Day 16 Samarkand to Bukhara

Not too much to report today. A long drive of c180 miles was punctuated by three stops. Our local guide advised that the roads would be excellent. Technically, she was correct. They were excellent in comparison with some of the mountain passes in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Put up against the roads in Buckinghamshire (probably the worst in the UK), they’d rate as poor. After a very smooth first half an  hour, we then bumped our way slowly westwards towards Bukhara.


First stop was lunch, which for a roadside place was pretty good.


Next we stopped at the site of an old Caravanserai - a small stopping place for travellers on the old Silk Road route. Part of it had been excavated, so you could get a sense of what it might have been like. This, more than anything so far, evoked a feeling of being on the old trading route linking China and Europe. Two hundred metres away was the cistern from which the Caravanserai got its water.








The Cistern 



Twenty minutes further on we stopped at the Sitorai-Mokhi-Khosa (Summer Palace). A place where the rulers of Bukhara would spend their summers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In fairness to them, it had a very relaxing ambiance.














The final push into Bukhara, where we will stay for 3 nights, was simple enough. A full day of seeing the many sights awaits.


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