I was very excited about my hotel for the next two nights in Bukhara. This is a historic 19th Century Jewish merchants home that has been converted to a hotel. It has many historic features and my only concern was if it would be properly heated in the winter.

After first showing me to a nice room in their new extension I asked if I could be moved to the original older wing. As it was low season the hotel was happy to oblige. I asked for a second floor room and was overlooking the inside courtyard.

The room was very similar to my historic hotel in Kashgar China. It had traditional wall plastering and decorative storage alcoves behind the beds. More importantly, not only did it have central heating, there was also another portable radiator beside the bed.

The bathroom was also completely modern and had a good supply of hot water right away, unlike Khiva where I had to let the pipes run for more than five minutes.

This hotel does not seem too impressive from the outside and just has a traditional mud style exterior with a detailed wood carved door.

This leads to the reception and a doorway to the inner courtyard. The rooms on both floors have been converted to guest rooms. though many are closed now for off season renovations to some of the original architecture.

I prefer smaller hotels like this with more local character over large western style five star hotels. I stayed in a similar Jewish merchants home in Seville Spain but this one was much nicer

They also have a newer wing where I was originally offered a room but turned it down. You can also go up on the roof where there was an interesting view of many satellite dishes as I looked towards the old town and giant minaret.

The main highlight is the original 19th century dining room. I had seen this in their pictures online but when I walked around I never saw it. I asked the guy at the front desk who showed me the doorway hiding the room

This was like being in one of the historic Palaces where you are never allowed to take photographs. There were many alcoves all around the room with original faded paint work. The ceiling borders also had detailed small engraved alcoves

At the head of the room were two large alcoves leading to another room which was not for public use. The alcoves were filled with various items of decorative ceramics.

It was really incredible and the jewel of this hotel. Ironically I found this hotel on booking.com and rooms started at $50/nite so not outrageously priced, though I dont know what my tour had charged for this.

I was having problems with the satellite channels and had to get someone to come up and connect them. At first I was only getting Russian channels. The menus had many other channels but they appeared to be blocked.

By the second night I realized there were four satellite options. One was for Russian TV, one for Middle Eastern. Still no Uzbek music and not much English choice either.