We stayed at the Hotel Amelia in Bukhara. It was a small boutique hotel in the center of the old part of Bukhara. This was originally a family home and is about 200 years old. It’s decorated in the Uzbek national traditional style, with some of it still original including some wall paintings and wood carved ceilings in the rooms and restaurant. It was a two story house with odd hallways and attachments that must have added to and changed over time. It also had a courtyard and an open seating area on the roof, with one wall and a view of the surrounding city area. This hotel might not have had that many stars but the service was as good as any we have had anywhere in the world. The people were fun, friendly, and as welcoming as possible. The staff all treated us like family.

Vicky is sitting in the main room of our hotel room in the first photo. The bathroom is to the right and the bedroom is to the left of her in the photo.

The bedroom is the next two photos. It was my understanding that the wall paintings and the wood ceiling are original. It felt pretty exotic.

The restaurant where we had breakfast each morning is in the fourth photo. I believe that this whole room is original and it was a great place to eat breakfast and sip our tea or coffee.

We ate dinner on the roof of the hotel one night. We separately shopped at the markets for different things to bring to dinner: cheeses, melons, chips, etc. Our good friends Ron and Patty are on the left of Vicky and Nora is on her right. You might notice that we have beer, vodka, and brandy on the table. I’ll explain. I bought the beer since it was about 98 degrees that day. Nora bought the brandy in Turkmenistan but we hadn’t drank it yet. The hotel staff gave us the bottle of vodka because they felt bad about something they hadn’t done. At any rate, dinner on the roof was delightful and we only had to navigate one narrow stairway and go around one corner to get back to our bedroom.