We started the day by going to a park in Bukhara, called Samanid.? The park has a memorial to Ismail Samanid ( The oldest building of the city. 8^th cCentury AD) and we also watched some young craftsmen etching on metal plates. Then after admiring the ancienttechnology of turbo-powered fair-ground rides, we went to another mosque With four minarets. This was right down a back-street, and probably the kind of mosque that tourists don't ever get to see, aws it is so hidden away. It was very peaceful and pretty.

We then continued on our way to Shahrisabs. On the way we passed a lot of game park land, and were lucky enough to see wild donkeys and camels. We stopped for lunch in a town in the Karakum desert? The open - air restaurant was full of locals, not a tourist in sight, which gave us a truly authentic meal. There was a fountain splashing just behind us to keep us cool, and the toilet facilities were something to be marvelled at. There was toilet paper hung on a tree outside, and the 'gents' was just a wall with a trough. The ladies' toilet was , apparently, quite an experience ( and well done to our ladies for facing that ordeal). Bob , apparently , found the smell in the ladies toilet to be quite extraordinary, but quite how he knew what it smelled like inside the ladies, I do not know!

Barbara started to feel a little queer, but the rest of us ploughed on through the many courses of vegetarian and non- vegetarian starters, and meat main course, all delightful. Then we continued on to Shahrisabs.

Shahrisabs. is a very interesting city. When we arrived at our cool, marble-dominated hotel, we all rushed out on our various missions around town, be that a (-nother) trip to the market for the ladies (who even make British Airways stewardesses look like amateurs when it comes to shopping...) or some photography whilst the light was so amazing of the ransacked Winter Palace ( is that correct)???, or the other fantastic mosques dotted around town.

Meli caused a stir in town by getting a local policeman to open up the market just for her, and pick, weigh and sell some vegtables to her, whilst an amazed crowd gathered to see this diminutive, glamorous lady orderaround a police officer ( and woe betide him if he had refused!!!) We then had a lovely meal of kebabs and pasta in a tomato sauce (lovingly prepared by Meli, who took over the kitchens of the restaurant to prepare it for us, again, to the amazement of the workers there). We then retired to our

bedrooms, where local music, sounding rather like the arabic morning call to prepare, wafted gently through our windows, lulling us to sleep. In that setting, how could anyone forget that they were in such an exotic location?

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