Uzbekistan day 1

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The border from Kazakhstan to Uzbekistan turned out to be the worst experience of the trip! It's just as well today has been one of the best.

The border ended up taking 19 hours in total and for no apparent reason. It could have been longer too, but the fact we were tourists seemed to get us to the front of some of the queues (a bit embarrassingly). We got through the Kazak side relatively quickly, and then pretty much spent the whole night camping in no mans land in a pen in between the two countries. When morning came around we managed to get through the Uzbek border after a few car and bag searches. We then spent the whole day driving to Khiva, a small mud walled town I'd been really looking forward to. The roads were great ... Until they weren't. Somehow the car managed to get to Khiva trouble free, it's been so reliable apart from a few minor issues.

We stayed last night in a brilliant B&B called Meros. The owner (Jaloladdin) is an absolute hero! We arrived too late to get food in town so he made us tea and helped us with cooking what food we had left in the car. We then spent the night in this quaint and picturesque place only to wake up to the scenes from a movie. Khiva is a stunning and ancient city dating back to 1592 when it was a central part of the Silk Road. We had an incredible breakfast at Meros which fuelled a day of walking around small museums and sights. We watched the sun set over the city and then eat on the roof of Meros with a pretty spectacular view.

Heading for Bukhara tomorrow 😊

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