Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Amir Timur

Travel Dates 20th-21st September 2019.

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On my first full day in Tashkent I was a little nervous after accepting an invitation from a stranger on a plane but decided to risk it. I must admit I was not certain whether I would ever see my new friend from the flight to Tashkent again. I need not have been concerned. He picked me up from my guest house at 1pm and took me to the Afsona restaurant. I later found it is listed as #1 of 387 on Tripadvisor.

I usually have a very light lunch but he wanted to show me a wide range of Uzbek foods. He ordered a feast: soups, salads, breads, shaslik, dips, stuffed vine leaves, a pilaf-style rice dish called plov locally and much more. I avoided carbs as much as possible but I was not brave enough to test after the feast. I probably gained a few kilos and decided to eat small for the next few weeks. He refused adamantly to let me pay.

For the next four hours he took me on a personal tour of Tashkent. Fascinating and so much more interesting with a local explaining the history and background. 

We began at the Abdul Kasim Madrassah. It is a fairly recent madrassah, built around 1850.

Its main historical significance was as the venue for signing of the peace treaty between the conquering Russian general and the leaders of Tashkent in 1865 after a siege. Later the Russians claimed the signing was voluntary. The Tashkent leaders who denied that claim ended up in Siberia. The Madrassah is now a centre of arts and crafts with hopeful sellers in each alcove. 

Here is my new friend and guide:

I rarely take selfies; I must remember next time someone asks to use my camera to set the flash in this situation.

Next we visited the Barak Khan Madrassah, built in the sixteenth century. It was famous as the repository of the seventh century Koran of Caliph Osman, transferred from Samarkand. Legend had it that the Caliph was assassinated while reading it and his blood is on it. The book was removed for many years under the Russians but has been returned. Until 2007 this madrassah also housed the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Central Asia.

The Muyi Muborak madrassah was also built in the sixteenth century. Muyi Muborak means "the hair of Prophet" which is apparently kept in the madrassah library. The library contains about 20 thousand books and manuscripts, translations of the Koran in more than 30 languages and the Koran of Uthman, which dates from the seventh century.

My friend delivered me back to my guest house at the end of a marvellous day. We have exchanged phone numbers but I doubt we will meet again; although it might be possible as his family sometimes holidays on the Gold Coast.

Some travel days are best forgotten, some are good but this first day was excellent.

I had a relaxed second day after not a lot of sleep. I have discovered that Uzbek mattresses are manufactured in a quarry: as hard as stone. It was a day where I wandered using cabs, the Tashkent underground and shank's pony.

I visited the Museum of the History of the People, very interesting, and the Statue of Amur Timur who was known in the West as Tamerlane. As a central part of the ancient Silk Road the region was ruled by many conquerors but Amir Timur is the one who is revered here. He was a local who took over the old Khanate and went on to expand his Timurid empire in all directions. Some of his descendants went on to become the Mughal rulers of north India. There are lots of statues of him around. So far I have seen none of past Russian leaders (Uzbekistan was already a colony under the Tsars long before 1917) and only one of the post-soviet President Islam Karimov who ruled permanently from the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989 until his death in 2016.

The Minor Mosque is much more modern, opened in 2014 with a capacity for 2400 worshippers.

Possibly as a consequence of many years of Russian occupation it was noticeable that female dress standards in Uzbekistan were very relaxed when compared to several other Muslim countries I have visited, most noticeably Malaysia en-route to Tashkent. I do not recall seeing a Birka or Hijab while I was in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Many women wore traditional Uzbek dress.

There are also a number of Christian cathedrals in Tashkent. This is the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin. 

I was surprised at the end of the day to see I had over 13,000 steps on the phone pedometer. I like to go out to the suburbs away from the tourist sites to see how the people live, where they shop and where they eat.

I spent some time on the underground. A blue plastic token has to be purchased for 1400 soʻm (AU$0.22) for each trip. I bought ten and used six, the leftovers are souvenirs. I marvelled at the stations. They, as well as much of the rest of the central city, were constructed by the Soviets after the terrible earthquake of 1966. It was only 5.1 magnitude but occurred directly under the city centre and terrible damage occurred.

Many areas were wiped clean, if not by the quake then by the re-constructors. The modern city centre has wide boulevards and spacious construction. There are some skyscrapers but most big buildings tend to width and depth rather than tens of storeys.

The Soviets built the underground not only for urban transit but as the city's nuclear bomb shelters at the height of the cold war. The ban on taking pictures has only been relaxed recently. Each station has marvellous murals and designs in the walls and ceilings.

When the underground did not suit my next move I took cabs. The Yandex system is a Russian ride-sharing system which has recently merged with Uber in several of the ex-soviet countries. I hate to say it, as I detest Uber's effects on Aussie cab owners, but Yandex was brilliant in Tashkent. The app worked in English, I never waited longer than 5 minutes, my shortest fare was 7000 soʻm (AU$1.25) and the longest 15000. I gave him 20000 and he wanted to give the extra back. 

I had a delicious lunch in a non-touristy (no menu pictures, no english) restaurant near the Buruni metro station: a large serve of a delicious local soup of meat, vegetables and rice with green tea. Nice restaurant, good service and the bill came to just over 17000 soʻm. I gave him 20000 and he protested when I waved the change away. Twenty thousand is about $3.00 Australian or US$2.00.

Wherever I travel I enjoy visiting the markets. 

The Chorsu market in Tashkent is enormous. It is easily accessible by the underground; there is a central dome covering meats, fish, offal, dairy and other perishables.

There is also a large area around the dome for vegetables and a myriad of other items. 

I departed for Samarkand in my Afrosiyob train dead on time at ten to seven in the evening, arriving five minutes late at five to nine, rather more swiftly than the camel caravans of old. The rolling stock of the Afrosiyobs are modern and comfortable but the ride suggests they economised a bit on the high speed rails. Compared to high speed trains I have travelled on in France, Spain, Germany, China and elsewhere it was a fairly bumpy but still pleasant ride.