Bukhara! The city that hosted one of the most infamous days of the Great Game - the capture, imprisonment and beheadings of Connelly and Stoddart! The new city is largely built around the old city, and the main buildings have been preserved to some degree. Its very beautiful.

We arrived at our hotel and at first drove passed it, it doesn't look like a hotel from the outside. We found the entrance, a small wooden side door with a bell as you open it. It opens into a courtyard with seating and doors around the outside. Our room was up a spiral staircase and behind another small carved wooden door with flakes of teal green paint. Its very relaxing and on our finding the place the hostess brought us mint tea and a huge bowl of nuts.

This morning I walked around the old town, looked in at an old guy weaving silk, another engraving metal plates, and a puppeteer (very popular in Central Asia - I'm tempted to bring one back to terrify Jay with!) I strolled around, enjoying the breeze and the bizarre advertisements (like the "Vegotarian Food" sign covered in pictures of kebabs, roast chicken and beef!)

So everything seemed so perfect! Our trip is going exactly to plan, everyone has been friendly, helpful and efficient...

Until... I got an email...

The Chinese government have decided not to issue entry permits for Xinjiang. Hmmm... so the tour company have given us two options (plan C1 and C2, as she put it):

1/ Enter from Mongolia - which means us getting more visas and driving another 5100km,

2/ Enter China in November!!! Not really an option - where else will we go??

So what to do... we need another plan!