Central Asia XVII: Road to Khiva

We took one last walk with Abdu, early on October 24, 2021, through the heart of Old Bukhara.  I wonder if I will ever be back!  We then piled into our van for the eight hour drive to Khiva.  By next spring, a super-fast train will make the trip from Bukhara to Khiva in three hours.  

Our road was pot-holed for much of the drive, with an excellent stretch of road through the central half of the trip. That good stretch of road is part of the throughway that will also be finished by next spring.

Uzbekistan has a valuable tourist industry, and it is rushing to modernize the country’s infrastructure to accommodate it.  When Michael came to Uzbekistan in 2013, no one would take credit cards and he had to bring all the cash he needed with him.  There were no ATMs and the banks wouldn’t do exchanges from American banks.  The currency was artificially propped up by the state, so Mike had to change his dollars into local currency on the black market.  Much, but not all, of that has changed in the last eight years.  Some shops now take credit cards, but it is not by any means universal, particularly in smaller cities like Bukhara and Khiva.  However, Mike and Dave could draw money from ATMs and banks, and shopkeepers frequently quoted prices in both som (the Uzbeki money) and dollars.

This highway is part of the New Silk Road, with big trucks carrying goods from China to the Middle East, Russia, and Europe (or bits and pieces of that trail).

We saw some strange things along the road, including what seemed to be a wooden packing container, made into a small cafe.

The next step up was a truck stop with plastic chairs and plastic tablecloth.

We finally stopped at a modern gas station, in the middle of nowhere, with the very fancy Zahratun Restaurant as part of the complex.

There were upholstered chairs, chandeliers, and even an arrangement of silk roses.

And the food was good, as we shared it with Abdu and our driver--salads, fresh bread and butter, and shashlik.

We drove on and on, due west, and finally crossed the Amu Darya (Oxus River), which has marked boundaries in Central Asia for millenia.  It forms the boundary between Uzbekistan and Afghanistan, and, perhaps, between Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.  It was drained by the Soviets to grow cotton, resulting in drying up the Aral Sea.

By sunset, we arrived at the walls of Khiva.  Mike's favorite city in Central Asia is Khiva.  The old city is completely surrounded by the old wall, and we felt like we had moved back 400 years--or maybe 800!

The Ervin Palace, where we stayed, was right outside the city walls, within walking distance of old Khiva.  It was luxurious in an impersonal way--no one showing us how to use our room key or serving us pastries they had cooked themselves.  However, we were ready for a bit of that distant professionalism at this point in the tour.

We ate dinner at a rooftop table in a picturesque building in the walled city.

From our table, we looked out at the monuments of the city as night fell.

After dinner, we walked through the heavy, carved doors of the restaurant and explored the magic of nighttime Khiva before finding our way back to the Palace and bed.