Khiva

Khiva is small but beautiful. I took a raft of photos and even after selecting the best, I have a lot left. Khiva is famous for its carved wood. Even the smallest house has a beautifully carved wooden pillar.

An example of Khiva carving. And there are screens and doors too.

And I bought a folding wooden book rest. It has umpteen positions and I will take some photos when I get home.

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And then there are the buildings - blue tiles everywhere. The town itself is surrounded by a city wall which is mostly intact.

With several ornate gates into it.

After breakfast, Zafar, our guide, took a group of us to the market. This was a fruit and veg market. And the town was shopping.

Ladies selling veg, the piles are grated carrots and beet root.

Pulses in the market. I bought some spices in the market. One is dried tomato powder!!! The other was called hot-hot by the seller. So that is going to be interesting. Then he took us to a high class souvenir shop when everyone went crazy. Puppets were bought (very high class. Paper mâché heads and beautifully made cloths), silk Ikat scarves, carved wood, Susani jackets of black silk velvet (Susiani means embroidered). The guide tells we can do better for Susanis in Bokhara. He had better be right.

After that it was into the bus and off to Bokhara. There is supposed to be a motorway between Khiva and Bokhara but about on third of it was functional. The rest was the usual bone breaker surface. So it was another long day. Everyone has had quite enough of desert. When we got near to Bokhara, there was water and lots of cultivation.

A donkey and cart taking home mulberry branches for the silkworms.

To finish off this is my bedroom in the Bokhara hotel and the curtain was Ikat cotton!!!!

Above Ikat cotton curtain. It does seem as though there has not been anything like enough on textiles. While there are clearly lots of Susanis in Bokhara. I don' t to spend my money and my luggage space on embroideries.

Off to breakfast and then a day's walking round Bokhara. Zafar has got it right about timing and he includes time for breaks. He organises everything for us and spending a lot of time counting heads in Uzbeki. He also has a nice line in jokes. 'Communing with nature' is a comfort stop. Mind you, in the desert, finding a suitable place is difficult. One group member described it as hunting for a branch with two leaves on it while trying to avoid everyone else hunting for branches with three leaves.

 

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