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Adventures of a Global Wanderer
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 be registered and a hotel slip attached to my passport. I was not to throw any of these away, even if I'd checked out, until I left the country.
My room was on the second floor and from the upper landing you could see the giant Minor (tower) located in the middle of the old town inside the city walls. My room was not facing the old town and I didnt think to ask as it was low season if I could change rooms to one facing the old city.
The room was rather large and had two double beds. I guess in low season I had my pick of the rooms. My room was overlooking the rear courtyard where there was a swimming pool and restaurant though both were closed for low season
There were Russian TV channels again and no Uzbek music channels. My only other issue was with the hot water.
They told me the boiler was the other side of the building and that I must leave the shower running for five minutes to allow time for the hot water to come thru the pipes. Once it did there was a good supply and it didnt run out. The hotel also had a slight odour of gas.
With the time difference the next day I woke up at 2am (6am korea time) so made myself sleep in a bit more till 6am (10am korea time).
Breakfast was light and consisted of egg, and a variety of breads and some pastries. I also didnt know if the salami was halal or had pork since they'd been mixing with Russians so much over the years so I left it.
I was to pay my driver $750 in cash for the tour rather than paying by credit card before I arrived. I was quite nervous about this since tours are not normally paid like this and anybody could claim to be the person and ask me to hand over such a large sum.
However, having met my driver and spent time talking and getting to know him I felt comfortable it would be ok
I also got a souvenir magnet from the hotel for 6000 Som ($3). It seemed a bit pricey and you could see the pixels from the digital photo but I hadnt had time to buy anything yesterday in Khiva's Old Town so at least I had something now.
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 be registered and a hotel slip attached to my passport. I was not to throw any of these away, even if I'd checked out, until I left the country.
My room was on the second floor and from the upper landing you could see the giant Minor (tower) located in the middle of the old town inside the city walls. My room was not facing the old town and I didnt think to ask as it was low season if I could change rooms to one facing the old city.
The room was rather large and had two double beds. I guess in low season I had my pick of the rooms. My room was overlooking the rear courtyard where there was a swimming pool and restaurant though both were closed for low season
There were Russian TV channels again and no Uzbek music channels. My only other issue was with the hot water.
They told me the boiler was the other side of the building and that I must leave the shower running for five minutes to allow time for the hot water to come thru the pipes. Once it did there was a good supply and it didnt run out. The hotel also had a slight odour of gas.
With the time difference the next day I woke up at 2am (6am korea time) so made myself sleep in a bit more till 6am (10am korea time).
Breakfast was light and consisted of egg, and a variety of breads and some pastries. I also didnt know if the salami was halal or had pork since they'd been mixing with Russians so much over the years so I left it.
I was to pay my driver $750 in cash for the tour rather than paying by credit card before I arrived. I was quite nervous about this since tours are not normally paid like this and anybody could claim to be the person and ask me to hand over such a large sum.
However, having met my driver and spent time talking and getting to know him I felt comfortable it would be ok
I also got a souvenir magnet from the hotel for 6000 Som ($3). It seemed a bit pricey and you could see the pixels from the digital photo but I hadnt had time to buy anything yesterday in Khiva's Old Town so at least I had something now.
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