Tashkent

Tashkent, well and truly part of the Silk Road. Lots of donkey carts in the streets and in the country. The streets might look a bit drab but almost half the houses had vines staked out over the footpath and made them look cool and fresh.

The evening we arrived in Tashkent we went to the opera to see Madame Butterfly.
The American Pinkerton was played by a rather Central Asian looking gentleman but had a good voice. Cho Cho San looked quite Japanese and had a lovely voice. The other voices were more like the groups Brisbane sends to Townsville.
It was sung in Russian so apart from a few "nyets" and a "da", it may as well have been in Italian. Fun though.

I was in the last stages of the cold doing the rounds and almost burst holding my sneezes back.



Russian Brutal design apartments. When the federation broke up the local plan was to demolish them but the younger people wanted to retain them as affordable housing


This was our hotel


The mosques have colourful mosaics externally

But inside they are generally far more intricately patterned. Note how there is always someone keen to stand in view. (Mumble mumble).


Inside there were the usual shops, except that this mosque housed a bunch of craftsmen, including these carvers. They followed a pattern drawn on the wood, but it was all done by hand. Not an electric router in sight.



Getting cash was a problem. Before we left the tour organisers were vague as to what was best to take so I had a credit card and Travellers cheques. My magnificant Gold Visa was worthless in Uzbekistan as were the cheques. US dollars in cash was the go. Eventually we had to borrow some from the tour guide and cashed $50 to this bundle of high (Uzbek) denomination paper money. Later I cashed $100 and it was a wad about an inch thick. Earlier I tried late in the day when the high denomation money had been used up and the bank girl showed me what $50 would get me. It was fully 3 inches (7 cm to you moderns) thick so I elected to wait till next morning.



The Uzbeks are very practical when it comes to cars. There are heaps of these tiny Daewoo Matiz and similar. Used as taxis they often took 6 people crammed in.


Another 'Russian Brutal' monument, this time to the victims of the 1966 earthquake which wiped out much of the town.


Virtually all the towns/cities have an 'Old' and a 'new' part. Generally you wouldnt venture into the old parts without a compass, food and packing a gun.
However our first tour in Tashkent was to the Old Town where guide Kareem took us down a couple of streets. Presumably the people are very patient or get a cut from the guide company but there was no feeling that we were stickybeaking.

Lots of cool spots to pass the time.

The kids hung around for their photos so we obliged.