On our way to Samarkand, we passed a tiny Daihatsu van doing the Mongol Rally and gave them a wave.
Simon and Sarah in their little van.
When we got to the hotel, Alex wanted to take the car to get it washed and fill it up with fuel. The hotel manager's nephew Amir, was designated to help him find his way around Samarkand. Having emptied the car of everything, Alex had foolishly left his driving licence in the hotel. As luck would have it, the police were stopping all vehicles at an impromptu check-point. The police officer explained that the car could not go any further and he was obliged to impound it. However, as Alex was a tourist he was happy to wait for the licence to be sent by taxi from the hotel, rather than impound the car. Furthermore, he graciously waived the fine as a contribution to our charitable fundraising efforts. Wishing Alex Godspeed and plenty of luck he bade him welcome to Samarkand.
Upon returning to the hotel, we saw the Daihatsu van. It turned out that not only were they staying at the same hotel, but Mike had also run into them in Shiraz, Iran! Simon and Sarah, a couple from Wales, had been convoying with another rally team staying at our hotel, so that evening, the three teams went to the only restaurant near our hotel that was open late. After plenty of beers and some good shashlik, we walked back to the hotel and agreed to all meet for breakfast the next morning.
All the cars had developed mechanical issues. Our check engine light was on, the Daihatsu was having head gasket issues, and another team's brake light switch on their Polo had broken. The hotel found us a garage to take our cars to.
Alex stayed to write some blog posts and Mike followed a guy to the garage, but when he got there, he discovered it was only a Chevrolet and Daewoo garage! (Daewoos and Chevrolets are the most popular cars in Uzbekistan, as they are built there). The mechanics were able to fix the Polo, but no such luck for our car or the Daihatsu, so Mike headed back to the hotel. As it was getting late in the day, we packed up and started heading to Tashkent, with the car still having issues and the check engine light still on.
On the way to get something to eat, we stopped off at a church. Much to Alex's surprise and amazement, it turned out to be the church of St Alexei!
The nameplate of the Church of Saint Alexei
The church of Saint Alexei, which Alex discovered by happenstance.
We stopped at an Oshona (eating establishment) next to the market. All they had left was Shorpa (lamb soup) and Dolma (stuffed peppers). We were glad that they had anything as were positively ravenous. We realised we'd struck gold when the food came out. The Shorpa was served with a liquid yoghurt and herb accompaniment and was full of flavour. We drank both bowls with lots of slurping noises. The Dolma were tender and succulent and we polished them off with gusto. All of this was washed down with a deliciously refreshing fruit Kompot - we purchased a litre and a half to take on our travels.
Our amazing lunch
Just before we left town, we stopped at Registan hoping to get a picture. Alex being the guy who can convince anyone of anything, jumped out and found the director and asked if we could take some pictures of our car in front of it Registan.
Our car in front in front of Registan
The director was extremely helpful. He agreed that instead of paying for an hour, we would only need to pay for fifteen minutes. First, we took some at the entrance to the complex, overlooking the palace. The local police were slightly nervous about our car in close proximity to so many people and gently asked us to take our shots as quickly as possible. As we finished, people began crowding around our car and taking pictures, many having wondered where we came from.
Afterwards we drove down to do one right in front of the palace. We spent a few minutes there taking pictures and then thanked the officials and left.
Who did we run into but Simon and Sarah and the other team. We were all very surprised to see each other after we'd already said goodbye. We once again bid each other farewell and made our way to Tashkent.
A van with its gas tanks secured "well" we saw on the way