According to our programme schedule we should have left Samarkand early in the morning so as to visit Shahrisabz but we had agree upon staying in Samarkand instead, once the drive there and back would take all day long.
We started off by visiting the Nodir Devongbegh Madrasah dating back to the seventeenth century and as it would be expected I was again mesmerised by the decoration of its façade, not that it impressed me more than the ones I had previously visited but simply that it didn't impress me less.
We then drove into the village of Urgut, 40 km away from Samarkand at the foot of Zeravchan mountain range and which is mostly known for its Sunday market, particularly the part dedicated to the "Suzani".
As in every market, no matter which part of the world it is located at, I enjoy wandering about and feeling the atmosphere before even thinking of buying anything ... and such was the case. I did seem to be a lot more interested in seeing what type of goods they sold and what the locals seemed to be most interested in.
We soon realised it was huge and it would be difficult for us all to stay together, so we defined a meeting point and wandered off in three groups. Danielle, Gerard and I headed off to the "Suzani" part. I started noticing that the facial features of people were at times very different, from the long or oval face to the round or Mongolian-like type, as if within very short periods of time we might be going through equally different countries, which was rather interesting.
I ended up buying only a pair of traditional ear-rings and spend the time I had left photographing, mostly the bustling atmosphere and people.
(To be continued)
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