Slow train to Samarkand: A four-month backpacking trip through Central Asia

UZBEKISTAN – While the high-speed Afrosiyob train is the quickest way through the present-day Silk Road of Uzbekistan, the slow Sharq train is a cultural experience, scant in comfort yet rich in Uzbek hospitality.

Aboard the Sharq, there are women in breezy floral dresses and people who walk the length of the train selling dried fish bigger than their faces, cheap jewellery, and bags of tomatoes and cucumbers.