We were in better shape than I expected in the morning, what with all the vodka toasts the previous night. It was excellent quality vodka, which helped.
Filled up at breakfast and then headed out in the drizzle. First, we walked back to Shah-i-Zinda. The mausoleums mostly face east, and my pics from yesterday had poor lighting. The wet ground and umbrellas added to the scene this morning. My iPhone was better than my camera for the lighting, with the bonus that it’s also waterproof. We were asked to be in a few pics, although this time by a group of older local women (otherwise it’s been kids asking).
Walked back along the pedestrian path (becoming familiar to us with the number of times we’ve walked back and forth). We were getting peckish, so stopped at a touristy restaurant near the Registan. We should have gone back to the same place as yesterday, as we were really just paying for the atmosphere (the food wasn’t very good).
After lunch, we walked down to the Gur-e Amir complex. By this point, we were getting out-mausoleum’ed, and it was just another (beautiful) blue-tiled big building. So, that was it for touristing for us in Samarkand. Really you just need a full day for the highlights. But if you want different lighting for pics, it’s best with an extra half day or so.
We napped for a couple hours after we got back to the hotel; yesterday was finally catching up with us.
For dinner, we went to the restaurant near Bibi-Khanym (I think that’s also the name of the restaurant). It’s frequently recommended by b&b’s, and there were a few independent travelers there. The food was pretty good, but their beers weren’t completely cold.
Walked over to the Registan for some night pics. The last ticketed entrance to the madrassas is at 7pm, then they allow an hour for the stragglers to leave the plaza. So, between 7pm and 8pm, it’s possible to enter the plaza for 270* pics.
Along the way to the Registan, we ran into a couple from our hotel in Khiva. We had bumped into them a few times in Uzbekistan, and we wondered why we hadn’t seen them recently. They had just arrived in Samarkand, and, unfortunately for them, the Korean president was visiting the next day and the sites would be all closed. They had plans for a couple day trips and were okay. We had noticed the preparations for what we assumed was a high-ranking Korean contingent, but hadn’t realized it was the president. I guess we could have googled instead of waiting to bump into someone who had the news.
We got back to our hotel, packed up most of our packs for our departure tomorrow morning to Tashkent, and went to bed.
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