We have visited Bukhara twice, once in Soviet days (1983) and again in Oct 2004 – and what a difference! Free enterprise has turned a dour dusty “museum city” into a lively “Persian (or rather “Uzbek”!) Market”.

In Soviet times all tourists stayed at the Intourist run Bukhara Hotel in the new town. We went to visit it for “auld lang syne” and found it now very down market (although even in Soviet days it had become infamous as the seat of a cholera epidemic which attacked western tourists!) and seemingly only used by locals. Its restaurant, where we had waited for so many hours to be served unappetising food by surly waitresses, was closed and empty of tables. The deserted foyer still exuded its tacky Soviet persona with its cheap wood veneers and decorations. The Intourist Souvenir stand which sold little, apart from those Russian dolls which fit inside each other, had a film of dust on it and its glass fronted shelves were even emptier than they used to be. A real “time warp”!

Instead a number of new private hotels have been built or converted from old city buildings but, as yet no “chain hotels”. Restaurants had appeared, catering for a range of levels and tastes (even including an Italian!). The old domed covered markets were full of shops selling carpets, carved woodwork, embroidery, metal-ware, pottery, Astrakhan hats etc etc. One wonders where the craftsmen had been hiding during those long Soviet years –the quality of the work often seemed very good. Entire madrassa buildings had been turned into markets while others were active in Islamic studies. The buildings were as fine if not finer than we remembered them (restoration has been going on but had not sanitised the place as much as Khiva). On the whole we felt that the changes had given the city the “life” it had lacked in Soviet times.

In the evening we watched a few students from a madrassa playing football in their robes in the otherwise peaceful main square next to the “Tower of Death” as the sun cast a superb light on the blue tiles and red stone of the buildings. The sunset view from the top of the tower (closed on our previous visit) was magnificent. The people everywhere were friendly. We hope that Uzbekistan will emerge from its current troubles and that Bukhara will remain available for visits – it is undoubtedly “world class”.