Bye Bukhara, hello Samarkand

We had most of the day free to spend in Bukhara before grabbing a train to Samarkand. It was nice to have a leisurely breakfast. Brad had scheduled a hammom bath for 11 a.m. at a traditional bath house which is Turkish style. I wasn’t interested in joining but I walked over with him.

While he was getting pulled and scraped, I walked around the market area and met him afterwards. We were fortunate that the Bukhara Biennial was on and went to look at some of the public art. We really enjoyed that.

For lunch, I had read about a restaurant that had been designed by the same architect that had designed the summer palace that we had visited yesterday. We had lunch there and it was lovely. By then, it was time to get to the train station. The group reassembled and we hopped on our bus to the train station. The train ride from Bukhara to Samarkand is only about 90 minutes.

Once we arrived in Samarkand, there was a new bus and driver waiting for us to take us to a family home to watch the national dish plov being made. The parents did not speak English, but the daughters did so we were entertained by their 21-year-old who told us a great deal about Uzbekistan customs. It was enlightening as well as entertaining.

We’ve now checked into our guest house and will start exploring Samarkand tomorrow with a guided tour.Read more