Central Samarkand Hotel

... everywhere which is the only way to get things done in Uzbekistan.

I am Xrayed again. Three days after the even I discover the ankle is broken. The wound is stitched and the leg plastered and then comes the issue of a statement from me to the hospitql authoritie. The problem is we are in another region in Uzbekistan and the hospital have to know what happened. If I say I was knocked down the whole process will start again ...

... stakes) we came across a great little restaurant called the Old City which went some way to salvaging my extremely over promoted night of romance!

The next day we visited the Guri Amir Mausoleum, which was right around the corner from Antica. This mausoleum housed the remains of Timur, two of his sons and two of his grandsons. When he died (while planning a campaign against the Chinese in what is now Kazakhstan) Timur's wish was to be buried in his nearby hometown ...

... into the centre of Samarqand, The Registan, without too much bother and found our hostel, Antica. At $16 a night it's a little pricey for us but we were again welcomed in by the family who own the place with numerous pots of chai.

We're getting a little addicted to shashlikh so headed out to a cafe and gorged ourselves on sweaty meat and beer for £2 a head, and then wandered around the Registan medressas in the fading light.

Walking across town I was struck down with a bout ...

... domes and as far into the Madrassas in the square as we could. The photos detail this far better than I ever could.

Each day I learn something new and the guide finally provided an answer to the reason they use the stalactite decorations over the arches, doorways, in the corners of the domes and at the top of the minarets is to help with earthquake dissipation. Similar to what is used today in modern buildings o isolate them from the movements.

How ...

... for us to appreciate the reconstruction process. At least these buildings will now be around for many more years for people to appreciate and enjoy.

Just behind the Bibi-Khanym was the Siob bazaar. It was alive with various markets selling great quality fresh vegetables, dried fruit and nuts, traditional sweets, honey, dairy products and wonderful freshly baked bread. We spent quite some time wandering around these markets. I bought some fresh nougat which was to test my ...

... European, dignified and very attractive with pastel coloured buildings, white pillars and ornate white trimmings.

Our walk that afternoon was that of a walk with a mission. We were obviously feeling better and were more so when Alan found a shop selling beer. And cold beer too. Furthermore, we found a number of restaurants that looked pleasant and were only a couple of kilometers from our hotel.

That evening we ventured out for our first real ...

... I hopped into my tent, the temperature luckily had cooled down, but there was a heap of noise around my tent. Not wanting to go out and see what was crawling around the tent I decided to turn off my head torch which possibly was attracting the creatures around me. I later found out that there were a lot of dung beetles around me, beetles who find some pooh, roll it into a ball and then move it to their nest to then lay eggs in it which will be able to feed of the ...

... fent de turista interior a Khiva. Truquem a l alegre ginecoleg Jasur desde l estacio del tren de Samarkanda, per mediacio d una amable telefonista russa, de mitjana edat, que mentrestant aprofita per comprar uns ous frescos, que passaven per alla. En traiem dos telefons penjats i una adressa aproximada d una farmacia on treballa el nostre home. Una micromashrutka de l ultima fornada ( Daewoo Damas, maxima compression ...

... Rustam. I also meet Asel, our guide for the day before we leave for Samarkand. We head to Abdul Kasim Madrasah, which is one of the best buildings i have ever seen. . There are three basic blues that figure in all the buildings across the country - turquoise (Phiroza), indigo and prussian. These are woven into intricate patterns on tiles to form majolicas. Artist workshops dealing in leather paintings, wood carvings, silk filigree & metal ...

... overpricing for almost everything from buying bread to souvenirs in the main center. A place where people dont try to cheat you is the bazar away from the tourist center. A bread should cost around 400 sum, a beer in the store 1000 and 1 L bottles of water between 400-600. In Bukhara, I met Dilfuza who has a little store in one of the Medrassas that functions as a souvenir market. After 4 extremely hot days, I decided to skip Khiva and head for ...