Nati on the road

The next day our alarm rang at 5AM - we had to wake up so early in order to catch the 7AM flight to Urgench. We took a quick shower, took all the luggage - packed on the previous day and we put sleeping Nina to her pram. At 5:50 the taxi was already awaiting us. Yet again it was a bit complicated to put our luggage in, as half of the trunk was occupied by a huge gas container. In the end we left toward the airport with the open trunk... The trip costed us 1,20 euro! We just realized how expensive the first transfer was.

Upon arrival to the airport we had to scan our luggage three times at three different airport's gates/entrances, and in the very last moment we made it to the plane. The flight lasted about one hour and we were offered water and sandwiches on the board. I knew that on that night the temperature in Khiva was about to drastically decrease, so we took warm clothes with us. Still, it was quite a shock to experience this cold just after the tropical heat of the previous day.

The first part of the trip was behind us, now we still were supposed to find a transport to Khiva. The hotel proposed us a transfer for 25 dollars, which I considered too much and decided to find a transport on my own. After we left the airport, we were surrounded by several men proposing their services. I asked the first one what was his price and he asked me what was mine, so I replied that 15 dollars, and he immediately accepted. I was wondering whether my offer was too high, in the end it was a 35km drive... and when I saw his car, I immediately understood that we indeed overpaid - it was an old and not too big car. Obviously the trunk, which was storing a huge gas container, was too small to fit Nina's pram and our luggage, so we had to pack it up on the front seat and squeeze ourselves in the back.

We were trying to investigate how much the transport to Bukhara would cost us and this friendly driver offered his friend's services. His friend's car was indeed more modern, but of course half of the trunk was occupied by the gas bottle... But at least we learned that such a trip costed about 60$.

Our driver left us at the entrance to Khiva's Old Town - Itchan Quala - and so we had to find the hotel on our own. Luckily it was next to the Western Gate through which we entered. The Orient Star Hotel which we chose was beautiful! Located next to Khiva's landmark - Kalta Minor Minaret - occupying the former madrassa, it was an absolutely unique place. I don't think I ever slept in any place of that kind. Unfortunately it was very early - so we couldn't check in to our room, and besides the cold, it also started to rain - so visiting the city with such a weather wasn't really possible. Luckily, the hotel's staff was so nice to offer us another room, in which we could wait until ours was freed.

After a quick refreshment we went to the nearby Bir Gumbaz restaurant to grab something to eat. And after that, we had to come back to the room, as the weather was really horrible. I was really frustrated - we came to Khiva for one day only and we couldn't visit the city... In the meantime we changed the room, but it was still raining... So we read a bit about Khiva's history and I made a plan on what to see in this very little time we had here.

Khiva is a very ancient city (according to the legend it was founded by Noah's son - Shem) and one of the stop-offs and major trading centres (famous especially for selling slaves!) on the Silk Road. All the caravans were stopping in this Khoresm oasis (the Kyzyl-Kum desert begins here) on their way to and from China. Its glorious times came in the 16th century, when the Khiva Khanate was founded. And these glorious times came to and end in the 19th century, when Khiva was annexed by Russia and in 1919 the last Khan was liquidated of the ruling dynasty. The Itchan Quala received the status of the UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991, being the first site in Uzbekistan which made it to this list.

Finally, at 3PM when the rain was a bit lighter, we left the room.We started the sightseeing at the entrance to our hotel, as the famous Kalta Minor Minaret (Kalta Minor means short minaret) was located here. This beautiful turquoise tower is in fact only half finished. Its construction was begun by the Khiva ruler - Mohammed Amin Khan in 1851, who wanted the minaret be so high, so he could see all the way to Bukhara. Unfortunately in 1855 Muhammad Amin Khan was killed and the construction of the minaret stopped.

We then headed to the information office in the Western Gate where we bought our tickets allowing us to visit the Old Town. The ticket costed 100 000 soms and it's valid for most of the attractions of the Itchan Quala. Bearing in mind we had very little time, I prepared a shortlist of Khiva's most important sites plus their location. With this plan we wanted to use to maximum the time we had. We were also trying to find a guide, but at that time nobody was available. Or maybe basically nobody wanted to go out on such a cold day...

Just a few meters from the information office, there was the first attraction we wanted to see - the Kunya-Ark Citadel. It was completely empty at that time. The Kunya Ark Citadel (constructed between 17 and 18th century) served as a fortress and a residence of the Khiva's Khans. Everything (and everyone) what Khan needed was here - harem, mint, stables, mosque, arsenal, warehouses, jail etc. I was the most amazed by the beautiful tilework in this place.

We also visited the Mohammed Rakhim Khan Madrassa - just opposite the entrance to the Citadel - which is currently holding a museum.

