Under the Uzbek spell

It definitely felt like a bit of a treat to fly. We had to fly to Tashkent international airport, collect our bags, go through customs and then take a taxi to the domestic terminal which is 5km away. It should have been relatively smooth but it was hard work! Our first issue was not being able to use the ATM at the airport to get any cash to get a taxi. A guy behind us said he could never get it to work either and actually offered to give us the money for our taxi, but there was an exchange office so we opted for that rather than taking money from a stranger! Once we had collected our bags Joey’s bag had some customs tape around it which neither of us were really sure about and when we tried to leave the airport we were stopped by customs who insisted on x-raying our bags and then opening Joey’s. This wouldn’t normally cause us any stress as we’re not carrying anything illegal, except for when we were entering Uzbekistan. You cannot import drones into Uzbekistan and we had read stories about them being destroyed at the border so we were semi prepared for this to happen and it looked like this was the moment.

The border guard insisted on getting us to open all the packing cubes and asking what was what ‘what’s that?’ ‘Rain jacket’ ‘open’ ‘what’s that?’ ‘Clothes’ ‘open’. He eventually got to the bag containing the drone and we both thought this was it, but he was too busy wondering what something else was to actually look at it properly and do his job! So we were somewhat relieved and bewildered a few minutes later when we left the terminal with everything still in our possession. I would definitely not recommend chancing this though!

We caught a taxi and actually met a really nice taxi driver, who gifted us a traditional Uzbeki bracelet; our time in India has scarred us and we were both a little sceptical but he was just a really nice man! We arrived at the domestic terminal and had our first massive cultural shock. The language barrier was huge, I had been learning a little Russian in preparation but not nearly enough! Then there was the money situation, the exchange rate was 15,000 to the pound so getting my head around all the notes and their value was huge. Then there were really quirky things such as someone drying their washing on a few seats and there was a washing machine in the toilet! Not sure why there was a washing machine in the airport but there you go.

Uzbekistan was HOT. We got off the plane at Tashkent and were hit by that immediate wall of heat, we were arriving at the hottest time of year were its temperatures regularly reach the high 30s / early 40s so we wanted to move through the country as quickly as reasonably possible. We landed into Nukus in the evening and even in the dark we could tell just how hot it was.

Nukus is in the far west of the country and is the gateway to the Aral Sea, a largely dried up lake, destroyed by mankind when the Soviet started diverting rivers for irrigation purposes. However we were not intending to visit the Aral Sea, instead our reason for visiting the town was to visit the Savitsky museum of art. This museum is home to one of the largest collections of soviet art in the world and remained hidden from the world for many years. Stalin had banned all non socialist realist work and these paintings remained hidden in the middle of nowhere, precisely because they were in the middle of nowhere.

The museum is closed on Mondays and flight timings meant that we had arrived on Sunday evening so we had a day to kill before we could get to the museum. It was a day for adjusting to the culture and climate, and one we needed. We’d only exchanged a small amount of cash and needed to get some more out so off we trotted to find an ATM that worked. We actually found one straight away and managed to withdraw some cash, an old lady was very intrigued by us and was standing right next to me whilst I was doing the transaction, she then wanted to know how much we were getting and looking in my wallet – she was quite excited to see I had a million Som in my wallet (about £67).

The guide books described Nukus as having very little charm, but we actually quite liked the city! It was clean with wide pavements and everyone was friendly. We were pretty bowled away by the museum as well, we’d both imagined that soviet art would be really grey and brutalist but everything was so colourful and modern, it was definitely worth the stop.

Next up was Khiva, which was 2.5 hours away in a taxi. Shared taxis are a great way to get around this area but we splashed out on a private one to take us there. Uzbekistan is huge and as you’re driving or catching a train anywhere the whole amount of nothingness and desert takes your breath away. We were dropped at the door of our guesthouse and had an amazing welcome from our host, we’d booked a budget room but he upgraded us to the best room in the guesthouse- it was huge and had a small balcony but best of all the bathroom had a bath!

Khiva was such a delightful city, our guesthouse was in the city walls and we liked nothing more than wandering round and taking in all the sights. Every building was caked in mud and looked like something out of Aladdin. There were beautiful minarets, and a mosque made of over 200 wooden pillars. You can buy a day ticket which will allow you to enter various museums and palaces, and you do just wander around and go in any building you like the look of. We climbed the city walls at sunset, the gate was locked and there was a guy hanging round the bottom of them offering to let us up for 20,000 soms. We decided to take him up on his offer and we were the only people on the walls at sunset. In one of the museums we visited we met a 15 year old girl who had the courage to approach us and practice her English, you could tell she was really embarrassed about it when she went back to her family but I was so proud of her for having the courage to approach us! She told us it was her dream to visit England so I hope that one day she achieves her dream.

We loved Khiva, we were just so charmed by its beauty. A lot of tourists stick to Bukhara (our next stop), Samarkand and Tashkent but I’m glad we started in the west made our way there.

