Khiva, Uzbekistan

We managed to get a decent sleep in the tent. There was a lightning storm off in the distance and the light woke me up on occasion. I thought it was raining, but it was just the tent flapping in the wind. I had to use the bathroom around 3am and it was really pleasant out, with a half moon lighting the surroundings.

We set our alarms for 6am to catch the morning light, but I woke up a few minutes before. The sky was lightening, so we got up quickly and were at the crater by 6am. It was just me, Heather, and Judy up at this hour. The lighting for pics was amazing for about 15 minutes and then it was too bright for the crater to stand out. It was really cool to see!

Breakfast was good - yogurt, bread, apples, boiled eggs. We got ready and were on the road by 9am for the border of Uzbekistan.

The road was a bit bumpier north of the crater. It took us about three hours to reach the border town of Daşoguz. Said goodbyes to our driver and guide.

The exit from Turkmenistan and entry to Uzbekistan took about 45 minutes in total, with tourists waved to the front of the line everywhere. The whole process seemed to be more a formality with the main objective to get tourists through as quickly as possible.

First off was the customs exit from Turkmenistan. We had to fill out a form, including a declaration of all our currency. They didn’t even seem to read the form, just sent us to the next step (not before one official said that my curly hair looked ‘like lamb’, much to Heather’s amusement) (Heather - I’ve since taken to calling Eric “Lamb-Man”).

Our bags then were run through a scanner, although they didn’t really look at the screen. Next was the exit stamp, which was the longest step in the process. They took our pic and scanned our right thumb, presumably matching it up against our thumbprint from entry. This part of the exit was all digital and I think legit (i.e. I think they actually had our thumbprint in a database).

Then we waited for the van that shuttles back and forth over the 1.5km of no man’s land to get to the Uzbekistan border entry. We paid 1 USD per person for the shuttle.

On the Uzbek side, we had to get through the throngs of locals waiting to get through the gate to Uzbekistan. As soon as we were noticed, they motioned ‘tourists, tourists’ and we were let in.

First, there was a medical check, which consisted of the official / nurse writing down our passport details. In the next building, we presented our evisa and got our passports stamped for entry (no sticker :( ). Then, a cursory scan of our bags, and we were finally in Uzbekistan!

Taxis were lined up about 100m down the road from the exit. One drove out to meet us and we quickly bargained down to the going rate of 10 USD to get to Khiva.

It’s an hour drive to Khiva from the border. Our hotel (Meros Guesthouse) is inside the old city and unfortunately our driver didn’t know how to enter (vehicle traffic is restricted). So I ended up carrying our bags for about 15 minutes to get to the hotel :(

It was almost 2pm, and we hadn’t had lunch yet, so we got a recommendation from the hotel and went out to eat. Lunch was excellent, meat dumplings and a coffee and local dessert.

On the way back, we bought our 2-day pass to all the sites in the old walled city and checked out the west tower for the view, supposedly the best for sunset. It was then that I realized that on the way in, I had walked right past some of the highlights and never noticed; I was too focused on carrying the bags to the hotel.

The view from the west tower was fantastic. It’s quite the sight to see the old city of Khiva.

Back to the hotel, showered, and got organized. Checked out the view from the hotel rooftop and realized it was just as good as the west tower (I think this is why we booked here months ago).

Went out for dinner a while later. Tried to find the other restaurant the hotel had suggested, but couldn’t find it, so picked a place that looked good. It was okay.

Back to the hotel and went to bed. It was nice to get a full night’s sleep in a bed.