The next morning we woke just in time to go for Breakfast. We rapidly got dressed in our filthy clothes &
headed through the hotel to find the restaurant empty. Initially we thought we were too late but a waiter ushered us into a huge dining hall. We found an empty table & set about filling our plate from the many serving dishes. One of things we found through Central Asia was the mixture of western & eastern foods available for breakfast. From scrambled eggs to pastries which looked lovely but to me, tasted horrible. I’m not a fan of cottage cheese & most of what I had tasted had a similar taste. Maybe it was the combination of the heat & one of my least favourite foods that had put me off trying them too often. I had found a favourite in Turkmenistan which was like a savoury pancake & they were here too. This with scrambled eggs was more than enough to start the day, all topped up with fresh coffee & juice. Happy days.
We were both still sore about the border crossing & wanted to leave Uzbekistan as soon as possible. Our original plans included stopping at Samarkand before heading to Tajikistan. After the previous day we made a decision to miss Tajikistan. It wasn’t an easy decision to make. I was gutted to not be going to the GBAO region & the Pamir Highway but we had to be sensible. We were now one of the teams towards the rear of the rally & if we got into trouble again we could be screwed. We were also only about half way through the journey & when it came down to it we wanted a chance to complete the rally. The Pamir was taking more cars as its victims than Turkmenistan had. We were hearing reports of cars breaking & not able to continue. The thought of not getting to Mongolia was worse. The decision was made, we would head towards Kyrgyzstan. Next we had to work out our route. Making use of the hotel’s WiFi, we downloaded the next set of maps needed & after a week of no social media & restricted media we caught up with the various tales of the rally. All media’d out, we went out to find exchange some dollars & explore some of the immediate vicinity.
For anyone who has not been to Uzbekistan before, currency exchange is a weird business. If you search how many Uzbekistan Som you would get for a USD, XE will tell you the exchange rate is something similar to 2800 UZS/USD. However, it is impossible to get Som in the UK & if you head to a bank in Uzbekistan you won’t get the best rate. ATM’s are more or less non-existent. Cash is king & the black market is where you will find you get the most for your dollars. Its not hard to exchange the green note either.
We went off for a wander around the mosques & an area which has been restored in recent years. In an area what would have been a bazaar many centuries ago, small shops now existed full of trinkets, local produce & art. Outside, men sit trying to encourage you to enter their shops. They also openly offer black market money exchange. it wasn’t long before we were being offered 4300 UZS/USD. We decided to take this rate & soon we exchanged 2 $100 notes for a stack of cash inches thick. We were nearly millionaires!
Feeling rich, we headed into one of the shops to stock up on the endless supply of water & non perishable food. We also picked up some more fresh fruit to keep us going for the next couple of days. Laden with bags & water we headed back to the hotel & put our recent purchases in Minty. Before checking out of the hotel we went back to finish looking at the local area. Among the mosques were ponds, waterways & area’s which had been excavated many years ago but now displayed ruins & foundations behind walls to keep the public at bay . It was interesting to see some of the old restored buildings looking as if they were new but were centuries old. Locals were taking shelter from the heat under the many ancient mulberry trees. In the middle of a small park was a larger than life statue of Nasreddin Hodja sitting on a donkey. Local visitors were keen to climb on top. Many were forcing their young children to sit in front of Nasreddin Hodja bawling their eyes out to have their photo taken. Sorry kids, but I think your parents are out to embarrass you later on in life.
It was nearly midday & we checked out of the hotel. In one way it was a shame to be leaving. We hadn’t had the chance to see the old city, other than at night driving through the narrow lanes. The people were really friendly & wanted to chat. A teenager stopped to chat to me through a fence at the hotel car park. His curiosity in abundance was enchanting. When he left, he just waved & said ‘Welcome to Bukhara’;shame we were leaving. it was now time to head to Tashkent to pick up Frank, one of our fellow rallier’s who was separated from his team whilst they went through Tajikistan.
Only 571 km to cover, how quickly can we make it?
