Jill Will Go...

My hotel room is huge, faces out to the charming courtyard and has a tiny balcony. I would be perfectly content to stay here al day and read, but Bukhara calls. The amount of good photo opportunities, along with the history and charm of this very old city make it irresistible. Little alleys and shop keepers beckon.  "Senora, please!" "Madam, good price, almost free!" "Bonjour! Good carpets, flying carpets!"  I'm pretty sure that the guy trying to sell flying carpets is guilty of false advertising.  The first stop of the day is the Ismael Samani Mausoleum. A near perfect cube, it was built it the beginning of the tenth century for the founder of the Samanid dynasty, Ismael. The intricate basket weaving look that archived with bricks is subtly intriguing. There are little nods to Zoroastrian temples in the little triangles on the top, and the cubist design is a deliberate homage to the sacred Kaaba stone at Mecca. This mausoleum (and the surrounding grav

Here is how to get from Turkmenistan to Uzbekistan. Little tip here: don't bring your luggage to Turkmenistan. Just bring enough for the few nights you might be there. Pack light. You will be dragging or carrying your stuff with you during the border crossing, the path is uneven, and the waits long. The less you have, the easier it is to carry and to inspect.  First, you have to get to the Oxus river crossing. When you reach the pontoon bridge ("No pictures!"), and if you happen to be in a bus, get out of the bus and walk across. Cars and trucks and buses can go over, but buses can't have anyone on them because there was an accident with a bus once. My particular pontoon bridge crossing experience was quite nice - as long as I paid attention to where I was walking. The bridge is rusted metal, with uneven steps and gaping holes with ragged edges. The constant staccato of cars driving over the metal seams in the bridge (thump, thump, pause, thump, thump) is oddly soothi

I was glad to put the white city behind us. It was time to move on to Merv, and get back to the border with Uzbekistan. Merv was considered one the great cities of the world. At its height in the 11th and 12th centuries, it housed the Persian Sassanians and multiple religions lived in the same area peacefully. Merv was attacked over and over again, as all decent cities would be in those days. As it was destroyed, or taken over by other conquerors, parts were abandoned, and new sections were built. So really it is about five cities in one. Genghis Khan demanded a substantial tax in 1218 - grain and women. The city resisted by killing his tax collectors. In 1221, Genghis Khan's brutal son Tolui arrived along with his army, accepted their peaceful surrender and then murdered every last one of them - estimates range up to 300,000 people. This is a dynasty that took their scorched earth policies very seriously. Today, however, there are no invading tribes. Just invading archeologists. W