CENTRAL ASIA

Welcome to Uzbekistan. Brutal external geometry, austere and functionally appointed rooms, a vast and mostly empty ballroom breakfast setup, and a top floor smoking bar - the Hotel Uzbekistan is one of the few remaining major concrete icons of the Soviet era, after Tashkent, the national capital, was levelled by an earthquake in the 1960s. From the window, the city was not framed by the blue domes of the ancient Silk Road mausoleums and madrasahs, but instead by the seemingly