Bukhara day 2

I had asked the previous day for a guide so that we could understand more of the history. Strangely, the hotel had offered a guide for $30, but when I said yes, they did not respond, so at breakfast, I asked again via WhatsApp. He calls Flo and says the price is $50, so we say no, but surprisingly, he does not reduce his price. Not to worry , we are pretty sure we will find one ourselves, and we do at the tourist office. Flo uses her poker face to get the price down from $80 to $30. It's funny to watch at in the small cubicle we pay the tourist office lady at the front, and she pays the guide at the back door. How much she took is unclear. For reference, a school teacher earns $1.5 an hour, so a guide for what is $10 per hour is large enough to allow for a “tip” to the tourist office lady.
At the hotel, we have the usual story that the credit card machine does not work, which for once, and so far only once, seems to be true. However, on top of that, they want to be paid for a cup. Nora accidently broke at breakfast, so I refuse, saying that is not normal. (In fact, this never happened to me before in my many travels) He wants 30,000 Soum, which may be only $3, but for him, that is 3 hours pay. I continue to refuse and ask for a receipt for our room payments. It’s the 3rd time I ask. Nothing forthcoming, so I tell him, OK lets ask the tourist police, who have a little office almost next door, what they say. The policeman comes, and no idea what he said, but all the problems disappear, the receipt is produced, and later as we leave we are driven to the trains station by the owner who apologises profusely and profoundly in person, and insists on carrying our bags all the way to the train door.
The guide does show us things we would have missed , such as the oldest mosque from the 11th century, and he explains quite well who built the numerous madrassas, mosques, and markets. Later, he also takes us to the 2000 year old fortified city and runs through some highlights of the 3 small museums inside. At 1440, we say we need to leave to the train station. He talks to another tourist as we head off. We fully expect him to catch up, but he never does. Quite why , we do not know.
We travel back to Tashkent at 4 pm with the normal, not the fast train, because it was sold out long ago. So the journey is 6.5 hours, as opposed to 4 hours, but the train is modern and comfortable, our only problem is we are almost out of local cash and so we share 3 microwaved hamburgers for our evening meal.Leggi altro