we went by minibus to Samarkand. the trip should take not longer than 4hours, with the stupid driver it took 6 hours. he permanently was engaged with using his radar detector, which never worked, of course. he drove slowly on the smoother asphalt and drove like a devil on the very bumpy street. we were really groggy after this trip.
we arrived in Samarkand at 5pm and found the B&B Hotel Furkat very easy. it is recommended by "Lonely Planet". first impression was very good. very friendly and beautiful location and rooms. 40 Dollars were not cheap but we thought it should be worth.
well, one our later, after putting all the bags into the room, bad surprise . no hot water, WiFi only for two ours in the evening. the description by Lonely Planet was quite different. we complained the problem. he was upset but offered us another apartement.
07.09.
the next morning there was again no hot water and he told us lies: the gaz company sometimes cuts the supply during the day. this was real nonsense. during the day we checked several guesthouses and they had no problems with gaz at all. the most serious problem of this hotel was the breakfast. According to Lonely Planet it should have been a real declicious one. well it was simple, but first we had mouldy bread and the jam was a graveyard for ants. Sickly ! we left this dubious guesthouse after sightseeing and stayed in a new one, but much cheaper and with very hospitably owners.
the very positiv item on this day was meeting Shaxnoza. she runs a small shop in the Registan and is highly educated. she was so friendly and told us so many details about her country. we were glad to met her and we will keep in touch !
08.09.
we went by taxi to the railwaystation to buy tickets to Taschkent. back at the hotel we played table tennis! how funny ! I estimate that ten years have passed by when I played .
in the afternoon we made our documentation.
09.09.
we did a little bit sight-seeing and we met Joern from Germany and Rogerio from Brasil. very funny meeting im front of a monument. in the afternoon Astrid baked some pancakes. extremly yummy :-) . later we had some skype-sessions.
tomorrow we go by train to Taschkent,
where we try to get the visa to China...
could be a problem for Astrid because the Dalai Lama visited Austria in May and since this event there is trouble between Austria and China.....
Statements:
if I compare the mentality or attitudes with those of my country, there are two big differences.
Quality:
the majority of the people of former countries of the USSR, where we cycled through, are not able to work efficient or have a joined-up thinking. if they should construct these very old builings again without foreign help they would fail.if you build a house in Germany you can have bad luck, no doubt, we have incompetent craftsmen, too, but it is not the rule. we see many houses, hotels, guesthouses or hostels and this grade of botch is really enourmous. the same with highways or freeways. they are a total desaster. now a German company (Papenburg) got the contract to rebuild several sections.
Family structure:
most of the families have the same old-fashioned structure as in Germany or Austria eighty years ago, for example: women had to be married until the age of 25, minimum two children, have to live in the household of her husband and have to do all the homework. there is no possibility to get a higher education. due to this permanent excessive demand many women have psychologically problems
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