To Bukhara

The "Shake and Bake"

It was a 6:30 am start on the drive to Bukhara—the shake and bake with 1000 flies.
We had a group lunch at the Madressa near the hotel. then blew off the group again and did our own walking tour through the city. We found a Ferris wheel in the park and got a birds eye view of the city on the top. It was hot hot hot!

While Samarkand is a brilliant blue, Bukhara is all shades of brown.

“Samarkand is the beauty of the earth, but Bukhara is the beauty of the spirit”
We stayed in the center of the old city, near the pool and square called Labi-hauz built in 1620.

\

On the east side is a statue of Hoja Nasruddin, a semi-mythical “wise fool” who appears in Sufi teaching tales around the world. At the Nadir Divanbegi madressa we got quasi-cold beers and talked with the 16-year-old son of one of the shop owners.

This bright kid knows 5 languages and is studying college level courses. Plus- he understood the concept of cold beer and communicated it to the bar owner.

Looking for the perfect sunset view, we headed to the Hotel Bukhara’s roof deck. Once again, we had an empty roof deck with a good view. We watched the staff spitting water on the tablecloths to make them taut. The waitress could spray water from her mouth with the full force of a spray bottle. This place was too depressing, so we headed back to the madressa and spent more time with our new friend. Great food, good company.

Note- the museum staff tries to sell you stuff as you walk through the exhibits
People seem honestly surprised to see Americans.
Our hotel is an old, converted Jewish merchants 16C house—the doors are miniatures…