The Cube

According to legend, Khiva was founded by Shem, Noah's son discovered a well in Khiva. Khiva existed since at least the 8th century as a minor fort and trading post as a branch of the Silk Road. Khiva was made the capital of a state in Khorezm in 1592 and was made infamous for running a busy slave market for more than three centuries.

In current days, Khiva's old town is contained inside Ichon-Qala gates and walls. Ichon-Qala is so well preserved that it is criticised and commented as a "museum city". Well, it is though it still has it's charm and rustic feel.

1. Ota Darvoza
The main gate to get in Ichon-Qala is Ota Darvoza, the West Gate which mean 'Father Gate'. When there's West Gate, there is also North, East, South Gate. One can climb up from the North Gate and walk along the top. It's a free of charge option to see the amazing sunset view if you have not or decided not to pay for the watchtower ticket. Though both does have a different set of scenery.


2. Al-Khwarizmi
Moving just a little away from the above sign board (picture #1), also outside of the West Gate is the statue of Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, a famous scientist born in Khiva in 783 AD. Do you remember him? You don't? Well - meet the father of algebra, al-Khwarizmi. His name was rendered as Algoritmi in Latin, which in English - algorithm.


I kid you not, there are tonnes of medressa, mosques or mausoleums compacted in this little gated "community". You can request for a free printed copy of map from the Tourist Information Centre. When I say printed, it is computer printer kind of printed, in grey scale. Of course, some are little ones and some are obviously the star attractions. Anyway, once you have purchased the ticket (UZS 39,000 pp) for this you can enter almost all of the sights. One other sight that isn't covered by this entrance ticket is the Kuhna Ark watchtower (UZS 4,000 pp). Both tickets are valid for 2 days.

Edit: I found a copy of the computer printed map obtained from Tourist Info Centre so here's how it looks like. 


3. Kalta Minor Minaret
If you go enter through the West Gate, you won't miss the turquoise shades tiled minaret - Kalta Minor Minaret. Foundation of the minaret is at 15 meters, diameter is 14.5 meters and at 29 meters. The construction started in 1851 by Mohammed Amin Khan. He wanted to build a minaret so high that he could see all the way to Bukhara. Unfortunately, he passed away in 1855 and the minaret was left unfinished, leaving it's current stumpy state.


Zooming in...

Zooming more...


As for the rest of the sights, pick some or visit all depending on the time you have, your interest and tolerance of the heat especially if you travel in summer like we did! Beautiful blue sky but no clouds and harsh sun made one sluggish and thought of siesta often!

Well, here are a few more others (aside from the above). ^^

4. Kuhna Ark
This was Khiva rulers' own fortress and residence. It was first built in the 12th century. Most of the rooms are locked. After getting through the entrance, one won't miss a circular area on the ground, it was for the royal yurt.



Khiva sure knows how to make money. As mentioned above, watchtower in Kuhna Ark is not included in the 2 days ticket but it's worth paying for the extra ticket to see the aerial view of Khiva. When we were there, the person who guard the watchtower entrance requested for payment in USD but it is cheaper to pay in UZS with currency conversion. If this happens, just insist to pay in UZS or tell them that you don't have USD.

Watch tower

Staircase to the top

View at the top

View from the top

5. Juma Mosque
A mosque with 218 wooden supporting columns supporting its roof. A couple of the columns were from the 10th century. Just ask the staffs who checks the entrance tickets if you cannot guess which ones - easy cheats :P


6. Tosh-hovli Palace
Tosh Havli said to mean "Stone Court". It was so named because the this building was made from stone-hard bricks instead of the usual clay. It was built by the other of Allakuli Khan from 1832 and 1841. It consists of 3 courtyards - reception area, harem and guesthouse. Nowadays visitors allowed to tour the harem courtyard. The interior decorations including tiles and ceiling details are colourful and striking.

