Now at the end for us, and what a great way to end! Fran and Jillian joined us in Istanbul for a few days. Unfortunately the last few days have been extraordinarily busy here - so much so that all hotel rooms were full. But with the help of a taxi driver we rented the home of a hotel receptionist and were all quite comforatble. Still the Grand bazaar was unpleasantly busy and the queue for the Basillica too long for us to be tempted to join.
I was last here in 1974 as a scruffy hitch-hiker. The Blue mosque is still the same but the area that was suited to be then is now suited to me now as we have both changed. It is now rather up market and sedate. Even the Pudding Shop, the icon of the hippy route to Goa, has been up-graded.
Turkmenistan was marginally bazare, as expected, just because of ex soviet politics. The capital is full of Italian marble buildings that reminicent of of wedding cakes, glorious looking theatres and public buildings - but all empty. Everywhere are golden statues of the great leader (and various members of his family) who died just over a year ago. One of them stands on an enormous plinthe. It is over 10m tall and rotates so is always facing the sun! As we photographed it a guy came up close to listen to our conversation - obviously KGB.
However it was interesting to us to visit the histroic sites of Urgench and Merv. These unrestored after being flattened by Ghengis; thus a comparison to the cities we had previously visited - Samakand, Bukhara and Khiva.
I did take a few snaps and will put them up on this site when I get back to Lhasa!
