Day 13 (July 11, 2023): Khiva continued - and on to Tashkent

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This morning was meant to be light, given that we had to travel from Khiva to Tashkent this afternoon.  As the Farovon is quite luxe, we wanted to be able to enjoy a leisurely breakfast and also to soak up the ambience of the place before leaving for the airport in new ar by Urgench.  (Khiva doesn’t have an airport and is served by Urgench, the largest city in western Uzbek.)

 

The Farovon was quite empty.  July is - no surprise - the hottest month of the year, so tourist numbers are thin.  Yet again, we had another breakfast buffet almost to ourselves.

We got a cab at 9:30AM and within 15 minutes were were exploring the North Gate and walls of the northern part of Old Town.  Most of the sights are located between the West and East Gates, but we still wanted to get a sense of the northern section which, by the way, is considered to be the place to watch the sun set..  Unfortunately, we were feeling too “done in” by the heat yesterday to have gone back to do that last evening.

Our next and only remaining stop on our Khiva exploration was Isfandiyar Palace, which is located just outside the walls of Old Town.  Built between 1906-12, it served as the Emir’s summer palace in Khiva.  The rooms are now largely empty, except for a few key exhibitions, but the magnitude of the place gives a good idea of just how large a palace for the Emir was.  Important to note:  he had several palaces, including another summer palace in Bukhara.

With the palace behind us, we headed back to the hotel for a quick swim, an icy lemonade, and then caught a drive to the Urgench Airport.

Our flight left (3:20) and arrived (4:40) on time.  We got a Yandex to the Courtyard by Marriott again, rested our overheated selves, and then set out at 6PM to start taking in some of Tashkent’s sights.  It was 9PM when we got back to the hotel.  We had a nice but light dinner in the hotel’s restaurant and then called it a night.  

What a scorching hot day it was, both in Khiva and even strolling in Tashkent’s evening.  One more scorcher ahead of us tomorrow!



The courtyard at the Farovon Khiva Hotel, the largest and by far the most luxe hotel in western Uzbekistan.



Dave, sprawled out on one of these popular bed-like relaxing structures, pretending to be a cool and spoiled celebrity.  

Looking down at the Farovon’s lobby.

Exploring  Old Khiva’s North Gate and north walls:

Exploring Isfandiyar Palace, the Emir’s summer palace in Khiva:

The long, lonely walk to the door of an Uzbek airport. 

Boarding Uzbek Airways A320 from Urgench to Tashkent. 

Evening exploration of the capital, Tashkent:

Stations in Khiva’s Soviet-built Metro system: