Uzbekistan – Tashkent

Tashkent Taxi Ride Front View AVI (caution 50mb)    Tashkent Taxi Ride Side View AVI (caution 24.4mb)

Tashkent City

The first city we visited in Uzbekistan was its capital, Tashkent. Uzbekistan is a republic, part of the former Soviet Union and part of the Great Silk Road from China to Europe. From what I could gleam Tashkent is a business center for the region. It came to be such due to its advantageous geographical location plus favourable climate during the trading on “the Great Silk Road”.

Either by design or by default the city doesn’t have city center as such. The result is a mish mash of culture, atmosphere and wealth. Our hotel was/is 4star however that’s 4 star in Uzbek terms. The rooms were large and comfortable enough with most of the things you expect. The area that wasn’t 4 star would be the efficiency you expect.

4 star efficiency Uzek style

For instance if you wanted a beer in our hotel you could walk to the bar and select from the wide range of beers behind the bar thinking, ignorantly, that the bartender would open the fridge and present you with an ice cold beer. The practice is however different and involves ordering the beer from the bartender only to have him smile and run out of the bar, down the stairs to the restaurant and return with a beer. He then looks forlornly at the remaining people at the bar and with an inquisitive disposition asks what they would like to drink. One by one we order and he makes about 5 unnecessary trips to retrieve the prize we seek…the beer. For the record we did attempt to assist him reducing his cross hotel running regime by trying to order as many drinks as possible in one order however that appeared to be against the norm and against his formal training hence his decision to forgo our assistance in this matter.

Another example was at the 5 star (I think) hotel that had broadband internet connection. We asked the cost of connection and it was quite expensive however we needed to print our insurance letter for the trip so we agreed. After 10 minutes of not even being able to log in to my online account I was mildly frustrated. The young guy in the office was helpful and after a few questions from myself it came to light that they have a 5mb connection for the entire hotel that’s shared. There were about 20-30 floors and there was a business conference at that time!

Did someone say water?

As we arrived by mid morning and had the day free to explore before our city tour the following day we decided to head out to see what the city had to offer.

Tashkent may not be able to lay claim to many things however one thing it can claim, according to our local guide (although I may have have misheard), is the city with the most water features. After spending 1 hour in the city you could believe it. They are throughout the city and many by no means small.

Useless fact : a byproduct of the fountains and the height of the waters is the immediate surroundings can cool apparently as as much as 10o C.

The city is very ‘green’ and I don’t mean environmentally friendly but trees. I’m not sure which ones are native but there are sycamores, oaks, and maples. As I understand it, the fountains were were set up 1950s when it was part of the USSR and was designed to show how Communism could overcome mother nature and make the desert bloom (hence all the trees) and it still had enough water left over to use on fountains.

Food, not so glorious food

Food wise the city’s standard food fare is average at best but we were lucky enough to have our tour arrange better meals and better prepared meals during our stay. Much of the problem is that it’s a meat and 3 veg type deal without the 3 veg…slight exaggeration but you get the picture. Another thing to remember is the Uzbeks consider the fat to be on par with actual meat therefore you will get a substantial amount of fat with your dish. This was altered for our western/heathen palette when our tour leader arrange the meals. Also, you have to be careful with the salads, again this is where the tour leader comes in handy, as in most countries in the region the water isn’t always clean so the restaurants in which we ate actually washed in hygienic/bottle water rather than the local reserves. Each restaurant was told that us westerners have weak stomachs and in order to keep our patron they must prepare the food keeping this in mind. We all appreciated the effort and as far as I know we all came out unscathed.

All that said there are many restaurants within the city that have good food and are priced accordingly. The variety of restaurants is quite good including Italian, Uzbek, Chinese, and I dare say others that I didn’t see.

Chorsu Market

Our love for markets made a visit to Chorsu a must. Why does the market exist? Trade Roads came to Chorsu from all gates thereby creating a number of market streets and a market was born. The Chorsu market has most things you expect at a market including what seemed like 100’s of clothing stalls, rug sellers, electronics and of course raw food. Compared to more rural markets it doesn’t have the same aura or atmosphere but for a large market it is great. It’s the variety and fact there the locals shop here as well for food and what not that make it appealing.

