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Published: November 14th 2007
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 - Samarkand, Bukhara and Kiva.
First though, I had to go to Tashkent to arrange a couple of visa’s and onward travel. Compared to what I had just experienced in Tajikistan, the drive was good - smooth roads, a modern car, and western music playing on the radio. The drive from the border to Tashkent itself took around an hour, but
then finding the guesthouse was another thing.
The Lonely Planet basically recommended just two budget guesthouses that seemed ok to stay at - Ali Tours Guesthouse and Gulnara Guesthouse. However, reading the LP ‘Thorntree Travel Forum’ a couple of days before, I had come across a posting which said in no uncertain terms not to go to ‘Ali Tours Guesthouse’! The writer of the posting had implied that the owner of Ali Tours was constantly drunk, always having wild parties at strange times of the day, and that prostitutes were constantly wandering in and out!
So that left only one hostel to go to............ the Gulnara Guesthouse. However, it wasn’t going to be that simple. The taxi driver ended up driving around the back streets of Tashkent for what seemed forever trying to find the Gulnara Guesthouse but with no luck. Eventually we gave up……. which meant only one thing……… I would have to put up with the ‘wild parties’ and ‘prostitutes’ at Ali Tours Guesthouse!
But again, it wasn’t that simple. The taxi driver also struggled to find Ali Tours Guesthouse and it took a further hour until we eventually found the guesthouse. By now, it
was lunch time and when I eventually found the correct door into the guesthouse, I found Ali (the owner) and a friend having lunch.
Before I could check in, I was told to sit down and lunch was brought out for me along with what turned out to be a constant theme during my two stays there - the obligatory Vodka-Beer! This still being lunch time, I refrained from having too much but nevertheless, a few toasts had to be made to Uzbek, English, and Georgian solidarity and to the
‘Great Stalin’! Ali’s friend turned out to be his cousin from Georgia who appeared to be a permanent resident at the guesthouse. Being Georgian, Ali was constantly calling him 'Stalin'! - I only hope this was because he came from Georgia and not because his personality was like Stalin’s!
I don’t know why, but the Vodka always had to be accompanied by Beer, 'Vodka-Beer'!. While during my stay at the guesthouse Vodka-Beer was plentiful, Ali certainly wasn’t always drunk and having wild parties all the time, and as his wife also lived at the guesthouse, there certainly wasn’t any prostitutes coming in and out of the guesthouse as
the LP Travel Forum posting had suggested. Ali was certainly eccentric, and quite possibly an alcoholic, but he was one of the friendliest guys I had meet in Central Asia and he always liked to offer his guests free ‘Vodka-Beer’ along with some accompanying food. I never quite worked out whether Ali was being serious or not when first thing in a morning when I came down to breakfast, he would pop his head around the door and offer me
‘Vodka-Beer’!!.
The main purpose of staying in Tashkent was to get my Russian visa, and by implication of traveling to Russia overland, a Kazakhstan visa. To get a Russian visa you need a Letter of Introduction (LOI) which I had bought from a travel agent. For reasons that I won’t go into here, I had to get a Business visa which resulted in the LOI being telexed straight to the Embassy for me to pick up in person.
I'd arrived in Tashkent on Wednesday lunch time and decided that I would go down to the Russian Embassy first thing Thursday morning. On Thursday morning I arrived at the embassy about 30 minutes before it was due to open,
but even then there were long queues of people waiting for the embassy to open. To make matters worse, the embassy opened around 20 minutes late by which time the queues were even worse than when I’d arrived. When the embassy did eventually open, all pandemonium broke out! There was no semblance of any queue anymore, just a lot of people pushing, shouting, and waving their passports in the air. No one spoke any English but from what I could make out, it appeared that you had to have your name down on a list before you could enter the embassy.
Around 30 minutes after opening and when it had calmed down a bit, I managed to get through the mass of bodies and within shouting distance of the woman who seemed to be in charge. Unfortunately, she didn’t speak any English and all I could make out was a shouted
“Zafstra, Zafstra”! in my direction. Not speaking any Russian, I didn’t really know what she was saying although she seemed to be implying that I should come back “
tomorrow”!
The following day, I came back. Fortunately this time the queues weren’t quite as big as the day
before although it still seemed to be practically impossible to get inside the embassy itself. Then, while the people on the door weren’t looking, myself and a Spanish guy just sneaked in.
Once inside everything was so different - an oasis of calm after the madness outside. There were very few people inside and the person behind the counter could speak a little English. I filled in my form and handed it over. Unfortunately however, the reply I got back was not what I was hoping for. It was going to take around ten working days to process my visa! Because you are not supposed to travel around Uzbekistan without your passport, this would mean that I would have to stay in Tashkent for the next two weeks!
However, after a bit of a minor panic on my part, I was told that for double the fee, i.e. $100, I could get the visa processed in a couple of days, although this being Thursday, it would still mean that I couldn’t pick my passport up until Monday evening meaning that I’d have to spend a few days more in Tashkent than I had originally planned.
