01
Nukus
2 days
On the night train from Aktau to Nukus we cross the Kazakh-Uzbek border. At 2 am we arrive at Beyneu where the passport control starts. The border guards are very friendly and as per usual drop “Lukaku” and “De Bruyne” when they see our passports. I have to show them the medication we have with us, but other than that, the luggage control is fairly lenient.
Our fellow travelers are two builders going home. Like many Uzbek men, they work in Kazachstan. In the morning an Uzbek mother and children take one of the bunks below us. Their cat curiously crawls over the beds. They visited their father who works at a police station and are going home to Nukus.
Despite our guidebook’s description, we find Nukus a pleasant city. In contrast with Kazakhstan, life takes place more outdoors. There are plenty of terraces where young people eat ice creams. The city’s most famous (and maybe only notable) landmark, the Savietsky museum, houses Central Asia’s best art collection. Although only half of the museum is open, we find the collection very inspiring. The most intricately embroidered suzani makes all the other needlework I see in tourist shops look like mass produced junk. And oil paintings show us what Xiva and Samarkand would have looked like untouched.