Blogs from Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Asia - page 7

Andijon is a 'modern city' but I didn't see it I caught a taxi from the border to Andijon and asked the driver to drop me off at the Hotel Andijon, which he took to mean 'a hotel in Andijon' and just dropped me at the first hotel he found which turend out to be ridiculously expenseive. I asked the hotel staff to point me in the direction of the actual Hotel Andijon and was told be a couple of guys that it was closed, I should have seen that coming. Anyway, these two guys ended up being really helpful, they helped me change some money on the back market and then put me in a cab heading towards a cheaper hotel. Although, there definition og cheaper was a hotel that was once pride of place, ... read more

TASHKENT, UZBEKISTAN - (July / August 2007) - (Wednesday 25th July to Friday 3rd August) - (Tashkent) The trip across the border from Khojand in Tajikistan into Uzbekistan went without a hitch. Everything was straight forward enough. Once in Uzbekistan, I immediately managed to get a taxi to the capital Tashkent without caring too much whether I was paying over the odds for the ride or not. I’d had enough of messing around haggling over transport costs so I just got in the first taxi I came to and accepted the driver’s first price. It was good to be in Uzbekistan finally, the very reason why I had come to Central Asia in the first place. I was now within touching distance of seeing all those legendary Silk Road Cities I’d read about for so long ... read more

Finally Ive reached the famous Silk Route and over the past 5 weeks have travelled thru Kyrgyistan,Tajikistan and are now in Uzbekistan at Tashkent. The scenery has change as Ive covered these countries, from alpine to desert and to the highest highway in the world, over the Pamirs which border China, Pakistan and Afganistan. Starting in Beshkek the capital of Kyrgistan, Carol and I spent 3 weeks travelling along the largest alpine lakein the world at Cholpan Ata where I also celebrated my birthday at a home stay with a Borat look a like.It turned out to be a very drunken vodka birthday followed by the worst hangover Ive suffered in along time.Shortly after we travelled south to the old city of Osht hen hitched up the Pamir highway with a convoy of petrol tankers headed ... read more

Tashkent - capital of Uzbekistan ... yet everybody speaks Russian. Okay, so it makes sense, since Uzbekistan was a Russian state until the break up of the USSR - but that was 15 years ago. Yet today, people still continue to speak Russian in Tashkent, and most people (to our untrained eyes) definitely don't look or dress like what we thought an Uzbek would dress like - which goes to show just how silly we are. Because, you see, today, to be an Uzbek, means that you have some kind of Russianness in you. The interesting thing about Uzbekistan is that its a hybrid of Soviet and Turkic culture. The people have feature sets that combine facets of Russian, Turkic and Chinese, and have all combinations/permutations of these. It leads to a particularly interesting spectrum ... read more

Before we left on our travels we'd discussed the prospect of eating out - everyday. Well, 4 months down the road, I can assure you it's been all good - we haven't missed doing dishes and there's one less thing to squabble over. There has been the odd day when we wished we had access to a kitchen to whip up some decent pasta or some spicy Malaysian curry but on the whole we have been quite happy letting someone else do the drudgery of cooking and cleaning whilst we lounge away on divans laden with food and drink like nobles in a persian miniature. ho ho ho. The eating out possibilities on this trip have been endless (until we arrived in Iran that is - more later); we have eaten and drunk across a range ... read more