Before we left Kokand, where we spent the night, and headed to Tashkent, we toured through the Khan’s palace.  The palace was built in the 19th century to serve as the governance seat for the Khan of Kokand.  In actuality there were three kingdoms in the Central Asia region, the Khanate of Kokand, the Khanate of Bukhara, and the Khanate of Khiva, before the Russian Czar Alexander came and conquered them at which point they became part of the Russian empire.  As a historical aside, following the Russian revolution, when the Soviet Union was formed, the three different kingdoms were broken apart as I described in the previous post, with the ruling families losing power and in some cases, being exiled from their kingdoms so they would not bring trouble as the Soviet government moved in to take control.

The Khan’s throne room. Some has been reconstructed but some of the tiles are original. The reconstruction work was to remove smoke and other residue from the tiles.

The palace in Kokand was very large and ornate.  Umid walked us through the structure, explaining the purpose of the rooms and the palace design.  The basic  design included three main areas- the administration section where the Kahn governed, his living area and the harem area.  Consequently the interior of the structure contained many different courtyards which were not obvious from just looking at the outside walls. Some of the rooms had been restored during Soviet times and some of the decoration was original.  In any event, the walls were decorated with ornate tiles with complex patterns and the wooden doors hosted incredibly detailed carvings.  It was also really important to look up at the ceilings because they were also elaborately and colorfully painted with very intricate patterns.  We spent an hour or so walking through the palace and then jumped in the van for the four(ish) hour drive to Tashkent.

You must look at the ceilings!!!!

The doors, too, were very ornate.

The drive was long, but interesting. We had to climb up through a pass which took us out of the Fergana Valley, then down to the plains beyond where Tashkent is located.  The geography of the mountains and hills were similar to what we saw in Kyrgyzstan, however, here in Uzbekistan instead of the lush, green hills that dominated the Krygystan landscape, the vegetation on the hills we passed by was already brown and dying; only irrigated areas were still green.  July is high summer in Uzbekistan and really hot (it got to 102C again today) and thus the landscape looked much like the American southwest—dry and desert.  Because of the high population density in this area of Uzbekistan we saw signs of human habitation everywhere, cars on the road, lots of residences, businesses and villages dotted along the highway.

Lots of brown, dry hills. We hit peak season in Krygystan with lots of flowers blooming in the hills, but here in Uzbekistan, that time had already passed.

Our first break was a stop to pick up some water and Umid bought us some bread from a vendor that was baking it right there on the spot.  It looked like hot work!  Everywhere we went the bread was slightly different so we were trying all of the different varieties.  Our second stop was for a break at the top of the pass where there was a collection of cafes and vendors selling snacks for travelers (and also toilets!).  There was a large crowd standing at the edge of a steep drop-off and we wandered over to see what everyone was looking at. It seemed that some enterprising business person had set up a very long swinging bridge between two cliff faces at the top of the pass and people could pay to walk across, suspended over the very high drop.  I also noticed that adjacent to the bridge, they had set up a zip line for those who wanted to make the crossing with a little more flair.  There were a few people braving both but needless to stay, I did not do either!

I am sure it was well-anchored, but it looked pretty precarious. However that did not stop people from braving the bridge, nor enjoying the zipline.

Lots of snacks for sale at the pass!

We continued to Tashkent, finally arriving around 2:00pm.  Our first destination was lunch.  Umid took us to a very famous and popular plov restaurant.  Plov is a national Uzbek dish and is rice with vegetables and meat. There are regional variations on what vegetables and meat are used, but no matter the variation, plov is really good (I had some years before when I was in Russia).  The restaurant cooked the plov in very pots resembling large stir fry pans, stirring with large paddles.  They had a huge sitting area filled with an international crowd of patrons wanting to sample the dish.  It was still very busy despite the fact that lunch time had come and gone but we managed to snare a table big enough for all of us.  Everyone enjoyed the dish!

Monster pans used to make plov. Had to be a hot job, especially in 100 deg weather!

We were not staying in Tashkent overnight, but were booked on an evening flight to Urgench, the nearest airport to Khiva, where we were staying for two days so we spent the rest of the day sightseeing.  Tashkent is amazing— it is a very modern, well-planned city with lots of green space and parks and, as the capital, is host to roughly six million people.  It was a bit of a shock because I had been expecting something that resembled Moscow, with an older infrastructure and Soviet architectural style dominating (Tashkent was the fourth largest city in the Soviet Union).  But even though there were the ubiquitous Soviet block-style apartments dotted around the city, most of the city looked brand new.  Udim explained that the first President of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov, had a vision for a modern city and when the country gained their independence, the government worked strategically to “re-do” the region.  They prioritized green spaces and parks, wide roads, and sports facilities-he wanted the youth to be active.  Tashkent is an impressive place!

Plov- Yum!

Touring the city we stopped here and there to see some of the highlights, knowing we were going to be back in the city at the end of the trip.  Tashkent has a metro and, similar to Moscow, some of the stations are very ornate with opulent decorations or have specific themes so we stopped by the space themed station on our way to a museum which housed the oldest Koran in the world.  The Koran, circa 7th century, is reputed to the last surviving book of a handful that were dictated directly by the Prophet Mohammed to the scribes.  The museum also hosted Korans in different languages which were presented as gifts to the Uzbek people.  The Uzbek government is building a large Islamic Study Center adjacent to the museum which should be open in September.  The complex will be huge and house scholars, art, culture etc.. We took a peek through the construction fence and it was pretty amazing.

Picture in metro celebrating the Apollo-Soyuz program.

We also saw other government and cultural buildings as we were wandering around.  It was really hot, however, so we alternated walking and driving.  Independence Square had a plethora of fountains and it was fun to see so many children playing in them, trying to stay cool. The President’s residence is not far from Independence Square so parts of the square were closed off for security but we did walk by the World War 2 memorial.  The Uzbeks, like so many countries, lost a lot of people to that war.

As it was getting late, we headed to the airport to board our domestic flight on Uzbek Air for Urgench.  The check-in process was simple and I ended up in a middle seat next to a very nice young lady who was an English teacher.  We engaged in a delightful conversation most of the way to Urgench, the airport nearest Khiva—people are very friendly in this part of the world!!!!

Entrance to our hotel! WOW!!!!

We landed around 10pm and had a 40 minute drive to our hotel in Khiva. We were all hot, tired and exhausted because it had been a long day, but when we got to the hotel, all of that was forgotten.  The Oriental Star hotel, located in the Khiva old town, was a former madras (school) that had been converted for visitors. Our rooms, which were former classrooms or dormitory rooms,  were positioned around the traditional courtyard and there was a large minaret adjacent to the exterior wall.  I immediately felt like I had been transported bain time, and looked forward to touring Khiva old city the following day.

Streets at night on the main roads- very pretty!

Baking bread- this had to be a hot job. Note how he has completely protected his head and body as he works with the ovens. You can also see the bread inside.