7NNT25: Day 10 & 11 – Somewhere in Uzbekistan

Soundtrack: 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 somsas, which I guess comes close). That’s probably a metaphor for something, I don’t quite know what.

In the lst two days I’ve experienced Uzbekistan airways, had actual gluten-free Uzbek food, walked a bit, sat around waiting a bunch, shopped for trinkets for the folks back home, and made sure I ate plenty of cheese as I suspect the next couple of weeks will be somewhat lacking in most dairy foods.

Our last day in Khiva was an easy one, we were both feeling a little achy, and had nothing scheduled (the one thing I think we’d have done differently is turned this day into a trip out to the boat graveyard where the Aral Sea used to be, but hindsight is great). While there were a number of tourist groups in Khiva, our hotel seemed quite empty, we were the only ones at breakfast, and I did keep looking for any sign of creepy twins. Fortunately there weren’t, nor was Johnny here, and the hotel were very blase when we asked for a late checkout, they were like, “yeah whatever”.

Noodle 4.0: Turkham Barak (Xiva Kafe Milliy Taomlari)

We took another wander down to the old city, just killing time, checking out the souvenir shops, we stopped for a while and had some green tea with lemon. Dinner was at the same restaurant as the night before, this time I went for another Khiva specialty, turkhum barak flat dumplings filled with egg. Good and filling, served with yogurt/sour cream, great peasant food, reminded me a lot of pierogi. I had a couple of shashlik as well, just for some meat. L went for the beed stroganoff, which wasn’t the creamy, mushroom-full dish we’re used to, there was only a little sauce and no mushrooms. Maybe that’s Uzbek style, afterall, they’re closer to where the dish originated.

We had a fortunately uneventful drive to Urgench airport, the road from Khiva is new and in good condition. Urgench International Airport (they have flights to/from Russia, Turkey, and the middle east) is new, clean, and quite small. Even though we were the last flight for the day, we still had a couple of hundred metres’ walk on the tarmac to the flight, completely unescorted, they just kinda pointed at the only plane and away we went.

Flight was short and uneventful, they were still handing out the little snack of cheese rolls when we started descending. Fortunately at Tashkent we had buses waiting when we landed to take us to the arrivals.

We got to the hotel (the same hotel we stayed at the start of the trip) after 1am. Fortunately they happily gave us a late checkout (hotels in Uzbekistan seem quite happy to do this), so we didn’t have to rush. We made it to the breakfast buffet before it closed, so I could stock up on cheese and other random Uzbek treats (did I mention that our hotel had 10 different types of cheese?).

We hit a couple of souvenir shops and a supermarket to get some last random gifts. Spoiler alert: Uzbekistan does not appear to have a souvenir snow globe. Not one. Not at the airport, not in Tashkent, Bukhara, Khiva, Samarkand. No snow globe. Even Cambodia has souvenir snow globes, and unlike Cambodia, Uzbekistan has actual snow. There goes the 5 star review.

We took a taxi out of the parts of Tashkent we were familiar with to check out a specialty gluten free bakery shop L found. The taxi dropped us in a laneway behind some residential blocks, but apparently the address was right. After a moment of uncertainty, turns out the shop (and other shops) were around the front of the building. L was quite happy, as she could finally have somsas, pastries, and little sweet and savoury biscuits. With arms full of treats, we found a stationery shop, filled with interesting games, books, pens, and toys. They had a fairly comprehensive bunch of Agatha Christie novels, translated into Russian, as well as classics like The Great Gatsby, Pride and Prejudice, Catcher in the Rye, and others. I love seeing familiar works rendered incomprehensible through being in a foreign language.

Back to hotel. Final pack. Drive to airport. Wait. L’s flight was earlier than mine, to she as able to check in, and we sat around until it was time for her to go through security and board. After that, I had another 3 hours before I could check-in. I don’t know a single airport that is much fun pre-check-in. Even Changi, the wonderful place that it is, is boring until you clear security. Tashkent isn’t exactly exciting after security (and security is quite thorough, everyone gets a free pat down, and they wanted to have a closer look at my hand luggage as I packed a small torch that amused them).

From here it’s 7-8 hours to Bangkok, an overnight flight so I’ll arrive early morning, where I’ll need to collect luggage and jump a domestic flight to Chiang Mai. Even though Uzbekistan Airways apparently have an interline agreement with Thai Airways, I couldn’t convince the check in attendant to check my bags all the way to Chiang Mai.

So it’s farewell Uzbekistan, time for me to swap rahmat for kop kun krap.