Day 4 - Samarkand to Bukhara

After making our way yet again to the Bibi Khanum mausoleum to exchange our dollars and collect the next wad of notes, Massoud and his taxi pick us up at 11am at the Grand Samarkand Hotel. We are on our way to Bukhara…

The landscape is far greener than expected. Plenty of apple trees, vines, wheat and not the semi-desert I was expecting in my mind.

We choose to take the longer route through the beautiful terrain of the Zarafshon Mountains and stop for a couple of hours in Shakhrisabz to visit what is left of the once sumptuous Ak-Saray Palace of Amir Timur. The columns of the entrance portal were once 75m high. The width of the columns and the beauty of its crumbling blue mosaics help to imagine how monumental and impressive this structure must have been in the heyday of Amir Timur.
Before resuming our journey to Bukhara we stop to wander in the tranquil, shaded courtyard of the Kok-Gumbaz Mosque and admire the palm tree patterns on the interior walls of the mosque.

Our driver, Massoud, is a very polite and pleasant 53-year old Uzbek, a reflection of the general character of the people in this country… very friendly and hospitable, quick to reward you with a smile, proud of their cities (rather than their country!), never pushy when trying to sell you their wares. I was probably unconsciously expecting Soviet grumpiness, but have been truly taken by surprise by the warmth of these people.

He tells us about his time in the Soviet army , visiting Eastern block cities such as East Berlin, Dresden, Krakow in the early 80s. He now doubles up as music teacher 2 days a week and as taxi driver 3 days a week and proudly tells us about his family, showing us photos of his 8 grandchildren on his mobile phone.

We finally arrive in Bukhara at 8pm to the hotel gem of our holiday, a restored 17^th century mud and clay-walled medressa with the student alcoves converted into traditionally decorated, welcoming rooms. Unfortunately it’s too cold to sit and relax on a ‘takht’ (day bed) with a pot of tea in the hotel courtyard. I’ll have to come back again in the summer…

We make our way into the heart of Bukhara, to the main square Lyabi-Hauz, which in spite of significant modernisation (including fake camels around the small lake at the centre of the square), still preserves an air of oriental mystique, harking back to the days when Bukhara used to be the religious, cultural and scientific centre of the Muslim (and not only) world in the 9^th and 10^th centuries. The philosopher and pioneering doctor Ibn Sina (Avincenna) and poet and mathematician Omar Al Khayyam were amongst the illustrious inhabitants of this city around the 10^th-12^th century.

We really enjoy our dinner at Minfiza. Excellent Uzbek food, offering the ubiquitous ‘plov’ (rice stew), ‘laghman’ (Uzbek spaghetti) and ‘manti’ (Uzbek meat and vegetable ravioli) as well as some tasty salads and soups and (relatively) good wine, the latter, the waiter proudly explains, produced in Uzbekistan following Italian production techniques… In Central Asia I would still suggest to look at Georgian wine racks, rather than Uzbek ones…

The waiter is very attentive, a good looking (Bukharans are generally quite handsome), very bright language student, who impresses us with his knowledge of European and US history. The best smile of the holiday! A pity he could be my son…