Silk Road - 2nd October (Monday)

We woke up at 7:10am this morning. Breakfast was in a nice dining room with decorative shelves like we saw in Marco Polo. A nice plate of prepared breakfast was placed on each seat, we had 2 pieces of crepes, ham, cheese on the plates, tea and bread were also served. Ross gave breakfast a miss as usual, preferring to catch a few more minutes of sleep.


Our first stop today was at Lyabi-Hauz and then we went to Caravanserais (silk, weaving and carpet center). It was a little building with a square in the middle with three storeys. Our next stop was the covered markets, the first trading post, 2nd trading post and then the 3rd trading post. This is where hats, scarves, carpets and so on. Our next stop is Kalon Minaret Mosque, 47m tall where it was also called the Tower of Death. Genghis Khan was so impressed with it that he ordered it spared when he attacked the city. He destroyed all other buildings. Later rulers threw their enemies off the top in a sack. There was a mini discussion going on as to why they were first placed in sacks.

Opposite this was the Mir-i-Arab Medressa which was a working mosque (not open for visiting). We also went into the Ulugbek Medressa. The Ulugbek Medressa had a stock nest on top of the minaret. In the days where no restoration was done and the place was left to ruins, it was not uncommon to see stork nests on top of the minarets. The nests are quite huge even when viewing it from below. Most of the Medressas are now shopping outlets.


We got back to the bus and it brought us to Zindon, the infamous jail, is now a museum. It has a bug pit (for political prisoners) and cells for people who didn't pay their taxes, didn't follow the Ramadan or simply didn't pray five times a day.


Next was The Ark and the winter Palace and lastly Bolo-Hauz Mosque. By this time, we were quite hungry and very mosque-ed out. After the last mosque, we were led to Lyabi-Hauz where we quickly grabbed a seat in the shade. We sat in a different spot next time and wasn't sure whether the tables belong to the same restaurant. It was actually a different restaurant and the food wasn't as good as the one we had yesterday at lunch. We had the same things, beef shashlyk, salad and bread.

I noticed that the table behind us, a table of four, 2 guys and 2 older ladies, one of the guys kept looking me. The other guy in a sort of military uniform, came over with two vodka shots. They tried to explain that it was Teacher's Day. We felt obliged to down the shots since they were so nice. It was a mistake since I got really red and a bit dizzy. We quickly finished our meal, but before we finished, he came over with two more vodka shots. I couldn't fathom finishing another shot and firmly refused. Ross downed his vodka. When we paid the bill and bought the group 4 vodka shots. Ross went over with the shots with my vodka shot to toast them. In the end, I had to go over to the table to join them. One of the ladies tried to get me to drink another vodka shot, she said she was a babushka with 3 grandsons. I refused firmly but politely. After the first vodka, I was still burning all over. I tried to walk but couldn't get that far without stopping. We went to the internet cafe for 20 minutes or so to try to access Ross's email. I just put my head down on the table and rested.

We couldn't get onto the internet, gave up and left. We went back to the restaurants for toilet and sat down with the two Chris's, Shirley and Joanna for a while. It was good for me to sit down. Most of the topic here was dominated by Joanna being very talkative and not knowing when to stop. Most people have discovered that she simply doesn't listen at all and doesn't stop for anyone to comment.

After a while, all of us were ready to do some shopping. In the end, we managed to find a ceramic bazaar. We found a stall we liked and the sales assistant spoke very good English. We discovered she was only 14 and she claimed to speak 12 languages. She was very good at making sales and we finally bought a plate and bowl from her. Later, at another stall, we also managed to find a shawl for Nanny.

We walked back to our hotel, got a bit lost, but managed to get back to the hotel. 7:30pm was our last dinner together and before dinner, we sat around in the veranda, chatting. I walked into the dining room to take a photo of the beautiful decor and saw that it was four separate tables instead of having one big table for our last dinner together. I told Lucy about that and was impressed that she reacted promptly by saying that the family couldn't do it for us. But I was happy to see that she got up and checked out the dining room, talked to Valentina who talked to the family. A few people walked into the dining room and they arranged tables around.

When we walked in, we were happy to see a big long table. It's good that we didn't have to split up into small groups. We found ourselves sitting near Dave, Carol and Wenda. During dinner, Carol asked Wenda lots of questions and I found out a lot about her. We also discussed a lot about the trip and feedbacks that we have written. Most felt that Lucy had been a great tour leader. But most were not happy with the yurt stay and the lunch stop that we had, from Naryn to Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan and the huge group size.


The food was not exactly fantastic. We realised that the sit down dinners had not been fantastic for us. We had paid US$7 each for the dinner, besides the taste being more bland than the roadside restaurants, there was also very little meat. We also presented Lucy with her tip at dinner. Kevin did the honors and Phillippa had a poem for her. Dinner finished at around 9:30pm.

We sat briefly in the veranda before turning in for bed.