Vacation from Vacation
Trip Start
May 30, 2008
1
8
16
Trip End
Jun 22, 2008
Tashkent,
Uzbekistan
Sunday, June 8, 2008
I have to admit, my eyes are often bigger than my stomach. And that applies to traveling and sightseeing as well as eating. After almost a week of hitting up ancient sights in ancient cities, I was ready for a nice shower and some comfort food. Tashkent, Uzbekistan's capitol (and largest) city provided everything we wanted and more.
Prior to this trip, Uzbekistan did not conjure up images of a thriving metropolis, and I am fairly certain I had never heard of Tashkent. Imagine our surprise when we arrived in this bustling metropolis of several million, featuring delicious international cuisine, an amazing metro system, a thriving nightlife, ATMs, and even a waterpark - all of which we took advantage of in less than 24 hours. Here are the highlights
METRO - Like Moscow, Tashkent takes it metro seriously. The extensive underground system, connecting the entire city, doubled as a bomb shelter, but that doesn't mean they cut corners. The stations were surprisingly clean, with high sloping ceilings and adorned with beautiful mosaics. And it's dirt cheap to travel. We went an extra few stops just for the fun of it.
TAXIS - Everyone in Tashkent is a taxi driver. Hold out your hand, or just stand in place for two minutes, and you will get approached. Some are official taxis. Some are informal drivers. But most of them are just everyday people, driving to work or just joyriding, looking to make a buck. Scott and I caught a ride to the Plov Center (more on that later) with two kids who were "just driving". Grand total for taking us all the way across town? 1500 Soum, or $1.30. Even with the cheap metro, its hard not to just wave your hand.
AQUA LAND - For a while, when Scott and Kate kept talking about the waterpark in Tashkent, I thought they were kidding. They weren't. And after settling into our hostel, confirming the hours, we set off for a wet and wild afternoon. Unlike Raging Water (my water park in the Bay Area growing up) Aqualand isn't way out in the burbs - its located right in the heart of the city, just down the street from the Intercontinental Hotel next to "TashkentLand," (their nationalist pride version of Disney Land) The neighborhood on the north side of the city was definitely the Upper West Side of Tashkent, featuring huge hotels, fancy chain stores, and smack dab in the middle, an amusement park and water park.
Zoe opted to read, but Scott, Kate and I threw on our suits and ran around with kids for three hours, enjoying "Kamakaze" and other great slides. It was no Raging Waters, but the slides were decent and it did have a wave machine. During breaks we grabbed a few beers and fresh cotton candy. Scott taught me how to say "Kak Mojhno Bol'she" which means "as big as possible - pictures to come...
NIGHTLIFE
We started the night at Al Delfeen, an amazing Syrian restaurant walking distance from Aqualand. We ordered some standard dishes - hummus and pita, spiced tea - and it was delicious. We sat for hours playing Casino (which three of us learned from our grandfathers), Kate and I smoked Apricot sheesha and drank tea. Good times. We started dinner around 8:00 and were still rearing at 11:00. This was our one night in the city and we wanted to make the best of it. However, the B&Bs in this part of the world don't look kindly on visitors returning at 3:00 am, so we grabbed a cab back, lest we get locked out at midnight for curfew. Good call! Turns out doors locked at midnight... but they had a key they would give out for late night adventurers.
Without a moments hesitation, Scott, Kate and I were off to The Diplomat, described as "a place where you can still make poor life choices at 3:00 am on a Tuesday night". My kind of place. Sorta. Highlights include rocking the dance floor to some crazy Uzbek beats, getting a "whoop whoop" going, and meeting two chatty Uzbek women who wanted to go to Texas to become cowgirls (yee ha!). Lowpoints. The club was about 90% women, who were probably 90% prostitutes, concubines, or women looking for a sugar daddy. The other men were 40 year old dudes, or (as we later found out on the dance floor), gay Uzbeki twenty-somethings. That didn't stop us from rocking it out until 3:00, though no poor life choices were made.
Josh
