After a slow morning, with a final sunrise photography walk by Tim, a final bathing session by the children and a pancake breakfast enjoyed by all of us, we pack our bags at 9:00 for a 7-hour-train-ride to Buchara. Khiva’s train station is only a 10 minute taxi ride from our hotel, so we have some time to kill before our 11:07 train to Bukhara leaves.
Cleo knows exactly how to get more sugar candy’s and does a tour around all Uzbek grannies to score some lemonade and chocolates. Olga enjoys a coffee and Tim and Zeno walk and run around to get to their daily steps.
We are so happy when the train arrives, as it turns out to be a sleeper train, so we have a cabin for ourselves instead of a row of 4 seats where Zeno will climb and throw stuff on other passengers. The 7 hour train ride is still long, but at least no passengers will be hurt.
Our stars are aligned, as Zeno falls a sleep for four straight hours. During the other 3, we eat peanut butter sandwiches and Uzbek fried doughnuts, play hide and seek, colouring and tag, and watch the Uzbek landscape passing by, which is endless desert/steppes.
We arrive at 18 at Bukhara, passing all tourist taxi drivers as, by now, professional Uzbek Yandex clients. Sadly our Yandex driver isn’t the best, he starts by convincing us to go to a restaurant. When we tell him no, he starts selling us a very good hotel, which we also don’t want. When we divert from the route and stop he gets out a folder for a hotel and continues selling. We tell him no, his wife comes outside, I thought to do more selling in English since we can just say no because we have no idea but it’s just to give him a charging cable. We continue without any more selling but when we are almost at our destination in the small streets he gets angry at a driver for not giving way and gets out of the car for more yelling. Luckily things don’t get physical and we are glad to be dropped off.
Our guesthouse, has some disturbing reviews. It has a average score of 9,7 at Booking.com which is promising, but the most recent review speaks about one public bathroom instead of private bathrooms, and a scam so it costed double the price. The guesthouse owner awaits us when we exit the taxi, and brings us tea and more deep-fried doughnuts in the guesthouse courtyard. So far, so good! Unfortunately, the rumour about the shared bathroom is true (althought the Booking.com advertisement was clear about a private bathroom).
For some reason we booked two double rooms, but we’re not sure how to divide ourselves as we don’t want to leave the children alone (the two rooms are at two different levels), and we also want to be able to go for a night or morning walk on our own (while the other is watching the kids). So, we choose the best room, install Zeno in the Deryan tent and Olga on the inflatable mattress (Cleo already claimed a bed and Olga is a lousy strict parent) and leave the other room empty.
After a full day locked in a train (and 3 days locked in an open air museum), city woman Olga cannot wait to explore a real city again. We’re only a few minutes away from the historical centre and Olga find it so refreshing to explore it all on her own.
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