Central Asia Stans and Iran (or not...), Iraq and the Balkans
Jun 16, 2012, 5:18 pm
#17
Join Date: Mar 2001
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Great report! Like bensyd, I too have been in the process of getting all those same visas (plus Iran, Turkmenistan, Russia, Mongolia, China, Vietnam etc.) as part of the planning for the Mongol Rally, plus some subsequent travel. It's a major hassle and expense. Right now I am going through the joyful process of securing a carnet du passage as we will be driving our own vehicle through Iran.
We plan to see quite a bit of Central Asia, including the Pamir Highway in Tajikistan, which I'm insanely excited about. I just hope our tiny Renault can make it. I look forward to reading more of your account, hauteboy.
Shameless plug: you can find out more about our adventure in my trip report thread, or you can read about it in more detail at our team website or follow us at our facebook page. Plus, we're raising money for two very worthy charities, and we'd love your support. Find out more here.
hauteboy, back to you...
We plan to see quite a bit of Central Asia, including the Pamir Highway in Tajikistan, which I'm insanely excited about. I just hope our tiny Renault can make it. I look forward to reading more of your account, hauteboy.
Shameless plug: you can find out more about our adventure in my trip report thread, or you can read about it in more detail at our team website or follow us at our facebook page. Plus, we're raising money for two very worthy charities, and we'd love your support. Find out more here.
hauteboy, back to you...
Jun 16, 2012, 8:57 pm
#18
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Austin, TX -- AA Life Platinum; QF Life Silver; UA Silver
Posts: 5,462
Khukand, Istararavshan and Samarkand
May 19, 2012
Hotel: Hotel Sugd; Khujand, Tajikistan; $75.50/dbl
After the long day on the road yesterday it was nice to again have two nights in a place. There aren't a huge number of sights to see in Khujand itself. We started with an early breakfast at the hotel, it was decent enough with eggs, bread, cheese and watery dumplings. We caught a marshrutka (shared taxi) minibus to the Panjshanbe Bazaar (Thursday market) and the mosque/mausoleum of Sheikh Muslihiddin. The mosque was the first major example we had seen of Central Asian/Persian style with a tan brick minaret and curved domes. The area in front of the mosque was filled with pigeons and some children playing among them. The huge square between the mosque and the bazaar was filled with people this morning and very colorful. The women here seemed to dress more traditionally, we saw more headcoverings here than we had seen the whole trip so far. The bazaar itself is described by the Lonely Planet as Stalin meets 1001 Nights, a huge arched/domed entrance decorated in green/pink/blue tiles. People here were very friendly, waving at us and wanting their picture taken. Unibrows are fashionable in Tajikistan, many of the women here have them and will even use herbs to draw them in. The interior of the market is occupied by butchers and bread sellers. The bread here in Tajikistan was still the round style with raised edge.
Tajik som
Mausoleum of Sheikh Muslihiddin
Woman in market, Khujand
From the market we headed over to the Citadel, the original site of Alexander the Great's settlement. The walls have been recreated and the museum is located in the southeast corner. We wandered along the walls and met a group of girls that stopped to talk with us. Their English was excellent as well.. so far we had met more English speakers in Tajikistan than anywhere else. The Khujand area is the most prosperous area of Tajikistan, most of the agriculture is here since the remainder of the country is mostly mountainous. It was traditionally an Uzbek area but was added to Tajikistan when the Tajik SSR was created. We walked up to the river where there was a monument showing the different empires that had controlled Tajikistan.. Persian, Greek, Islam, etc. The museum was excellent, showing the history of the region. They had several models of sculpture from Persepolis (in Iran) in one of the downstairs rooms and a large map of the ancient world on the floor.
Citadel, Khujand
The mosque, bazaar and citadel were pretty much the only tourist sights in Khujand. The LP had mentioned the town of Istararavshan as being one of the best preserved old Tajik towns in the area, about an hour taxi ride away. We caught a taxi to the bus station and arranged a share taxi for 80 TJS ($16.82) to go the 75 kms. It was good to get out of Khujand and see some more of the countryside. We passed field after field, with people out working. Not sure what they were growing here though. The trip took about 75 minutes. Istararavshan is located in the thin neck of Tajikistan between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, cut off from the bulk of southern Tajikistan by mountain ranges. On the way into town we noticed a large hill that had once been the site of a Sogdian fortress that was destroyed by Alexander the Great. The taxi dropped us off near the Hazrat-i-Shah mosque. The mosque was a great example of Central Asian style, with an elaborately decorated portico, almost looking like a Chinese temple. Behind the mosque, the old town stretched out for many blocks. We started walking down some of the alleyways, lined with adobe buildings and the ubiquitous Soviet style plumbing. We hadn't wandered far before we attracted attention... local kids started coming up to us and following us. The word spread fast that we were the days entertainment.. at one point a dozen kids come running down one of the alleys towards us! Kids always love having their photo taken and seeing it on the digital camera. One of the older kids guides us through the maze of alleys to another mosque and medrassa (Abdullatif Sultan). One of the medrassa teachers invited us in for a few minutes for tea and fresh mulberries!
