Samarkand

7 September 2012

I travelled from Bukhara to Samarkand by local bus passing field after field of cotton plants.

The cotton will soon be ready for picking and people were already starting to pick the fluffy white growths on the plant. It looks such hard work; the workers were out all day, bending over the plants to pick the cotton and collect it in baskets.

It is good to have the chance to see Samarkand again and to see the ancient sights once more. They are best in the early morning and evening without the tour groups and souvenir  stalls. At these times there are more people praying and you can get a real sense of the importance of this town as a holy centre for Muslims.