22 May Samarkand to Bukhara

After breakfast David found a barber - cost of a good haircut was about $3 including a tip! We packed up and took a new cab to the train station for the 3-hour trip to Bukhara, arriving at 3:30, where we were picked up by our Samarkand driver Azim who had driven from Samarkand. We were in the first class soft seating of a more local train than the express. We are still trying to understand the reasoning of our Central Asia Travel company in having a guide from Tashkent come with us everywhere instead of a local guide in each place (as in China) and why we paid for a car and driver from Tashkent to drive from place to place while we take the train....seems more efficient to just get a local car to us.

On the way from the train station into town, we stopped at Bahauddin Naqshbandiy mausoleum, which is famous as the grave of the founding member of the founder of Sufism (best known for whirling dervishes) group in Islam.

small remaining tiles

Enjoying free range

Then, closer to town, we stopped at the Summer Palace of the last Amir of Bukhara, who was replaced by the Soviets in 1920. In both of these places we were the only non-local visitors, so these are not popular on the tourist routes.

Textiles on display at Summer Palace

We then enjoyed wandering around old Bukhara, which is a walking town with many arts and crafts and attractive shops for tourists.

We had dinner in a cute home that had been purchased from one of the old Jewish families that left about ten years ago, most likely to Israel. The food was good except for the salads, which they had made very spicy because our booking was from a Chinese tour company so they expected Chinese!

We had requested to see traditional dancing, and did indeed see a show with colorful costumes. In between each traditional dance we had a troupe of fashion models come out and model a local designer's take on modern clothes with Uzbek Ikat silks and other materials, which could be purchased immediately afterward. The show was in an old madrasah, a beautiful courtyard, and cost about $7 each, $10 with a glass of wine. Quite impressed with Bukhara!

Overnighted at Asia Bukhara Hotel, which is right in the old city across from several old caravansary and madrasahs, and had nice rooms with good internet and buffet breakfast.