Our train ride to Bukhara was over 7 hours, in a non air conditioned train, when it was 38degrees outside! The windows were open, which was fine when we were moving but stopping at any station was very hot! As we travelled through the desert a lot of dust made its way into our cabin! We were sharing with two men who insisted on sharing their food with us. The food they wanted to share was meat, some chicken wings and sheep trotters. I was really reluctant to take any, as I say it was 38 degrees outside and our cabin didn’t have any air conditioning and I could foresee some health issues if I ate anything. Unfortunately the men were VERY persistent and it got to the point where it was becoming rude to say no so I took a small amount and tried not to eat too much.

We were grateful to arrive into Bukhara and get into an air conditioned car. Everyone is Uzbekistan drives a white Chevrolet. That’s not even a sweeping statement, it’s a fact, everyone drives a white Chevrolet- finding your car in a car park must be a nightmare!

Bukhara was a nice city but we didn’t love it in the same way that we loved Khiva. We had a wander round at night upon arrival and found some beautiful lit up minarets and mosques. The next day we continued our habit of getting up early and getting out before coming back late morning and staying in until the evening to avoid the worst of the heat. We were at the Ark in Bukhara, it was super hot and the inevitable happened. I needed to get back to the guesthouse NOW. The guesthouse was pretty much where I stayed for the next couple of days feeling a little bit sorry for myself! We tried to console ourselves by reminding us that we’d made it to the three month mark without getting sick and it was going to happen at some point so at least we were somewhere relatively comfortable and had our own bathroom!

We did manage a couple of walks out but were glad to move on to Samarkand. This train ride was only about 4 hours and we had air con this time. Samarkand was an absolutely gorgeous city, we loved it from the moment we arrived. Our guesthouse owner collected us from the train station (in his white Chevrolet), and he said he didn’t speak much English so it allowed me the opportunity to wow him with my Russian. By wow I mean saying all the Russian words I know- which include: cat, dog, mice, flies, car, towel, how much and daughter. At our guesthouse in Khiva I had actually asked for a towel in Russian which impressed me! I will actually say at this point that probably the most useful thing I did was to learn the Cyrillic alphabet which allowed me to be able to read place names (useful for when catching buses) and some things off a menu!

Our guesthouse was a stone throw’s away from the Registan in Samarkand, a collection of three buildings and honestly our favourite thing in Samarkand. The night we arrived we went for a walk and ended up at the Gur-e-Amir mausoleum. It was beautifully lit up and as we arrived so late we were the only ones there! We then wandered back and got to the Registan in time to see some of the light and sound show that happens most evenings in summer. The next day we were up early and headed to the Bibi-Khanym Mosque. This mosque is huge (the cupola is 41m high) and it’s so beautiful. It’s also in a bit of a state of disrepair having been damaged by an earthquake and you can see the minarets leaning and huge cracks in the walls. It sparked an interesting discussion though as I realised that the buildings I find the most beautiful and have been moved by, have all been Islamic. There was Humayun’s tomb and the Taj Mahal in India, the Blue Mosque in Turkey and now the Bibi-Khanym mosque and Registan in Samarkand.

After the mosque we headed to another mausoleum before turning back and spending a couple of hours at the Registan. The Registan is so beautiful, as I say earlier it consists of three buildings and the tiling on each of them is very different. One of them has ‘lions’ on the outside – although these lions actually look very much like tigers! Inside the middle building, the Tilla-Kari, is a fascinating photo exhibition of how Samarkand used to look, and how much restoration had taken place at the Registan and the Bibi-Khanym. Perhaps the most fascinating thing of all though was the the ceiling. It is flat, but is painted so as to appear domed – quite exquisite.

We spent every evening at the Registan, watching the light and sound show, it was such a lovely place to hang out and spend our evenings. We also visited the Ulugbek observatory which was really interesting, then we made it to yet another mausoleum! I was all out of clean modest clothes by this point so had to be lent some suitable attire at the front desk to cover my dress!

Our next port of call was Tashkent, the capital. We were able to catch the metro to our hotel which saved a taxi ride. We retreated inside until the early evening when the sun wasn’t beating down on us. We had a walk around the city taking in some famous sights such as Hotel Uzbekistan (as featured on Race Across the World). At some point we reached a fountain and were so hot we joined everyone else and dunked our feet in! The next day we wanted to visit some monuments in a couple of parks but everywhere we tried to go to was closed off and guarded by the police, there had been elections a few days before so perhaps it was connected. We decided that we’d hop on the metro and visit a few stations. The metro stations in Tashkent are really intriguing, everyone is different and they’re all very soviet! We bought a ticket each, went to the next station, hopped off took a few photos, then hopped on to the next train to the next station. This was a good way to pass an hour in the heat of the day – all for about 10p each! We then headed to the Green Bazaar, after about 5 minutes there we vowed to not eat meat whilst we were in the Stans! No wonder we were ill if people bought their meat from here whilst it was lying in 40 degrees heat!

We didn’t enjoy Tashkent as much as the other cities of Uzbekistan but overall we loved Uzbekistan, it surprised us both how much given that it was all about the cities here and I wished we’d actually planned to stay a little longer, however all good things must come to an end.