Tashkent/Khiva

Executive Summary: Airport and plane anxiety;environmental issues; everybody wants Sum; Disneyland meets the Silk Road; Uzbekis love shoe horns too

Our flight to Urgench (nearest airport to Khiva) saw us up at 5.30am. Our hotel was very laidback about what time we should set off for our flight, and when the taxi didn’t arrive when they said, the old travel anxiety started to kick in as we were cutting it fine. We haven’t missed a flight yet but we have been very late and it’s no fun.

Luckily it appeared everyone else had been given the same advice, cue other people looking worried and a late takeoff.

A somewhat old plane, the long legged American opposite us was having a problem with the uprightness of his chair and also his life jacket coming adrift from under the seat. Luckily pretty much all of Uzbekistan is desert so it wouldn’t be required.

We arrived safely and nabbed a taxi to take us the 40 minutes to Khiva.

The drive took us along fertile fields of cotton and various agriculture. In fact, for a very dry country, the landscape was surprisingly green. Turns out that many of the natural water sources,including the Aral Sea, have been almost drained for irrigation. The use of pesticides and herbicides for cotton growing has meant the land is saturated with them. Pregnant women in the area have been found to have 5 times the number of birth defects than in Europe. Frightening stuff.

Our taxi driver wound his way through back streets that looked very modest but our hotel turned out to be a find. Directly opposite the walled city, the Erkin Palace has a gorgeous atrium/lounge and comfortable rooms. You will no doubt be pleased to hear that Uzbeks also love shoe horns and we found a super sized one in our room.

Ready to explore inside the ramparts, we headed off to buy tickets. Those of you who read my Sri Lanka blog will be aware of my love/hate relationship with the Lonely Planet books. Definitely hate today. We were advised by them (and other sources to be fair) to bring American dollars as apparently Uzbekistan love them and take them in preference to their own currency.

Not so. The ticket office insisted on us paying in Som. Quite the problem when all you have is dollars. We had to find a currency exchange and change them into Som and only pristine dollars were accepted for exchange.

Obviously the twenty other people in front of us at the change place had made the same mistake. Grrr! Then £400 worth of som was given to us in the equivalent of £1 notes. Wtf?!

My bag was stuffed full of notes, as was Steve’s wallet. Nuts.

However, all worth it once we got into the city. Disneyland meets Venice without the canals.

Stunning. Much of it has been repaired and renovated but it’s been done beautifully. Yes it’s commercial, lots of stalls with stuff to buy,but wasn’t that what the Silk Road was all about?

It’s touristy but not mobbed -yet. It will be though.

Lunch was dumplings with egg inside and an Uzbek version of Taziki plus a coke and a beer.

£7.00. We expected to pay top dollar (not funny Jill) but all very reasonable.

Khiva is a place to wander aimlessly around and that’s exactly what we did. The highlight was climbing up to the top of a minaret. Those Imans must have been fit. What a climb!

People here are very friendly, especially the older Muslim ladies. Interestingly, the ladies have gold teeth. Apparently it’s a display of wealth.

Khiva at night is really special. A bit quieter than in the day, everything is lit up beautifully.

My only issue with Khiva is it doesn’t mention its significance as part of the Silk Road. To me this is the reason for coming. Maybe it’s because it was the main centre for the slave trade? I guess you might not be proud of that.

Whatever, it’s a beautiful place and I recommend you visit sooner rather than later.