Khiva January 11, 2020

Greetings from Khiva –

Decided to stay in room for a few hours this morning to do some work, ice my foot, and rest. It was probably a smart move as I felt more confident walking (and going up and down all those steep exterior stairs with uneven risers and some steps being about 12” high compared with our typical US step being 6” high). Anyway, we started at Djuma Mosque which is pretty amazing… with a roof supported by about 112 beautifully carved columns. The original mosque dates back to the 10^th century, but the current building was reconstructed on top of that in the 1700s. It’s a wonderful space that gets interesting light and is very different from other mosques we have seen throughout Uzbekistan (and for that matter, in other countries). The space is filled with a huge number of carved columns, some of which came from the earlier structure. It’s super peaceful, dimly lit, and is a great respite from the bustling street on which it sits. Actually, you can imagine that these streets are probably quite busy in warm weather. It’s interesting to travel off season (which started when we were both in academia and the easiest time to be gone was over the Christmas holidays; summers would have been good on academic schedules, but too much was always going on in our offices during those months) because there are very few tourists and you do get a sense of real life activities in the more difficult time of the year, when produce and other goods are generally not too available. Not everyone would like this, but frankly, I really love it.

Anyway, we then strolled into a very old building (probably from the 16 or 1700s) that housed a permanent photo exhibit of images from the 1920s and 30s… Unfortunately, not very well exhibited or lit, but the images were interesting including some from the time of the Russian Revolution or shortly after. A great photo of a group was titled “The Intelligentsia” and another was of the Elected Farm Council.

We had a quick (well really nothing is quick here, so I should probably say light) late lunch – soup. Then we walked slowly to the other end of the Itcha Kala, where we will head again tomorrow to see Khiva’s big bazaar on the outside of the Itchan Kala, before we leave for the airport. After a brief stop at the hotel, we left for dinner.

While in the room this morning I did a little research and called a few restaurants. One that sounded good was going to be closed at night because the cook (owner, perhaps) was going to a birthday celebration for her niece. Another was closed for the season; another was closing because they feared there wouldn’t be enough customers. But, I talked to one man whose English wasn’t very good and he turned over the phone to his son (??) I was told that they were not opening their restaurant but they often serve meals in their home which is adjacent to the restaurant (which is actually adjacent to a large mosque). I said we’d love to eat at their home, so the arrangements were made and shortly after that I got a series of WhatsApps asking what we wanted to eat, drink, and what time we’d come. He also described the location, which was very central and off the main walking street (so we knew it wasn’t down little alleyways with rocky paths.

We left the hotel around 7 and arrived at the house. We were greeted by the son (?) and his wife and the restaurant worker.. and also two young children – a two year old rambunctious little boy and a very shy five year old girl. It’s a really big house which they use for a multitude of money-making ventures — quite entrepreneurial (which is apparently encouraged by the current government). They have a shop in front of the restaurant and they use the house as a bit of a hostel and also a small restaurant when the regular restaurant is closed. They can accommodate tour groups inside the house for meals as well.

Anyway, I’m going to close down now… Tomorrow (Saturday) after the market we take a one-hour taxi to Urgench (where the airport is) to fly on a domestic flight (1.5 hours) to Tashkent to then navigate how to get to the international terminal to catch Turkish Air flight to Istanbul (5.5 hours)  then 3 hour wait at Istanbul airport to get 3 hour Turkish Air flight to Baku, Azerbaijan – about 10.5 hours of flight time plus waiting/transfer time of about 6 additional hours.. for a distance that could be covered in about 2.5  hours if there was a direct flight from Urgench to Baku… But alas.. this will be our route.

More from Baku…

Best –

Fern