On Monday
evening I returned to the embassy and was relieved to be able to pick up my passport with a Russian visa well and truly stamped into my three year old passport which was rapidly running out of empty pages. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the end of my visa quest. Before I could leave Tashkent I had to get my Kazak visa and then my train ticket through to Moscow. Earlier on in this trip, I had been intent on visiting Kazakhstan, but Borat aside, nothing that I had read about Kazakhstan had made me want to go. Furthermore, I was running short of time so I made the decision to just get a Transit visa through Kazakhstan and to get a train straight to Moscow from Tashkent.
Getting the Transit visa for Kazakhstan was not much of a problem although it still took a further 3 working days which, with the wait for the Russian visa, resulted in me having to spend a total of 9 days in Tashkent which is not one of the best places to be stuck in for that length of time!
Apart from spending my time in internet cafes trying to catch up on
parts of my Travelblog and avoiding Ali during the day so that I wouldn’t have to drink ‘Vodka-Beer’ at the guesthouse, there were a few other things to do in Tashkent although by no means enough to fill up 9 days.
Tashkent, the capital city of Uzbekistan, is the largest city in Central Asia and was the fourth largest city in the former Soviet Union - after Moscow, St Petersburg and Kiev. Due to an earth quake which hit the city and all but destroyed it in the 1960’s, the city is fairly modern and has a sizable Russian population. Due to Stalin, Tashkent has also got quite a large Korean population who were deported here by Stalin during the 1930’s.
An area of the city, named the ‘Khast Imom’, is the official religious centre of Uzbekistan. The 16th Century ‘Barak Khan Medressa’ is headquarters to the Central Asian Muslim Religious board whose Grand Mufti is apparently viewed by Uzbek’s, Tajik’s and Turkmen, as the Islamic equivalent to the ‘Archbishop of Canterbury’.
The complex is said to be home to the worlds oldest Quran, the 7th Century ‘Osman Quran’, which unfortunately I couldn’t find. The complex is
quite impressive to wander round for a couple of hours but really does look too new to be the genuine article which takes some of the mystique that I was expecting out of the Blue Domed Central Asian mosques.
As in any capital city, there are a couple of museums which were worth visiting - especially if you’ve got 9 days to fill!
The ‘History Museum of the People of Uzbekistan’ tells you all about the ‘Uzbek’ people and 'what a superb and historical people the ‘Uzbek’s’ are, and what a wonderfully democratic country Uzbekistan is with a truly compassionate and much loved President (read Dictator)!
The Fine Arts museum houses some fine Central Asian as well as Russian and European art and the ‘Amir Timur’ Museum is well worth a visit. Amir Timur (1336 - 1405) is more commonly known in the west as ‘Tamerlane’ or ‘Timur the Lame’. Despite being a despot in his own time, ‘Amir Timur’ has become the Uzbek’s adopted national hero and his statue has replaced Karl Marx's in Tashkent’s Central Square.
Tashkent has quite a few nice modern restaurants and bars with outdoor terraces around although there didn’t seem to be much nightlife. Unfortunately, the restaurants didn’t always have English menus, or even pictures of the food, so I ended up eating lots of Pizzas, as Pizza was about all I could work out from the Cyrillic menus.
Getting about in Tashkent should have been easy as it has quite an extensive Metro system. Unfortunately, the Metro System has a very bad reputation in western backpacker cycles as it tends to be the place where the local police/ militia hang around waiting for westerners to intimidate and extort bribes from! So far on this trip through Central Asia I’d heard all about these stories but I’d not, apart from one instance in Tajikistan, come across any of it. However, this was to change!
I’d literally been in the Metro station for 30 seconds on my very first attempted use of the system when I was approached by the local police/ militia who wanted to search my day pack. I opened the pack up, but not satisfied, a policeman ushered me into a back room away from everyone else. All the traveller’s advice I’d heard had told me not to allow this to happen, and if it did, to make sure there were other people about so that nothing untoward could happen. But when the police insist, what can you do!
Inside the small windowless room down at the bottom of the Metro station I was then made to empty out all my day pack and all my pockets with everything being inspected by the policeman thoroughly. And then my passport! Unfortunately my passport was in my money belt so the policeman now became aware of my money belt and everything in the belt had to also be inspected thoroughly - including my $200 dollars in cash - which the policeman insisted on counting out and which I made sure I watched closely so that no ‘slippery hands’ were at work.
And then came what I was expecting.
“Your passport is not in order”, “Your visa is not valid”!
“What’s wrong with it” - “Of course everything is in order” I retorted in quite a sharp voice which even surprised me!
The policeman seemed taken aback by my tone and mumbled something and looked again at my passport before begrudgingly handing it back to me.
The policeman then accused me of being '
drunk' and asked me how much
‘whisky’ I’d been drinking. I may have a slightly red nose and been ‘forced’ to drink ‘Vodka-Beer’ at the guesthouse in the evenings, but I don’t think I look like a drunk, and certainly not in the middle of the afternoon. And why ‘whisky’ when it’s all vodka in this part of the world?
After several minutes of insisting that I was not drunk and the policeman insisting that I was, I was made to breathe into his face - something which I can’t think would have been very pleasant for him - but nevertheless this seemed to convince him that I wasn’t drunk.
