Adventures in Asia: Bukhara, Uzbekistan

After arriving in Bukhara from Khiva by train last night, I ended up spending much longer than I expected exploring in the dark and relatively cool of the late evening. I have less than 24 hours in Bukhara, so I need to make the most of it!

There were plenty of people still out and the city is gorgeous and well lit at night! My guesthouse is beside Karavan Saray Kulita Arkhitekturnyy Pamyatnik, which is now a pedestrian thoroughfare and market and has quite the atmosphere!

On the other side is the Hotel Shahriston, which is probably where I would stay if I was not trying to be economical (although really somehow this beautiful place is not even especially expensive, albeit three times the price of my room).

Further up the street is the Toqi Zargaron . . .

. . . and nearby here I found an outdoor table at a restaurant and ate a late dinner with this view of the Ulugʻbek madrasasi and Abdulaziz Khan Madrassah.

After dinner I walked back through the caravansary to the Lab-i Hauz area, which is really spectacular. Hauz pools like this were once common in Bukhara, but were largely filled in during the Soviet era to mitigate the spread of disease. This one was preserved, however, and thank goodness because it is a real Bukhara highlight!

At this point it was after 23:00 and I decided I better get some sleep, so I turned in for the night.

By the time I woke up, the sun was bright, already, and I went up to the roof for breakfast.

After breakfast and a stop at an art gallery, I walked the streets, past Toqi Zargaron again . . .

. . . the especially impressive Po-i-Kalan . . .

. . . and as far as the Ark of Bukhara.

Then I worked my way back . . .

. . . and then onward east into the residential alleys, which were very interesting in their own ways!

I was intrigued by this CCCP box along the way!

My destination via these alleys was the Chor Minor Monument.

This was the entryway into a madrasah that is now gone, but even all by itself it is a cool little building!

From here I went to visit the Lyab i Hauz in the daylight. Perhaps even lovelier than it is by night!

So, I sat for a coffee.

The Nodir Devonbegi Madrasah is right next to here and look at this impressive archway!

After my coffee it was time for a hammam!

This was quite the experience! Of course I did not take any photos of the massage and bathing, but here are some photos of the interior.

The massage is intense! I felt I was being twisted into a pretzel and I was stretched in ways I never have been. After the massage, the masseuse rubbed a disinfectant ginger scrub into my back and arms, and then had me lie on that big marble slap in the middle the room below. Ouch! The ginger is HOT where it makes contact with the marble, and I could not last lying on the marble the full ten minutes.

After the whole process, you can relax with tea and cool down in this room. 

The hammam costs $35 USD, which in these parts is a lot of money (more than my hotel room, for example), but it was very worth it for the experience! 

Still relaxed, and having mostly seen everything I wanted to in Bukhara, I went for lunch. Anyway, it was too hot for me to be outside anymore, so the air conditioned restaurant was a great place to be!

After my lunch it was time to head back to the train station and travel onward to Samarkand.

Adventures to Asia: Platzkart across the Kyzylkum Desert, Uzbekistan

From the very modern Khiva train station . . .

. . . I caught the 15:00 train to Bukhara. I am traveling in the platzkart, the old Soviet style of carriage. This is a very affordable way to travel as I paid about $16 Canadian for the 6 hour trip.

I have wanted to experience the platzkart, but only in a context in which I was not actually trying to sleep! So, this route worked out perfectly for me. 

All was clean and mostly empty when I boarded. You can see how the platzkart works--basically four bunks in each doorless compartment to my left, and then a pair of bunks along the aisle to my right. It manages to fit a lot of people relatively comfortably and efficiently, but without any privacy at all.

My seat is an upper bunk along the aisle.

 I rode on the seat for a bit, but eventually folded down my bunk and climbed on up. 

The train ended up full for most of the journey. I took fewer photos once there were people, but I did take this photo to give a sense of the vibe.

Unfortunately, the platzkart is not air conditioned. Probably often this is not too much of a problem, because with the windows open there is a pleasant breeze. However, most of the trip between Khiva and Bukhara is through the Kyzylkum Desert (fifteenth largest desert in the world) and so windows open resulted in sand blowing in and we had to close them. 

So, despite lounging in a comfortable position, the trip proved quite miserable, because it was much too hot. Still, I was glad for the experience, and also very glad that I was reaching Bukhara in the evening such that I could sleep in air conditioned comfort in my hotel room!

Once at the Bukhara train station I was happy to buy a bottle of water and grab a taxi to my hotel. I checked in and climbed to the roof for this view. 

It was approaching 22:00, but the city still seemed very much alive, so I headed out to see what I could!