With my time in Bukhara at an end, it was time for me to my fellow travel influencers and I to head off to our next city, Samarkand! Come along with me as we make our way to this ancient city along the silk road and embark on new adventures, including meeting the President of Uzbekistan!
My day started in beautiful Bukhara. Soon we’d be leaving for Samarkand, which is known as the crown jewel of Uzbekistan. It’s the most important city along the Silk Road. Alexander the Great and his forces actually seized the city back in 329 BC! I couldn’t wait to get there and attend the Sharq Taronalari Music Festival, which is one of the biggest cultural festivals in all of Central Asia. Let’s go!
We’d be riding the Afrosiyob high-speed train to Samarkand. It’s the fastest train in Uzbekistan! It travels at 250km/155 miles per hour! It was going to take us 90 minutes to get to Samarkand. I met more people and hung out on the ride.
I could see an arid, rocky landscape out the windows. It was blazing hot out there but it was nice and cool onboard. I got a double espresso to wake up. It wa dark and tasted like Turkish coffee.
We would be heading straight from the train to the Sharq Taronalari Music Festival at Registan Square, so a lot of my fellow travelers changed into eveningwear and did their makeup on the train. I changed beforehand.
Upon our arrival in Samarkand, we were greeted by a band of musicians and women offering delicious Uzbek bread! I was loving the welcoming committees in Uzbekistan. I tried some bread and nuts before we hopped on the buses to Registan Square.
There was a possibility that we would get to meet the President of Uzbekistan, so I was excited. While we waited, some of us were interviewed, but then the daughter of the President and her son arrived, followed by the President himself!
Then, we took a huge group selfie with the President! Meeting the President of Uzbekistan was fun but quick. After that, it was time for the start of the festival.
The festival began with a 30-minute speech by the President. They introduced each country alphabetically and then the musical performances began! It was really cool to see the dancers and musicians perform in front of the gorgeous madrasahs of the square. While they performed, I got interviewed!
We headed down to the backstage area at the very bottom. It was such an epic experience to see it from that perspective. But by 9:30 p.m., the show wasn’t over but we were all super hungry, so we headed off to a restaurant for dinner. The restaurant was only 200 meters away!
We started with some Uzbek vodka, followed by some horse. Next, I had a beef, cucumber, and tomato salad, which was really perfect for the hot weather. After that was some chickpea soup with beef and dill. It was super juicy and I loved the texture. Our final dish was grape leaves stuffed with rice.
What an amazing day! We had an incredible time at the festival and were finally ending our day!
I hope you enjoyed meeting the President of Uzbekistan with me! If you did, please give this video a thumbs up and leave me a comment below. Also, please subscribe to my YouTube channel so you don’t miss any of my upcoming travel/food adventures!
My name is David Hoffmann. For the last decade, I have been traveling around the world in search of unique culture, food, and history! Since starting David’s Been Here in 2008, I have traveled to over 1,100 destinations in 76 countries, which I welcome you to check out on my YouTube channel, travel blog, and social media sites.
I focus a great deal on food and historical sites, as you probably have seen! I love to experience the different flavors that each destination has to offer, from casual street food to gourmet restaurant dining. I’m also passionate about learning about the local history and culture.
P.S. Thank you for watching my videos and subscribing!
Hi everyone, this is David Hoffman from David's Vineyard, beautiful Bukhara, Uzbekistan.
We're actually leaving this city and we're going to Samarkand, the crown jewel of Uzbekistan.
It's actually the most important city along the Silk Road.
And actually, Alexander the Great and his forces seized this city in 329 BC.
Can you believe that? Alexander the Great made it from Greece all the way over here. Crazy.
And we're going to be attending one of the biggest cultural festivals in all of Central Asia.
Are you guys ready? Let's go.
I'm going to bomb their video.
What train is this?
This is the fastest train in Uzbekistan.
Oh yeah? Fastest?
250 kilometers an hour.
What?
Yes.
Yo, yo, yo. I love it. I love the outfit, man.
That's what I need, man.
Thank you, thank you.
Yeah, this is all mine.
30 kilo, 30 kilo.
Yo, I like your clothes, bro.
Thank you.
Nice.
Nice design.
What's happening over there?
This is the silk one.
Oh, the silk one.
The sick one.
Sick.
Yo, you ready?
I'm ready, man. I'm ready.
I'm actually ready to like knock out on this train.
Go to sleep.
Oh, two hours of sleep.
Two hours?
Yeah, you didn't know that?
Two hours?
Nadir wasn't ready.
In the background, I wasn't ready.
Slavic.
Yeah, Slavic.
Slavic blood.
This is my Slavic brother, yeah.
Polski, Polski.
Sister from Czech.
And brother from Hungary.
The train to Samarkand takes around 90 minutes,
and basically we're just hanging out.
Everybody's doing some work, sleeping.
Here with the entire crew.
Where's everybody else?
Business class, business.
Business class.
Can I come?
Let's go.
Let's go. Where are we going?
So we are in economy, and I'm in business right now.
Actually, between both parts of business.
But yeah, I mean, outside all you see right now is a desert.
You see a few buildings here and there,
some houses, but mainly desert.
Really rocky, and it's like,
it's not desert in terms of like a real desert with sand dunes.
It's more just a straight hot desert.
Lots of rocks.
Wow.
It is blazing outside.
I love this train.
This train is really nice.
Oh, it's so cool right now.
Hello, hello.
How are you, David?
I love you, I love you.
I said, what?
You said, oh my God.
No sugar, no cream.
I got a double espresso.
We need to wake up.
Cheers.
No alcohol on the side, Dave.
Yeah, I know.
I promise.
