Blogs from Bukhara, Uzbekistan, Asia - page 5

I said it in my previous entry, but it deserves to be said again. This city has a lot of mosques. A lot. And if its not a mosque, then its a madressah (Islamic school). And if its neither, then its a tourist hotel. Thus, if you're a touring Islamic student, you'd have something to do in just about every building. In the past, Bukhara was known as a center of wisdom - during the middle ages, a lot of famous Arab scholars originated from Bukhara. For example, apparently the anatomy textbook used as late as the early 1900s in Europe was written by a famous guy from Bukhara in the middle ages. This place also thwarted Ghengis Khan - while he destroyed just about every other city in Bukhara, he spared Bukhara because he believed ... read more

I was told that tennis is a very popular sport here and when we saw there was a tennis complex accross the road from our hotel we decided to book court time, actually I did then Angus and Geoff tagged along, we rented racquets and balls, it was dissapointing as were given only 2 balls both dead, and the racquets sucks as well on top of that the guy managing the place is corrupt! He tried to charge me almost double the price we agreed upon at the front desk of the hotel, the complex is connected with the hotel so it's a fixed price, but the manager thought he'd give it a try, I yelled at him and insisted with the price agreed upon and meekly took the money. I haven't played for almost ... read more

Some people claim that Bukhara with its quarter of a million citizens is the holiest city i Central Asia, and I begin to see where they got the idea from. On a day like today, the sun shining brightly on a clear blue sky, and the sand coloured buildings shining back just as brightly, it is hard not to be mesmerized by her true beauty. Last night's adventure means we get to start a bit later this morning, and after a couple extra hours of welcome sleep we start moving around the city's captivating structures, one place after another. We start in one of the most obvious point, the big square between the Kalon mosque and the Mir-i-Arab medressah. Both these structures are gigantic and amazingly beautiful. Naturally, this is also a focal point for street ... read more