Road to Istararavshan
Istararavshan
Istararavshan
Istararavshan
The skies now looked like they were about to start pouring rain. From the mosque we wandered back through the scenic alleys to the main road and the bazaar to look for a place to eat and taxi back to Khujand. We couldn't find one of the places listed in the LP and the chaikhana was closed, but luckily it looked like the rain was going to miss the town. We eventually found a row of cheap kebab places ($0.50 each!) and had a quick snack before catching a taxi (60 TJS this time) back to Khujand. We walked the 1.5km from the bus station back into town before finding a restaurant right across from the Citadel. This turned out to be a great place, delicious food and still very reasonably priced. The restaurant was right next to the Grand Hotel. As we are sitting there eating dinner, a huge group (20+) of European tourists start pulling up in minivans... these were the first tourists we had seen the whole trip and were obviously on some package tour.
After dinner we headed to the Internet cafe again where I was finally able to upload my photos.
May 20, 2012
Hotel: Hotel Caravan Serail; Samarkand, Uzbekistan; $45/dbl
We had an early start today as it was going to be another long day on the road and a border crossing on the way to Samarkand. We caught a taxi right outside the hotel and told him we were going to the nothern bus station. When we got there and said we were going to the border, he offers to take us all the way for a reasonable amount, 100 TJS ($21.09) for 70 kms. A shared taxi would have been cheaper but we already had our bags in his car, and split 4 ways anyway it wouldn't have been much difference. The weather was gorgeously clear today, not too hot. We had been lucky with the weather so far this trip, no rain and May seems to be a good time to visit when the passes are clear but it's not boiling hot yet. The drive over to the border crossing at Oybek took a little over an hour, arriving around 9:15AM. I had gauged my cash usage perfectly again as my remaining som was just enough to cover the taxi fare.
The Tajik border crossing was easy.. but then we still had to cross over into Uzbekistan. Our last two border crossings had taken over an hour each, and this was no exception. This border was busier than the one crossing we had done going into Tajikistan, already there was a long line of locals waiting to cross. We get waived to the front of the line again but still end up having to wait for the guy in the stamp booth to show up... then fill out the forms again, then wait on 5 guys standing around doing nothing to do something. We waited... and waited... the natives started getting restless again as well as it had been nearly an hour and no one had been allowed through customs yet. Finally we do get our passports back and through around 11AM.. nearly 2 hours to cross the border this time!
There were a bunch of taxis waiting on the other side asking if we wanted to go to Tashkent. Tashkent was a bit out of the way to head to Samarkand so we asked if one would take us all the way there. At first they wanted $200 for the 300kms, eventually we talked them down to $120. $30 each wasn't bad for 300kms! At first we had to head north up towards Tashkent before turning west. The roads were in good shape for the first stretch, then degraded to potholes and gravel along one stretch where they are building a new road. We crossed the Syr-Darya river again at one point. This part of Uzbekistan seemed poorer and less prosperous than the Fergana valley had been. Finally we come across the new road from Tashkent. The original road cut straight across the flat plains and through a piece of Kazakstan, the new road has been constructed around Kazakhstan as the original road is now closed. We stopped at a huge CNG refueling station, probably 20 bays or more that look like carwash stalls.
Old Soviet bus
The road continued on past Jizzakh and through some low hills before descending to Samarkand. We had prebooked a hotel for two nights since the guesthouse I had wanted to stay at originally had been booked out already a month before! The taxi driver dropped us off at the hotel after we found it on our GPS. Thats one really nice thing about hotel sites now, some are starting to put the GPS coordinates of the hotel in the booking confirmation. I had downloaded offline maps of Central Asia to my Android phone and was able to look up the street our hotel was on. The hotel was fairly new, and a great location between the major sights in Samarkand. It had a lovely courtyard and comfortable rooms. The best part was the rooftop bar overlooking the old town and across to the blue domes of the Bibi Khanym mosque.
