Saying goodbye to the stans
Trip Start
Jun 18, 2007
1
100
150
Trip End
Ongoing
Tashkent,
Uzbekistan
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Looking back as i sat on my hard seat watching the bleak rainy surroundings i wondered if one more stressful bargaining session would have been better than this. However things, as the usually do, changed for the better when i meet a local who was heading to Tashkent to undertake the TOEFL test i.e. an English test that some universities in western countries require overseas students to take before they are let in. Consequently he spoke great English and we had a great talk about what he wanted to do at university and where he wanted to go. However the best thing about this meeting was the fact he was heading to the same hotel as me and consequently I didn't have to deal with the taxi drivers outside the train station. Yes!
I've been in Tashkent only half a day and to be honest it isn't that exciting, true there are no 'blue domes', but there is also not much to keep the tourist occupied. I cant even find any old Russian buildings to photograph, something i was looking forward too.
One high point though was catching the metro - the only one in central Asia, it was so like Russia it was scary, the long escalators, amazing station art (and the fact that you can't photograph them as the stations are actually nuclear bunkers), absolutely no English anywhere (which lead me to catch the metro in the wrong direction) AND the bloody police.
Now I was really trying to look like a local i.e.
a typical uzbek store owner
head down, look miserable, so i didn't have to deal with this crap, i.e. bribes and shake downs, but i guess it was my funky pink day pack that gave it away. So i had the pleasure of having to talk to the police for 10 mins while i saw my train leave twice - to be honest they seemed more interested in my visas than anything else. Although they did seemed sad they couldn't fine me for not having the proper paper work. Nothing like a sad copper who cant find a reason shake down a tourist. One thing that I did want to see was an opera at this beautiful building built by Japanese POWs. I handed my 3000 som $2 to the nice old lady and went in. The inside was beautiful, just like the Bolshoi (sic) in Moscow and i sat down in my great seats. Unfortunately, some old guy got on stage said some words in Russian and everyone started to leave. I later found out that the main singer was sick - bummer. So i guess I'll be back tomorrow
Day 2
the bloody opera wasnt on today - bummer
nothing done today tashkent is really a boring city - watching what the women are wearing (or not) in winter was interetsing for about two minutes
oh i got a great haircut for $3 - see anything can be done even if language is a problem
gotta wake up at 5am tomorrow so gotta go
To europe
