Bakchisarai

Weather forecast said today will have 30% chances of raining. But I still stick on to the same old plan. Until yesterday night when it started to say today would be cloudy and windy. Better news.

8am in the morning, left for the train station with Du Ping and went for the prymisky kasa (local ticket office)*2-way 8uah per person* . Took the elektrychka (local train) at 8.40am and reached Bakchisarai at approximately 9.40am. Surprisingly, there were lots of backpackers which we didn't expect to see. We went off with the Mashrutka to our first station the Khan's Palace (Ханский Дворец).

We bought the ticket *30uah - adults and 15uah - students*and entered the palace which I would described as rather small. The Fountain of Tears which is made famous by Alexander Pushkin the poet is quite impressive for me. The Art Museum posted some beautiful pictures of the 19th century. The Falcon Tower we were told that it would be opened in the May (That's next week!!! Oh!).

We then took our lunch (fried mee by me, ginger cake by Du Ping and doughnut thanks to Wei Jie, Kean Seng and Eng Ngen) in the Garden before the main gate. Rather surprised to know that there were quite a number of tourist from European countries, because we seldom see or know that haha.

*The Fountain of Tears* ->

We decided to walk 2km to the Uspensky Monastry and the Chufut-Kale. It's rather easy to reach because they are all lying on the same road. And you can know when you are on the right path when you see mashrutka passing by, hehe. And by this we "founded" The Museum of Ismail at our right side (anyway we weren't interested in it, haha). There were also lots of new restaurants along especially when we came nearer towards the Chufut-Kale.

We reached the Uspensky Monastry after we walked for the steep upwinding hill. It's said that it may be the oldest and cutest little church in Ukraine. It was built into the limestone rock of the hill. Climbing up takes us to an excellent view of the hills and canyons across. The pets and smoking aren't allowed in this region (we saw the stall keeper scolding people bringing dogs).

We waited to enter the church because they were having lunch break (Opened daily and have lunch break for weekdays from 1pm-2pm and 12pm-1pm for Sundays and Public Holidays). There we met with some tourist from St. Petersburg who told us that there is the cleanest water down there where you can drink straight and even gave me a cup for it. Lots of tourist waited for some time but left thinking that it may not be opened because they may have a liturgy for the Orthodox Easter day. We waited till about 1.30pm then we decided to leave for Chufut-Kale before heading back here for the monastry.

We saw lots of those backpackers camping along the way to Chufut-Kale. The road is long and when we reached, we need to climb a rather steep path to reach the peak. Even before reaching we can see the caves. The entrance fee is 15uah (adult) and 10uah (student). We didn't enter though. The view from top is magnificent. The wind is strong. And there are even people selling souvenirs at the top.

<-- *Way down Chufut-Kale*

We went down and headed back to the Monastry and visited the small church. Still there were lots of visitors. We rested a while and headed back down the hill. Wanted to find a toilet and was lucky enough that a shopkeeper opened the private toilet for us, hehe. Then we took the mashrutka to head for Vokzal. The driver thought we wanted to head for the Автовокзал (the bus station) haha. But he was kind enough though to tell us. We then took the 3.38pm elektrychka from Ж/Д Вокзал and reached Simferopol at 4.30pm tired.

We were lucky enough today because we met with lots of Samaritans. Some even reminded the driver for us before leaving the mashrutka, told us the way, translated for us, But the most important thing is that the weather was extremely good, sunny and windy :-)

Per person:
8 uah - Elektrychka (2-ways)
15uah - Khan's Palace
2.50uah - Mashrutka (2 trips)
13.70uah - Food