Silk Road Suzie: Khiva and Bukhara...........................

While in Khiva coming round a corner on to the main square I was confronted by a group of men wearing Uzbek coats, fur lined metal helmets with swords, spears and shields. For a moment I thought that I had done a time warp. I know that Khiva is a UN world heritage site but surely this was taking it too far! Then the penny dropped - we were not in an Uzbek timewarp but there was a film crew and actors. The giveaway was one of the "soldiers" with a script trying to get his lines and being distracted by a group of tourists! A chat to the extras who assured me that they were "actors" revealed that the film was about Omar Khayyam, who spent time in Bukhara - but Khiva makes a better filmset. But to begin with it was one of those little surreal moments that seem to be part of this journey. The director and the director's assisstant, however, were not pleased with this disctraction and kept trying to chivvy the actors along but they were more than happy for the distraction and wanted to pose for photos with the "tourists". A bit later I was catching up with the group and came across a "guard" slouching along with his spear dragging on the ground. I promptly went into "I surrender" and he sharply drew up and went "on guard" this was followed by laughs and a wave and he went back to being a soldier.

Another long trek across the desert in Archie. The roads are rather poor and we go slowly but the advantage of this is being able to see the landscape. I found the desert surprisingly green. In fact is is all shades of green at the moment as there has been some rain. Also some interesting plants - don't know the names. At one of our lunch stops we saw a group of men on the other side of road with a breakdown. Their engine had burst - the only way to describe it - the whole engine appeared to be by the side of the road. I realised this when I saw one of them waving a head gasket - at that point I thought "this is serious". They appeared to be quite unfazed by the whole thing and were patiently putting it back together. Though they were happy when we offered them some sealant along with water and food.

Bukhara......................

To be continued but it did involve a puppet performance.