Let me add a bit about Nukus and Muynak.
In Nukus, at the Savitsky Museum, they have paintings by Falk, Kandinsky, Lentulov, and other avant-garde artists from the 1920s–1930s. There are lots of them, some have even been restored. Just amazing – I was blown away!
Now about Muynak. The road there is so-so, takes about 3 hours from Nukus, but totally worth it.
You arrive at the dried-up Aral Sea – there used to be a fish factory, people worked there, but now the Amu Darya river has shrunk, and so has the sea.
There are ship remains standing where the sea used to be. What used to be the sea floor is now desert. Such an epic place!
We had lunch in Muynak at a local café near the market – kind of a hole-in-the-wall place, not fancy at all, but everything was edible and actually tasty.
Foreign tourists eat there too.
Hi there! How did you get to Nukus? By plane? From Tashkent?
We spent 3 days in Khiva (flew into Urgench from Moscow), did some trips to the fortresses (IMO, you can skip most of them – just stop at Chilpyk Kala on the way to Nukus by taxi from Khiva).
From Nukus we took a taxi to Muynak, then back to Nukus. The next day we took a train from Nukus to Bukhara.
So you went to Nukus from Khiva by taxi just for the museum?
How long did that take (museum + drive)? Was it expensive?
Yeah, for the museum and also for Muynak, which is closer to Kazakhstan.
Khiva to Nukus is 180 km.
We left Khiva at 9 AM, stopped at Chilpyk Kala on the way (that one impressed me the most out of all the fortresses), and then visited the Mizdakhan Necropolis near Nukus (according to legend, Adam – the first man – is buried there, and there’s a “world clock” counting down to the end of time... probably fantasy, but it’s beautiful and poetic).
We got to the hotel in Nukus around 2 PM.
Paid $60 for the car – booked it through our hotel in Khiva. I’m sure we could’ve found something cheaper, but didn’t feel like hunting around.
The driver waited for us everywhere, no issues.
How much time did you spend at the museum in Nukus?
Definitely more than an hour.
It’s really better to take a guided tour, though they’re pricey (entry ticket is 100,000 soums, tour is another 200,000).
Thanks for the info. Wishing you a smooth trip to Bukhara!
If I think of more questions, can I write you?
Of course, feel free!
I’m just really impressed by Khiva, Nukus, and Muynak – wanted to share the experience.