Samarkand Shopping Tips by TheWanderingCamel Top 5 Page for this destination

Small traders: Shopping in Samarkand

Samarkand certainly isn't as overtaken by traders and small shops as Bokhara (a woman in Khiva said to us,with a most dismissive shrug, 'Huh, Bokhara - supermarket' ! ) but there are still more than enough shops to keep the believers in retail therapy happy. The main area for souvenir/handicraft shopping is undoubtedly the Registan where all of the medressas have shops in the student cells around the courtyards. Here you will find the usual mix of ceramics and embroideries, carpets and hats, paintings and ethnic textiles, etc that are the most popular souvenirs of a visit to Central Asia.
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.

Theme: Local Craft

Shakhrisabz souvenir seller: Simple gifts

There were not many souvenir sellers in Shakhrisabz at all - it's a very small town and not on a lot of itineraries. We found a group of young girls selling cheap things near the Dorus Siadat and women with better items in the courtyard of the Dorut Tilovat. Apparently there are shops selling much the same stuff but we weren't looking and we didn't see them.
Tour groups are usually taken to the Khudjum Embroidery Factory where most of the work for sale in the town is made.

What to buy: 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.

Theme: Local Craft

Shakrisabz souvenir sellers: Fine old work

What to buy: Caps for a dollar are one thing - cheap and cheerful, you don't expect the finest work. Look carefully though among the items that some of the older women selling handicrafts have on their stalls however and you may well find something very fine indeed - like this beautiful old piece of embroidered velvet that had been made into a small bag. Faded and worn it may be, but the work is of the highest standard - it really is a work of art to be treasured.

What to pay: $5 was all I paid for this - it was what she asked and I was more than happy to pay for such fine work.

Directions: There were just 2 or 3 women selling things in the courtyard of the Dorut Tilovat

Theme: Local Craft