Day10

Schedule was to leave hotel at 5:30 am for 6:45 flight. The hotel restaurant said they would open breakfast at 5 for us and they did – a full breakfast buffet. Nice. Easy flight for 50 minutes on Boeing 737-800 to Dashoguz. The coach met us and we drove to an archeological site of Kunya Urgench. It is MMMs from 12 to 14^th  century. From there to lunch then to border crossing. Leaving Turkmenistan was as elaborate as entering. Passports examined 7 times. We had to show our visa for entry into Uzbekistan.  All luggage x-rayed and we were photographed and finger printed. Then we were allowed to leave and we walked 200 meters to Uzbekistan where we had to show our passport 4 times and our old/used and new visa. They also took our temperature to make sure we are not sick. Our Uzbek guide, Farouk, met us at the border with our bus and drivers. We were very happy to be back and Uzbekistan felt like home. On the way to Nukus, which was our destination for the night, we stopped at an oldest and very large necropolis called Mazda Khan. The place is enormous and in addition to graves and mausoleums of prominent people dating back centuries, there are modern graves there from just a few years ago. After checking into our hotel in Nukus (Jipek Joli), we went for a walk before dinner. Nukus is a modern town of about 350 000, without much charm. Tourists come here because of the Savitsky Museum, a place that has the largest collection of Russian art from the 1920s and 30s, second only to the Hermitage. We have noticed that there seems to be more Russian/soviet influence here than in other Uzbek towns – more women wearing western clothes, fewer traditionally dressed people. Al got sick from lunch and missed dinner.