After a hot day off changing tyres and servicing the bikes, we got invited to a local's house for a traditional dinner of Pilaf - rice, carrots, and 3 pieces of tender mutton (spot the cooker in the corner of the yard). A very interesting evening chatting to the Uzbeks, and finding out more about their way of life - it's hard to believe that the 45C summer heat drops to -15C in winter! Even though Korean car maket Daewoo have built a new factory in Uzkekistan, it seems that with many factories closes post-USSR-break-up, many Uzbek men search for work in Russia and Kazakstan. The other main export seems to be raw cotton - the fields are full of cotton plants.
Today was a short, and fairly boring ride from Bhukara to Samarkand - still the miles need to be done.
After the desert and farm-fields that we have seen so far, Samarkand was a complete surprise - tree lined boulevards, in what is a big university city;
As student towns go, we were please to find a local (ahem) domino pizza;
Our hotel for the evening was also rather nice;
As it was a fairly boring day, the mind wanders;
1: $100USD changes to 175000 som, all in 25pence notes...
2: Filling 3 tanks of petrol costs, around 48000 som - it takes us some time to count and recount the 96 notes
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