TASHKENT: Currently 2800 Uzbeki Som to the Dollar on the black market (around 1800 officially). Highest denomination is the 1,000 Som note - queue obligatory money shot.
TASHKENT: The owner of the guesthouse playing the Dutar translated, literally as 'two string'.
I threw a strop when he said I had to pay a dollar a night for keeping my bike at the guesthouse while I was away touring the country.
Oh yeah, I didn't cycle much in Uzbekistan.
SAMARKAND: The Registan. I snuck in the back so I didn't have to pay.
SAMARKAND: Bibi-Khanym Mosque. And locals hugging the shadows.
SAMARKAND: Shah-i-Zindah Mausoleum 'ensemble'.
SAMARKAND: shah-i-Zindah tile detail.
BUKHARA: The Ark at sunset. Home of exotic despots.
BUKHARA: Char Minar 'four minarets' mosque.
BUKHARA: You hot bastard.
BUKHARA: Kalon Minaret. 47 metres tall, 10 metre deep foundations. So good Chinnigis Khan didn't knock it down. Which was nice of him, becuase you know, he gets a lot of bad press.
KHIVA: Poor plug to appliance ratio.
KHIVA: Kalta Minor Minaret: unfinished, legend says, because completed you would be able to see into the Khan's harem.
MOYNAQ: Formerly a fishing village on the Aral Sea now shop-front for The Apocalypse.
YANGIYO'L: Back on the bicycle heading to the Tajikistan border. Asked to put my tent up in a farm, a farmer led me back to his house where his self-consciously short family fed me up.
BEKOBOD: Near the Tajikistan border. Babur and his son putting my bike in the boot of his Lada. More cheating, but in my defence, I had a hell of a hangover.
No comments:
Post a Comment