Inside the main building underneath an huge dome you find some of the raw food including nuts. The photo doesn’t do it justice but it is very impressive. The lower floor has raw vegetables, dried fruits and nuts whilst the upper deck appears to be almost exclusively for more nuts, seeds and dried fruits. Have to admit to buying 1kg of nuts…1/2 in sugar coated almonds (yum) and honey roasted almonds (yum). Okay so it may not be the healthiest purchase but damn they taste good. They were purchased with the intention of taking them to work however something happened on to that intention, I ate them. 🙂

The market also has some history albeit rather unsavory (sorry had to get a food reference in there).

Beware the smiling military man

Although being cautioned by our tour leader upon arrival that we must always carry our ‘papers’ with us at all times, I thought this was overkill and almost tempted fate by not taking them on our subway journey to Chorsu. Luckily common sense prevailed. The metro here has very strict rules, one of which is that you can not take photos in the metro. It’s more ornate and pretty than the London underground but not in the same category as Moscow.

As we passed through the turnstile we had Mr Smiley Military Man halt our progress and wave us away from the escalator towards a corner of the station. He asked where we were from and initially I thought he might purely want to practice his English however this was not the case. He waved me towards a door that had ‘cleaning’ written on it and said I had to follow him. I looked down the corridor and saw a room to the right that I figured was his office so cautiously followed. One by one all the men were taken into the ‘office’ and we had our wallets ransacked but returned without anything missing. Passports and visas were checked with questions about place of birth, reason for being here and so on asked. Again nothing that caused any grief. I still don’t understand what he was looking for, maybe a bribe, but I had no intention of offering one and he was polite and generally non-threatening.

The Chelsea arms

Across the road from one of the restaurants we had dinner is a pub called the Chelsea Arms. A few of the tour decided that we had to check it out.

As we crossed the road I thought a picture would be in order. I tried a shot without the flash however with the low light it was a little shakey so whilst changing the settings I was approached by a couple of men telling me I could not photograph the pub. I smiled and said okay then put the camera away. As you get to the actual pub there are small signs stating there aren’t to be any photos taken. I found out that it’s a hang out for some ‘questionable’ characters and this was evidenced by about 2 tables of burly gruff looking ‘questionable’ characters that seemed to have 1 or 2 tables of young acquaintances. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist or the sharpest knife in the drawer to work out what the deal was.

We were introduced to the smokey bacon cheese too. It’s got a strong taste, yes like bacon, but it’s very moorish and goes well with a beer. 🙂

I asked our ever accommodating tour leader about how we get home and he said “like this TAXI!!”. He walked off into the darkness and I wasn’t sure if he was telling the truth or winding me up. He walked over to a couple of guys and negotiated a price for the return leg of the evening for about 2 or 3 USD. The catch you ask? The fact that you are squeezed into a very small car, think Nissan Micra, and have a driver who considers the speed limit to be an idea best suited to everyone else. I wasn’t too phased by the driving and found it kind of humorous but for some it may be too much. He was doing almost 100kmph along the city streets. I took a video with our small digital camera in an attempt to capture the trip but the images don’t do it justice. If you’ve got the bandwidth you might find it amusing. We actually arrived about 2 minutes ahead of the other ‘cab’ and the trip was only a few kilometers so that may give you a sense of the ‘urgency’ the driver exhibited 🙂

MMM – Mosques, Madrassahs, Mausoleums

Tashkent has its fair share of all. Many of the sites are well preserved and all we visited were still in use. There’s too many of them to mention and too many to describe all, so suffice to say that if you like any of the MMM’s you will find some here.

For the MMM’s Samarkand is in some ways Tashkent on steroids with some very large MMM’s plus they are more picturesque colour-wise. Samarakand does lack some of the atmosphere of Tashkent and many will find Tashkent to be more ‘raw’ and has less pretentious. Each place is unique and both worth a visit. For a good reference on Tashkent you can check out WikiPedia or Sairam Tourism.