I woke up this morning and checked our train tickets for tomorrow, just to make sure I knew where the train station was. To my horror, I discovered that we had made our reservations for September 5 instead of October 5!
My heart sank. Train tickets are hard to get, and I feared we might be living in Bukhara permanently. But after an hour and a half of frantic internet searching, I found tickets that will work. Ugh.
There are so many little details involved in traveling, and it’s surprisingly easy to make mistakes. I’m choosing to look at this as tuition—another travel lesson learned the hard way!
After breakfast, we walked to Chor Minor. I was excited about going up in the tower to see the view.
But it turns out that you can no longer go all the way up in the tower because it’s not safe. even the stairs part way up are sketchy with very little head room. 
Nearby these towers Jim found a thrift store that had hundreds of old cameras. Mecca! He was so happy.
Then it started pouring rain. It was cold, muddy, and wet, so we decided to scrap our plans and have a very ordinary day instead. We did laundry, went to the grocery store, got some cash from the ATM, and watched a movie. I love foreign grocery stores, so even that felt like an adventure. Sometimes it’s fun to just do normal things—especially when you’re halfway around the world.
The people here are genuinely eager to give tourists a good experience. Hospitality is such an intrinsic part of their culture that welcoming visitors seems to come naturally to them.
But I wonder what happens if tourism grows so much that people can no longer live their normal lives comfortably because of the crowds. Will they eventually begin to resent tourists, as we’re seeing in Barcelona and other heavily visited places around the world?
That may be one of the biggest challenges Uzbekistan faces. The very things that make this place so special—the warmth of its people, the feeling of authenticity, and the sense that you’re experiencing a culture rather than a tourist attraction—could be threatened if too many visitors arrive too quickly.
In the evening, we went to a folklore show, which was really more of a combination of music, dancing, and a fashion show. I tend to avoid these kinds of schmaltzy tourist shows, but our guide had recommended this one as something truly authentic—and it was. The music and dancing were wonderful, and the dancers seemed genuinely proud of their culture. The clothes were made in a nearby workshop, so the whole thing was also an interesting bit of local marketing.
