Uncovering Uzbekistan

Remote terrain, mountain treks, vodka at the dead of night and Tashkent’s magnificent metro are just some of the wonders of one of the world’s newest tourist attractions. Just don’t try talking politics in Uzbekistan

A metro station in Tashkent

It feels like a Houdini moment. We enter an ugly concrete building, descending an equally unattractive flight of steps into the bowels of Tashkent’s subway system whose hurrying commuters are overwhelmingly young males wearing white shirts and tailored black trousers.

A sprinkling of rural women, decked out in layered ...