travels with an ageing punkrocker/publisher
Soundtrack: “Born This Way”, Lady Gaga / “Relax”, Frankie Goes to Hollywood The battle of the aircon continues. On one hand, Chiang Mai is starting its hot season, so daily temps are high 30s, mostly dry during the day but getting a bit more humid in the evening, so turning it off isn’t an option. But I’m yet to find […]
Read moreSoundtrack: “Nikita”, Elton John I’ll probably keep throwing occasional remembrances from Uzbekistan into these entries as they pop up in my thoughts and as I start to process the similarities and differences to other places. One that I completely missed mentioning is that Elton John’s “Nikita” possibly plays constantly on a loop in the background of Uzbekistan Airways flights. I […]
Read moreSoundtrack: any song about waiting in airports… Writing this in the Pie Republic outlet at Tashkent International Airport, consuming an overpriced chicken caesar sandwich and a cappucino, which in these parts is the same as a flat white. Also, the chicken caesar sandwich has tomato. Also also, the Pie Republic doesn’t sell any pies (though they do have meat filled […]
Read moreSoundtrack: “Helter Skelter”, The Beatles Today we explored the ups and downs of Khiva, the old provincial capital and city that’s a mere 2,500 years young. Khiva, like many historical places, is a city within a city, there’s the old walled city, Itchan Kala, and then the rest of the city. Itchan Kala is largely a walled museum city, with […]
Read moreSoundtrack: “Wide Open Road”, The Triffids Somewhere on the road to Khiva, with no other people in sight, the only signs of civilisation being the power poles and the road itself, my phone showing no signal, I glanced at the dashboard and the realisation kicked in: the damn fuel light is on. I don’t know when it came on, but […]
Read moreSoundtrack: “People Who Died”, Jim Carroll Band A full day in Bukhara that kicked off with meeting a new guide at 9am. She spoke fast and I’m really bad at remembering names, so I’m not sure what exactly her name was. Uzbek names also take a bit of getting used to, there’s a lack of Shazza, Kazza, Bazza and Dazza […]
Read moreSoundtrack: Having hit peak Timur, it was time today to leave Samarkand and head further down the Silk Road to the old capital of Uzbekistan, Bukhara. I keep remembering and then forgetting that these are kind of the footsteps of Marco Polo, who came through here 800 or so years ago. Would have been cool if he’d been like the […]
Read moreSoundtrack: “Sugar, Sugar” – The Archies Today was mostly a make our own fun day, so we used the opportunity to have a bit of a stroll around the city, mostly in the Tsarist Russian part. We’d noted a couple of shopping malls within walking distance, so thought we’d check them out. The first excitement in the walk involved a […]
Read moreSoundtrack: “Turn! Turn! Turn!” – Pete Seeger/The Byrds A more sedately paced day after yesterday’s hustle. We kicked off with a late hotel breakfast, our Samarkand accommodation is smaller than Tashkent so the selection was scaled down considerably with only a few types of cheese, limited hot foods, fruit etc and some local options like samsa. First stop was a […]
Read moreSoundtrack: “Know Your Product” The Saints One thing that Uzbekistan has that Australia doesn’t is fast intercity trains, the sort that do the 300km from Tashkent to Samarkand in just over 2 hours. We were a little unsure at what economy class would entail, but need not have worried. As economy rail goes, it’s one of the best. There are […]
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Soundtrack: “Going Underground” The Jam Our first full day in Uzbekistan was spent exploring the old and new parts of the capital, Tashkent, with our driver and also a guide who tried to take us through 15 centuries of history in 6 hours. In summary: most of the cultures that have dominated Uzbekistan over the centuries have had a mix […]
Read moreSoundtrack: “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead” Bon Jovi We queued, we waited, we napped, we queued, we flew, we got there in the end. Due to reasons too boring to detail, our chosen airline to take us into Uzbekistan was Batik, a budget airline that doesn’t have a universal reputation for punctuality. When it’s on time it’s on time, but […]
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