Ceiling detail

There was some filming job happening at the time of our visit. We went through this closed corridor to get to another courtyard but later on had some difficulty getting back to where we started as they have locked the door to the corridor. LOL, it almost felt like we got stuck in a maze going through doors but ended up in the same place. Most sights inside Ichon Qala are smallish in size, this palace is definitely bigger comparatively.


7. Pahlavon Mahmud Mausoleum
This is another sight that needs a separate entrance ticket (UZS 5,000 pp). Pahlavon Mahmud Mausoleum was a poet, philosopher and legendary wrestler who became Khiva's patron saint. The tomb was from the yaer 1326 and then rebuilt in the 19th century. In 1913 it was requisitioned by the khan as the family mausoleum.

We bumped into a fellow traveller who stayed at the same B&B coming out of this mausoleum when we walked passed and he told us it is a good place to get some refuge from the hot sun! Psst.. this place had air-con. :P



8. Islom-Hoja Medressa
This medressa houses the Museum of Applied Arts but in my humble opinion, the exhibits are not of much interest to me. My unfortunate memory of this medressa was it was a stuffy place. :(
The selling point was obviously the highest minaret standing at 57m tall. In fact, the first thing we were asked when we were there was, "Do you want to climb the minaret?" We decided that the view was watchtower was spectacular enough for us and did not climb. The exterior was beautiful though.


9. Katya
Katya is Khiva's token camel, you can sit on it and take a photo with Katya for a small fee. The Hungarian traveller who informed us about the air con in Pahlavon Mahmud Mausoleum really wanted a selfie sitting on the camel. I can't remember how much he paid but any fee very much depends on your bargaining skills too. Grin.


10. Handicraft - window shopping or shopping
Some are widely found across the country - like the suzani and potteries. However not so much for the paper puppets, hand painted jewelry box.

For some reason everybody in Khiva was knitting

Cloth made box

Figurines

Teapots and cups

Suzani

Puppets made from paper

Hand painted jewelry box

Bread chekish

Side note: Ok, full disclosure here - I'm totally cheating. I backdated this post a day... happy birthday to me. lol. :P

We took a bus from near the B&B to the airport. The bus driver thought we wanted to go to the international airport and asked us to get off. Following our experience in Bishkek, we allocated ample of time for this flight as that was our first domestic flight in Uzbekistan. So we had enough time to wait for another public bus to get us to the domestic airport. Else we would have to pay through the nose to get a taxi as the driver would know we were desperate to get to the right airport. Anyway, this was minor glitch compared to incident in Manas Airport. Else, airport check in, boarding and all was seamless and no dramas.

Our flight was from Tashkent to Urgench. Ha! Uzbekistan Airways even served a bun with cheese fillings and water. Not too bad eh but that was actually lunch though. Plane and journey was fine, so Uzbekistan Airways is ok ;)

Before boarding, we were at the waiting area and noticed a couple of fellow travellers which we guessed would be heading to Khiva. There were 3 to be specific - a Japanese couple and a single traveller from Singapore. We found out later that he is a TV journalist from conversation later on when we met him again in Bukhara.

Khiva doesn't have airport and train station facilities, all visitors to Khiva would need to go through Urgench. One could commute on a trolley buses, marshrutka or taxi but taxi is the only one you could get from airport itself. We were contemplating to save cost by sharing taxi with the other travellers and thought we could approach them after reaching Urgench airport.

Well, things don't always go by plan. By the time we picked up our backpacks, the 3 travellers we think were heading to Khiva had already gone out. We approached the Singaporean TV journalist (Let's call him S - Singaporean) and he had already haggled and paid for a taxi. He was happy for us to join him in the cab though. However when his taxi driver saw us talking to him, the driver made it clear that he did not want to have us in his taxi. = ="

So sis sent me to ask the Japanese couple. Let's refer them as JM - Japanese male and JF - Japanese female. JF was in midst of conversation with a taxi driver. Mind you, she speaks fluent Uzbek language. No joke. I approached JM and told JF that sis and I wanted to share a taxi. JM was just hanging around, looking cool while JF was doing all the haggling. Grin. They were both happy for us to share the taxi as well but their taxi driver refused to have us too. T_T

JF was very helpful though, she spent time telling us how much it should cost for a taxi to get to Khiva, etc. The situation was pretty funny actually. JF was talking to us in Japanese as the drivers surrounding us would understand English, at the same time telling the taxi drivers to stop talking in Uzbek. Yea - it was all quite chaotic as the taxi drivers kept on talking over her to prevent her telling us things. A little unexpected that my shabby kindergarten level Japanese is of use in an unlikely Uzbekistan.

