24 September 2024 (Tuesday) - (Another) Road Trip

Brekkie was a bit iffy. To be honest the hotel in Bukhara has been far and away the worst food-wise. We finished our packing and seeing the expression on the face of the hotel porter I carried out suitcases downstairs myself.
We loaded up the coach and set off on another road trip.
Unlike the trip from Khiva, the roads onwards were rather pot-holed. After two hours we found some feral toilets. The public toilets in Uzbekistan are grim (to say the least), and every one has some local demanding three thousand soms before you can use the place. Personally I think eighteen pence to piss in a hole in the ground is overpriced, but what do I know? Today’s toilet had some local chap taking the money who got incredibly over-excited when he heard we were from the UK, and started telling everyone about how his is a Manchester United fan.
 
After another two hours we were at our lunch stop. Lunch was much the same as what we’ve come to expect – salad followed by soup followed by a strange main course followed by melon.
And then back on the coach again to Shahriabs.
 
At Shahriabs we had a good wander round the Amir Timur park. It would have been a better wander had it not been so hot. The coach told us that he external temperature was forty-one degrees. But taking a selfie at the statue and answering a couple of questions gave us the thumbs-up for an Earthcache.
 
Back to the coach and we drove off along fifty miles of what we were assured was the worst highway in Uzbekistan. The driver was slaloming around the pot holes rather impressively.
 
It was rather late by the time we finished our two hundred mile road trip and we got to the hotel in Samarkand. Perhaps I did the place an injustice, but from the outside the hotel did look like “Guest House Paradiso”.
Dinner wasn’t bad, but the beer was pricey, and the wi-fi isn’t good.
 

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