On the road from Bukhara to Samarkand, nothing happened .....
It was a really uneventful day. We got on the road at 10am, and headed out to find some petrol (benzine, as I seem to be in the habit of calling it now). The secret seems to be to ask your Hotelier as they seem to know, or have contacts. It turns out it is available at one station in the city, on the road out to Samarkand.
I wondered how we could tell which of the many stations on the road, is the one with the benzene. The answer was obvious !
Again, it seems that being on a motorbike allows you to push in to the front, and nobody seemed to object. Paid for our fuel in 98 x 1,000 Soon notes .... took me 5 mins to count out, but the cashier used a note-counter machine (like they have in banks) to verify it.
We motored on, virtually non-stop on a good quality dual carriageway, all the way to Samarkand. As we entered the heart of the city, we passed manicured parks & gardens, and it looked very nice. Fortunately the hotel was close so we made a quick plan to check-in and walk back.
We found the Lux hotel without any issues, but this family run hotel had put Son Number 1 on reception duty that day .... and clearly he didn't want to be there. Bad attitude from the start. And then the rooms ... dire ! Everything was either painted brown, stained brown, or simply turned brown with old age.
The shower... didn't ! And the mattress was about as thin as a Band-aid plaster. We were there now, so grin and bear it. So within 30 mins, we headed back out for a late afternoon photo session.
Somehow stumbled into a Burger joint for our evening meal, but the wifi was good, so we used the opportunity to book our next hotel in Tashkent. We both figured after the Lux, well lets splash out a bit on the next one... its bound to be worth it.
It was a really uneventful day. We got on the road at 10am, and headed out to find some petrol (benzine, as I seem to be in the habit of calling it now). The secret seems to be to ask your Hotelier as they seem to know, or have contacts. It turns out it is available at one station in the city, on the road out to Samarkand.
I wondered how we could tell which of the many stations on the road, is the one with the benzene. The answer was obvious !
Again, it seems that being on a motorbike allows you to push in to the front, and nobody seemed to object. Paid for our fuel in 98 x 1,000 Soon notes .... took me 5 mins to count out, but the cashier used a note-counter machine (like they have in banks) to verify it.
We motored on, virtually non-stop on a good quality dual carriageway, all the way to Samarkand. As we entered the heart of the city, we passed manicured parks & gardens, and it looked very nice. Fortunately the hotel was close so we made a quick plan to check-in and walk back.
We found the Lux hotel without any issues, but this family run hotel had put Son Number 1 on reception duty that day .... and clearly he didn't want to be there. Bad attitude from the start. And then the rooms ... dire ! Everything was either painted brown, stained brown, or simply turned brown with old age.The shower... didn't ! And the mattress was about as thin as a Band-aid plaster. We were there now, so grin and bear it. So within 30 mins, we headed back out for a late afternoon photo session.
Somehow stumbled into a Burger joint for our evening meal, but the wifi was good, so we used the opportunity to book our next hotel in Tashkent. We both figured after the Lux, well lets splash out a bit on the next one... its bound to be worth it.