26 September 2024
(Thursday) - Samarkand Day Two
Hotel (Grand Superior)
to Mausoleums (Coach) – 10 miles
Registan Square to
Hotel (Grand Superior) (Coach) – 2 miles
Hotel (Grand
Superior) to evening meal (Coach) – 2 miles
Evening meal to train
station (Coach) – 1 mile
Train station to
Tashkent – 200 miles
Train station to Hotel
(Wyndham Tashkent) – 10 miles
I
had a rather good night’s sleep which was something of a result. And a (relatively)
very good brekkie too.
We did our packing. Having moved the tea tray to the
floor because there was no plug anywhere within reach of the kettle’s power
cable, as we had a last-minute check of the room we discovered the kettle’s
extension cable.
We took our cases to the hotel’s lobby. The coach took
us to more mausoleums, then leaving us behind set off with the cases on the
road back to Tashkent taking a seven hour journey. We stayed for another day in
Samarkand.
The mausoleums were good if you like mausoleums. If
you don’t then (quite frankly) you’ve no business being in Uzbekistan.
From the mausoleums we walked up to the market. We
were warned to be careful of gypsies in the market. Apparently they hypnotize
you and rob you. We took no chances and walked up the road where we found a
rather good little café. They offered Big Macs and probably will continue to do
so until the McDonalds corporation get wind of them. We had a chicken skewer
each and a couple of glasses of pop, and change out of a fiver.
We all met up again after dinner and walked along an
avenue of conker trees. Who would have thought they
had conker trees in Samarkand? We went on to Registan Square where we
admired the madrasahs and then had a little wander around. I found a stall
selling raspberry milk shakes. before setting off for dinner. Yet another
traditional Uzbek dinner. It has to be said that by this stage I would have
killed for pie and chips.
And with dinner scoffed we aid goodbye to Samarkand.
At the risk of seeming negative, Samarkand was something of a disappointment.
When I was a lad, adventure comics painted Samarkand as a far-off land of
mystery and intrigue where the likes of James Bond did derring-doo
with Johnny Foreigner.
In reality Samarkand isn’t any different from any
other city.
We went to the train station which was something of an
adventure. Having been promised tickets on the Shark Train it
turned out there weren’t any tickets available, so we took the standard train
back to the first hotel in which we’d stayed in Tashkent.
We got to bed shortly after one o’clock.