We finally changed some money into Uzbek som... $25 got us a huge stack of bills since the highest-valued Uzbek note (1000) is only worth about $0.40 at the black market rate. We felt rich! We headed out from the hotel towards the bazaar which had been renovated and was still undergoing renovation. In the past few years they have redone the center of Samarkand, bulldozing old neighborhoods and putting in pedestrian streets lined with tourist stores. Unfortunately they haven't kept the traditional style or anything.. it now looks like a strip mall in California. Samarkand was one of the major towns on the ancient Silk Road, its very name evokes the idea of exotic... the reality is sadly different as tourism has found its way here in a big way. We walked around the bazaar and to the Bibi Khanym mosque. It was already late afternoon so the lighting on the mosque wasn't the best.. it is better to see the grand facade early in the morning. It was still an amazing structure, blue turquoise dome with dark blue tiles and Arabic script. Most of the tilework in Samarkands's monuments is not original, many of the buildings had been destroyed in earthquakes and were only rebuilt in the past century.
$25 in Uzbek som.. largest bill is worth $0.40
View from hotel rooftop
Bibi Khanym mosque
As part of the renovations, huge walls have been put up around the old neighborhoods to keep them away from tourists view.. a bit of a shame. We found a door through one of the walls and wandered back into the old Jewish neighborhood. Samarkand and Bukhara had a sizeable Jewish population well into the 20th century but now most have moved to Israel. We wandered down the street which reminded us of Istararavshan until we came across the 19th century synagogue. It was closed though so we could not look inside. We wandered around, past an ancient mosque and out to the Registan square. We were hungry by this point though and would be visiting the Registan tomorrow, so we gave it a miss and caught a taxi over to a restaurant that the LP had recommended for good beer and food. We get there, and they are out of beer! So we walk a few blocks through the Navoi Park to an Italian place. This part of Samarkand has been sanitized as well, it is more a modern European city than an ancient outpost on the Silk Road.
Old synagogue, Samarkand
The restaurant was OK enough, though their interpretation of spaghetti bolognese was.. original. We got a bottle of wine to share with our meal, the vintage said April 2012.. a three-week old wine! The sun was setting so we raced over to the Gur-i-Amir mausoleum (where Timurlane is buried) which is supposed to look best at sunset. Unfortunately we were mere minutes too late. Nearby was a statue of Amir Timur.. which bore a strong resemblance to Sean Connery. After returning to the hotel we all went up on the rooftop bar to watch the waning light.
Hotel: Hotel Sugd; Khujand, Tajikistan; $75.50/dbl
After the long day on the road yesterday it was nice to again have two nights in a place. There aren't a huge number of sights to see in Khujand itself. We started with an early breakfast at the hotel, it was decent enough with eggs, bread, cheese and watery dumplings. We caught a marshrutka (shared taxi) minibus to the Panjshanbe Bazaar (Thursday market) and the mosque/mausoleum of Sheikh Muslihiddin. The mosque was the first major example we had seen of Central Asian/Persian style with a tan brick minaret and curved domes. The area in front of the mosque was filled with pigeons and some children playing among them. The huge square between the mosque and the bazaar was filled with people this morning and very colorful. The women here seemed to dress more traditionally, we saw more headcoverings here than we had seen the whole trip so far. The bazaar itself is described by the Lonely Planet as Stalin meets 1001 Nights, a huge arched/domed entrance decorated in green/pink/blue tiles. People here were very friendly, waving at us and wanting their picture taken. Unibrows are fashionable in Tajikistan, many of the women here have them and will even use herbs to draw them in. The interior of the market is occupied by butchers and bread sellers. The bread here in Tajikistan was still the round style with raised edge.
Tajik som
Mausoleum of Sheikh Muslihiddin
Woman in market, Khujand
From the market we headed over to the Citadel, the original site of Alexander the Great's settlement. The walls have been recreated and the museum is located in the southeast corner. We wandered along the walls and met a group of girls that stopped to talk with us. Their English was excellent as well.. so far we had met more English speakers in Tajikistan than anywhere else. The Khujand area is the most prosperous area of Tajikistan, most of the agriculture is here since the remainder of the country is mostly mountainous. It was traditionally an Uzbek area but was added to Tajikistan when the Tajik SSR was created. We walked up to the river where there was a monument showing the different empires that had controlled Tajikistan.. Persian, Greek, Islam, etc. The museum was excellent, showing the history of the region. They had several models of sculpture from Persepolis (in Iran) in one of the downstairs rooms and a large map of the ancient world on the floor.