It actually tastes Turkish.
Yeah, it's good.
Right, like dark.
I like it.
I actually love Turkish.
Turkish coffee?
Turkish coffee, yeah.
It's so good.
Strong, strong.
It's like a bomb.
Okay, this is a mirror, you guys.
For traveling.
Rikki by Rikki.
So, because all the hotel rooms have shitty lighting,
so you can use this.
And then,
you can make it very, very shiny.
And,
if you're a beauty blogger.
So, basically, when we get there,
we have to go straight to the concert.
So, we have no time to change.
So, I changed before coming.
Most of the people are changing here on the train.
So, as you can see, everybody's getting ready.
You know, putting their makeup on.
Changing into, like, beautiful outfits.
Right here, we have the India team.
Yo.
Finally.
Looking good.
In the process.
I mean, you guys look like rock stars.
Yay.
Thank you.
So sweet.
Almost there.
Gonna go meet the king.
The king?
The president, Dave.
We might see the president today.
It's not 100% confirmed, though.
The train ride is over,
and in the last, like, 10 minutes of it,
we see everyone just rushing to get on their evening wear,
and I don't have that, as you guys know.
We're going to a concert.
It's the biggest cultural concert, music festival,
in Central Asia.
We made it to Sabarkan.
Yeah.
Sabarkan.
Bread is in every single city we go to.
There's always a welcoming committee.
There's people playing music,
there's always bread,
there's nuts.
What's this one?
It's like yogurt.
All right, so we're about to get on the bus
and go to the concert.
We're having a little bit of a mission right now
because there's three buses
and there's very little space for the luggage.
Lots of luggage.
Damn, it doesn't fit.
Nothing fits here, huh?
Where's it going?
We're headed to the festival now.
Do you know anything about it?
I have no idea,
but this is the biggest music festival in all of Asia.
Central Asia.
And also, I know that it's held every two years,
so we're actually lucky.
Every two years?
Yes, every two years.
It's not every year.
Well, I have no idea what to expect.
I can't wait.
Hopefully, we have some shots with the president.
Yay!
Thank you.
You are welcome.
Come with us.
So, the security guards are her fans.
Look at this.
Fairyland.
Oh, my God.
Sunset.
Look at this.
Music festival outdoors in this surrounding?
You can't get better than this.
Really?
The question is, what are you going to eat?
Dude, that's always the question.
I mean, you haven't eaten in like an hour and a half.
The other question is, is there going to be pop?
Yeah.
That's the other question.
We're doing some interviews with some of the influencers
and just getting their thoughts on the fact that we're about to meet
the president of Uzbekistan.
Dude, where's my interview, man?
Dude, so what are you here?
Are you excited to meet your homeboy?
Aren't you guys friends?
We're tight.
Talk to him a few times.
Yeah.
Same here.
He's a good friend of mine.
Oh, babe.
And she happens to be a mom.
Oh, my God.
You guys need to check out her Instagram.
So, we've been here getting ready for the president's arrival.
And right here is the daughter of the president and her son.
All right, the president's arriving.
The president of Republic of Uzbekistan.
Thank you.
The only dream that we have as a country
is to make people of Uzbekistan prosper.
And we are opening up all gates.
We're giving the blessing to anything
so everything can happen to Uzbekistan.
We know that there is an air of the fake news right now,
the air of negativity.
We don't want this.
We want you to spread the word of good about our country.
We love Uzbekistan.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
All right, so for the past, like, half an hour,
the president has been giving his speech,
doing, like, an introduction.
Now they're finally starting the concert.
And basically, they're introducing every single country
in alphabetical order.
Whoo-hoo!
So I'm from Miami.
And I'm in the middle of a station building.
And I'm not sure if you can see that,
but I'm in the middle of a station building.
Stage behind.
Concert's not done yet.
It's already like 9.30.
We're all really, really hungry,
so we're gonna head out straight to the restaurant.
The restaurant's only like 200 meters away,
so it's right here.
The whole crew's outside.
Let's go.
Pow.
Everyone do animal sounds.
We trying to get that vodka, or what?
Yeah, let's get inside.
Let's do it, let's do it.
I think it's time to celebrate anyway, bro.
Cheers.
Throwback.
Today, today we come from...
We're like a lot better than the last time we stopped.
Give me a drone, man.
Okay.
So is this horse, or is it not horse?
I mean...
It looks like horse to me.
Get the horse.
All right, so next up we have a salad.
It's a beef, cucumber, and tomatoes.
Oh yeah, it's very nice for this hot weather.
Next up, we got something else.
We have a chickpea soup.
That is a chickpea soup.
Very simple.
It looks like it's chickpeas straight out of the can
with a bit of dill added.
It's not just chickpeas, it's also beef, right?
Super juicy, lots of texture.
The last thing on the menu,
we have a...
This is tahmaki.
This is like a...
So it's grape leaf with rice.
You're the man, dude.
You're the man.
Make a fire, make some dinner.
You want to hang out?
It's cool.
It's like the stepbrothers.
Like, did we just become best friends?
Nope.
We're just like...
So we had an amazing day.
We did have an amazing day.
We traveled all the way to Samarkand.
Had an incredible time at the festival.
Incredible.
You guys were filming so much.
We were.
We were non-stop.
We just got to go everywhere.
Which was awesome.
Bro, it's epic.
Epic.
I couldn't even believe it.
We were like, secret service?
Bye.
And now we're at the hotel
and we're going to wrap this up
because it's already been pretty long.
We met the president of Uzbekistan.
Where have you been?
Sharjah.
Tehran.
Al-Araf.
Afghanistan.
Argentina.
Armenia.
Australia.
Austria.
