What is the most beautiful city in the world?
Wacky as it sounds, the two loveliest cities I can remember seeing were in Uzbekistan. Bukhara and Khiva. Folks don’t realize that Uzbekistan has a historical and architectural history that rivals anything in Western Europe… hiding in that crazy country with its despotic dictator and the unfortunate stigma of a Muslim population and a name that ends in -stan. Bukhara is every tourist’s favorite, and happened to be my introduction to the country (Besides Tashkent, which is a hopeless soviet showcase, with lovely wide straight tree-lined streets, monstrous statues and absolutely no soul whatsoever. It does have a lovely Indian restaurant and more than a few Korean Galbi joints though.)… on first sight, it will knock literally anybody’s socks off. At first, you wander though the narrow winding streets, getting a distinctly Middle Eastern vibe with a fancy Central Asian twist (nan-like flatbreads baking in tandoor-style ovens, old soviet cars decaying as they poke along the cobbles)…
