Niket's travel blogs:
- Londoneering 2009
- The Turquoise Trail - Travels into the... 2008
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Into Tashkent and onto Samarkand
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I arrive into Tashkent's Xaloqaro aiport by the early morning Uzbekistan Airlines flight from Delhi. The view from the top is stunning with craggy mountain tops, snowcaps, flowing valleys, unending mountain ranges (creating a magical wave effect in the morning sun) and green pastures. The sky is clear, the sun is bright and the air is clean.
The experience with customs is as expected. Things are not very logical; the counter for non-Uzbeks has a long queue whereas the other counters have no business. Any attempt to make the officials see the logic in shifting people to the other counters is met with an angry stare - no arguments here - a typical hangover from the Russian days. The forex counter is closed, unexpectedly, for breakfast - breakfast? Why, no shifts? Going through their time table, i see breakfast, lunch & evening breaks. But my favourite one is 'the technical break' - you see the systems need respite as well!
Finally i am out of the airport and into the waiting Daewoo of the travel company - Advanatour. Enroute to Poytaht Hotel where i meet other members of the tour group, i get a first glimpse of Tashkent. Wide roads, tree-lined footpaths, spacious buildings with blue-white-green flags on top
and lots of Ladas & Daewoos - it really feels good.
At Poytaht, i meet Charles & Marcia (a Canadian couple) and our driver-cum-guide-cum-translator Rustam. I also meet Asel, our guide for the day before we leave for Samarkand.
We head to Abdul Kasim Madrasah, which is one of the best buildings i have ever seen.
. There are three basic blues that figure in all the buildings across the country - turquoise (Phiroza), indigo and prussian. These are woven into intricate patterns on tiles to form majolicas.
Artist workshops dealing in leather paintings, wood carvings, silk filigree & metal work.
dot the interiors of mausoleums, madrasahs & mosques across the country.
To understand why in the olden times this place was considered to be the centre of Asian trade, one needs to just visit the Chorsu market. I am blown over by a floor overflowing with dryfruits of all kinds - almonds, cashews, pistachios, walnuts, dates, apricots, melon seeds, figs, raisins... unbelievable.
Now we head to Samarkand towards the south, four hours drive from Tashkent.
Where I stayed:
Hotel Malika Prime, Samarkand
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