So after about 30 minutes stuck in the windowless dark room with the policeman, I was allowed out and onto the Metro. But to top it all, the policeman then gave me directions to the wrong train, which I boarded and the train set off before I realised!
After that experience, I spent the next eight days walking about which I suppose was good exercise but not always good fun in the heat of an Uzbekistan summer. But I really didn’t want to repeat my previous experience with the police/militia again at the Metro.
The money situation in Uzbekistan is also worth a mention. The highest denomination note in Uzbekistan is a 1,000 Som note which is worth around 80c! There are very few ATM's even in Tashkent, and even fewer places where you can pay by credit card, so in the majority of places you have to pay by cash, including at the train station.
The price of a train ticket from Tashkent to Moscow, going second class, is around $250. When I was buying my train ticket to Moscow, the person in front of me was buying 6 tickets which at around $250 each, makes a total of $1500. As you have to pay for train tickets in local currency and the highest note is worth about 80c, the guy in front of me had brought a big plastic bag with him to carry all his money. Even if he had paid all the $1500 using the highest denomination note, he would still have had to bring 1875 notes with him. But he didn't, a lot of his cash seemed to be made up of smaller notes which meant that he was there at the ticket counter for a very long time!
The banking system in Uzbekistan is in such an antiquated state that when I first arrived in the country and wanted to change $50US into the local currency, one of the main banks in Tashkent - the capital of Uzbekistan - told me they didn't have enough local currency to change it!
All I was told when I offered my $50 note was………
“No Money” - what do you mean
‘No Money' I said’? -
“No Money”, -
‘You Are a Bank aren’t you’? - “No Money”!!
It’s not as if everything is dirt cheap either. $50 doesn’t get you very far in Tashkent!
This first ‘strange’ experience with the banking system was also followed up with other slightly strange experiences on further visits to banks in Tashkent albeit the visits were a lot friendlier.
One day I decided to pay a visit to the biggest and main bank in Uzbekistan, ‘The Bank of Uzbekistan’. I went in to change $100. Everyone was very friendly but I got directed to about 5 different places where no one spoke any English. Eventually, someone went to find the actual Manager of the Bank who had once been a student at Manchester University and could speak quite good English. Eventually I managed to change my $100!
A couple of days later, I went back to the bank to try and change some traveller’s cheques (as this was apparently the only place in the whole of Tashkent where you could change traveller’s cheques). As soon as I got into the bank I heard a huge shout from across the hall. -
‘Michael, how are you, so nice to see you’. It was the Bank Manager calling me into his office.
I was trying to change $200 into local currency but the bank didn’t have enough money (this being the biggest, and official bank in the capital city!), but not to fear, they managed to make up the remaining amount that the bank didn’t have by a couple of people digging into their own pockets. After that, I couldn’t get away. The Bank Manager wanted to know all about my travels being particularly interested in my visit to Tibet and wanting to know more about Tibetan Buddhism. I eventually got away but not before I’d been given a big hug and a slap on the back by the bank manager and I’d promised to come back and visit the bank if I ever came back to Tashkent!
After nine days in Tashkent it was with some relief that I could finally leave. Now armed with the required visa’s stamped into my passport, an onward train ticket to Moscow, and with enough money to last me for the next 7 to 10 days (I had been told by other travellers that it was practically impossible to change any money whatsoever outside Tashkent), I could eventually leave Tashkent and start seeing the fabled ancient silk road cities of Uzbekistan.
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Andrew
non-member comment
ATM and Currency exchange
Good article about Tashkent. Have been back here about 4 times over the past year for work. Regarding currency exchange - any of the hotel's have a good exchange place - normally open 24hours a day - apart from meal breaks - they will even provide a box for the bricks of cash they give you. The Dediman and Intercontinenetal are the best. Also you can exchange in the Bazaar's but obviously won't get receipts for your exit. Have never come across anywhere not having enough Soum - bucket loads everywhere - the sticky bit is the quality of the USD notes - too old, or marks onthem - and suddenly they have no exchange. For cash advances - The Intercontinental and Uzbekistan Hotel have ATM's dispensing USD cash using Mastercard - with a 1% commission. The Asaka Bank (Abdulla Kakhara Street) also does Mastercard cash advances for 1% commission - very friendly there - but a little out of the way (2000 soum taxi from centre). Visa card US cash advance is possible at the UZKDB bank (formerly UZDaewoo), next to Uzbekistan Hotel. They charge 2% commission. There are a few other banks doing Visa. The remaining ATMs' around town will accept visa but give soum notes - not sure of the maximum. One thing to be aware of is if you are using a visa or mastercard debit card - ie loaded up with cash. This is a fairly new way of carrying cash - and does not work in Uzb yet except at ATM's - not at the banks. Something to do with it not having any embossing on it. If you are short of things to do in Tashklent - particualry inteh summer - get to Bobor park - great food, entertainment and fun - lovely people - try the waterfall restaurant - ask at a hotel - this is one of the most amazing places to eat at the base of a man-made waterfall in the back streets of town; great western food at the J Smoker up near the university; and of course broadway (every taxi driver knows).