Citadel, Khujand
The mosque, bazaar and citadel were pretty much the only tourist sights in Khujand. The LP had mentioned the town of Istararavshan as being one of the best preserved old Tajik towns in the area, about an hour taxi ride away. We caught a taxi to the bus station and arranged a share taxi for 80 TJS ($16.82) to go the 75 kms. It was good to get out of Khujand and see some more of the countryside. We passed field after field, with people out working. Not sure what they were growing here though. The trip took about 75 minutes. Istararavshan is located in the thin neck of Tajikistan between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, cut off from the bulk of southern Tajikistan by mountain ranges. On the way into town we noticed a large hill that had once been the site of a Sogdian fortress that was destroyed by Alexander the Great. The taxi dropped us off near the Hazrat-i-Shah mosque. The mosque was a great example of Central Asian style, with an elaborately decorated portico, almost looking like a Chinese temple. Behind the mosque, the old town stretched out for many blocks. We started walking down some of the alleyways, lined with adobe buildings and the ubiquitous Soviet style plumbing. We hadn't wandered far before we attracted attention... local kids started coming up to us and following us. The word spread fast that we were the days entertainment.. at one point a dozen kids come running down one of the alleys towards us! Kids always love having their photo taken and seeing it on the digital camera. One of the older kids guides us through the maze of alleys to another mosque and medrassa (Abdullatif Sultan). One of the medrassa teachers invited us in for a few minutes for tea and fresh mulberries!
Road to Istararavshan
Istararavshan
Istararavshan
Istararavshan
The skies now looked like they were about to start pouring rain. From the mosque we wandered back through the scenic alleys to the main road and the bazaar to look for a place to eat and taxi back to Khujand. We couldn't find one of the places listed in the LP and the chaikhana was closed, but luckily it looked like the rain was going to miss the town. We eventually found a row of cheap kebab places ($0.50 each!) and had a quick snack before catching a taxi (60 TJS this time) back to Khujand. We walked the 1.5km from the bus station back into town before finding a restaurant right across from the Citadel. This turned out to be a great place, delicious food and still very reasonably priced. The restaurant was right next to the Grand Hotel. As we are sitting there eating dinner, a huge group (20+) of European tourists start pulling up in minivans... these were the first tourists we had seen the whole trip and were obviously on some package tour.
After dinner we headed to the Internet cafe again where I was finally able to upload my photos.
May 20, 2012
Hotel: Hotel Caravan Serail; Samarkand, Uzbekistan; $45/dbl
We had an early start today as it was going to be another long day on the road and a border crossing on the way to Samarkand. We caught a taxi right outside the hotel and told him we were going to the nothern bus station. When we got there and said we were going to the border, he offers to take us all the way for a reasonable amount, 100 TJS ($21.09) for 70 kms. A shared taxi would have been cheaper but we already had our bags in his car, and split 4 ways anyway it wouldn't have been much difference. The weather was gorgeously clear today, not too hot. We had been lucky with the weather so far this trip, no rain and May seems to be a good time to visit when the passes are clear but it's not boiling hot yet. The drive over to the border crossing at Oybek took a little over an hour, arriving around 9:15AM. I had gauged my cash usage perfectly again as my remaining som was just enough to cover the taxi fare.
The Tajik border crossing was easy.. but then we still had to cross over into Uzbekistan. Our last two border crossings had taken over an hour each, and this was no exception. This border was busier than the one crossing we had done going into Tajikistan, already there was a long line of locals waiting to cross. We get waived to the front of the line again but still end up having to wait for the guy in the stamp booth to show up... then fill out the forms again, then wait on 5 guys standing around doing nothing to do something. We waited... and waited... the natives started getting restless again as well as it had been nearly an hour and no one had been allowed through customs yet. Finally we do get our passports back and through around 11AM.. nearly 2 hours to cross the border this time!
There were a bunch of taxis waiting on the other side asking if we wanted to go to Tashkent. Tashkent was a bit out of the way to head to Samarkand so we asked if one would take us all the way there. At first they wanted $200 for the 300kms, eventually we talked them down to $120. $30 each wasn't bad for 300kms! At first we had to head north up towards Tashkent before turning west. The roads were in good shape for the first stretch, then degraded to potholes and gravel along one stretch where they are building a new road. We crossed the Syr-Darya river again at one point. This part of Uzbekistan seemed poorer and less prosperous than the Fergana valley had been. Finally we come across the new road from Tashkent. The original road cut straight across the flat plains and through a piece of Kazakstan, the new road has been constructed around Kazakhstan as the original road is now closed. We stopped at a huge CNG refueling station, probably 20 bays or more that look like carwash stalls.
