My first 'stan'
Came back to Moscow Tuesday evening from lovely Uzbekistan, where I spent the previous 5 days, accompanying my dad who was presenting his accreditation letter to the Uzbek President.
I'll start from the beginning, which seems sort of logical.
We took an Uzbekistan Airways flight on Thursday evening (10mins before midnight) to Tashkent. Of course flying an airline with a name like that entailed some odd things that wouldn't be expected on a "normal" airline (although defining the word normal in this part of the world seems to change as often as Kazakhstan changes its capital). To the airline's credit I must say they are flying exclusively 'western' made airplanes to Europe nowadays, in this case an Airbus A310 (ok, I know I'm a plane geek).
The Flight Attendants (also known as Air Hostesses, Cabin Crew, Trolley Dollies etc) have apparently never been shown how to smile... or clean their uniforms for that matter, and once you get me going on all the things I though could improve, well, I won't even go there. There was at least plenty of food on that tray, whether it was edible or not is a different story. At least I didn't get food poisoning from the 2 pieces of chicken I ate. The inflight-entertainment consisted of a russian comedy and music videos from MTV Russia, aswell as some Uzbek songs.
If anybody's planning to go to Tashkent I really do recommend the hotel we stayed at, the InterContinental, the staff are just uber-nice, and the concierge knows just about everything there is to know about the place.
We were privileged enough to be invited to an official celebration of the 'Navruz' holiday, which is a huge thing in Uzbekistan. Although the holiday itself was on the Sunday, the authorities decided to expedite the 'show', as the forecast was rain for the Sunday. So, it was held on the Friday in the lovely midday sun. And what a show, just look at the pictures (link to my FotoGallerie on the left). I'll admit it does look very reminiscent of the Soviet mass public displays, but it sure has an effect on you. What a glory of colours and costumes, I couldn't even imagine the countless hours it must have taken to perfect a two hour show like that one. Simply amazing. And let me tell you, afterwards it felt like having been in a club for far too long, the music (all traditional-ish/new) was really really loud.
Saturday was sightseeing day in Tashkent, not really many old things to see there, especially since the whole city was wiped out after the 1966 earthquake. Yes, there's also a memorial statue to it (extremely sovietesque). Had dinner at an excellent restaurant called Caravan, which happened to have a lovely shopp attached to it. Sampled some 'traditional' Uzbek food, like Samsa and other stuff (heavy stuff).
Sunday was pretty much the same, except lazier, and we visited some bazaars, which are extremely hectic, and people are eager to sell you everything and anything, probably their grandmother if they could. Sunday evening we took a flight to Samarkand on an over-30-year-old aircraft by the name of Antonov-24. Yes, every bit as tatty, ratty Soviet as it sounds. The fact that I'm writing this here is proof that those things do indeed fly, and get you there and back in one piece. Those aircraft are funny little things though, and the interior just heavenly smelly and badly decorated. Funny seats with big, dark red flowers on them, and lovely pink curtains for the windows made that 50 mins journey all the funner, not to mention the shelves (yes, shelves, not overhead bins) to store your luggage on (again, yes, ON, not IN).
Samarkand is every bit as old and historic as you'd think it is. Magical medrassahs and fascinating architecture, not mentioning the fantastic shopping!
The photos tell a thousand words about the place, so I'll leave it to them.
One thing I will make a comment on though is the ever so oppulent Afrosiyab Palace Hotel (if this is not sounding sarcastic, then I must be doing something wrong), even though completed in 1996, it looks every bit as it was built in the 1970's, which we later found out it in fact was, but they ran out of money as it was half built so it had to be completed later (as in MUCH later). Shame I only took one picture inside it, I sort of feared I'd get arrested if taking pics all over the place. So, if ever in Samarkand, I recommend booking a room at one of the many private B&Bs which are supposedly very comfortable.
Flew back to Tashkent on Tuesday morning (very very early), with the same type of plane (Antonov-24), although this one didn't have as a colourful interior as the previous one, but of course included the lovely pink curtains...
Last day in Tashkent was spent resting, considering we woke up very early for the flight from Samarkand, eating and last minute shopping. Then around dinnertime it was time for our flight back to Moscow on which I got very security concious and very very critical on the flight attendants. Even though I'm no FA myself, it's rather obvious that excess handluggage is not supposed to be piled in front of the emergency exits, and even though it was a non-smoking flight, people lined up at the toilets to have a smoke... even the FAs! Ah well, I just hope they'll get a surprise inspection from the ICAO who'll ground their planes... that might teach them!
So, bottomline to that trip.
Central-Asia doesn't really feature on that many people's list of possible destinations, in fact, probably nobody's, except maybe crazy people's like myself. But in reality it is a wonderful place, loaded with history, friendly people and mostly good food.. and of course great things to buy! I'm talking about countries like Uzbekistan, Kirghystan and all the other 'stan's, which get no press at all outside the CIS, but are in fact well worth visiting and getting to know, at least that's what I think, and if you have any doubts, why not go there and see what it's all about for yourself?