Well, we got to Khiva in a different taxi. We were not able to haggle to the price that JF told us but we did managed to reduce it. By the time we get to Khiva and checked in to a B&B, guess who we saw at the lobby? JF! She wasn't staying in the same B&B but visiting some friends who did. She actually works in Uzbekistan.


Side note: New year resolution #2 - Be more healthy, maybe start with eating better AND LESS GLUTTON (NY resolution #1)

Old Town

1. Chorsu Bazaar
Tashkent was one of the ancient cities appeared on the Great Silk Road. As with many ancient cities, there are bound to have markets. Grin. Tashkent's old town starts beside Chorsu Bazaar and this bazaar is one of the busiest, though old buildings have been replaced by modern ones. We met a young student on our commute and in our conversation, he recommended a visit to Chorsu Bazaar. Actually if there is a place he is to recommended, he suggested Chorsu Bazaar.

Chorsu Bazaar is open every day of the week from early morning to late in the evening. You could find jewelry, ceramics, pottery, nons (bread), souvenirs, cooked meals...

We bought some fridge magnets and potteries, had an early dinner of plov and shashlik before walking back to the B&B.

Very organised looking market eh?

Ohhh.. we bought some of these too!

Dinner of plov... (yum yum.. )

...and shashlik (yummy yummy too!)

 2. Juma (Friday) Mosque
Our initial plan was to check out the Juma Mosque then finished up at Chorsu Bazaar. However for some reason we couldn't find this mosque and not superbly enthusiastic actually because of the scorching weather. I am definitely not a big fan of summer holidays. Lol.

Well, this current mosque was built in 1990s and sits on a hill overlooking Chorsu Bazaar. The original building was since 16th century was destroyed by the Soviets. As you can see, we kind of saw this mosque from Chorsu Bazaar itself.



3. Khast Imam Complex
There's a few building in this complex - some madrassah, mosque and administrative building.


Notable buildings are Mausoleum of Abu Bakr Kaffal Shoshi and Moyie Mubarek Library Museum.

The Abu Bakr Kaffal Shoshi mausoleum was erected in honour of this Islamic scholar and poet from the Shaybanid period. When we were there, there were a few people there reading religious book.


The other one would be this Moyie Mubarek Library Museum. The primary attraction of this musuem is the 7th century Osman Quran, said to be the world's oldest. This deerskin Quran was said to be brought to Samarkand by Timur, then taken to Moscow by the Russians in 1868. It was then returned to Tashkent by Lenin in 1924 as an act of goodwill.

This library museum is the only one needing to pay admission fee, so you won't miss the building. Photography is not permitted inside.


4. National Food
We had our taste of Uzbekistan food in Tashkent at this restaurant near Gafur Gulom metro station. The restaurant name is call National Food. We first went there for dinner and wanted to order plov but they have run out of it. We went back the next day for lunch and yumm.. It was good plov! This place is really busy during lunch time too.

In this restaurant, there were stations of different dishes. You can walk around and look at the dishes before deciding which ones you want to order, then order at the counter (which is just a table with the manager, I assumed the owner) and pay upfront. He will give you a ticket and you can pass it to the chef who manages the respective food station. Well, this was what technically should be. Dinner time was much lesser people, so there was an English speaking staff took us around and ordered on our behalf. So we looked for him again when we returned during lunch time and he helped us ordered.

