Day 11

After breakfast we toured the Savitsky museum. It really is an amazing collection spread over two buildings, and the guide told us that only 3% of the collection is currently being displayed. In addition to paintings, they also have an ethnographic part – artifacts collected by Savitsky in the Karakalpakstan province, including traditional clothes, jewelry, pottery, musical instruments, etc.  Then long drive over horrible roads.  Stopped at two fortresses, one of which we climbed. Since three people (including Al) were suffering from stomach problems, we didn’t stop for lunch and had a simple box lunch on bus.  Finally arrived at Khiva. It would be a really gorgeous and charming town if not for tons of tourists and an equal number of vendors along the streets. Khiva is a walled-in city and it’s small so it gets overwhelmed with tourists easily. Dinner at the hotel included local folk music/dance which was terrible. We took a stroll through evening Khiva – most vendors were gone, but many streets were dark and the uneven stones and steps made it difficult to walk.