We’re arriving for Navruz — in which city can you best feel the traditions and the true festive atmosphere: Tashkent, Bukhara, or Samarkand?
Go to the village of Gilan. 2,700 meters up in the mountains. Kashkadarya region. That’s where I saw a real celebration. They cook sumalak. They rejoice. And in the cities everything is beautiful and well-rehearsed.
Bukhara is the most fairy-tale-like, along with Khiva, but the celebrations are not as large-scale as in Samarkand.