24 September 2024
(Tuesday) - (Another) Road Trip
Hotel
(Asia Bukhara) to Shahriabs - 170 miles
Shahriabs to Samarkand (Hotel
Grand Superior) – 90 miles
Brekkie
was a bit iffy. To be honest the hotel in Bukhara has been far and away the
worst food-wise. We finished our packing and seeing the expression on the face
of the hotel porter I carried out suitcases downstairs myself.
We loaded up the coach and set off on another road
trip.
Unlike the trip from Khiva, the roads onwards were
rather pot-holed. After two hours we found some feral toilets. The public
toilets in Uzbekistan are grim (to say the least), and every one has some local demanding three thousand soms before you can use the place. Personally I think
eighteen pence to piss in a hole in the ground is overpriced, but what do I
know? Today’s toilet had some local chap taking the money who got incredibly
over-excited when he heard we were from the UK, and started telling everyone
about how his is a Manchester United fan.
After another two hours we were at our lunch stop.
Lunch was much the same as what we’ve come to expect – salad followed by soup
followed by a strange main course followed by melon.
And then back on the coach again to Shahriabs.
At Shahriabs we had a good
wander round the Amir Timur park. It would have been a better wander had it not
been so hot. The coach told us that he external temperature was forty-one
degrees. But taking a selfie at the statue and answering a couple of questions
gave us the thumbs-up for an
Earthcache.
Back to the coach and we drove off along fifty miles of
what we were assured was the worst highway in Uzbekistan. The driver was
slaloming around the pot holes rather impressively.
It was rather late by the time we finished our two
hundred mile road trip and we got to the hotel in Samarkand. Perhaps I did the
place an injustice, but from the outside the hotel did look like “Guest House Paradiso”.
Dinner wasn’t bad, but the beer was pricey, and the
wi-fi isn’t good.