Urgench Airport Luggage Store

[Kuni]

Hi, I am a Japanese and first comer in this forum.

My wife and I are planing to fly from Tashkent to Urgench and then cross the border to Turkmenistan. After just only 2N/3D tour in Turkmenistan, we will come back and restart traveling in Uzbekistan.

To avoid carrying heavy baggage and to avoid confusion in custom, we would like to store them at the airport. Does it have such a facility? If no, are there any places to keep our luggage? We can pay some money for storage. Can we ask to keep luggage in a hotel where we will not stay?

We could stay one night in Xiva and go to Turkmenistan on the next day, nevertheless our itinerary is limited and cross border on the flight day.

Your kind advice would be highly appreciated

[Venelin]

I guess there is a luggage deposit at the airport, but I did not use it. The service is quite common across ex-USSR.
I used the deposit service at the train station in Urgench, though, and in Bukhara, too. It works well.
You just have to tell the guards at the entrance of the train station that you want to deposit / take luggage, so that they let you in the building. They will want to see your passport, too, as in the whole country - just to assert their superiority
If they do not understand the English words, ask for K'amera hran'eniya in Russian.
You might need to ask around the train station staff where the room is, but unless a train is leaving soon, there will be more staff than passengers at the station. They will give you a paper receipt, with which you can re-enter the station without a train ticket and take your bags. The service supposedly works 24/7 as the train station is always open, but you can ask again. You pay peanuts, something like 2 k UZS per bag per day, which is around 25 USD cents.
I also imagine that hotels can do the same service even if you do not stay with them, maybe for a slightly higher fee.