The chef posed with the roast lamb when he saw me took some photos :)

We ate this for dinner

We ate this for dinner

We didn't eat this

We ate this for lunch :P

5. B&B
Yes, Bed & Breakfast in Uzbekistan serves yummy breakfast. Since our first stop was Tashkent, this was the first breakfast we had in B&B. The spread below was for 2 person with free flow coffee and tea. They serve the best cherry jam!



Side note: I think my first new year resolution should be - Be less glutton :|

My first sit down western Christmas lunch!

I am defying my slightly obsessive compulsive nature of not breaking up my holiday posts to put in a interlude  post - my first western Christmas lunch. T invited me to join him and A for lunch on Christmas day, complete with a Christmas cracker. All food cooked by T and they are yummm!

Yes - I told T that I am being an Asian and want to take a photo of all the food :P

My first Christmas cracker

There was a lame joke on a piece of paper, a paper crown and a little gift inside the cracker. We had the crown throughout the lunch. Grin.

Ham with potatoes

T's favourite cooking method, potatoes cooked with duck fat. Lol.

Corn bread

Vege quota - beans

Baked sweet potato

Pumpkin pie

 Ok - another photo of the pumpkin pie, served with fig yoghurt.



Side note: Back to work again before end of the year....

We had 2 full days in Tashkent but due to some unforeseen errands, it took a large chunk of the day one but here are what we did. As the errand was done in the modern part of Tashkent, I'll start with that.

Modern Tashkent

1. Amir Timur Maydoni
It is technically a big park with intention to 'beautify' the city. There is a statue of Timur on horseback in the middle of the square cuts.


2. Mustaqillik maydoni (Independence Square)
I read that it is a favourite place of recreation for residents in Tashkent. I suppose there must be some truth in it. We were there on a very scorching hot day and there were groups of students visiting this place. Oh - and we found that there really isn't any school uniform so to speak but most wear a white shirt/blouse and paired with black or dark blue skirt. If we brought along a white shirt and black or blue skirt we would've play along. We reckon without a camera, cap/hat and a smaller bag, with our Asian looking face we probably dont look too much like a tourist and would bypass the metro checks :P

Previous construction has been destroyed in 1865 and during the Soviet period, the area was renamed Lenin Square, complete with a monument to Lenin. The square was renamed Mustaqilik Maydoni in 1992 following independence in 1991. Lenin monument was dismantled and an Independence Monument, in the form of a globe was placed there.


This is Ezgulik Arch - it is the entrance to the square if one enters via Sharaf Rashidov Avenue. It appears that the arch is considered as the arch of the good and noble aspiration. It is one of the most original monuments in the square. Fountains are found both side of this walkway.




We wanted to go and see the Crying Mother Monument which was at the north of Mustaqillik maydoni as well but for some reason even after walking for a bit we couldn't find this monument. = =""

The monument is located on the territory of Independence Square. Fronted by an eternal flame, it was constructed in 1999 to honour of the 400,000 Uzbek soldiers who died during the World War II. The niches along its two corridors house their names are written. I thought it is a very apt monument for this memorial. Just so you can see what I meant, below is a photo I found online from www.traveler.uz

Photo credit: Traveler.uz

3. Art Gallery of Uzbekistan
This modern building is located in the center of Tashkent near the Independence Square. It started open its door to public in 2004. We didn't go in to see the exhibitions but saw this on the way to the Independence Square. One of a fellow traveller we met suggested that this is a good place to spend some time if you are running out of place to visit in Tashkent with reasonable entrance fee, air con to escape the heat and of course some art exhibits :)


4. Alisher Navoi Opera & Ballet Theatre
This Opera and Ballet Theatre was named after Alisher Navoi and is the largest theatre in the territory of Central and Southeast Asia.

This building was build following a state competition for the creation of the project. The construction started in 1939 but was interrupted in 1942 due to the World War 2. The construction was resumed in 1945. The theatre was officially opened in November 1947.



Side note: Am addicted to jelly this summer!