Christmas (Late) and Arrival in TASHKENT December 27, 28, 2019

Hello and best wishes from Uzbekistan… or should I say “Salom va eng yaxshi tilaklar”

We had our very yummy Xmas dinner and gift exchange at Elizabeth’s on Thursday (December 27) with Mike’s whole family in attendance – Elizabeth, Julia and Julian along with Louis (two years old) and Ella (three months), and Emma and Hem, along with Finn (9 months) and Mike and me. Needless to say it was a bit intense and a lot of very high energy, mostly coming from Louis who is like an energizer bunny – moves from thing to thing and person to person and room to room with lightning speed and stamina.

The meal was great – foie gras on fig bread, blini with salmon, and assorted appetizers; braised duck legs, carrots, and wonderful peas with broad beans, and potatoes… followed by an assortment of desserts including chocolate cake, buche noel, a great raisin bread pudding… and lots of wine and champagne. Gift exchange was mostly focused on the three kids but the adults also exchanged presents. I think we wound up with enough wrapping paper to fuel an entire house. The weather gods were with us, so it didn’t rain (although it was overcast most of the day). It’s been interesting for us to be around three kids so much, but we survived.. and truly enjoyed it all.

We headed back to the hotel at about 11:00 pm and tackled packing so we could be done and head to Julia and Julian’s for early lunch on Saturday before heading to the airport for our mammoth travel to Tashkent later in the day. JuJu (as Julia and Julian are called by friends) recently moved into a fantastic apartment in downtown Geneva, right near the lake and really in the center of everything – a perfect urban residence: high ceilings (10’ at least), three large bedrooms, a dining room and living room, and very modernized kitchen. The building is from the early 20^th Century with floor to ceiling ornate glass doors (windows) throughout; wood floors.. and a long hallway that Louis has turned into a speedway of sorts to ride his various vehicles. We had a wonderful lunch with great cheeses and meats along with salad and lasagna. Julian (ever the Frenchman) told us to taste one of the cheeses (which was wonderful) and remarked and questioned us about where we thought the cheese came from. Shockingly to Julian, it was from the US!! Everyone was there for lunch so it was more of a little farewell (apparently until Spring (??) when Julia and Julian have decided to get married as she is sporting a truly beautiful diamond ring). But timing can change, so we shall see – might be fall.

We hopped into a taxi and headed to the Geneva Airport. We were flying from Geneva to Istanbul, changing planes in Istanbul for Tashkent. We had just one hour to make the connection (and for our bags to do the same)… and by now we knew that the new Istanbul Airport is extremely large… probably a 45 minute walk from one end to the other… We dashed off the plane and headed to the gate for Tashkent (fortunately it was all on Turkish Air… got to the gate just in time — but of course there was a delay.. So all that effort for naught.

Anyway, on this longer second leg (which flew through the night), we had upgraded ourselves to business class so we could at least relax, if we couldn’t really sleep. We landed in Tashkent at about 7:30 am, rather tired… and then all the fun began!

We stopped at the ATM machine and withdrew cash in Uzbek “Som”… 10,000 som equals $1.00. So taking $100.00 out in the ATM machine gave us each one million som, which they dole out at the machines in 50,000 som bills… Thus my wallet is so fat I cannot close it. Then we navigated the taxi situation. We stopped at a taxi desk, and although they said they didn’t have any taxis for the next 20 minutes (which we didn’t want to wait), they told us that the ride should cost 40,000 som ($4.00).. We walked out of the terminal where there were hordes of Uzbekis waiting for family and friends.. and also some important person. There were people who had laid out rugs forming a walkway for someone to walk through.. and they had also covered these rugs with white sheets to keep them clean in case someone like us walked on them. No they were not for sale. We noticed there was a large group of women and men dressed in “holy” clothing who were gathering up their luggage from a different flight. They seemed to be circling one guy, so maybe he was some important person. Anyway, police made these people move a bit so that Mike and I could get to the taxi line.. When we got there, there were about 20 taxis waiting and everyone wanted to take us… but when we asked the price they all said 100,000 som ($10.00). While the amount wasn’t the issue, as seasoned travelers, we hate to feel taken advantage of… We said we were told 40,000 som (all of this being done without any real language compatibility) and we were willing to pay 50,000 ($5) but not $10… Then one taxi driver said or rather motioned that he’d take us for the 50,000 som.. And off we went to his taxi which was parked in a long line of taxis just outside the airport.. waiting to get inside to be on the taxi line. I guess he figured 50,000 som was a good deal since he’d have to wait about an hour in line to possibly get a $10 fare. Anyway, he drove us to the hotel and all was good.

