Dehradun, Feb. 19 -- At Khiva's roof top resturant

All Around the World with the Most Travelled Indian

From Samarkand in the east of Uzbekistan we were to take the overnight train to the far, far west of the country to Khiva (or Xiva as it is locally written). The Uzbek train was rather similar to our own and had the open sleeper class and also private compartments or coupes, with lockable doors. There were coupes for 4 people and for only 2 as well. We had selected the coupe for 4 but in hindsight we would have gone with either the fully private one (more expensive) or the open compartment (the cheapest). This is because of a scary and bizarre incident that night in the train, but thankfully it wasn't a case of 'Murder on the Orient Ex...