The romance of trains was prominent in my childhood, and the notion of a private sleeping car has long appealed to me. So, I finagled an overnight train ride from Bukhara to Tashkent into our trip.
We boarded at 11pm and reached Tashkent shortly before 7am. Perhaps a longer trip would have been better, in that it was a later bedtime than typical for the vacation. Then, the awareness of needing to get off at 7am meant that every time the train slowed we were alert and wondering whether we needed to get up. A longer journey might have meant we could settle in and relax more.
But, look how lovely our cabin was! Not pictured: the fact that there was no opening window, it was super hot. Options were stuffy and overheated OR leaving the door open: slightly cooler air, bright lights, and people walking by the cabin. It was one of the worst nights of sleep ever. LOL, so much for romance.
We dropped luggage at the guesthouse and set off on foot to find breakfast. Tashkent is a delightfully walkable city; there are broad, treed boulevards with pedestrian and bike paths on the wide center parkstrip in addition to sidewalks. Underpasses provide an option at major junctions, but there are also many pedestrian crossings.
We ended up at a street side cafe eating somsa and drinking coffee amongst business men and university students. Our ultimate destination was Chorsu Bazaar to purchase some gifts and souvenirs.
On our first day in Tashkent at the beginning of the trip I identified that I wanted to bring bread stamps home, and spotted a hardware vendor that had a great selection. During our travels I saw many bread stamps on sale for tourists… But I wanted the legit item that locals buy and use (and the local’s price!).
We also tracked down some dried mulberries – they are delicious in oatmeal when backpacking, and way cheaper closer to the source. I also wanted to bring some salty, fatty kurt home, as I enjoyed snacking on it during the trip.
Foods we wanted to savor on the last day were plov, lamb fat shaslik, and tomato-cucumber salad. While tomato-cucumber salad may sound pretty pedestrian and easy to make at home – the tomatoes in Uzbekistan were SO amazing.
Back on that first visit to the bazaar we walked through a barbecue pit area. So, we knew just where to go to get shashlik!
You select what you want cooked and then go sit down. Servers bring you beverages and bread, and then the food is delivered once it is ready. Delicious and fun.
Shopping in Uzbekistan is much more chill than other places we have visited. It’s a haggling culture, so there’s still that… But, the continuous badgering to purchase is not there. So refreshing! It means you can actually browse the bazaar and full on, actually look at items. Perhaps the pressure will intensify as tourism increases, but for now it’s a very pleasant shopping experience.
We enjoyed some delicious plov for an early dinner, before an early bedtime as our breakfast was scheduled at 4:30am! A final Yandex taxi got us to the airport in time for our 7am flight.
Somehow we dodged all the shut-down related delays at all three of our US airports.
Then the worst ever jet lagged dragged us through the first week back home.
Thanks for following along with the blow-by-blow of our vacation! I may have one or two more posts with Uzbek followup thoughts.
But, for now we are truly back in the Homer flow. I plan/hope to keep the blog going, once or twice a month.
Quillpig 