May 22, 2012
Hotel: Hotel Lyabi House; Bukhara, Uzbekistan; $60/dbl
Our train didn't leave until noon today so we had all morning free. Breakfast was a lot quieter this morning as the large tour group had left the previous day. Afterwards, we went back to the Bibi Khanym mosque again to see the facade in the early morning.

We went back to the bazaar/bus stop area to catch a taxi to the train station around 11AM. Again most any car in Central Asia can be a taxi but the drivers can get in trouble if they get stopped. Our driver saw a police checkpoint at the other end of the bazaar so he ended up driving the wrong way down the road and squeezing between two cars in a parking lot to get going the other direction! We arrived at the train station which looks like an airport terminal, and almost the same procedure. They checked our tickets & passports and x-rayed our bags.

We still had awhile to wait before heading out to the platform. I noticed the new high-speed Spanish Talgo (duck-nosed) train that only went into service a few months ago, it runs Tashkent to Samarkand in only 2.5 hrs, cutting an hour off the journey. The 'Afrosiyob' train is timed to make day-trips from Tashkent to Samarkand. We were on the older 'Sharq' train that runs from Tashkent to Bukhara via Samarkand. The train arrived about 15 minutes late then it was a mad dash to find our train car, ours of course was the last car way at the end of the platform.

The train was 2x2 seating, which was facing backwards at least in our car. It was also quite hot in the train at least until we started moving. This was the third train I have used in the former Soviet Union. A few years ago my friends and I rode the Baku to Tbilisi overnight train and in 2009 I took the St. Petersburg to Helsinki train. The trip was about 3 hrs to Bukhara and I managed to sleep most of the way despite the Russian soap opera playing loudly on TV. The landscape was becoming flatter and drier as we headed west towards Bukhara.

We arrived about 3:30 and caught a taxi (15000) to the hotel. I had reserved the Lyabi House hotel, located just a block away from the Lyabi Hauz (pool). The Lyabi Hauz was a lovely restored area surrounded by medrassas, souvenir shops and cafes around the pool. The ancient pools used to be the main source of water for Bukhara but were never emptied.. resulting in frequent plagues. The center of Bukhara has been restored as well but has kept a more traditional architecture style of tan bricks and Persian-style arches. After we checked into our hotel, which was a lovely place surrounding a courtyard. My friend Dean and I were sharing rooms tonight, we ended up with a huge two-room suite up on the 3rd floor. Really nice hotel but still no wifi... we'd been stymied on having internet access in our hotel most of this trip! We planned on spending two nights in Bukhara before heading to Turkmenistan.


Lyabi House hotel

We headed back out into the streets to explore for awhile. Bukhara is one of the best-preserved ancient Silk Road cities in Central Asia. Bukhara seemed more touristy even than Samarkand; at least the main streets in the center. The entire old town has been designated a World Heritage site, many of the old buildings have been repurposed to restaurants and souvenir stalls selling carpets, musical instruments, bags, dolls, hats and spices. All of the stuff was locally made though and looked to be good quality, even the t-shirts were made in Uzbekistan from Uzbek-grown cotton. We saw more tourists here than we'd seen elsewhere as well. Prices were more expensive here.. at one point we went in one shop to buy a bottle of Fanta, the young girl wanted 5000 som (we'd been paying 1000 or less in Samarkand). We all started to put our bottles back and the mom scolded the girl for losing business, we got them in the end for 3000.


Shopping street, Bukhara


Kalon minaret

We wandered around to the Kalon Minaret square. The Kalon Minaret is impressive, 47 meters tall and nearly 900 years old. Genghis Khan was reportedly so impressed by the minaret it was one of the few structures spared destruction by the Mongols in their sweep through Central Asia. In the 18th century, emirs would throw people to their deaths from the top. It used to be possible to climb the stairs in the minaret but supposedly it has been closed for a few years and we didn't see any guards around offering to let us climb up for a 'fee'.

We wandered through a few more medrassas on the way back to the hotel.. the colorful Abdulazziz Khan Medrassa was filled with yet more souvenir stalls. It was dinnertime by this point and we had skipped lunch so we were pretty hungry. We had dinner at one of the chaikanas surrounding the pool near our hotel. They were still setting up/cleaning the area so we just sat for awhile by the side of the pool enjoying people watching. The dinner was pretty good, some good plov and huge chunks of shashlik meat. More expensive than Samarkand, but we were paying for the view/ambiance. There was also a lounge singer doing Russian songs.

