Day 35 Samarkand

One pannier rail mount has sheared off. Will require attention. Good, easy ride to Samarkand, feeling better, temp not so high. Looked up from sat nav at 60mph on a dual carriageway to see some loon on a bicycle coming towards me in the outside lane. Gave me a bit of a shock, but an hour later I was entirely used to the endless collection of loons in cars, bicycles, tractors or enormous russian trucks going against the flow. Perfectly normal behaviour round here! At one of the police checkpoints the cops wanted me to do a wheelie. Not going to happen, my friends, not going to happen! There were alot of young kids out waving again, haven’t seen that for a while. Some of them watched in open-mouthed amazement, as if they’ve never seen a motorbike before, which is probably the case given that we haven’t seen any here and it seems that it’s illegal to ride in the cities (i think we get ignored because we’re foreigners). Total fluke on entering the city and found the hotel almost straight away, and it’s not bad. Good location, too. Had a wander round the main sights, including the bazaar with more of that delicious spice smell, then back to the hotel and discovered they have no internet. When you ask about the facilities, “yes, we have internet”, when you take the room “oh sorry, internet not working now”. Went for shashlik, which turned out to be a little disappointing but still tasty and much more enjoyable without the usual stomach turmoil. Good to be back up to speed.