Katie GlassVerified account

I won’t go crazy with Almaty pics but here’s people choosing branches to be beaten with at the banya, a statue that looks like an A-ha video, a Russian Orthodox Church that miraculously survived the Soviet period and its typically modest interior.pic.twitter.com/PMzGEyqObO

At Almaty station women sell apples (Alma-Ata means ‘father of the apples’ in Kazakh). People on the platform are in a mix of local and Asian-hipster style clothes. It’s a Muslim country now (there was no religion when it wa Soviet) but relaxed, so some women wear headscarfs.pic.twitter.com/O4t6P4wxxu

So I fell asleep rolling out of Almaty and woke up on the Steppepic.twitter.com/lzbnEijIfg

The scenery is very mixed. The grasslands of the steppe are wild country with free-grazing cattle but a lot of the infrastructure is still very Sovietpic.twitter.com/0vKzxST36A

Obsessed with these cute rectangular cars I keep seeing everywhere - it turns out they’re Ladas. Desperate to drive one!pic.twitter.com/sHVVJXfuyx

My first stop was in Turkistan to see the Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi (which incredibly survived the Soviet era). There were loads of Kazakhs making a pilgrimage here including this young couple on their wedding day (how stylish are their female guests!)pic.twitter.com/e7nfL4Xk9Y

Being a former USSR county, there are so many reminders of my Russia trip here. The cups. The vodka. The little stall at the station but this time selling fresh nuts - and now it’s kebabs being cooked on the platformpic.twitter.com/7FCcP1LAmE

Rolling in the Steppe , camels wondering wild (but being farmed for their wool, meat and milk) and colours graveyardspic.twitter.com/1tObn3X5VT

Then I left @Kazakhstan behind me and crossed the borderpic.twitter.com/tsBNtbbBJD

After border formalities (no pictures allowed) the first stop was Tashkent’s Friday mosque, renovated after the Soviet era. Because Islam is more moderate here women pray in the same space as men, shielded by carved screenspic.twitter.com/OAuo55R6hY

Next - Chorsu market, which to me looked like Uzbekistan’s version of Birmingham’s old school BullRingpic.twitter.com/76eQRkvkIj

Inside Chorsu market they’re selling slabs of horse meat, spices, fresh nuts, shiny crystallised sugar and freshly churned butter. People keep asking me ‘Ruski?’ Because there’s still a lot of Russians here.pic.twitter.com/v3lNNoW5AP

Making a study of the Ladas of Tashkent, which are everywhere, and often piled with an insane amount of stuff. That last one, which I only just caught, had a ladder strapped on toppic.twitter.com/HiwH0YM8dw

The other vehicle that’s really popular here are these mad little buses, which remind me a bit of my VW van’s shapepic.twitter.com/mQIDKhWanK

Like Moscow, Tashkent has a really beautiful subway - built during the Soviet era with stations dedicated to the country’s achievements. These stations celebrate Uzbekistan’s astronauts and their most famous poet Alisher Navoipic.twitter.com/cz6JN60Zxo

This feels like a nice snapshot of modern Tashkent . The super Soviet Hotel Uzbekistan in the background and in front the warrior Timur, denigrated during the Soviet era as a blood-thirsty killer now he’s celebrated in independent Uzbekistan - his statue has replaced Lenin’s.pic.twitter.com/2K8HIGiSwn

Should have got a better picture of Tashkent station (!) but note although it seems to have been modernised the sign still says VOKZAL - the Russian world for stationpic.twitter.com/COUnoLmfcw

I woke up at night and the train was somewhere unknown passing Soviet-looking blockspic.twitter.com/FibvKRKvRX

In the morning we were racing past the Steppe - I *think* those are goats but your view is as good as minepic.twitter.com/RQWrVq7g2A

Watching the Steppe’s lovely. Sometimes you see cattle grazing ok dry grassland, sometimes it’s lush - there’s a lot of mulberry bushes (for all those Silk worms) and occasionally you chug through life. The track’s also a lot bumpier than the trans-Mongolian was.pic.twitter.com/DoTCczBlNk

We stopped at a small village not far north of the Afghanistan border. Everyone was thrilled to see tourists! That man by the donkey ran inside his house and came out with apples for me. The cotton wrapped on the trees is to protect the Persimmon fruit from birdspic.twitter.com/FQWnztQPHR

So surprising to see these wedding dresses out in the dust - but getting married’s a big deal here especially as most of the population’s under 30. Wondering if I should pick one up...pic.twitter.com/wMWrswUG4f

More weddings.. this is the next stop in Shahrisabz where local young couples had come on their wedding days to pose by Timur’s Summer Palace.pic.twitter.com/CbkLlNdjkc

In Shakhrisabz is also the Kok Gambaz mosque ...pic.twitter.com/0bjtdsQhqh

And the Dorus-Saodat complex (if you like blue tiles you’re really going to love the rest of this thread...)pic.twitter.com/hBRrS5ZHIn

Ah back to the lovely train stationpic.twitter.com/euJLd64tdb

Weird how that thudding starts to sound like home... I’ve started getting land-sick when I’m off the train!pic.twitter.com/0ceFala990

I left my heart in Samarkand. I think it’s Uzbekistan’s Bath (in the U.K), everywhere you go is another leafy boulevard, purple and green basil growing in terracotta, pretty tiles, flowers in pot plants... and suddenly in narrow alleyways appear incredible monuments.pic.twitter.com/YNY7RZPRJK

Hard to know where to start with the ‘sites’. Amir Timur (or some spell it Temur) Mausoleum is here. On his tomb is the largest piece of black Jade in the worldpic.twitter.com/WJUq2LnVaF

Registran Square is awe-inspiring, although now it’s been so renovated and crammed with tourtist shops it does lose some of the magic of a ruin.pic.twitter.com/Zz0rTvz8nO