Today I had a mammoth 9 hour drive from Khiva to Bukhara so lots of time to kill chatting with my driver Anvar. Fortunately he spoke very good english so it made passing the time quite easy.We practically told each other our life stories and family histories. I had tried to play my music cd that was burnt for me in Khiva but because it was a DVD disc and not CD disc we got an error message.Anvar went to university in Turkey for four years and can speak Russian, E...

I was fortunate to have my hotel right outside the south gate and city walls. If the weather was nice it would have been nice to spend some time exploring the old town on my own but the temperature was falling rapidly as the sun went down.The hotel was quite impressive and better suited to warmer summer months. The main reception has giant area rugs, a satellite music channel playing on tv, several couches, and souvenir items for sale.In every hotel I needed to b...

I was fortunate to have my hotel right beside the city walls outside the south gate where I met my guide for today named Timur. He wore a traditional Russian fur hat for cold climates.Even though the hotel was outside the south gate we drove around to the west gate to begin the tour. My guide was highly knowledgeable and it was like pressing play on some audio recording he was giving out so many facts and information.We first started by the statue of mathematicia...