The reports were indeed true. Samarkand has some of the most beautiful architectural monuments in Central Asia and though I have seen a hundred mosques and madressas,few come close to the splendour of those in Samarkand. Whilst the city has clearly modernized, the old monuments have been exquisitely restored for the most part and each one conveys its unique charm and awe.

Gregg and I decided that we would head off around the town to visit a couple of sights outside of town before taking in the main sights in the old part. Our first stop was the Ulug Beg Observatory a couple of kilometers away. We had elected to get there by Marshrutnoe, the fixed route minibuses that serve the majority of Central Asian cities and towns. The advantage of such transport is that it is cheap and takes you through parts of the town that you wouldn’t see from the more speedy and direct taxis. However the driver tends to pick up as many passangers as possible making for a cramped vehicle. We ended up with a rather large-boned woman practically sitting on top of us as we weaved our way through the back streets of the town.

We finally made it to the Observatory where a dubious woman tried to sell us an entrance ticket. These seem to be sold by old ladies also coincidentally selling souvenirs and the entrance price is highly negotiable. One rather suspects that most of the money ends up in their pockets, especially as they are reluctant to hand over a ticket for your money. The Uzbek tourist board must think that much fewer tourists visit the sights than actually do! The rather aggressive lady selling the tickets assured us that it was worth paying for the view. It wasn't, but the museum provided an interesting look into Uzbekistan's history of astronomy. However it was all a bit self-congratulatory, with all its astronomers being labelled as "outstanding" contributors to world astronomy.

We moved on from here to try and find a museum that claimed to show archaeological artefacts and their significance from 11 different civilisations. To get there we walked through a bit of grassland that seemed oddly out of place witht he rest of the city buzzing away on either side. A Gypsy cart, loaded with grass, made its way ahead of us, pulled by a sorry-looking donkey. It's progress was hampered by that fact that the uneven path made it lurch from side to side. Consequently it had to stop often to put back the items that had fallen off and we soon caught it up. The gypsies were as surprised as we were to see eachother scrambling along this rather "remote" part of the city. We smiled, and I exchanged a few polite pleasantries in Russian while helping them to re-load their cart. We walked with them quite some way until we got to the main road, where a bus full of French tourists was just pulling out of the museum. Upon seeing the Gypsies, and almost all in synchonised time, the passnagers on board whipped out their cameras, trying to take a photo of this sight. They were probably annoyed that two western tourists had got in the way of their perfect shot of the "local life", but we turned to one another and all burst out laughing at how ridiculous it was! Walking with and getting to know the gypsies had been an experience money couldn't buy for a tour group.

The highly acclaimed museum was highly disappointing and the signs in English simply re-informed us that "history can be discovered through archaeology", what history this collection of broken pots and metal showed us was not mentioned. So we left the museum promptly and headed into the 2km square site of the ancient Afrosiab civilisation where excavations had tried to show the evidence of a once thriving city. There wasn't much to see, and what there was looked little more tahn a few canals dug out of the mud. It was, once again disappointing, and so we headed back towards town thinking that at least the walk was nice.

But as seems to be the norm while travelling, sometimes the most unexpected and amazing experiences come out of the most disappointing and frustrating. We were just walking through the woods to the main road when we cam accross two old men, who were borthers and who where amusingly grazing their sheep on the archaeological site. They were in the middle of lunch, and eager not to disturb we walked quietly bye, saying a quick hello out of politeness. HOwever this their reply was to invite us to share their lunch with the. I looked down at teh rather small picnic spread out on the floor and politely refused, not wanting to eat their already small lunch. But they insisted and so we joined them as they chatted away half in Uzbek and half in Russian with us. I trabslated bits for Gregg and we guessed the rest. Still it was a wonderfully serene place to have lunch with two charming guys.

As lunch was finishing, they packed away teh dishes and I thoguth it was time to make our excuses. BUt just as I had done so, one of the borthers got out a pack of playing cards and suggested that it was time to play cards. He suddenly started dealing cards and we began playing a game where i had no clue what the rules were. It seemd a bit like snap though with the brotehr occassionally taking several cards. I lost the fist game 5-0 and he was pleased. By the time of the second game I understood a bit more about the rules and lost 4-1. But in the third game he seemd to introduce more rules and I lost 4-1 again. By now I had understood the aim - to collect as many clubs and "special" cards as possible some of which gave you points. It was half done by "Snap" and half done by making cards on the table add up to a card in your hand. But I wond the fourth game 4-1, only to lose 5-0 in the last. The old man was, at least pleased to have won.

Then, as if now bored by our presence, he packed away the cards and went to sleep. We left, not wanting to outstay our welcome and headed for some tombs where the mausoleums had some of the best stone carving and inrticate majolica work we had seen yet. I thought that I had had enough of seeing the blue tiles and carvings, but I was wrong, these were simply exquisite.

Gypsy Friends on the archaeological sight!