Old Soviet bus
The road continued on past Jizzakh and through some low hills before descending to Samarkand. We had prebooked a hotel for two nights since the guesthouse I had wanted to stay at originally had been booked out already a month before! The taxi driver dropped us off at the hotel after we found it on our GPS. Thats one really nice thing about hotel sites now, some are starting to put the GPS coordinates of the hotel in the booking confirmation. I had downloaded offline maps of Central Asia to my Android phone and was able to look up the street our hotel was on. The hotel was fairly new, and a great location between the major sights in Samarkand. It had a lovely courtyard and comfortable rooms. The best part was the rooftop bar overlooking the old town and across to the blue domes of the Bibi Khanym mosque.
We finally changed some money into Uzbek som... $25 got us a huge stack of bills since the highest-valued Uzbek note (1000) is only worth about $0.40 at the black market rate. We felt rich! We headed out from the hotel towards the bazaar which had been renovated and was still undergoing renovation. In the past few years they have redone the center of Samarkand, bulldozing old neighborhoods and putting in pedestrian streets lined with tourist stores. Unfortunately they haven't kept the traditional style or anything.. it now looks like a strip mall in California. Samarkand was one of the major towns on the ancient Silk Road, its very name evokes the idea of exotic... the reality is sadly different as tourism has found its way here in a big way. We walked around the bazaar and to the Bibi Khanym mosque. It was already late afternoon so the lighting on the mosque wasn't the best.. it is better to see the grand facade early in the morning. It was still an amazing structure, blue turquoise dome with dark blue tiles and Arabic script. Most of the tilework in Samarkands's monuments is not original, many of the buildings had been destroyed in earthquakes and were only rebuilt in the past century.
$25 in Uzbek som.. largest bill is worth $0.40
View from hotel rooftop
Bibi Khanym mosque
As part of the renovations, huge walls have been put up around the old neighborhoods to keep them away from tourists view.. a bit of a shame. We found a door through one of the walls and wandered back into the old Jewish neighborhood. Samarkand and Bukhara had a sizeable Jewish population well into the 20th century but now most have moved to Israel. We wandered down the street which reminded us of Istararavshan until we came across the 19th century synagogue. It was closed though so we could not look inside. We wandered around, past an ancient mosque and out to the Registan square. We were hungry by this point though and would be visiting the Registan tomorrow, so we gave it a miss and caught a taxi over to a restaurant that the LP had recommended for good beer and food. We get there, and they are out of beer! So we walk a few blocks through the Navoi Park to an Italian place. This part of Samarkand has been sanitized as well, it is more a modern European city than an ancient outpost on the Silk Road.
Old synagogue, Samarkand
The restaurant was OK enough, though their interpretation of spaghetti bolognese was.. original. We got a bottle of wine to share with our meal, the vintage said April 2012.. a three-week old wine! The sun was setting so we raced over to the Gur-i-Amir mausoleum (where Timurlane is buried) which is supposed to look best at sunset. Unfortunately we were mere minutes too late. Nearby was a statue of Amir Timur.. which bore a strong resemblance to Sean Connery. After returning to the hotel we all went up on the rooftop bar to watch the waning light.
Last edited by hauteboy; Jun 21, 2012 at 9:21 pm
Jun 16, 2012, 8:57 pm
#19
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Austin, TX -- AA Life Platinum; QF Life Silver; UA Silver
Posts: 5,462
Samarkand
May 21, 2012
Hotel: Hotel Caravan Serail; Samarkand, Uzbekistan; $45/dbl
We had an early breakfast at 7:30 this morning but we were one of the last ones to arrive for breakfast. There was a large French tour group staying at our hotel and they were taking up most of the breakfast area. This whole trip I had been waking up at the crack of dawn, 4:30 or 5 AM.. something I never do at home. Breakfast was good but bready.. bread, pancakes and a scone. We set off for the Registan about 8AM and walked the 1km to the Registan complex. All the streets were lined with mulberry trees, and the berries would just fall to the sidewalk and ferment.. sometimes not the best odor. We were a little early to the Registan, supposedly it doesn't open until 9AM. We found a back gate that was open though and snuck in
The Registan is a complex of three medrassas and is the crown jewel of the monuments in Samarkand and create one of the most gorgeous buildings in the world. The medrassas were built in the 1400-1600s and are some of the oldest buildings remaining in Samarkand, any earlier structures were destroyed by the Mongols on their sweep through Central Asia. Two of the medrassas were well lit in the morning light. It is hard to describe just how beautiful these buildings are.. they are a riot of colorful tile in geometric designs, with huge facades with Persian-style arches. The easternmost medrassa, Sher Dor (Lion) departs from traditional Islamic art by depicting a pair of lions on the facade.
