Khiva Day Day2 39/40 7th and 8th June
We arrived yesterday after a seven hour belt down the highway. We came to a gate in a mud wall that seems to completely surround us. We go through it and past what looks like a residential neighbourhood arriving at what looks like a family home. I will admit to concern however on entering all fears vanish-the house has undergone a beautiful restoration..
Our room has a view over the walled section of the old city and standing on the roof at night we were stunned by the way the colours on the buildings interacted with the progress of the sunset.
Anyway today was the day for exploring and we started by walking down to the main street. The town itself is completely contained within a city wall of mud brick.It has some amazing buildings that you can see from our rooftop of our B and B and it is a great place to get lost in.
So our intention was to amble as we are getting a guide tomorrow. Well we ambled into pandemonium! Little did we know that the “Highlight of the Season” as promoted by the Khiva Tourism Board was in town.DRUMROLL it is the “First International Strongman Competition In honour of Pahlavon Mahmud.Mahmud was a poet and wrestler and is buried in a mausoleum in the town.
The competition is set up by the World Strongman Federation and is an international event. It was excitement plus as we walked down the streets narrow streets with troupes of dancers and bands on the walls looking down on the streets.
Then a parade with all the contestants with country name boards being led to the main square. It turned out there was an Australian entrant Jeremy Hogg.
Whilst we were waiting for the competition to start we saw women making fresh bread in the tandoors in the main square. Mel went to buy some but the woman refused take her money it was hot and delicious. We shared it around with the crowd who took tiny pieces, maybe we speculated later out of politeness.
We saw him compete in one event which consisted of “tossing” a couple of huge bags with sand into a wagon and pushing it up an incline. Gave him a discrete “go Aussie” as he passed us-he ended his attempt with that calisthenics standard (as made famous by Roy and HG) the battered sav!! Anyway had a chat later and he was a really nice bloke who at forty seven was the oldest competitor and seemed to be a father figure to the others, giving them tips and medical assistance. We also met the Iranian competitor who you will see from the photo is quite a tall guy.
Finished up with dinner in a local restaurant and beer on the roof. Sitting up there, another foreign tourist decided to stand in front of us with camera and tripod. The roof was uneven and rippled when walked on, as Mel dared to relocate to take a photo and the roof moved, the aforementioned photographer said loudly “Don’t Move!”. Mel promptly decided to move again – I was caught between sheer aggression and laughter-I chose laughter!.I was going to quote the basic Human Right of Freedom of Movement but decided that might be lost in translation.
