Mike and Wendy's holiday blog: Sept 24: 4-8 Tashkent, Samarkand

Wednesday 4 September

Ready at 4am for our taxi to the airport. The man on reception told us that the airport had phoned 15 minutes previously to say our bag had just arrived on the Manchester flight.

So off we went to arrivals not departures 🙄

Mike went off to fill all the necessary forms (it was his luggage tag on the bag but my luggage 😁) and came back with the bag. The handle didn't seem to be working properly but no time to look at it as we raced off to departures to check it in for the next flight.

Thankfully it then arrived on the same flight as us to Tashkent and we were then picked up by a driver on behalf of our Intrepid tour and taken to our hotel

Upon closer inspection the handle was bent and wouldn't pull out more than a couple of inches..

.. and there was a hole in the bottom of the case!

More forms to fill in 🙄😞 - just what I needed whilst snuffling and sneezing and full of a head cold 🤧

Managed to walk literally round the corner for food - had to choose a place with pictures as no English menus 😁

We found that the pics weren't much help either lol. With the help of the young waitress we managed to order a couple of things - but no idea what, other that a greek salad!

It turned out to be a lamb shank and fried chicken and they were delicious!

Mike was happy because he had a bone to gnaw on and I was happy because I was wearing my own dress!

We couldn't work out the price of the meal either and according to the little pocket calculator I'd created the cost was £130 (no idea which currency I'd done my calculations in - values were nothing alike!) Turns out it was under £14 - great value for all we'd eaten.

We were shattered - we had walked over 6500 steps at the airport so it was an early night!.. 😴

Thursday 5 September

Tashkent

Still full of cold so we just had a short walk to see if we could see anywhere selling luggage. It was over 30⁰ so we soon gave up on that idea and retreated back to our room to fill in forms for Puffin Insurance and Turkish Airlines.

Decided to walk to Amil Temur square - thought it might be nice to have a little drink in the shade. It actually seemed a little less hot as we were walking.

When we arrived there was nothing much happening at all so we walked back to the hotel.

Two short walks were enough for the day!

Met our group in the evening - all seem nice. No idea of their names even though we all went round and introduced ourselves 🤣

Mike went to take out cash from the ATM and came back as a millionaire with 3 mil son - about £180!

Went for a group dinner - soup, chicken and lamb/beef kebabs then fruit.

Uzbekistan is a very meat-heavy country with lamb and beef on every menu - even eaten for breakfast. Very few vegetarian options. Luchin (our guide) said he asked at a restaurant if he could get a vegetarian option for one of his group. Oh yes they said - we can do that it's a kebab. What kind? said Luchin. Chicken they replied.

One beer and one wine cost 60,000 son - about £3.60.

We were told to keep our 2,000 notes (about 12p) as they are useful for payment for the toilet in smaller places. We haven't managed to get anything less than a 10,000 (60p) note yet!

Can only remember one name so far - Claudine from Melbourne (had to write that down in case I forgot it again 😁) and that was only because we sat next to each other at the meal and were intrigued by the local red wine which they said was semi sweet and slightly chilled - so we tried it. It wasn't sweet but was quite pleasant - we both agreed that we've drunk a lot worse 🤣 and at a mere 25,000 som (£1.50) it was quite adequate 😁

Friday 6 September

Down for breakfast and learned a few more names. Karen from Toronto and Madeleine and Ken from Coventry (nope).

Isabelle and Anne? Yes!

A full day with the 11 in our tour group and Luchin our leader.

Earthquake memorial statue - tribute to those who died in the great earthquake of 1966 - most of Tashkent was destroyed.

Making sure knees are covered - even though the men were wearing long shorts.

Mosque complex where the original copy (or one of the original 50?) of the Koran is housed. No photos of the Kuran allowed.

New building under construction - copy of mosque in Samarkand - more space needed for the Koran and other artifacts.

Arts, crafts and artisans at the nearby shopping area.

Fine line painting with coffee.

Lots of different breads.

Bread making at Chorsu Bazaar.

Huge market with fabulous stalls.

Making plov. Rice, herbs, vegetables (yellow carrots), lamb.

Delicious plov. We passed on the horsemeat sausage 😱

Then we tried the curd milk - said to be refreshing. Didn't like it. Then drank a little of the tea as I didn't want to be seen as turning my nose up at everything lol.. 😁

Put loads of sugar in - but still don't like tea lol.

Amil Temor square.

Ooh just one name to remember..

Adam and ??

Rose and Neil (totally wrong on those before).

Amin

Saturday 7 September

Up early to catch the Afrosyob train.

Got the last name - Madeleine. Phew!.. 🤣

.. might have got the last names but got the couples the wrong way round lol.. 🙄🤣

Great train - very comfy and big wide seats.

Minky Binky sweets - good for my cough.. 😁

Samarkand

Straight on to the bus - a full sized one for 12 of us - needed apparently as the roads are bad.

Market. Bought sweets and ingredients for plov. And t-shirts later.

Ulugbek Observatory built by grandson of Amir Timur.

Map of the silk road routes.

Afrosyiob museum.

Traditional paper making.

Paper making from the bark of the mulberry trees.

Twigs soaked then stripped.

Then boiled to soften.

Mulberry tree.

Pulp is pounded by wood on a water wheel.

Then put into trays and left to dry.

Adjusting the wooden 'thumper' thing.

Weighing down the damp pages to completely dry them.

Hanging the paper to finish the drying process.

Paper is then smoothed to a gloss with a shell or an animal bone - while process goes back over a thousand years.

Finished product is very strong and can be sewn.

Bought some paper.

Beautiful hand crafted items.

Back of the items are as beautiful as the front!

The typical bread from Samarkand - can be kept and eaten for up to a year!

Lunch - wasn't quite as light as Luchin said lol. Restaurant famous for its kebabs.

Shakh y Zinda complex.

Meal outside.

Registan Square by night.

Sunday 8 September

Samarkand

Early morning get up for some to see the Square without people.

Some of the roads were closed for cycle marathon etc.

Shakh I Zinda complex.

Counting the forty steps.

The cemetery outside the complex - only for those who have money though so that they can be buried near the important people.

Registan Square - lots going on - brides, photo shoots, music.

You could hire the gowns and run up and down like loons to get nice pics. We didn't bother.. 😁

Wine tasting. Started off with local Chardonnay which I was wary about as I'd tried some a couple of days ago and it was awful. This was much better. Then moved on to merlot, then a more local one then a stronger one. I gave up at the brandies and passed on the cha-cha after a sip - it was like fire water so strong!!

Really funny because Karen (lady to my right in pic above) doesn't drink wine at all apart from ice wine so she politely took a sip of everything and kept an inscrutably polite face whilst tipping the rest away in the waste receptacle.

The red wine in the small shot glass was fortified with ice wine so she enjoyed that then passed on the rest until the cha-cha which she enjoyed.

All was well until she needed the loo and Lochin (just realised I've been spelling his name wrong lol - also Rose isn't Rose she's Roz 🙄😁) had to escort her by the arm. She spent the meal later just sitting in a daze. She is such a quiet, polite lady but such a slight build it went straight to her head.

The wine industry here is just really starting up again after Gorbachev banned all wine making to stop the rise in drinking.

This winery was family owned for generations so they kept their land and just sold the grapes (and made a bit of wine on the side) so they didn't have to start from scratch again.

My dress matched the seat covers on the bus.. 🤣🤣🤣

Making plov at a family home. We didn't actually make it but just threw the ingredients in then ate it later. Just as well really after the wine tasting..🤣

My tee shirt..