Bukhara

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The drive to Bukhara was a strand one. Half of it was on pristine, German engineered motorway ... The other half was not. We had expected the drive to be 6 hours and it turned out to be about 8. This meant else arrived a little later than anticipated, but still with plenty of time to find one of the many hotels to stay in.

We went straight for a cheap place that had I had been told about called "Mubinjon's". Knocking on the door, it didn't look too hopeful and when an old man answered the door yawning and explaining that the hotel was now closed. Sorry for waking you up Mubinjon. I then (a bit embarrassingly) asked a man standing on his porch for the directions to our second choice hotel, but when the others pointed out to me that he was actually a hotel owner we enquire about his hotel. It turned out to be cheap and really nice so we booked two nights.

We went for a tasty kebab meal with more watermelon for desert and then hit the hay. Today we have spent walking around a scorching Bukhara (42 degrees of hotness!). We went to some spectacular mosques and had a wash in a traditional bath house. A few souvenirs were bought and lots of museums visited.

Later in the afternoon we went back for a rest at the hotel. Jason and I foolishly decided not to rest but to go and check out Bukhara FC's stadium just around the corner from the hotel. We managed to walk straight through the gate, through the stands and onto the pitch in front of 22,000 empty seats. It was a bit strange, but pretty cool. It turns out Bukhara are actually rubbish, so I have no idea how they justify a stadium that big.

The meal tonight was based on a locals recommendation and went a little wrong. By venturing somewhere not very touristy we had difficulty communicating our orders. This meant we didn't order as much as we would have liked, but it was tasty nonetheless.

Early start tomorrow so we can hopefully drive to Samarkand for the afternoon and do a bit of sightseeing there!

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