Today we had an easy ride from Bukhara to Samarkand. We had to find benzine first. In this part of the country there is a station called UzGasOil which has higher quality fuel but at a higher price. I was happy that I could put 91 octane again in the bike.

After filling up the bike we followed the road to Samarkand which was pretty good. There were some bad stretches and at a moment I made a pitstop to put extra air in the tyres as I saw pressure was getting too low.

When we got in the city of Samarkand some streets were blocked as they were pooring asphalt on the roads. With the bike we could pass however. We arrived still in the late morning at a hostel called Bahodir. To our surprise the four Belgian girls also arrived at the same time with a taxi from Bukhara.

We parked the bike safely in the hostel and got a large room. It was not the cleanest room, but the price was low, and we were not complaining. Our hosts were very friendly and gave us some tea with biscuits as well. The hostel itself seemed to be quite famous amongst travelers. So we met quite a few interesting people.

We were close to border with Tajikistan. I was interested in meeting people who came from there. We had to go through a tunnel called Anzob, or also known as the tunnel of death. It got this name because at a time people got killed inside the tunnel because of air pollution.

The Anzob tunnel was built by the Iranians and is about 5.5 km long. It has very bad lighting inside so it is very dark. You need to have good lights on the bike. The is also a serious water problem. The tunnel is almost overall flooded with water and has many potholes. So you can’t see how deep they are. At some points they are knee deep. Another problem is the poor ventilation. The exhaust gasses make the visibility even worse and sting in your eyes. Bicycles can over the mountain pass called the Anzob pass. But for motorbikes this can be difficult as well as ice may still be there at high altitudes.

But there were no people who had gone through it we met so far except the dutch guy Stefan we had met in Kazakhstan and who told us “never again”.

 

In the afternoon we went for a long walk. First we visited the Registan. Unfortunately they were building some kind of a stage for a show in the beginning of August. We made a deal with the local militsia to visit the Registan early in the morning at sunrise the next day. Nice, we would have the thing for ourselves 🙂

We also made a stop in an art gallery where we met a painter. There was a piano in the building so I could not resist to play a few tunes. The acoustic was quite nice!

Afterwards we walked north and met Gio, the Italian we met in Bukhara, again. He gave us a tip how to get in the Shah-i-Zinda for free which worked well 🙂 We talked about our journeys with icecreams and fanta.

Before seeing the Shah-i-Zinda you first see the Bibi-Khanum mosquee which is quite impressive. It is really large. Next to this mosque there is also a nice bazar called the Siab bazar. If you look watching people, this is the place to be.

We walked up a hill through a cemetary to get into the Shah-i-Zinda ensemble. This is really a must see. It is in fact a necropolis containing several well known mausoleums.

We continued through the graveyard to visit yet another site which is called the Afrasiyab settlement. At this place was the ancient city from 500 BC to 1220 AD. Now it is just a hilly grassfield. We met some locals in the hills and also made a quick stop in the museum. A little further is the Ulug-Beg observatory, but we had no time for that as we had plov in the guesthouse in the evening.

We were back on time for diner and sat together with the group. There were a lot of people. The belgian girls Charlotte, Eline, Eva and Marie, two girls from London, and an american and canadian guy. Later in the evening I also talked with Ludo and Gane which were really big travelers. Gane is living in Utah, and Ludo is a dutch guy who moved to Australia.

It had been a long and exciting day. Seeing new places, meeting new people. It keeps your brain busy, but the body was tired…