Tashkent, Uzbekistan - August 18-21, 2015

Where is Tashkent, Uzbekistan you ask? I had to look it up also! It's the purple country and Tashkent is in the Eastern part of Uzbekistan. It literally means "stone city" and it is the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan. The population in 2012 was registered at 2,309,300. In 1865 it was conquered by the Russian Empire. In April 1966, much of the city was destroyed by an earthquake. The Soviet Republics as well as other countries such as Finland sent in people to help rebuild the city. They created a model Soviet city of wide streets planted with shade trees, parks, large plazas for parades, fountains, monuments, and acres of apartment blocks. About 100,000 new homes were built by 1970 to replace over 300,000 of the homes destroyed. Because of the earthquake and soviet redevelopment, little of the architectural heritage survived. It's a very cosmopolitan city.... not at ALL what I was expecting! It's quite beautiful really with all the parks and fountains in the downtown core. I think I was expecting very old, run down and dirty for some reason.I don't know why, it's just one of those things. I should have done more research beforehand.

One place I would NOT want to visit while in Uzbekistan though is a dentist because I saw a LOT of people with gold teeth! Gold teeth, but gold hearts also they say.

Navoi Theatre across from our hotel with musical dancing fountains at night

Inside hotel lobby

Side view of Navoi Theatre columns

Fountains with our hotel in background

The Navoi Theatre is the national opera and ballet theatre. It was built in 1942 - 1947. The Japanese prisoners of war participated in the construction of this beautiful theatre under forced labour. We wandered around our hotel area and discovered some incredible buildings! Even bank buildings are impressive here. That might be due to the two exchange rates that exist in the country. The official bank rate is 1 USD to 2600 and the unofficial one is 1 USD to 4400/4500! It is a definite cash society in Tashkent (which we wished we had known prior to going, we would have brought more US cash to exchange). The only place that we were able to pay by credit card is at the hotel. No restaurants or stores we visited accepted credit cards. This turned out to be a bit of a challenge for us! Luckily we did have some US cash because we could not, for the life of us, find a bank machine other than the ones that only took a VISA card (we didn't have a VISA card, we use MC). The driver from the Consulate even brought us to a bank (had to get by security at the gate first) and we could have taken money out that way, BUT they needed our passports, which we did not have because the Consulate had them preparing the paperwork for Craig's accreditation! It actually became quite comical after a while when we were at a restaurant and had to make sure we had enough cash. We were discussing who was going to do dishes to make up the difference! Realize that the highest monetary denomination is 5000 sums, which is the equivalent of $2.55 Canadian (with the official exchange rate in my currency converter). Well, one Canadian dollar is the equivalent to 1964.34 sums. So.....imagine the comedy of counting out sums to pay for a large purchase or not even a large purchase, just dinner. We found it quite entertaining! Locals have a real knack for counting it that is quite amazing! I'm not even sure how they do it, but they can count out 100,000 in about 30 seconds. It's an unsolved mystery of the world!

The stack of money to pay for a cheap lunch

The stack of money to pay for dinner

A stack of money at our hotel

 The driving in Tashkent was very crazy! Even crazier than in Moscow because not only do they just create lanes at will and drive wherever they want, but they are also known for going through red lights. Apparently they are just guidelines. One of the most interesting things we witnessed was the people standing at the side of the busy road and random cars would stop and pick them up. Women, children, everyone. Any local with a car can be a taxi and they agree on where they're going and the rate VERY quickly it seems.

Uzbekistan is a predominately Islam country with a 96.3% Muslim population (as of 2009). Islam was brought to ancestors of modern Uzbeks during the 8th century when the Arabs entered Central Asia. Although it is a Muslim population, it doesn't feel like that walking and around the city except for all the beautiful mosques you see including the Dzhuma Mosque (aka Jumma Mosque) that Yulia from the consulate brought me to. It was quiet when we were there... perhaps because it was 40 degrees outside and so it was peaceful to have the place nearly to ourselves. In a small museum at this complex are many qurans including, some say, the oldest quran in the world - the Sumarkand Kufic Quran (8th or 9th century). It is written on deerskin and is said to be stained by the blood of Othman who was killed while reading his book. We were not allowed to take photos where this book is kept...for obvious reasons. Yulia and I were not permitted to enter the mosque itself as that is only for Muslim men. Not even Muslim women are allowed as they are expected to pray at home. It is very different here in Tashkent than it is in UAE. In Tashkent, it is apparently forbidden for women to cover their faces as they do in other Muslim countries. I only saw women with scarves covering their hair. I believe this has something to do with when the country was under Russian rulers. Yulia told me that women in Uzbekistan are "basically not human". It was so sad to hear this and it made me truly appreciate where I come from.

 

Yulia and I enjoyed strolling around the grounds of this mosque and going into all the little shops off the main courtyard area. In particular we had lots of discussions with the man who carved what they both called "pumpkins"... I wanted to buy one, but with our cash situation I was unable to. I did, however, buy two silk scarves and two silk embroidered pillow covers and really enjoyed hearing all about it from the very friendly sales lady. There are some very talented craftsmen/women in Uzbekistan and I look forward to going back again (with cash)!

One of my new embroidered pillow cases

I wanted to buy one of these carved "pumpkins"... they were SO nice! Maybe next time!

This picture doesn't do these justice... I should have got a close up of the detail, it was so beautiful!

Here's the awesome scarf/embroidery lady, she was a hoot! I love this photo...it captures her perfectly!

I wanted this huge embroidered cloth too, but it was hundreds of dollars...which we truly did not have obviously

I just love shopping in unique places!

We had some delicious food in Tashkent. The first night, we just met with someone from the Consulate at our hotel restaurant where I tried plov - which is their national dish. The main ingredients are meat, rice, onions, carrots and oil. Mine had lamb and it was very flavorful. Apparently you should never drink vodka after eating plov... before, absolutely, but not after. The tradition is to drink green tea after.

Plov

Although not Uzbekistan food, we did enjoy our dinner at Basilic....we were looking for City Grill, but couldn't find it, so with the help of a local, we found this place. At first I wasn't too sure because the bread wasn't good, but our meals were excellent. 

Craig's lamb

I forget what it was called, but it was chicken and it was good!

One of Craig's favorites was a Turkish restaurant called Efendi. The food was fresh and was certainly tasty and colourful. Excellent meal here. Needed to walk that one off though after such a big meal!

Delicious - even the lemon drink mixed with sparkling water was great!

The local architecture, while not necessarily old, was impressive. Here are a few shots from our tours around town. This was yet another great trip - a pleasant surprise and a unique experience! I've added up the air travel kilometers so far for us, including Abu Dhabi before we moved here and so far we are up to 46,585 kms. It's probably a bit more because that was just direct flying time from departure city to destination city, but still, that's a LOT of kms! Next stop Prague, Czech Republic and Budapest, Hungary (for our 16th Anniversary and Craig's birthday) in September followed by Warsaw, Poland in October (for Craig's work).

The Senate of Uzbekistan

Former residence of Prince Romanov built in 1891. It is now used as a reception house of the MFA of Uzbekistan

I think this is the Senate too - from a totally different angle

Don't know what that building is, but this gives the feeling of the green space and open areas this city has

The Marifat Markazi Complex - not sure what it's for, but it's impressive

Doors to the Complex

Palace of International Forums

Amir Timur Museum - History of Timurids

This is a bank, believe it or not

Roman Catholic Sacred Heart of Jesus Cathedral - Polish - built in early 20th century