Registan
As we are wandering around the plaza, one of the guards comes up and asks if we have a ticket yet.. we don't of course, having bypassed the entrance. We go and buy a ticket near the front, 13000 som (~$5) which is a reasonable entrance fee, and includes using the camera. As we go back into the complex, the guard says the minaret is open for 30 more minutes, then 'closed for 2 weeks for renovations'. How convenient for us. We've heard that scam before.. they are trying to get you to go up the minaret, then ask for an insane tip. We passed on that and just spent the next hour or so wandering among the buildings. They have been restored too but they really did an amazing job. One of the buildings had a photo exhibit of how the Registan and Samarkand looked in the early 1900s before renovation.
We still saw very few tourists... it was early though and the tour buses hadn't arrived. Obviously they get a lot of tourists as there were souvenir stalls setup in all of the old medrassa student dorms. We planned to come back to the Registan in the afternoon when the lighting was better on the Sher Dor medressa. We next walked over to the Gur-i-Amir mausoleum. Scott needed to buy a plane ticket from Khiva to Tashkent, he was planning on splitting off from our group in Bukhara. We found a couple of travel agencies, but none of them actually sold plane tickets (at least not domestic ones)! The Gur-i-Amir mausoleum was also decorated in the same Timurid style of turquoise dome with blue tile facade. We walked around behind it to the Ak-Seray mausoleum which was behind the wall in an old neighborhood. It was 3000 UZS to get in but my friends declined and only I went in to have a look. It was elaborately restored inside, blue and gold painting on the dome on the inside. We wandered back to Gur-i-Amir and went in the back way there as well, avoiding paying. There were three tombs inside, Timurlane and his sons.
Gur-e-Amir mausoleum
We needed to buy our train tickets to Bukhara for tomorrow so next we hopped in a taxi to the train station, which was a few kms west of the center of town. The taxi driver kept trying to get us to go visit gold shops, go out to Shakhrisabz (birthplace of Tamerlane), etc. We did change more money with him though when we got to the train station and got a much better rate than the hotel had given us. The ticket office was a little chaotic but eventually we were able to buy our tickets for the next day departing at noon for 18000 UZS ($6.66). We walked across from the train station to a restaurant for lunch.. like others we had been to in Samarkand it was deserted. Where/when do people eat here? We all had hamburgers (we were taking a break from shashlik for a day or two), or at least their interpretation of a hamburger.
Samarkand train station
Next up was Shah-i-Zinda, an avenue of royal mausoleums not too far from Bibi Khanym mosque. The complex (5000 UZS admission) was amazingly gorgeous.. although restored recently it has some of the most intricate tilework we had seen in Central Asia. There are a dozen or so mausoleums lining the avenue running along the middle. The site supposedly is the burial place of a cousin of the Prophet Mohammed and we saw many local pilgrims here praying and making offerings. At the end of the complex, a path leads through the modern Muslim cemetery. The gravestones are a bit eerie as they have a photo of the deceased etched into them. We had seen similar cemeteries before in Armenia. The path continued around until we found a gate leading back out onto the main street. We walked back through the bazaar to the hotel.
Shah-i-Zinda
For dinner that night, we found a shashlik/kebab place just across from Registan square. It seemed more like old Samarkand, a nice courtyard, mulberry trees and a smiling cook fanning the coals of the grill. On the way to the restaurant, we had stopped by the Registan again to get afternoon views of Sher Dor. The guards this time were still offering to let tourists go up the minaret, when we told them they said it was going to be closed for two weeks, they said 'oh no, it is open'.
Shashlik chef
Hotel: Hotel Caravan Serail; Samarkand, Uzbekistan; $45/dbl
We had an early breakfast at 7:30 this morning but we were one of the last ones to arrive for breakfast. There was a large French tour group staying at our hotel and they were taking up most of the breakfast area. This whole trip I had been waking up at the crack of dawn, 4:30 or 5 AM.. something I never do at home. Breakfast was good but bready.. bread, pancakes and a scone. We set off for the Registan about 8AM and walked the 1km to the Registan complex. All the streets were lined with mulberry trees, and the berries would just fall to the sidewalk and ferment.. sometimes not the best odor. We were a little early to the Registan, supposedly it doesn't open until 9AM. We found a back gate that was open though and snuck in
The Registan is a complex of three medrassas and is the crown jewel of the monuments in Samarkand and create one of the most gorgeous buildings in the world. The medrassas were built in the 1400-1600s and are some of the oldest buildings remaining in Samarkand, any earlier structures were destroyed by the Mongols on their sweep through Central Asia. Two of the medrassas were well lit in the morning light. It is hard to describe just how beautiful these buildings are.. they are a riot of colorful tile in geometric designs, with huge facades with Persian-style arches. The easternmost medrassa, Sher Dor (Lion) departs from traditional Islamic art by depicting a pair of lions on the facade.
