Khiva is a beautiful city, with the old part of the city held within fortress walls. It has been heavily restored, and gives some idea of what the city would have looked like in years gone by. The mosaic tiles are beautiful, and so was the weather, if a little hot! We were taken on a city tour which was expertly led by our guide Jalol. Khiva is his home city, so he gave us a very thorough and entertaining account of why Khiva is the centre of the world. For example, the man who invented algebra was from Khiva, although he was forced to move to Baghdad during his life and so that is why it is said that he was from Baghdad. We visited madrassas (Islamic schools, which used to be more like universities, not just teaching the Koran), and mosques, none of which are operational today, and learnt a little more about the branches and customs of Islam. We also learnt that Tsar Nicholas II introduced syphilis to Khiva via an attractive woman when the Khan (ruler) of Khiva coveted the Tsar’s wife!
Tiled minaret:
From Khiva we headed to Bukhara, another Silk Road city. Bukhara has not been as extensively restored as Khiva, however it did appear to be the home of shopping. We again visited madrassas and mosques, but the inside of all of them was dedicated to shops – scarves, head-dresses, jewellery, embroidered cushion covers, clothes, shoes – there was nothing you couldn’t buy. We had a local guide take us around the city, and we saw many beautiful sights, again dominated by mosaic tiles and rich blues and turquoises.
The weather has continued to be quite hot, and it has taken it out of people a little bit, so there are many afternoon naps being had! All around the desert areas we have been amazed by the difference in temperature between summer and winter. For example, in Bukhara, they were busy demolishing part of the fortress walls which were damaged during the winter by the temperatures which reached minus 25 and minus 30. And we are wandering around the city in temperatures topping plus 35, while our guide told us we were lucky we had not been there the day before when it was 40 degrees in the shade. The Uzbeks are a very hardy people I think!
We had the luxury of three nights in the same hotel in Bukhara, so we dedicated the middle night, a Saturday night, to Ladies Night. We all got together in one of the girls’ rooms, and made cocktails with the lovely watermelon, plums and apricots that are so readily available (and very cheap! We got 5kg of watermelon and 1kg of plums for a total of 3000 Som, which is about £1.15!). We unleashed our ruffty-tuffty feet and I painted all of our toenails, while Alexa operated an excellent hair straightening service! Suitably spruced up we headed to an “Italian” restaurant (one can only eat so much shashlik and tomato and cucumber salad) and had a lovely, and fairly sedate night! Wish the same could be said for the boys! Suffice it to say it was a pretty quiet day the next day with some very sheepish boys. And it did prove once and for all that the girls are definitely a calming influence on the boys!
Pretty toenails:
Edel, Jo and Elaine at the restaurant:
Jen, Maura & Alexa at the restaurant:
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