We continued our walk through Khiva's main street toward the Friday Mosque (Juma Mosque). This place is quite special and spectacular because its interior's ceiling is supported by 215 wooden pillars. Some of them date to the 10th century (while the mosque itself was constructed in the 17th). I saw many mosques in my life, but this one was truly unique. Uniqueness of this place was reinforced by the fact that at that time it was empty.. It was a purely magical experience... Nothing really amazing to see apart from these pillars, but the place was fantastic.

A few minutes walk from the Juma Mosque there was another top sight on our list - Mausoleum Of Mahmoud Pahlavan. Surprisingly our "Khiva ticket" wasn't valid here and we had to buy a separate one. Still, the prices in Uzbekistan are very low and the place is totally worth buying an extra ticket. This holiest place in Khiva is the shrine of Mahmoud Pahlavan who was a famous poet and a... wrestler of the 14th century. The first construction of the mausoleum was small, however given the big number of pilgrims who visited this place, the mausoleum was augmented.

We took off our shoes and started visiting. Interestingly, Mausoleum of Mahmoud Pahlavan contains tomb not only of Mahmoud Pahlavan, but also of several Khiva's khans. The exquisitely carved wooden doors lead to the main chamber, which is beautifully decorated with painted majolica tiles, and so is the smaller chamber to the left from the main entrance.

Mausoleum seen from another side - although some people say it's the only blue dome in Khiva, the dome is actually green rather than blue.

Last place we visited on that day was the Tash-Khovli Palace, which was the summer residence of Khivan Khans and also place where Khans' family lived. The Palace was built in the first half of the nineteenth century and consisted of the main big courtyard comprising several rooms. After seeing the Citadel and the Mausoleum I thought that nothing will surprise me on that day, but combination of the beautiful majolica with stunning painting ceilings of that place definitly amazed me.
Khans' family lived in the palace.

Only later I will find out that we saw just a part of the palace, which consist of 150 rooms and nine courtyards! We didn't find it, as apparently another entrance leads to other parts of the palace...

As it was sincerely freezing and we didn't want to visit the city in such conditions, we wanted to have an early dinner. Luckily, just around the corner there was apparently the best (according to the Trip Advisor) restaurant in Khiva called Khorezm Art Restaurant. The food was indeed very good, but most importantly the place was warm. I didn't care about anything else on that moment!

We walked back to the hotel on completely empty streets of this museum city (there are only 3000 "real Khivans" living within the Old Town), which at that time looked more like a ghost town.

Next day we woke up early as finally the sun arrived to Khiva, so we wanted to see the city in a literally different light plus to take some more photos (as those from the previous day were very gloomy). After a quick breakfast in beautiful premises of our hotel, we restarted visiting the city. We came back to the Citadel where we took some photos in a nearly completely empty building.

After that we decided to rent a guide, who could at least a little bit tell us about the history of Khiva. Luckily there was one available, who could spend one hour with us. Very knowledgeable with a very good English - we were really impressed and regretted we didn't meet him the day before.

But time passed very quickly and after one hour we had to leave him in order to had a last walk in the city. It was 11AM and Khiva was full of tourists! We concluded then that although the previous day was terribly cold, it wasn't that bad, as we had the entire city and its beautiful attractions only for ourselves! It was certainly a slightly different experience to visit for instance the Friday Mosque without any other people than now, with all those tourists. It was certainly much more magical...

In the last half an hour we still had, we managed to visit (or in fact only I did manage, as Marijn stayed with Nina) was the Tura Murad Minaret - the tallest building in Khiva. After an incredibly difficult climb to the top (especially as I was wearing a dress) in a total darkness, on uneven, narrow and very high stairs I was a bit disappointed with the view. It was quite limited, not very spectacular and the very little space at the top was full of other tourists. Still, it was a good experience to see Khiva from above.

It was the very last place, which we saw in Khiva. We were planning to see a few others on that morning, but the time was just too short. To my big regret we didn't manage to come back to the Tash-Khavli Palace, which we saw on the previous day only in part. We then hurried to our hotel, where the driver was already waiting for us. The price we were given was 65$, which was a bit higher than the one proposed on the previous day, but at least his trunk was fully available to us. And still, it's a very good price compared to Western standards, given that the drive lasted 6h.

At the moment of our departure Khiva was bustling with life. The city was so different compared to yesterday - vibrant, pulsating and full of people. Interestingly I noticed that Uzbek visitors were much more numerous than the Western ones. I felt of course that our stay in this beautiful "museum city" was a bit unlucky with the weather that prevented us from exploring the city more, but we just couldn't help it. We visited Khiva as much as we could and most especially its biggest attractions. We will try to make it up in other cities of the Silk Road :)

I don't even remember when did I see the photos of Samarkand for the first time. But it was certainly many years ago. Since then I dreamt of visiting Uzbekistan, but it was never a right time, not right season or I was missing a company. But this year I was determined and indeed the dream came true.

