A sleepless night. How can i be so wide awake when i’ve barely slept for 4 nights? By morning i feel much better, cooled by the aircon, and with only one trip to the bathroom in the night, instead of the 20 or so of previous nights. Dave wakes at 8.30 and we go for breakfast, guided by another woman who is also nothing but smiles. I haven’t seen so much smiling, ie a fairly normal amount, since leaving greece. Breakfast is in a spectacular room with old hand painted decoration. We sit down to a table full of food that looks so nice i actually have an appetite. Tea and coffee. A glass of drinking yoghurt, which is delicious and must surely help my stomach recover. We are brought a bowl of freshly made creamy rice pudding, which we have with some of the plummy jam. There’s bread, cakey biscuity things, little apples and delicious plums. Pancakes. Meat and cheese that we don’t dare risk, that i couldn’t stomach anyway. Butter. Clean plates and cutlery. Classical music. It’s heaven, and although i only eat a small amount, it’s a big improvement over via packet of crisps and a fried egg that is all i’ve had in the last 4 days. Recovery is in sight, and dave seems happy enough to agree to staying another day, to recover and to give the bike some attention. And hopefully a bit of sight seeing, which i’m not up to today, and although dave is doing better than me, he also seems disinclined to be out in the heat. My peanutbutter sandwich craving has given way to wanting more of the delicious, digestion-restoring yoghurt drink. While dave does his blog on my laptop, i do some laundry, being very generous with my short supply of detergent, hoping to get rid of the smell of Hotel Nukus. I feel much better after breakfast, which has so far stayed in. I don’t see how i can be so wide awake after so little sleep, but it’s a huge relief to feel relatively normal after feeling so rotten. In the afternoon we have a short stroll round the old town, and it is certainly spectacular, and old. Also very quiet, not many people braving the high temperatures of low season. It doesn’t take long to wear out both myself and my camera battery. I do manage to find a postcard, first since istanbul (the ones pinched from the baku hotel room don’t count), though i haven’t seen a post office since then either, then escape to the cool of the hotel room. Now, feeling much better and looking forward to trying the italian restaurant down the road, i’m taking advantage of another of the ever more infrequent opportunities to get online.
Day 33 Amelia Hotel, Bukhara
25 Jun