three wads of Uzbek Soms - at the time of exchange 180,000 Soms traded for US $ 100 and so our 300 dollars got us 540,00 soms which were given in a plastic shopping bag. Even a limited lunch cost about 10,000 and most small shops had note counting m 

Taken: Mar 16, 2012

The Tashkent Palace Hotel - part of the Le Meridien chain - in which the signatories of the famous Tashkent Agreement - Pakistani President Ayub Khan and Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri stayed in 1966. 

Taken: Mar 16, 2012

Myself in front of the Registan Square in Samarqand - this is a complex of several old schools - the traditional madrasas and a mosque 

Taken: Mar 16, 2012

The mausoleum of Bibi Khanum - the month of Amir Temurin Samarqand 

Taken: Mar 16, 2012

The old market in Bukhara - a center of trade on the famed Silk Road 

Taken: Mar 16, 2012

Imam Bukhari mausoleum 

Taken: Mar 16, 2012

The instructions for pilgrims to the Imam Bukhari mausoleum in three language - which state the requirement for proper dressing and not praying to the person in the grave 

Taken: Mar 16, 2012

An intricately carved wooden door in the Imam Bukhari mosque, Samarqand 

Taken: Mar 16, 2012

A beautiful Tashkent mosque; in a special museum in this complex is the actual copy of the Qur'an being recited by the Caliph Othman at the time of his martyrdom (generally believed to be housed at the Topkapi in Istanbul) 

Taken: Mar 16, 2012

An interesting innovation by the municipal gardener in Tashkent - using a plastic bottle as a sprinkler for road-side grass 

Taken: Mar 16, 2012

Amir Temur's mausoleum in Samarqand, Usbekistan 

Taken: Mar 16, 2012

Myself at the tomb of Amir Taimur (the reat mongol ruler who conquered much of central Asia and was the meta-founder of our Mughal dynasty 

Taken: Mar 16, 2012

An interesting sign in our hotel where "Paradise" was a casino and "heaven" a night club 

Taken: Mar 16, 2012

The Bishkek branch of the National Bank of Pakistan 

Taken: Mar 16, 2012

The Victory Monument ? Victory Square - the memorial was completed in 1985, the 40th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in the second world war (the Great Patriotic War). A woman, (a mother/a wife), stands over the eternal flame, waiting fo 

Taken: Mar 16, 2012

Myself at the national victory monument in Bishkek 

Taken: Mar 16, 2012

Another view of Issykul 

Taken: Mar 16, 2012

Issykul, the lake on whose shores the conference was held, is an endorheic lake in the northern Tian Shan mountains in eastern Kyrgyzstan. It is the tenth largest lake in the world by volume and the second largest saline lake after the Caspian Sea. 

Taken: Mar 16, 2012

A view of the Imam Bukhari mausoleum-mosque complex in Samarqand, the city in which he took up exile a few months before his death. As expected the great scholar had refused to to the citadel-fort of the Emir of Bukhara to teach his children, and had 

Taken: Mar 16, 2012

A detailed view of the beautiful tile and marble works on the mausoleum of Imam Bukhari 

Taken: Mar 16, 2012

Sitting at the Conference "Syed Abu Ahmad Khan" - the name change probably coming because a confusion with the other delegate Mr. Fasihuddin Khan 

Taken: Mar 16, 2012

A rainbow seen from our bus-window on our way to Issykul 

Taken: Mar 16, 2012

The Tashkent Opera - an inheritance of the Soviet era when a massive effort to introduce Western-Russian culture was made in the Muslim majority areas of Central Asia. 

Taken: Mar 16, 2012

A novel entrance to a home in Cholpon-Ata 

Taken: Mar 16, 2012