First lazy day in two weeks

After a decent breakfast, I took it easy before heading out around 0900. It was around 40 minutes walk to the part of town where a collection of sights were. There was a mosque, mausoleum and a madrassah.

I got to the mosque and they were laying mats out for Friday prayers. The mausoleum and madrassah wasn’t evident and I didn’t want to impose. Besides I had seen enough of all Islamic things beginning with the letter “m” for now! The markets outside were lively and colourful and were much more appealing. There were birds, turkeys, ducks and chickens in one corner. Fruit, veges and general second-hand stuff were there too.

I know very well now that things recommended in guidebooks aren’t always interesting.  They’re sometimes things to help you pass time if you’re stuck in town.  For someone who has just seen all the “wow” sights in the country, there’s no need to see every single “lesser” sight.

I walked back to my part of town with a stop in the park for a coffee before visiting Khudoyar Khan’s Palace. The tiles on the outside were more colourful than in other places I thought and so were the ceilings inside.

I returned to the hotel around 1100. I had to change rooms today and my new room wasn’t ready. I killed time with a bit of dilly-dally in the lobby, going out for a piroshky and tea (UZS1000 / USD0.13) before returning. In all, I was “homeless and waiting” for 1.5h.

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My new room was bright and sunny compared to the dark family room with plush dark-green wall paper. Very posh but a bit depressing.

I grabbed dinner at last night’s place. Tonight it was a mini lavash (roll-up kebab) and dumpling soup garnished with a dollop of yoghurt and dill. It was so good to taste glutamates again in that soup.

Well, I enjoyed my stay in Kokand.  There’s nothing much to it but it was a nice quiet place for me to recharge.  It was my first day of spending hours in bed reading, writing and processing photos.

An introvert needs his private space 🙂  People were lovely.  In the shops and supermarkets, they always have an interest in where I’m from.  When they thank me, they put their right hand over their heart (left chest).  How sweet.

The weather had turned warmer here too.  Compared to a week ago in Samarkand when I had the heater on, and last night here when I bordered on wanting the heater, tonight I had the window open.  There had been night along the way when I did have the air-con on.  it was my first night in Uzbekistan when I hadn’t changed into long pants for dinner.  It shows that October is still a good time to travel here provided you don’t have a stroke of bad luck with the weather.