{"id":6277,"date":"2010-11-27T08:45:51","date_gmt":"2010-11-27T13:45:51","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=6277"},"modified":"2010-10-13T15:50:26","modified_gmt":"2010-10-13T20:50:26","slug":"the-tower-of-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asiawheeling.com\/?p=6277","title":{"rendered":"The Tower of Death"},"content":{"rendered":"

We woke up plenty early the next day and wandered into the dining room area of the Hotel Malika in Bukhara, Uzbekistan. We had thought that the breakfast at the Caravan Sarai was luxurious\u2026 well this one took it to a whole new level, with multiple kinds of pastry, two eggs each, black (Russian) and white (Uzbek) breads, 4 different jams, all kinds of sausages, blini with sour cream, a fruit plate, a selection of deep fried shapes,\u00a0 and a personal waiter! It was in all honesty just too much. It made me slightly uncomfortable, resulting in me rushing a bit through my meal.<\/p>\n

Regardless, it was with bellies plenty full that we struck out into the bright sunshine to do some more in depth explorations of this most fascinating city called Bukhara, where the post boxes look like this.<\/p>\n

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We took a right turn, delving straight from our hotel into the twisted alleyways that make up Bukhara\u2019s old city. The best we could hope for was that we would get hopelessly lost therein.<\/p>\n

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This we achieved with little effort. As we rode, we were continually stumbling upon giant compounds of Uzbek structures, the purpose of which we had no idea, but who\u2019s facades told of long forgotten grandeur and years of neglect.<\/p>\n

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We rode along until we noticed this interestingly ornate plaque, which we would be more than grateful is someone more fluent in Russian than I could shed some light on in the comments.<\/p>\n

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We continued to ride on, getting deeper and more lost in the city. We noticed a bakery selling butter cookies, and stopped to but a few, riding on from there, munching as we wheeled.<\/p>\n

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We continued on, through mostly deserted streets, past giant structures which these days served lord knows what purpose.<\/p>\n

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This city felt ancient, frozen in time, remote in a way that no other place we\u2019ve been to has felt.<\/p>\n

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Suddenly, we came upon a giant fortress, which we wheeled up to investigate more closely. It was huge, with very high walls, and bulbous turrets. When we arrived at the central gate to the monster, it seemed to have been turned into some sort of a giant tourist shopping mall\u2026. So, rather than destroy the mystery with some mundane tourist garbage, we just wheeled on, leaving the wonder intact.<\/p>\n

We continued to skirt around the great fortress, riding along the base of its walls and moving towards the back of the beast. Many places along the wall, the structure seemed to be dependent on long wooden poles which were plunged directly into the mortar, making them an integral part of the wall. I guess, this being the desert and all, wood does not decompose so quickly as it might in, say, Cambodia.<\/p>\n