I had some fears whether going to Uzbekistan with my 1,5 year old girl would be a good idea. In the end it's not the most developed country. I heard some stories that in the hospitals they use multiple times the needles, that hepatitis A is easy to catch and that food poisoning is a norm. So I bought an extra travel insurance, I vaccinated my daughter, took with me all the food for her and booked high level hotels. It cannot be that bad!

So just before Easter we took our flight to Frankfurt and from there we were supposed to fly with Uzbekistan Airlines to Tashkent. But we almost didn't fly out. We couldn't receive our boarding passes for the flight to Tashkent in Brussels, as Uzbekistan Airlines wasn't connected to the system. We were told we had to pick up the boarding passes at the gate at the airport in Frankfurt. So after arrival, we slowly headed to the gate, but this airport was so huge! We had to take an internal train between the terminals and at some point we realized that the time is very tight! And while we were almost there - just before heading to the right terminal - we were asked at the entrance for the boarding passes, which we didn't have. We nervously started to look for the booking confirmation in our emails, but there were no our names in the reservation and we couldn't find the right one! It was crazy, I really thought that we would miss this flight, as the lady didn't want to let us through. In the end she did, she said she believed us, but then there was a passport control and another security check.... Super stressed, we were the very last people at the gate. But at least we got an extra seat for Nina (normally she should be sitting on our laps, as she is less than 2 years), what made our trip very comfortable. It would be highly difficult to fly 6h with her on our laps...

We arrived to Tashkent in the evening. The passport control went smoothly and while we were walking with the crowd to the right counter, the airport staff - seeing that we are with a baby - let us go through without queuing :)

After we left the airport, our driver organized by a hotel was already waiting for us. I knew that the price (11$) was far too high, but on the very first evening, tired after the flight, I didn't want to look for anybody and just wanted it to be easy. We had a great first night in the great hotel Ichan Qal'a Hotel.

In the morning, after a great sleep and after a great breakfast we headed for the sightseeing. But before that, we had to exchange our money. We investigated a bit on how to exchange money and apparently changing it in the black market was not profitable anymore. We then went to the bank, located on our street. The exchange rate was about 9 970 soms for 1 euro, which made all the calculations very easy (we were simply dividing every price by 10 000 and we had a value in euros). But it wasn't very easy to hold all this money as for 150 euro we received 150 notes, which wasn't very easy to keep in the wallet ;-)

In the hotel we were recommended a "City sightseeing bus" departing from in front of the famous Hotel Uzbekistan. We arrived there partly by foot - so we could sightseeing the interesting architecture of our district - and partly by metro - so we could admire the beautiful design of the metro stations.

Tashkent Metro was the first metro in Central Asia. Built in Soviet times, it reminded me a bit of Moscow metro with its beautiful stations. Each station is different, has a different architecture, but most of them are very interesting. As Tashkent metro is actually a place of strategic importance for the country, it is illegal to take photos there, I managed though to take a few.

The ticket for the City Sightseeing bus was very cheap and we were happy we could see Tashkent and its most important attractions without making a big logistical effort. We could also go out a few times to see some of the sites. The entire tour lasted about two hours and it was really a great idea.

A monument "In memory of the victims of repression" is located next to the TV tower and with a beautiful background. There's also a museum depicting the sad faith of thousands of Uzbeks tortured, deported and killed by Soviets.

We also had a short break allowing us to see the Khast Imom complex, which is Uzbekistan's official religious centre and which comprises the Barak-Khan-Madrassah, the Tillya-Sheik-Mosque, the Muji-Mubarak-Medressah. The last one contains the hair of Prophet Mohammed. In the Madrassah, a 7th century version of Koran, as well as other important manuscripts are kept.

After the tour we came back to the Amir Temur Square with the big monument of this Uzbekistan's national hero. The Square is surrounded with several buildings such as Uzbekistan Hotel and Forums Palace. In the middle of the Square there was a well kept green part.

On the way to the Independence Square, there was alley full of local painters. One of them proposed us to make a drawing of Nina for only 4 euros - we thought it would be a very nice memory from Uzbekistan :)

The Independence monument in a form of globe was not accessible to the tourists, we could only admire the huge construction connecting columns, on the top of which there was a sculpture of storks symbolizing peace.

Last place we visited on that day was the Chorsu Bazaar, where we got easily by metro. It's a market for locals to shop rather than a typical souvenirs' touristy market. It was huge and divided into sections where a particular products could be bought. There was then a huge meat section, fruits' section, eggs' section, spices' section etc. Invited by some sellers, we bough some tea and spices and of course we very much overpaid for our purchases (what we found out later ;-)). Knives' sellers were trying to send us their knives, but we didn't really need them... ;-)

I loved this place. It was so authentic and colorful. The world we don't see anymore in Europe. And people were very nice - it was not a problem at all for me to take photos.