We awoke early to one of the best breakfasts of the trip so far courtesy of the hotel. In the traditional courtyard in the centre of the hotel we encountered a buffet of epic proportions which included pancakes, eggy bread, fruit, cake, nuts, omelette, melons and bread galore! We filled up, although Paul wasn’t feeling too great and decided to take a rest whilst Tom and Katie went off to explore the cities famous mosques and madrassas which shone aqua blue in the blaring sun.
After an amazing explore, Tom headed off to the Bukhara fortress to learn about the lives of Emirs of the past, whilst Katie went to get a proper coffee at one of the street stalls she had spotted gleefully the night before. Checking in on Paul who had requested some bananas and water to ease his grumbly tummy, Katie then went on a city wide search for the mysterious yellow fruit which nobody in Bukhara seemed to have heard of before. Sadly returning empty handed back to Paul, Team Yes We Khan met up again at the hotel room and relaxed for a bit before deciding to drive Stan further east to the next historical city of Samarkand.
Samarkand being only a few hours away we arrived fairly early in the city and as we had time to spare we decided it was about time we gave Stan a clean. Not wanted to do half a job we proceeded to empty Stan of all his contents in the middle of the disused car park and give everything a dusting down. Whilst Paul guarded all our belongings in the car park, Tom and Katie went into search of a “moñka” – a car wash, which we were assured were practically in every street corner. After driving across half the city they finally found one down a side street and paid £4 for a full inside and outside clean. They made polite conversation whilst being astounded that Katie was actually a driver of the van and Stan emerged about 30 minutes later looking sparkling clean. We were very proud!
Upon returning to Paul with the van, Tom and Katie found him surrounded by children and a man who seemed to spoke amazing English (he was a doctor from Istanbul). The children were very noisy and demanding whilst pawing all our camping equipment but cute nonetheless. They seemed fascinated by our van and belongings and even after we had packed our stuff away and we’re heading back to the hotel followed us and chatted away.
Feeling grimy from all the cleaning we spent a few hours freshening up and then heard from the Swiss team that they were about 30 minutes away. Today was Elias’ birthday and we were eager to meet up with our fellow rally friends again and give Elias his furry hat and beer as a birthday gift. We were not disappointed with his reaction and in his jolly green giant kind of way he bellowed with laughter and then pronounced it was time for dinner. Since the Swiss had had a tiring couple of days trying to fix their suspension and a long drive from Khiva that day, we had already picked out a restaurant to eat at which the internet had optimistically described as “the best restaurant in Samarkand”.
Since it was a celebration and the traffic and road signage in Samarkand were not very favourable, we decided to push the boat out and catch a taxi to the restaurant. The first thing was to find a taxi who know where we wanted to go.
We have found that the people of central Asia seem to be a night time bunch. Before 11am everything can appear to be closed and not a lot of people around, even in the major cities, yet at night the streets are teaming with people, young children and pets. We walked through the central plaza next to the Registon which was lit up romantically in the night sky. We took a moment a take in the amazing view before trying to hail a cab. A few cars pulled up (none with actually taxi signs as is Uzbek way) but shrugged at us and drive away when they couldn’t work out where we wanted to go. Being a group of 5 people we were a little dubious when the next “taxi” asked the local police men where the restaurant was as we assumed the police might have an issue with 6 people trying to squash into a rather small car. On the contrary though as the police men gave the driver full directions and waved us into his vehicle quickly so we wouldn’t hold up the other traffic. Even with the policeman’s directions it took a few google maps attempts to get to the restaurant. We had a lovely evening of Uzbek food and beer (we certainly do not recommend trying Uzbek wine) whilst celebrating our new friends 36th birthday. Catching a taxi back was much easier since we went back to the biggest landmark of the Registon. We slept well that night after a fantastic day.
Team Yes We Khan 