After dinner we caught up with email at a nearby internet cafe. It was getting dark but the square was quite busy with locals, probably the most active night we had seen so far this trip.

May 23, 2012
Hotel: Hotel Lyabi House; Bukhara, Uzbekistan; $60/dbl
Today we had the whole day to explore around Bukhara. We had actually walked about half the distance through the old city yesterday; Bukhara is a much more compact and walkable city than Samarkand, it's maybe a mile or at most a mile and a half walk from one end to the other. We had an early breakfast at 8AM. There were a lot of British and Australians staying at our hotel but they all left after breakfast, dragging their suitcases on rollers, suckers. I've almost always used my trusty backpack.. I've had it since 1997 and it is still going strong. I had dome some laundry in the sink the night before and it was dry already.

We retraced our steps through the bazaars to the Kalon mosque. We went in the medrassa behind it (I forget the fee). Still no guards here offering to let us go up the tower. From the Kalon minaret we wandered to the Ark, the old citadel. The walls here were huge with round bastions. The Ark was the site where two British officers had been executed in the 1800s; during that time the Great Game was going on between Russia and England empires, the first cold war. Britain was moving in from India and Afghanistan and the Russians were moving in from Central Asia. Bukhara was an independent emirate at the time and was caught between the two. The British sent an envoy but he didn't bring the appropriate level of gifts so the emir threw him in prison. The next officer sent to rescue the first guy was also thrown in prison, causing an uproar back in England. Nothing was done though so eventually the emir had the two officers beheaded in front of the Ark.


Kalon Minaret


The Ark

The Ark though was closed for renovations and had been for some time, so all we got to see was the impressive front gate. We crossed the street to the Bolo Hauz mosque which had a huge pool. The mosques in Central Asia definitely have a different style.. this one was gorgeous dark blue and pink tile with a carved wood portico with a pool in front, it had once been the primary mosque used by the emir. From there we wandered into the park to the west where there were a few mausoleums, including the oldest one in Bukhara, built in 905 AD. There was also Chashma Ayub (Job's Spring), supposedly discovered by the Biblical Job. We met an Iranian guy there and were talking to him about our troubles getting the Iranian visa.


Bolo Hauz mosque


Job's Spring

The restored old City walls were just behind the spring. These used to stretch for over 12kms but only 2kms have been restored. We started heading back through the park, passing a very sad looking zoo and a funfair park, with Ferris wheel and paddle boats out on the lake. We came across either a beached whale or a sunbathing tourist in speedos lying on the side of the pond and gave him a wide berth. We passed the Crying Mother monument, yet another WWII monument with lists of names of those killed. We continued our walk back through town, this time bypassing the sanitized pedestrian tourist streets for the original old town just a block or two away. We wandered through the old Jewish quarter. Bukhara was once home to over 10000 Jews, they lived here since the 12th century until fairly recently. They even had their own language similar to Persian but using the Hebrew alphabet. Only two synagogues remain functioning now.


Back streets of Bukhara

We found a place for lunch serving samsas (samosas) near our hotel, puff pastry filled with ground meat an onion. So good and filling, I ordered two but couldn't finish the second one. Spent most of the rest of the afternoon relaxing at the hotel. We were supposed to meet two other travelers for dinner who were continuing onto Turkmenistan on our tour as well, we wanted to meet up to arrange transport to the border for the next morning. It turns out they were staying just a block away from our place. Scott B. was planning on heading to Urgench/Khiva tonight or tomorrow morning. I had read about a train that ran from Bukhara to Urgench but only on Wednesdays; no one we asked seemed to know about it though until he found a travel agent that was able to book his ticket.

We met the other travelers for dinner at the same place we had eaten the night previous. Turns out they were from Texas as well, Dave and his travel companion Rachel had been traveling for several months already and still had several months to go, planning on visiting the Aral Sea, Israel and China after Turkmenistan. Scott was arranging his train tickets during dinner since the train was leaving soon, luckily he was able to get a seat and we all said our goodbyes. We asked the travel agent about transportation to the border but they wanted $100, a bit expensive even divided 5 ways. We went back to Dave's hotel and the owner there was able to arrange a minivan pickup the next morning for 126000 som ($48) a much better deal.