Because we knew we’d be arriving very early in the morning, exhausted from a messy trip – and because we really couldn’t find any interesting local hotels in Tashkent — we had decided while in the states to stay at the Hyatt Regency. We also remembered from our travels in Tibet a few years ago that sometimes in these countries it’s good to be in a bit of a reliable location and have some cushy service. We knew that the remainder of the trip in Uzbekistan would be in very small, local inns. So, here we are at a very new Hyatt with spacious rooms, broad corridors, well-appointed furnishings, and lots of service. We grabbed breakfast before heading to the room and then settled in (I settled in, unpacked, and started this note… Mike went to sleep). At 1:00, we decided to start our exploration of Tashkent (of course it was raining)… We decided to head to see the Metro stations, which are famous and you’ll soon see why. Originally, we thought we’d take the train to random stops — get off and see neighborhoods, similar to what we had done in many other cities – but given the rain we just rode the subway, getting off to photograph stations and getting back on… transferring to other lines and doing the same thing.

But first we needed to find the closest station and that turned into quite a project. We stopped police and random people but no one could give us information because they didn’t understand what we were asking. We did find the station — Mustaqilliq Maydoni ! It costs less than 14 cents to take the subway anywhere as long as you don’t emerge onto the street.. Once you leave the station and go back you have to purchase another token for another 14 cents. Anyway, the big deal is that the stations are incredible – ornate, often with themes (like the cosmonauts or Pushkin); and needless to say they are immaculate (as are the streets we’ve seen thus far). The Metro has 29 stations and three different lines – red, green, and blue. It was fairly simple to navigate (except that we couldn’t pronounce any of the station names). People bustling about on the trains could almost be anywhere (well, sort of) – with teens wearing ear buds, and most people with cell phones (Chinese brands), and everyone wearing down since it’s chilly.

Tashkent is interesting in that it suffered very sever damage following an earthquake in 1966. The old Soviet Union immediately began rebuilding – some of it done to replicate what had been in the city, but also creating Soviet blocks and some call the city’s style Soviet Modernism.  The area where the Hyatt is located is a lot like my memories of Moscow so many years ago.. long broad boulevards. By the way, en route from the airport to the hotel we saw babushka-clad women sweeping the roadways with brooms that had extremely long branches for handles.

The subway was opened in 1977 and there is still some expansion going on. The architecture and decoration of each station is tied to the station’s name. Apparently, prominent architects and artists of Uzbekistan were involved in the design of each station. They used marble, metal engravings, plastic, granite, ceramics, and more. Some stations were renamed after the fall of communism. After meandering different stations for a few hours, we then had to seriously figure out how to get back to our station, which we did. Then as we strolled to the hotel we walked through a somewhat bizarre Christmas (or Winter) Fair, with all sorts of people dressed as Santa or Father Time and also Winter Princesses. There were lots of ornate light structures as well. In spite of the rain people were out with kids.. and the place was a photographer’s heaven with everyone taking pictures of everyone else. And there were “official” photographers offering to take “professional” pictures for a fee. We strolled in the rain taking our own pictures of people taking pictures.. and suddenly we were stopped by a young woman.

She was a reporter for Tashkent News and wanted to interview us for the nightly news program. Her English was extremely weak, but we agreed.. We were soaking wet, so don’t think we will look too great. Her questions were quite simplistic and expected:  What did we think of Tashkent and why had we come. She was quite excited to learn we were Americans and from California !! So, stay tuned, maybe the piece will go viral (I pray not)…

OK.. that’s it for today.. lots more to come as we explore the city over the coming two days and then rent a car to drive to Samarkand and Bhukara.

Best –

Fern