45 degrees in the shadow ... Bukhara

it is just so hot! unbelievable. Can't believe that one week ago I was sitting in a Shepard's yurt wearing all clothes I had in my backpack and dancing around trying to get my iced toes warm ;-)
The only option we had .. getting up again at 6am and doing all the sightseeing in pleasant 35 degrees and without tourists (nice side-effect for this quite touristy town). Unfortunately also the locals don't seem to be early birds, so it was almost a bit unreal. Nonetheless amazing ... Bukhara seems to be smaller than Samarkand and much more a desert city. Everything evolves around a 16th century "pool" which is the heart of the old city. From there you can walk through small golden streets with Medrassas and Mosques with their turquoise chapel and their deep blue mosaic portals around every corner. Just beautiful (we will upload pictures as soon as the internet cafes have connections over 128 kB ;-).
It still has the glamour of an old silk road city … although also here tourism is growing fast with carpet and handcraft shops around every corner and the typical "come Madam, good price, Italian, German?". And you have to bargain hard (but that I learned in China ;-)!
Definitely Uzbekistan is more touristy than anything we saw in Kyrgyzstan, which doesn’t mean it is easier to travel. For example the currency is just unbelievable! The highest available bank note is 1000 SOM, which is probably around 0,70 EUR, so changing 100 USD can end up in a pile of a few centimeters.. (credit cards are also almost unknown here..). Whenever you want to change money you have to go to the bank early in the morning because by the afternoon they run out of cash … But at least once in our lives we really feel RICH ;-)