On the Old Silk Road, Bukhara & Samarkand

After an afternoon of waiting patiently for our passports at the Kazakh embassy we dashed across Tashkent and booked ourselves on the next train west, the night train to Bukhara. The bar was full of drunk russians, with the police keeping a tight watch on all passengers(particularly the man who fell asleep on the table!)

Bukhara is the an old spiritual city, once very important on the Old Silk Road until the 16th Century. We spent our time wandering through the charming old town, with its winding roads and old bazaars and mosques. The Kalon Minaret and mosque was spectacular, although our first attempt to go in was at prayer time, so we swiftly departed to return again at a more suitable hour! Once in, we climbed the minaret built in 1127 and spared by Genghis Khan to see spectacular views of the whole city.

When we weren't busy seeing the sites we spent our time drinking Chai, and even having the odd game of chess. Our B&B was in the centre of the old town, a perfect location, serving delicious pancakes and local honey for breakfast! Tom challenged the night porter to a game of chess and was duly thrashed, hence the long face!

After a couple of days, we moved onto Samarkand on the express "Sharq" train, which was very civilised with TV in 2nd class and chai a plenty! Samarkand is a larger city, and thankfully we were again well placed for easy sight seeing being next to the Guri-Emir mausoleum, where Amir Timur the great who forged the city is laid to rest.
There is a vast array of old buildings, mosques, ruins and mausoleums in Samarkand the pinnacle undoubtably being the Registan, a complex of mosques and minarets built over a few centuries and again spared by Genghis Khan and even preserved by the Russians in Soviet times!

Again we were treated to excellent breakfasts, this time fresh apricot, blackberry and pomegranate jam made from the fruits from the B&Bs garden and in the evening indulged in yet more shashlyk!

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