Sultanate of Timur!

In the 14th century the city of Samarkand was the capital of the great sultanate of Timur. Thanks to it's cemtral location along the Silk Route, it is a melting pot of different cultures and traditions whose influences are still very much apparent today. Samarkand is perhaps the most romantic and evocative of the Silk Road cities, and crowned by the decorative domes and minarets of the many beautiful buildings here it certainly looks the part. Today our must-see's included Registan Square, which feels like the centre-point of the city, home to a group of impressively decorated Madressas, Guri Amir and the Shah-i-Zinda mausoleum.

We toured for hours. Ihlkum was impressively knowledgeable of the sites and we learned a lot. The tiles are unbelievable! We started off early, enjoyed a break during the heat of the day and picked up again late afternoon and onto the evening.

For lunch we ate at a local tea house in the market and then people watched for a couple of hours. Life is grand...and as Auntie Mame used to say, "life's a banquet and most poor bastards seldom get to the table." Sure glad I found the restaurant!

Dinner with a local family

We were invited to visit a beautiful family home tonight where we we given a short cooking lesson followed by a grand meal. We enjoyed homemade ravioli, assorted cold salads and a beef, rice and veggie casserole called "pilov." Delicious!

Dude from Chicago

Tim's his name...wild is his game!

Strange things happen in Bukhara

Hulk Hogan is gone. You can call me Dirk. Now I'm a biker. Well, you know how I hate to stand out in a crowd!

Bukhara

Another jewel on the Silk Road. We slept in and then set out by foot to see amazing buildings and dramatic tiled facades. The city's history dates back 4,000 years and some of the structures seen today are over 2,000 years old. This is a shopper's paradise. Rich embroidery and carpets, exquisitely carved woods, and brightly colored ceramics. For those who LOVE bowls, there are thousands to choose....and they are really weighing down my bags!

Eight hours of roaming and a mug of cold beer ended our wandering.

On the road

Ten hours crossing the Krygskum desert found us in Bukhara by sunset. We'll be here for three night exploring another marvel of the Silk Road. Our hotel is a converted Jewish home and unite nice.

The highlight of the day during our drive was lovely game of Tourettes. Each person is assigned a thing to look for-gist, horse, tree, man at work, dump truck, etc. each time you spit your assumed thing you must shout out a swear word. Multiple sights require multiple shouts. At one point we passed a flock of sheep, a fellow on horseback, and a construction zone, all at the same time. It was hysterical.

For lunch we found a hole on the sand and once again had to start counting out ALL if that money. We're starting to ignore the 500 notes...to tedious!

Kunya Urgench

A brisk session of yoga started our day followed by breakfast in bright sunshine and a slight recollection of last night's affairs. We buried the bones of the sacrificed birds we had for dinner.

Ten miles into town we visited the ruins of Kunya Urgench. This city was built in the 1100's, pillaged countless times by Persians, Timor, and Ganges Khan.

When Islam was introduced the leaders believed it was not necessary to visit Mecca and created the 200 ft tower as their Hag. From that point it was the place for pilgrims from Central Asia to visit. It still is today.

Afterward we went to Sagkat's home to visit his mother and family. While their we filled the truck's water tank from the well and were treated to tea and jelly sandwiches.

We reached the Uzbek border at 3:00 pm to begin the process. We were checked out of Turkmenistan by 5:30 and on our way to the Uzbek station. And ... surprise, surprise! Less than thirty minutes to get in...yippee!

We waited for our truck to clear and met our guide, Illya. Nice guy! Great English skills. There was a problem with some of the paperwork so we had to wait. We're getting good at that by now. Once the truck was cleared we headed to Khiva and our hotel. By now it was 7pm. To help pass the time between the border and the hotel Illya offered to do a liittle black market rate money exchange so we would have some "pocket" money. The rate is 2200 soms to the dollar. It was a hoot getting wads and wads of local currency for a few US Dollars. Dinner and a bottle of local wine was 42,000 ($14.85). It ended up being a very long day again!