A crap day. It should have taken us three hours to drive from Takhiatash to Khiva but took us nearly seven. The road wasn’t bad, but there are no signs. The map shows a road running west from Beruni via Urgench to Khiva, but Beruni covers a huge area, and is more a collection of villages, a bit like Carloway with camels. We stopped for a drink by a beautiful building and then saw a sign for Boston. As well as no signs to Khiva, there are big roads that peter out after several villages and small roads that turn out to be the right one. The map shows a road directly from Tortkul to Khiva, avoiding the major town of Urgench but it appears to be a mirage. We were sent to Tortkul by a man and then had to return to Boston. I asked directions every two kms and was given the same answer “Straight for two kms”. After 18 kms got to Boston and found ourselves on the road to Urgench. A friendly man said “follow the trolley bus line to Khiva” but,seeing a major road going west, I decided to be a smartarse and ignore his advice. And got lost.
On arriving at the new town of Khiva, we drove around looking for hotels, specifically the Meros which sounded nice. A couple of very helpful lads phoned the hotel for me, but it was full. Advised me to drive into the old city, which we did, and passing through the South Gate immediately saw the Sheherazade which looked rather posh but cost only 40 euros. The room was excellent, the hotel very interesting with lots of carved wood, and the breakfast was brilliant.
