| Go shopping in Samarkand with recommendations, reviews, tips and photos posted by real travelers and locals. Samarkand Map |
 | Samarkand Shopping | Tips 1 - 10 of 14 |  |
 Stylish too by TheWanderingCamel
Tour groups are usually taken to the Khudjum Embroidery Factory where most of the work for sale in the town is made.
Wherever I travel I set myself a task to bring back a gift for my Book Group friends - something that typifies where I have been. In what has become a standing joke amongst the group, I also set myself the task of spending no more than a dollar on each gift -it certainly can be a challenge!
Finding the skull caps that had been $2-3 in Bukhara for only $1 in Shakrisabz was a great coup - and the young girl I bought them from had a smile that lit up her face when I instantly bought 10, no bargaining or bartering. She was delighted and so was I.
With a whole range of colours and sizes to choose from, there was one to suit each of my friends - and they do look good. Leave a Comment Theme: Local Craft
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 Shopping Uzbek girls on
Samarkand's bazaar by Trekki
If you look for souvenirs, you should visit one of the countless stalls in the medressas. Well, of course, there are differences in price and quality. I didn’t actively look for souvenirs, as I was heading for trekking in the Pamirs, so no excess luggage was allowed. But I did see some nice places where I would have shopped if I could:
Ulug’bek Medressa (for tea and stoneware), Gur-i-Amir (for tiles) and the little former caravanseray (?) between Ruchebad Mausoleum and Gur-i-Amir.
From what I have heard, the prices are a bit lower than in Bukhara and Khiva, but more expensive than in Tashkent (as of mid 2006). Leave a Comment Theme: Other
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 Waiting for a customer by TheWanderingCamel
More difficult to find are the wonderful silks and other textiles by the metre - the stuff in the bazaar is nearly all synthetic and not the real thing at all. Very few of the traders in the handicraft shops sell any fabric by the metre, though I did manage to buy some very good small pieces of striped cotton/silk mixtures that I was told by the guide were old and hard to get these days. You have to ask though -they won't be on display. Leave a Comment Theme: Local Craft
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 Wonderful work by TheWanderingCamel
$5 was all I paid for this - it was what she asked and I was more than happy to pay for such fine work. Leave a Comment Theme: Local CraftDirections: There were just 2 or 3 women selling things in the courtyard of the Dorut Tilovat
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This was a real find! I’d been searching for a gift for my mother, who likes scarves (which you can find in abundance in Uzbekistan) but prefers square ones (which you can’t find at all!) Then in this little gallery a stone’s throw from the Registan I found what I’d been looking for. It doesn’t sell traditional Uzbek crafts but more modern ones, with a great range of paintings in various media, pottery and hand-painted silk scarves – including some square ones :)
Even if you aren’t interested in buying you’ll probably enjoy a visit to this friendly gallery, where the owner is likely to welcome you with tea and sweets, and will answer (in limited English) your questions about the work for sale. And the building in which it is housed is itself interesting, one of several grouped around a shady courtyard with first floor wooden galleries. Next door is another gallery displaying more paintings and very good photos of Uzbek scenery and Samarkand itself.
The prices aren’t cheap, indeed by local standards they are high, and haggling isn’t an option, but the items are of very good quality and worth what is asked for them. I paid $22 for Mum’s scarf, for instance. Theme: ArtPhone: 998 (662) 35 04 77Directions: Go north along Tashkent Street past the Museum, turn right and the sign for the shop (photo 2) is to your left – you’ll need to go into the courtyard to see it, and it’s then up the stairs in front of you.
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The Registan is the prime spot for souvenir shopping in Samarkand, with many of the former hajira (cells) in the madrassahs turned over to local stall-holders. This can detract (and distract) considerably from the impact of the madrassahs, but is convenient if you want to browse several places before making your selection. You quickly find however that most of the items available are much the same from shop to shop, as are the prices.
The standard items you’ll see in almost every shop include suzanni (embroidery, usually wall-hangings or cushion covers), small pottery or ceramic pieces, silk scarves, knives, pictures, rugs, musical instruments, cheap beads etc. We bought a small mosaic picture which reminded us of a typical Uzbek scene, a pre-restoration photo of the Tillya Kari Madrassah and a simple cushion cover for my mother-in-law (see photo 3), all of which we found in various hajira in the Ulug Beg Madrassah.
The best purchase for us though was another cushion cover I found in the shop on the left of the entrance to that madrassah. Here a young girl was working at a suzanne, and the quality of the work on display was very evidently superior to much that we’d seen elsewhere. Whereas the first cushion cover had large areas of plain cotton unadorned by embroidery, the ones here were completely covered with beautifully worked silk stitches. You can see the one we chose in photo 2, now taking pride of place on our sofa at home.
Prices do vary with quality, and in the cells haggling is encouraged. We paid $7 for the cheaper cushion cover (and the shop-owner was so pleased to get it he threw in a small clay figure for free!) and $5 for the mosaic picture. The shop in the entrance portal, which proclaimed itself a museum of embroidery, charged higher prices which were fair for the higher quality on offer. We were quoted $35 for the cushion cover that had caught our eye, and when we asked if that was negotiable (polite speak for “can we haggle”) we were told no – but he would let us have it for a discount at $30! Theme: Local CraftDirections: All round the madrassahs. The entrance to the “Museum of embroidery” is on your left as you stand outside, and in front of, the entrance to Ulug Beg Madrassah, but it can also be entered from the SE corner of the courtyard.
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 Artist at work, Bibi Khanum
Mosque, Samarkand by toonsarah
Prices ranged from $5 to about $20 Theme: ArtDirections: The Mosque is about 10 minutes walk north of the Registan along Tashkent Street (next to the bazaar)
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In the side street that leads to the Zarina B & B where we stayed are a couple of small local shops, which we found very useful for basic supplies. Here we could buy bottled water at a lower price than that sold in the hotel (about 200 som for a small bottle). I also came here to buy sweets to take home for work colleagues. This involved a fair amount of miming as I was keen to get a good mix of flavours but at the same time avoid chocolate which wouldn’t have survived in that heat. The shop-keeper was a little bemused at first but eventually we were able to understand each other and the resulting purchase gave me lots of satisfaction. The sweets were pretty tasty too!
Prices are so cheap by western standards that you don’t need to be concerned about how much things will cost. Theme: Food and Drink
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 Samarkand Market by chrisvandenbroucke
The sesam seeds on top of the round breads are patterned in a way that the local people can see where the bread was baked.
Of course to us, it looked all the same... but it tasted quiet good Leave a Comment Theme: Food and Drink
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 Samarkand Market by chrisvandenbroucke
Be prepared for the fat meat and eat something dry Leave a Comment Theme: Food and Drink
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