Hotel Bukhara Palace

... with tales of Mongolia yurt customs and etiquette. I had hoped that this one would be the same.<br><br> We have a couple of stops on our way. On the way out of Bukhara, we stopped at the Chor Minor Madrassah which is quite small but with 4 minarets. As with many of them, it has been turned into a shop. For a mere 500 Zum, we could go up on the roof and take photos of the ...

... reflected in the pond but it&#8217;s anything now but clear and lovely.<br><br> Walking across the street is the Ark or citadel. This is where we learned that most of Uzbekistan with old mosques, Madrassahs, mausoleums, and fortress has turned them all into shops if they are not still being used for the original purpose. And the Ark was no exception. It is being restored but the front part has been ...

... end the evening. It was one of those truly magical moments that you live for when you travel; when dancing and music and laughter transcend cultural and linguistic barriers and the world seems that much smaller. <br><br>Samarkand shared it's magic with us, but as Michael remarked, it is almost sad in a way. The mystique of the place - the wondering and the dreaming - is now dissolved having been there, and we need a new place to capture our imaginations.<br><br><br>

... afterall, on the Silk Road, and these were, afterall, Bactrian camels as opposed to the Arabian camels we were on in the Sahara (for those of you who, like me, are rather unversed in camel classification, the Bactrian ones are the camels with two humps, the dromidores). Well, 20 minutes on the back of a rebellious, flatulent Bactrian was enough to convince me that I would not be cut out for the 10 year journey from Xian to Damascus. <br><br>A stop at Aydarkul lake (a 300 ...

... minarets" in Tajik) which was once the gate house to a medressa. Unlike the other medressas we had seen this one had more of an Indian appearance. On our way back to the center we bought a loaf of shiny round bread from one of the pram pushing bread sellers, having a laugh with them whilst taking photos of them and us clad in loaves of bread. It was nice to have this small interaction with the locals. We were finding in Uzbekistan it was difficult to get a lot of opportunities to meet ...

... 16th century under the evil Khans. There were over 100 Madrassas or schools and more than 300 mosques. <br><br>The most interesting Khan was Nasrullah, known as the butcher in 1826. He took power after killing off his brothers and 28 other relatives. Have a look in Wiki as there are some great photos of this nasty man. He was well known in Victorian England after executing two English officers after they arrived from England without ...

... café was located quite close to our hotel but it was unbelievably slow and kept shutting down. I soon gave up trying to send or access emails but it was disappointing not to be able to record my travelogue on line. This happened all through Central Asia.<br><br>Our evening meal on our first night in Bukhara was at a chaikana (tea house) in the splendid setting of the Lyabi-Hauz, a plaza build around a mulberry tree shaded pool dating back to the year 1620. While we spent most ...

... for 30 minutes and I couldn't be ***** to get on a camel for such a short time. From previous experience I know that the worst time is getting on and off the beast so to do both within half an hour - NO NO NO!!! More truck gossip for you. A woman called Margaret joined the trip in Tashkent - rather a large lady who asked me on the first day how i managed with getting on and off the truck. (Me because I'm the oldest godger she could ask I suppose.) She said she was having ...