Middle-aged flash packers

Executive summary: feeling out of sorts; very long tap; the other faces of Khiva; strange and creepy museums; Khiva is beautiful at night

Today we had a bit of a lie in. 7.45am. Our tummies woke us up as they were griping. Probably the water. Although we try not to drink it, and even use bottled water to rinse our mouths after teeth cleaning, it’s almost inevitable that you will consume a little at some point. Or it could have been the plov last night. Whatever, we were feeling a bit out of sorts. Didn’t stop Steve consuming a large breakfast though.

I didn’t have time to mention it yesterday but we have an extraordinarily long tap in the bath. It sticks out horizontally and made for a very uncomfortable shower until I realised it can be turned to the side. It’s come in very handy for washing feet . Wearing sandals means when we get back to our hotel my feet are caked in sand and black dust.

We decided to walk to the train station to collect our tickets for the journey to Bukhara tomorrow.

Once outside the city walls, I was quite shocked by the poverty people were living in. Unmade roads, tiny dwellings that were literally hovels, half destroyed buildings. I haven’t seen that level of deprivation for a long time.

Then as we approached the station, we saw lots of building work going on. Shops and hotels looking very neat and the station is a sight to behold. Obviously they are being built where the hovels used to be. One can only hope that people are being rehoused and will be able to work in the hotels and tourism industry that appears to be booming.

We were exhausted when we got back so had an hour’s nap until Steve’s stomach decided it was time to get up and search for food. I don’t know how he does it. The slightest thing wrong with my tum and I can’t eat. I’d have to perform the last rites on Steve if he couldn’t manage to stuff down a meal.

Our mission after lunch (well Steve’s lunch) was to finish off seeing all the sights and museums that we didn’t see yesterday.

There were many. To say the museums are an eclectic mix is underplaying it. The weirdest one was Khiva’s equivalent to our natural history museum.

A range of moth-eaten stuffed animals were gathered together with very generic descriptions. A selection of clearly very different birds were all seagulls apparently and there were also a lot of ducks that definitely were not ducks. My favourite was the “ugly lamb” so named because it had one head and two bodies. The creepiest, most chilling thing was a two headed baby foetus. I kid you not. I will have nightmares for sure.

Everyone is very friendly here and the older Muslim ladies really know how to enjoy themselves. Today had a different vibe as it seemed more Uzbekies were in town and they took a lot of pleasure in their day out. I’m really glad we were here over a weekend so we could see locals enjoying Khiva too. Just so you know, they buy as many crappy souvenirs as we do.

We had dinner at the Khorezm Art Hotel on their roof terrace, looking at the minaret all lit up, listening to a young man play the rubab . Quite magical, a very unique experience. Glad we made it to Khiva.