Registan
As we are wandering around the plaza, one of the guards comes up and asks if we have a ticket yet.. we don't of course, having bypassed the entrance. We go and buy a ticket near the front, 13000 som (~$5) which is a reasonable entrance fee, and includes using the camera. As we go back into the complex, the guard says the minaret is open for 30 more minutes, then 'closed for 2 weeks for renovations'. How convenient for us. We've heard that scam before.. they are trying to get you to go up the minaret, then ask for an insane tip. We passed on that and just spent the next hour or so wandering among the buildings. They have been restored too but they really did an amazing job. One of the buildings had a photo exhibit of how the Registan and Samarkand looked in the early 1900s before renovation.
We still saw very few tourists... it was early though and the tour buses hadn't arrived. Obviously they get a lot of tourists as there were souvenir stalls setup in all of the old medrassa student dorms. We planned to come back to the Registan in the afternoon when the lighting was better on the Sher Dor medressa. We next walked over to the Gur-i-Amir mausoleum. Scott needed to buy a plane ticket from Khiva to Tashkent, he was planning on splitting off from our group in Bukhara. We found a couple of travel agencies, but none of them actually sold plane tickets (at least not domestic ones)! The Gur-i-Amir mausoleum was also decorated in the same Timurid style of turquoise dome with blue tile facade. We walked around behind it to the Ak-Seray mausoleum which was behind the wall in an old neighborhood. It was 3000 UZS to get in but my friends declined and only I went in to have a look. It was elaborately restored inside, blue and gold painting on the dome on the inside. We wandered back to Gur-i-Amir and went in the back way there as well, avoiding paying.
There were three tombs inside, Timurlane and his sons.Gur-e-Amir mausoleum
We needed to buy our train tickets to Bukhara for tomorrow so next we hopped in a taxi to the train station, which was a few kms west of the center of town. The taxi driver kept trying to get us to go visit gold shops, go out to Shakhrisabz (birthplace of Tamerlane), etc. We did change more money with him though when we got to the train station and got a much better rate than the hotel had given us. The ticket office was a little chaotic but eventually we were able to buy our tickets for the next day departing at noon for 18000 UZS ($6.66). We walked across from the train station to a restaurant for lunch.. like others we had been to in Samarkand it was deserted. Where/when do people eat here? We all had hamburgers (we were taking a break from shashlik for a day or two), or at least their interpretation of a hamburger.
Samarkand train station
Next up was Shah-i-Zinda, an avenue of royal mausoleums not too far from Bibi Khanym mosque. The complex (5000 UZS admission) was amazingly gorgeous.. although restored recently it has some of the most intricate tilework we had seen in Central Asia. There are a dozen or so mausoleums lining the avenue running along the middle. The site supposedly is the burial place of a cousin of the Prophet Mohammed and we saw many local pilgrims here praying and making offerings. At the end of the complex, a path leads through the modern Muslim cemetery. The gravestones are a bit eerie as they have a photo of the deceased etched into them. We had seen similar cemeteries before in Armenia. The path continued around until we found a gate leading back out onto the main street. We walked back through the bazaar to the hotel.
Shah-i-Zinda
For dinner that night, we found a shashlik/kebab place just across from Registan square. It seemed more like old Samarkand, a nice courtyard, mulberry trees and a smiling cook fanning the coals of the grill. On the way to the restaurant, we had stopped by the Registan again to get afternoon views of Sher Dor. The guards this time were still offering to let tourists go up the minaret, when we told them they said it was going to be closed for two weeks, they said 'oh no, it is open'.
Shashlik chef
Jun 16, 2012, 9:35 pm
#20
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Austin, TX -- AA Life Platinum; QF Life Silver; UA Silver
Posts: 5,462
Here is our route of the trip:
http://goo.gl/maps/qAem
Map is incorrect from Kochkon-Ata to Osh, our route went around via Uzgen.. Google maps has a bug/disconnect in their routing.
http://goo.gl/maps/qAem
Map is incorrect from Kochkon-Ata to Osh, our route went around via Uzgen.. Google maps has a bug/disconnect in their routing.
