Traveling around Uzbekistan

I still remember the dust. Not the romantic kind—the kind that gets into your camera bag and your lungs and stays there for days after you leave.

I used to think festivals were just excuses for crowds and overpriced food. Then I stumbled into a small harvest celebration in rural Vermont one October

I used to think pomegranates were just fruit. Then I spent three weeks in Samarkand watching a master craftsman named Rustam Sharipov turn pomegranate

I used to think madrasahs were just austere rooms with students hunched over ancient texts, but Madari Khan Madrasah in Khiva shattered that assumption

I used to think saddle-making was just about leather and stitching. Turns out, traditional Uzbek saddle craftsmanship is this deeply layered practice that

I’ve spent the better part of three years trying to understand why certain pilgrimage sites feel like they exist outside normal geography, and Asht

The blue dome rises from the dust like it’s been waiting for you. I’ve spent years wandering through Central Asian architecture, and honestly

I used to think wildlife watching meant Africa or maybe Costa Rica. Turns out, Uzbekistan—yes, that landlocked stretch of desert and mountains most Americans couldn’

I spent three weeks in Bukhara last spring, and honestly, the ceramic workshops there changed how I think about pottery entirely. The thing is, contemporary

The Arasan Baths: Where Soviet Architecture Meets Ancient Ritual (and You’ll Definately Need a Guide) I used to think all hammams were basically