Moving to the walled city

After breakfast, my car arrived to take me to Khiva. Fabrizio arrived as I was loading up. The third passenger may have been the driver’s son but we never found out. We set off on the 6h drive with a couple of short breaks for gas (methane). The scenery along the way was semi-desert with some cotton fields.

My delicious breakfast at Khurjin Hotel, Bukhara.

We passed through Urgench and arrived into Khiva’s walled city about half hour later. The last stretch between the two towns was a straight road and there were a few lorries maxed out with hay.  The additional height of the hay seemed as high as theh front of the lorry itself!

Upon arrival it turned out that Fabrizio and I were next door to each other. I was in the Orzu B&B and he was at Islambek.

I had unsuccessfully tried to do without lunch and treated myself to a cake at the Terrassa Cafe. It was about 1530 when I decided to do a bit of sightseeing, starting with getting the multi-museum ticket for USD15 plus a camera fee.

After Samarkand and Bukhara, I had overdosed on beauty.  While I visited some sights within Khiva’s walled city, I didn’t take such a keen interest any more on its name etc … especially when Khiva (and Bukhara) had such an abundance of sights unlike Samarkand with just a few crown jewels.

Of particular mention was the view from Juma Minaret and a couple of portraits in the museum which had uncanny resemblance to my Chinese friends Vincent and Kyle.  And of course, Khiva’s icon, the stubby (because incomplete) minaret called Kalta Minor (Minar).

I lasted 2 hours of sightseeing before calling it quits. Fabrizio hadn’t responded (the internet at his guesthouse was broken). I had dinner by myself back at the Terrassa Cafe overlooking Khiva by night. It was a very romantic evening by myself!  With all the day-trippers gone, Khiva’s old city was dead quiet.