Tuesday 28th March 2023

Due to not being able to sleep (perhaps due to the excitement), we actually got up half an hour before our alarm went off.  It was just 3am and we left the house an hour later.

A short flight took us to Athens and within the hour we were on the second flight of the day to Istanbul. Four hours later, we were on our third and final flight to Urgench in Uzbekistan with Uzbekistan Airways.

Hopefully, transport will be waiting for us when we arrive at around 7pm to take us to our hotel and we are optimistic that we will be there between 8pm and 9pm.

We are expecting to just dump our bags and go in search of dinner.

Once again we are travelling with our good friends and travel buddies, Pete and Anne.  All of us had seen the travel programme ‘Joanna Lumley’s Silk Road Adventure’ which perhaps first whet our appetites to visit Uzbekistan.

Another TV programme, ‘Race Around the World’ also featured the country. This programme helped to cement the idea firmly in our minds and the planning began!

Situated in Central Asia, Uzbekistan is one of only two countries in the world that is double land locked.

The Silk Road traversed some of Uzbekistan’s major cities, not only transporting goods but also exchanging ideas, beliefs, skills and religions.

I enjoyed the flight, reading once more some of our many notes and enjoying the beautiful scenery below.  The flight passed over snow topped mountains close to Ankara, the Black Sea, Tbilisi in Georgia, the Caspian Sea and Baku in Azerbaijan.

 

 

We have a list of what I believe will be architectural delights, mosaics, and domes, beautiful facades and incredible interiors.

Urgench is a small airport, just over thirty kilometres from Khiva which is the first destination of our Uzbekistan adventure. Unfortunately, our booked hotel transfer did not arrive so we all jumped in a taxi.

The cab dropped us off just outside the ancient inner city, known as the Itchan Kala of Khiva and we walked through the West Gate into the city.  “Wow” we all exclaimed, standing still and taking in the scene in front of us. It was awesome, a wide turquoise minaret adjacent to a restored madrassa.

This stunning structure was to be our home for the next four nights.  It was the Orient Star Hotel, once known as the Mohammed Amin Khan Madrassa.

It was built in 1851-1853 and it was both home and school to 250 students until the beginning of the 20th century.

 

Two cells have been transformed into double bedrooms with an ensuite bathroom.  The hotel has kept its authenticity like the steep stone steps that we climbed up to our rooms. A corridor outside our rooms overlooked the courtyard.  The rooms had big heavy wooden doors and the bathroom led to a balcony overlooking the Dishon Kala (the outer city).

There are only a handful of hotels within the Itchan Kala but as soon as we saw this one, we knew that this was where we wanted to stay on the first part of our Uzbekistan adventure.

After a quick freshen up, we headed to the Khiva Moon restaurant in the Dishon Kala for dinner. We didn’t know what to expect food and drink wise as it was Ramadan.  This is the first time any of us has travelled to an Islam country during Ramadan and of course every country is different.

 

 

 

The helpful waitress told us what was available and we ordered a traditional meal, plov, which is a one pot dish of long grain rice, meat, onions and carrots, kebobs (the Russian name for kebabs, Russian is widely spoken here), pumpkin dumplings and meat omelettes.  All were delicious and accompanied with cold local beers.

As we took the short walk back to the UNESCO walled city, there were many young men walking out of the gates, carrying their prayer mats.

 

 

They were returning from their isha prayer time, we wondered if this was part of their daily practise or if they were going to prayer due to it being Ramadan.

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