Blogs from Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Asia - page 5

We arrived into Tashkent after a pretty hectic day crossing the Kazakh/Uzbek border by foot. The border gaurds were seemingly pleasant on the outside, laughing and joking with us but were less amused when they looked through my bag for "guns and "narcotics"( or more likely some petty cash which they could pilfer for their own added tax) and all they found were postcards of Nantwich and Newark. I proceeded to tell them these were pictures our home towns and they could keep them as a gift if they liked, a momento of our impromtu meeting, unsurprisingly they didn't keep them and when they realised that money was not going to be found let us through! Tashkent is a city spreadover a large area, with both old ancient parts such as the mosques and newer soviet ... read more

Uzbekistan. We had been planning this trip for so long and finally the time had come around. My mate Leigh met me in Riga the day before we were due to fly into Tashkent. We started to get pumped up about the thought of seeing the Socceroos start there World Cup qualification campaign in a couple of days time so instead of wasting this new found energy we had a massive night in the Old Town of Riga. We spent most of the night in a Russian nightclub where most of the local women looked like FHM models....welcome to Latvia. A nasty hangover the following morning failed to wipe the smiles off our faces as we prepared for the outward journey. Lido was pretty much the first and only stop for the entire day: a traditional ... read more

In Tashkent you cannot forget the Soviet past, I was taken back to being 18 again and living in Hungary.... it made me realise how huge the Soviet Union was, the reach from Europe into Central Asia. The buildings are angular affairs, tumbledown in the case of the appartment blocks, swish in that of the government buildings. with wide treelined boulevards. It is actually a lot more pleasant than I was expecting... made even better by the lack of cars on the road. I was skipping across with ease instead of taking my life into my hands as every time in Iran. The metro in Tashkent puts the London tube to shame... it is huge, ornate and marble lined, it tells the story of the surrounding city. Built as a nuclear bunker, you aren't allowed to ... read more

seems 2 month we are here , himself and i ... past one month the weather was so hot in tashkent almost going out and hanging around with out aircondition is impossible .the bad point in here is : resturant and fast food are working till 11 pm , shops till 9 adisco after 12 ! before we came here we were thinking uzbakistan language supose to be uzbak but later we learnd that all suviate countries in their schools teching russia language . if you learn russia you can travel to 15 country and passing relax .in tashkent during the day you can see several police in streets who stand on foot in green dress and stoping the cars and checking their documents . in each 3 km you can see 1 police at least ... read more

I am now in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan and starting to feel like I'm functioning normally again after a week of madness. I have been suffering from a severe lack of sleep - partly my fault as I decided to have a big night (or two) in Bangkok over the weekend, but also because I was stressed about whether I was really going to be able to get my Uzbek visa processed in one day in Bangkok as regular processing time is 1 week. Thankfully all was sorted although only after having to sit in the Visa Office of the Consulate which resembled an interrogation or holding cell, locked in, for over an hour! I was lucky to have met an Austrian guy on my flight who has been to Uzbekistan before, which saved me ... read more