Hotel Afrosiyob Palace Samarkand

... where his wife produces more food. And then we take a nap for 2 hours!
Ziyodullo keeps me up to date with developments. The plan is to rent a truck and carry the bike to Tashkent where another friend of Abdullo's will arrange for it to be freighted to the UK. Fine but I need to get registered either at a hotel or OVIR. Every night I stay in Uzberkistan has to be accounted for by registration. Rustam and Abdullo who are out ...

... of the mausoleum was as stunningly beautiful as the stone markers over the graves within were plain. Apparently Timur was a man of simple tastes and his gravestone certainly reflects this. The interior was very cleverly illuminated, and after a barrage of photos we made our way back across town towards the Registan.

Just past the Registan sat the enormous Bibi-Khanym Mosque, built immediately prior to Timur's death and standing till an earthquake struck Samarkand ...

The morning saw us set off in the truck again with almost no spare seats. There are now 23 people in the back and it is very crowded. The travellers have been replaced by holiday makers in what I think is a mistaken marketing exercise by Intrepid travel. Instead of people who want to do the Silk Route we are now half filled with single women of all ages who just want a holiday and to visit the local arts and crafts shops. The next few weeks will require extreme amounts of patience for the ...

... his beloved grandson. The gold fluting and work inside the dome just makes you stop and sit for a while to absorb it, the walls are lined with agate, marble and jade and are under restoration as earlier people’s stole the jade. The jade was cursed and anyone who moved it suffered accordingly until returned.


There is a fascinating story that revolves around graves stating that if the graves are disturbed then bad luck will befall you. Stalin ...

... it was not uncommon to see women in body hugging jeans and revealing tops frequenting mosques where prayers were being undertaken.

From the Registan we walked some three or four kilometers through the back lanes of Samarkand, amongst the houses and living areas of the local Samarkanders. This was around six hours into our trip and we were feeling exhausted. It was however a great opportunity to see how people live and from the photos it can be seen that life is still pretty hard ...

... or so would do us no harm. What we didn’t realise was that electricity is rationed at night time as so there are no street lights. And as no-one eats until at least 9.00 pm in summer, we faced long and very dark walks home along the tree lined footpaths flanking the large Samarkand parks. While we encountered no problems at all, it was very threatening to be walking alone in such dark and lonely areas. And it was probably pretty stupid to do so too.

My last 'silk road city' that I was to see was Samarkand. I had planned to stay 4 days and the great weather on the first day was certainly a positive sign of good things to came. Now the sights were great, I would even say amazing but by a few hours I had had it with mosques, madrasers and most of all blue domes! However I did stay there 4 days so i guess i have to talk about something ...

... was somehow the same price (or a bit more expensive) as usual train. Once again, sorry, a year have passed, and I've got completely lost in prices and local currencies. I just remember that the train came to Samarkand very late at night, and Rustam's mother and me (we happened to travel in the same train) took a taxi, which got her home and me to the hotel. The hotel was very beautiful, 5 min walk from ...

... a lesser amount to the taxi mafia. "Tashkent people are ****," spurted Borat as we had left the capital, heading south past more militsia checkpoints. "All they care about is money, money." "My town is a beautiful town. People are good there." "It's like that, life." Borat was a truck driver, but not in Uzbekistan. In Uzbekistan the militsia take bribes at checkpoints. "Too much trouble here ...

... will be living for then next two years and what our jobs will be. I am going to be living in Bukhara and working at a medical institute there! I will be helping to change the medical curriculum from the soviet version (treatment based care) to a more western version (preventative based) Can you believe it? There are three of us out of the 12 health volunteers who will be working on this project. In addition to the main project, I ...