No room at the Shinkansen

Ignoring the advice of guide books, including such priceless mindlessness as 'in Central Asia trains are late, noisy, and dirty', I left Tashkent fairly quickly to find Uzbekistan's jewels.

There was no room on the bullet train, pictured above, so I had to watch as this Spanish wonder departed to Samarkand (clean, on time, and without a whisper) as my ride to the same city was due twenty minutes later. It was worth the wait.

 

Enter the S H A R Q. Absolutely beaut and generally in a different league to a Virgin Pendalino.