And there is a ritual that everyone does before they start drinking their tea. They pour their tea in a cup three times. They pour it in. They pour it back. And twice more. And apparently you need to do this so the tea brews quicker. And also the leaves are going to be based at the bottom of the teapot. And that's the last time. Also it gets very messy when we do it. So another thing is here in Uzbekistan guests are sacred. So when the person, usually the head of the table, is pouring the tea they'll only pour you a little bit in your cup so that you can drink that. And then they'll pour you a bit more. So that basically the tea doesn't get cold. You're always having hot tea. It's just a sign of respect. So if you see someone pouring you a little bit of tea And they're like, if you see someone pouring me a full cup, go away. Yeah, get out. A few dishes. And these two dishes in particular you can only find in Khyber. So this is called Shimi Kikoshi. And this dish is called Tukum Bara. And this is Korma, or Chiburek, which is basically a dough, deep fried dough with some meat, possibly onion and spices inside. So these are noodles made out of dill. That's why they're green. And there we've got potatoes, meat, onion and it's like a really nice sauce, almost like a gravy. And there is, could be sour cream. And the sour cream, oh my god. And the sour cream is not sweet. Let's try. Dill is one of Matt's favourite things in the world. I can't wait to dig in already. I actually read that this dish is called Summer Plov. It's a lot lighter. And it is very delicious. It does feel very light and refreshing to eat it, even though there's like potatoes and meat in there. It doesn't feel heavy as such at all. And noodles are, they do actually feel very refreshing. Although it is light but at the same time it's really comforting. And the flavours are very simple. It's just simply delicious. And I wanted to say that in Uzbekistan, we've seen it in many places, cafes and restaurants, where a sink stores your hands. Like right in the restaurant. Yeah, right in the restaurant, not in the toilet. They're so advanced. And these are obviously dumplings, but they're dumplings that are only found here in Kiva. They're called Tukhum Barak and we aren't 100% sure what's inside so let's try them. It's going to be a surprise. They look awesome. What's inside? That's awesome. Egg. So dumplings are obviously found all the way along the old Silk Road, from Hinkali in Georgia, or Chinese dumplings, to Manti here in Central Asia. And these are just another really local variation of different type of dumplings. And these have egg inside. They are really nice, really different. It's incredibly unusual but it's so delicious. Again, like you were saying about the Shibuyoshi, it doesn't feel heavy at all. It feels really like a perfect snack almost. Light and refreshing. I like your way of thinking. Perfect snack. Yeah. Right, so now let's try what's called here Guma or also known as Cheburek. We've had these quite a few times when we've been in Russia and they are, like Julia said, like meat-filled fried pastries. Let's rip one in half and see if we can see all the meat in it. Perfect. There's meat, spices, onions, crispy pastry, loads of oil. That's just the most awesome almost street food, yeah. Just grab a Cheburek or a Guma, walking through the streets of Europe. Perfect. Mmm. How long have you been doing this? Six months. Six months on one mat, right? Yes. Wow. Thank you. Goodbye. All these designs, and you have to know in your head what colour to put, not just the whole process of technique of putting this knot in, what colour to put, I would love to learn that. Incredible. I don't think I will ever look up in the same mouth. So much work. No, just a week. So all around here there's these stunning madrasahs, and in this one we were just reading that poets have studied here, interpreters, statesmen. It must have been incredible. Back in the day this was like a meeting place, as with the other cities here in Uzbekistan now, of just incredible minds, clever people, there was scientific, mathematical discoveries here in Bukhara and Samarkand. Incredible. Are you not allowed in if you're dumb? I don't know if they give you a test or anything. Isn't there an IQ test before you enter the city? Possibly the reception gives you a quick IQ. 98. Sorry. Dumbass. Go home. Get lost. This is just insane. This is my favourite design in the whole world. If I ever had a house, I would decorate it like that. 100%. So Kiva might be a little bit smaller and less famous than, let's say, Samarkand or Bukhara, but if you'd have mentioned this place to anyone in the 19th century, you would have struck fear into their hearts. This place was famous for its slave trade, its barbaric cruelty, marauding Turkmen tribesmen. This was actually one of the last places in this part of the world that the Russian Empire conquered. It took them until 1873. They tried a couple of times before. One time, I think, I was reading in the 18th century, they sent 4,000 troops to take over what was then the khanate of the Kiva region, and they slaughtered the lot of them, apart from a few, just to go back up to St. Petersburg at the time and to cry. Yeah, to tell them what had happened, to say, don't come back. And it took them until 1873 when they bought a contingent of 13,000 troops down to take over Kiva and the khanate of this region. And where are you from? Andijan. Andijan, yes? We drove through Andijan. You have a very beautiful city. Also Russian! This massive building behind us is supposed to be that tall that you can see all the way towards Bukhara. I'm not sure why I'm pointing that way. It's probably the other direction. Anyway, the khan at the time, that was his wish. He wanted it to be super tall. However, they started building it, and four years later he died. Hence why it's not finished, and that's why it looks like it's been chopped at the top. It's been a big climb. But it was worth it. That's a view and a half, innit? That's a view and a half. I thought you said no at first. No! What? I don't think I'm kidding.