Today we leave the lovely, compact but dramatic Bukhara for Samarkand. We stopped first at the Summer Palace, or properly known as Sitorai Makhi Khosa. One guide book I read called it "charming and nauseating" and that about sums it up. Or as our guide said, "The Emir mixed things that maybe shouldn't be mixed." This place was built by the Russians for the last Emir Alim Khan in 1911. The Ark, which we saw yesterday, used to be the primary residence, but at the end of the 19th Century, the emir and family were moving around a lot and becoming a modern, more Russian-centric entity....and you can see it in the crazy architect and interior decor. The peacocks in the garden squawked as the rain started to fall, and we made our way to the harem quarters. Outside the harem was a pool along with a viewing platform. Rumor has it that the Amir would sit on the platform and watch his naked concubines bathing be