Last edited by hauteboy; Jun 17, 2012 at 10:54 pm
Jun 17, 2012, 9:15 pm
#22
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: SYD
Programs: Too many golds, no plat: OZ*G, AC*G, NZ*G, VA Gold, QF Gold, HH Gold, Bonvoy Gold
Posts: 5,350
This is great, thanks hauteboy.
Looking at the route you followed, I understand that you did a daytrip to Istaravshan from Khujand, hence the dogsleg in your route. Do you happen to know if there is a more direct border crossing from Istaravshan if you're heading to Samarkand, or do you have to go the same long way around that you did?
I'm trying to figure out whether we drive from Samarkand to Dushanbe via the northern border crossing (ie somewhere around where you crossed), or if we loop around to the south of those mountain ranges and enter Tajikistan near Tursunzoda. Curse the Panjakent border crossing closure!
Here is our route of the trip:
http://goo.gl/maps/qAem
http://goo.gl/maps/qAem
I'm trying to figure out whether we drive from Samarkand to Dushanbe via the northern border crossing (ie somewhere around where you crossed), or if we loop around to the south of those mountain ranges and enter Tajikistan near Tursunzoda. Curse the Panjakent border crossing closure!
Jun 17, 2012, 10:59 pm
#24
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Austin, TX -- AA Life Platinum; QF Life Silver; UA Silver
Posts: 5,462
This is great, thanks hauteboy.
Looking at the route you followed, I understand that you did a daytrip to Istaravshan from Khujand, hence the dogsleg in your route. Do you happen to know if there is a more direct border crossing from Istaravshan if you're heading to Samarkand, or do you have to go the same long way around that you did?
I'm trying to figure out whether we drive from Samarkand to Dushanbe via the northern border crossing (ie somewhere around where you crossed), or if we loop around to the south of those mountain ranges and enter Tajikistan near Tursunzoda. Curse the Panjakent border crossing closure!
Looking at the route you followed, I understand that you did a daytrip to Istaravshan from Khujand, hence the dogsleg in your route. Do you happen to know if there is a more direct border crossing from Istaravshan if you're heading to Samarkand, or do you have to go the same long way around that you did?
I'm trying to figure out whether we drive from Samarkand to Dushanbe via the northern border crossing (ie somewhere around where you crossed), or if we loop around to the south of those mountain ranges and enter Tajikistan near Tursunzoda. Curse the Panjakent border crossing closure!
Keep an eye on http://www.caravanistan.com/border-crossings/ for up to date info.
Jun 18, 2012, 6:44 am
#27
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: SYD
Programs: Too many golds, no plat: OZ*G, AC*G, NZ*G, VA Gold, QF Gold, HH Gold, Bonvoy Gold
Posts: 5,350
There are only western border crossings are the one we took at Oybek and the other one between Denau/Dushanbe... the Penjikent border closing is unfortunate as that is the one we were planning on using originally.
Keep an eye on http://www.caravanistan.com/border-crossings/ for up to date info.
Keep an eye on http://www.caravanistan.com/border-crossings/ for up to date info.
Jun 21, 2012, 8:22 am
#29
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: SLC / SCL
Programs: Delta - Plat
Posts: 38
Just got back from ASB yesterday. If you're still there, the oguz kent (sofitel) has free wifi that you can use
Other thoughts:
Food at the British Pub is a miss
The restaurant at the far back of First Park isn't too bad, live music some nights too
I had no issues with the 11pm curfew, walked back from sofitel through downtown at 12am, to the hotel by 1st park. Even made a stop at the post office and said hello to many officers.
The Soviet welcome sign for Turkmenbashi is by far the best I saw, regret not stopping and snapping photos. There's a big golden statue on the highway to the mosque Turkmenbashi built outside ASB in his old village with out any police around it to take photos. The Mosque is worth checking out.
Other thoughts:
Food at the British Pub is a miss
The restaurant at the far back of First Park isn't too bad, live music some nights too
I had no issues with the 11pm curfew, walked back from sofitel through downtown at 12am, to the hotel by 1st park. Even made a stop at the post office and said hello to many officers.
The Soviet welcome sign for Turkmenbashi is by far the best I saw, regret not stopping and snapping photos. There's a big golden statue on the highway to the mosque Turkmenbashi built outside ASB in his old village with out any police around it to take photos. The Mosque is worth checking out.
Last edited by obiwan9; Jun 21, 2012 at 8:24 am Reason: Add lines
Jun 21, 2012, 1:40 pm
#30
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Austin, TX -- AA Life Platinum; QF Life Silver; UA Silver
Posts: 5,462
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.
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.