We continue to drift around this charming place during the later afternoon I say charming the guide put a lot of emphasis on the large slave market they used to have which reduces the charming to chilling.
Khiva has Madrassa and museums plus a real life Harem to potteraround where they put on a very weird / interesting little “activity” which may have been a play or a historical reenactment of some event but given none of us speak Uzbek it was almost impossible to decipher but the main character did have some groovy boots on.
A lot of very delicate tile work and plenty of things to delight the eye even a carriage acquired from the Tsar of Russia and a Medieval Friday Mosque.
We are advised that nominally there are three types of mosques an Everyday Mosque, a Friday Mosque and a Special Celebration mosque.
The everyday ones are normally small and local to the community and the Friday Mosque is one for weekly gatherings the last is fairly self explanatory.
As I said before we are trying to get some sunset shots of Khiva and we have found a 3 story building just by the East gate which we can climb up onto which for some reason is not crowded with other tourists trying to do the same thing.
There are no “Health & Safety” officers here so stairs with no banisters and flimsy wooden posts to stop us falling to our doom are the norm and you just keep climbing and dont look down.
Whilst waiting for the “right” light (like I know what I am talking about) acouple of curious local girls want me to take their picture, they then of course want to see it,
in return they show me how to clamber across the roof tops of the houses below us which gives me some great shots from a different angle.
in return they show me how to clamber across the roof tops of the houses below us which gives me some great shots from a different angle.
OK job done and a quick dash back to the hotel for a shower before dinner which Jonathan says will be special so who knows what we will end up eating.