We had to get up at 2.40 AM in the early morning in order to catch our train to Khiva. We always like to combine different modes of transport on our travels for a variety of experiences. After cars, horses, on foot trekking and camel, we decided that the easiest route to get from Bukhara to Khiva is by train. Khiva is the most western city we are visiting while in Uzbekistan. It has less tourists than Bukhara or Samarkand but also is a smaller area. Being the westernmost city in Uzbekistan, its geographical location makes access for travellers more challenging.
Inom and his taxi driver picked us up at 3 AM, as the train station, for whatever reason, is located 25 km on the outskirts of Bukhara.
Sleepily a few other tourists and a lot of locals headed the same way, rolling our travel bags across the cobblestones to our platform. There are no underpaths to cross over to a different platorm, so we all had to cross over the rails. Inom said he booked a sleeper coach for us and that there were no tickets for a day train, so he had to book us an overnight train.
The train was enormously long, 14 wagons plus an on board restaurant. Our waggon was number 14 so we walked all the way to the end of the train and hieved our heavy bags into the waggon. It was an old Soviet style coach and as we boarded in the near dark, we made our way slowly through a narrow, dimly lit isle with people sleeeping right and left.
Feet hanging into the aisle, people snoring, others quietly talking. Sleeper coach did not get you an own compartement, it simply meant that the seats are folded down to a simple cot like bed with mattress two below, two above and two across the aisle on the other side.
It was very stuffy and hot in there and one could not open the locked windows. A bit clueless we stood in front of our three reserved beds with our big bags not knowing what to do next. We had left our sleeping bags in Tashkent and it would have been much to hot for them anyway. One of our beds was occupied by someone else and Inom made him move. Then he disappeared and reappeared with three plastic bags which had freshly washed linens in there. A pillow case, a bottom sheet and a top sheet, alle freshly starched and bleached white. They smelled clean and so we each made our cots stored our luggage underneath or on top and settled down for a few hours of fitfull sleep. Despite the gentle swaying and rhythm of the moving train, it did not lull us into a long sleep, it was too hot and the snoring level was considerably high. The day break started at 5 AM and by 5.30 it is full daylight. The journey was supposed to take about 6 hrs.
So by 8 AM pretty much everyone was awake and cleaned up as best as possible. Good thing about those old russian trains: there is always a samovar with hot water and you get glases & tea bags.
Two women in their mid forties sat across the aisle from us and we stroke up a nice translated conversation between them and us with Inoms help. Making contact is easy here in Uzbekistan, getting understood is more challenging. In line for the toilet Chris got chatted up in Russian by someone thinking he was Russian. It was an interesting, yet short conversation as Chris’ Russian is rather limited. The two ladies asked Inom about us as we were the only tourists in our waggon and an unusual sight for someone that should be able to afford more comfortable transport.
We soon laughted and exchanged breaksfast snacks and pictures of our families. Specially Tick Tack Omi with her pink whiff of hair and her age got the most astounded comments. The time until we arrived in Khiva flew by with small talk especially as the outside landscape consisted only of desert as far as the eye could see. While we would not want to spend many nights in trains like that, the experience to be in the middle of just normal Uzbek people traveling their way was something that felt right.
Arrived in Khiva, we took a shot taxi ride to our boutique hotel right opposite the main Khiva city gate. The Silk Road Caravansaray was a converted small Medrassa that only had 12 rooms, all nicely renovated but the domed room shapes and inner courtyard remained original, even though other things like running water, electricity and a shower were added later. A real find and super pleasant to spend the hot lunchtime hours in the shade or napping.
After a cool shower that we all craved bwing in the hot train for hours, we enjoyed a coffee and then headed out to explore the city.
Khiva was founded around the 8th century, but did not become a major trading hub and capital of the region until the 16th century. This desert town did have some wells to provide for water during desert travel, so it was an important life saving stop for the caravans, but in the beginning it did have a very somber claim to fame. Khiva was the capital of the slave trade, synonomous of barbaric cruelty, horrible and risk desert journeys and bands of lawless tribesmen that struck fear in all the travelers and merchants.
Today’s Khiva truly feels like a step back in time. All the original buildings and the entire inner city have been preserved and restored. It feels more like the backdrop of an Aladdin movie or an open-air museum than a living, bustling city. There is indeed a lot of activity, but it primarily comes from tourists. About 6,000 locals still live within the old town’s walls, and we estimated that around 90% of them are involved in tourism in some capacity.
The beautifully restored buildings are truly stunning. Especially the minarets. And there are plenty of them. We‘ll describe those in detail in our next days blog entry as we‘ll be spending a whole day exploring Khiva. Today, we just wandered around the city, which had surprisingly few tourists after 3 PM but a beautiful light for photography. Enjoy some of Chris‘ pictures.
Having reserved a roof top terrace spot for sunset and dinner we let our day phase out with some good food and a glass of chilled white wine. Unfortunately, a group of German tourists had reserved a section of the rooftop for their glass of ‘Champanskoje.’ Later, another German group started dancing to popular international songs played on an oboe. But hey, we were on holiday, so we laughed at the absurdity of the situation. We were just glad that Inom didn’t have to witness it.
At the end of the day, we were looking forward to tomorrow, eager to explore in much more detail.
