"John, it's your wife again!"

Central Asia - Bukhara

29/09/2016 27 °C
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After a long 8 hour drive from Khiva eventually we arrived in the centre of Bukhara in the evening. Quickly dropping our bits off at the hotel, we headed to the restaurant for a meal consisting of the usual suspects - soup, kebab meat and bread, and a cheer of "Oldik" (a toast and not a scream for something else) before enjoying a quick night time tour of the city.

The following morning after a comfy night's sleep and some breakfast we headed into the city - starting with the Abdulaziz Khan Madrassah and Toki Zargaron Mosque - which has now been converted into a retail complex. Buying a token Silk Road T-Shirt, we then headed to the city's iconic attraction - the Po-i-Kalyan complex, with it's brick minaret and green domed mosques.

Po-i-Kalyan

Inside the Po-i-Kalyan complex

As it was early in the morning, the complex was relatively empty, and so we could take in the Central Asian Islamic architecture at it's full glory before heading through the market towards the Ark - the Bukhara fort.

The Ark

Walking past a woman using a pram to carry her life savings, we explored the fort before heading back down towards the Bolo Hauz Mosque.

Inside the Bolo Hauz Mosque

We then continued towards a park, where we were accosted by some local beggars. Although there were relatively few in Central Asia, in touristy areas like this they were quite determined, and one of tour group, John did give away 1000som to one lady who then followed him in pursuit of more. Claiming that she was "quite cheap" we then headed to the Ismail Samani mosque before jumping on the coach to swing us around to the other side of the city centre for a daytime walk around the pond before lunch.

Ismail Samani Mausoleum

As we get off the coach the same beggars were just walking down the street and so Ian shouted to John that his wife was back. As he saw her he waved hello, and she recognised him and loudly exclaimed back a big "Heyyyy!!" with matching wave.

Lyab-i Hauz

Trying once again to shake off the beggars we took a look around the tree filled Lyab-i-Hauz square and adjacent complex before lunch, and then boarded our coach towards Samarkand!

Inside the Nadir Divan-Begi Madrasah