We left Samarkand around 8am for the five hour drive to Tashkent, our last stop on our 16 day odyssey. Admittedly we were all a bit tired and subdued— we had been keeping quite a pace for the last two weeks. However we had one last night in Tashkent to spend together and with Umid, our guide, who did a marvelous job taking care of us and sharing his country and its history, both recent and past. The road between Samarkand and Tashkent was busy the whole time, reflecting the population density of this part of Uzbekistan and the commerce in the region. The landscape was highly agricultural, but we could see the mountains that define Kyrgyzstan’s geography rising in the distance. At one point we passed a sign “650km to Bishkek” but no one was up for a drive back to our staring point. We stopped several times at roadside rest stops for coffee and toilets but my favorite stop was at the melon market.
It is melon season in the region, and we have been seeing trucks and trucks of all kinds of melons on the highways. In addition, incredibly fresh watermelon and honeydew melon has been a main feature of desert at most of our meals. When we stopped for a break at the melon market, Umid bought one and had the vendor cut it into pieces for us to eat on the spot. Soooooo fresh and tasty! There are so many different kinds of melons here that I do not know their names in English (if they have one). While we were at the melon market, one of the other young woman vendors was taking photos of us, the strange, exotic foreigners. She made a comment to Umid about how nice was Michelle’s hat (a black visor with a wide brim) and when Umid translated for Michelle “she likes your hat”, Michelle gave it to her. It was a special moment, and they got a picture together with the young woman wearing Michelle’s hat before we headed out.
There were trucks with melons on the highways everywhere, side of the road vender markets selling melons of all types and melons at almost every meal. And they were delicious!
The highways had electrical towers and power lines paralleling them, like everywhere else in the world, but what was special about the towers in parts of Uzbekistan is that they serve as nesting sites for storks. We had seen this phenomenon before, between Bukhara and Samarkand, and saw even more between Samarkand and Tashkent. In some cases, the storks had a condominium vibe, with several nests built across different branches of the same tower. The storks were flying between towers, sitting on the towers and generally everywhere. We stopped to take a picture as it was just too unique to not record!
We got to Tashkent around 2pm and had a late lunch at a river-side café before heading to our hotel, which was very close to the central square. With a few hours break I worked on catching up on the blog and re-packing my bag in preparation for our early departure to the airport the next morning. We gathered again at 5:30pm and wandered over to the square, walking by the statue of Timur on his horse. It is one of three Timur statues in the country, of course Samarkand, where he is seated on his throne, and Shahrisabz, his birth place, where he is depicted standing tall are the other two statues.
Storks nesting on the electrical towers— very popular and could be seen everywhere.
From the statue we wandered back to the Broadway pedestrian area that we had visited on our first trip through the city. It was still a bit early for the locals to be out so there was not a lot of activity happening. The shaded walkways were nice; now that we were back in Tashkent, the temperatures were closer to 90 deg (Samarkand has a lovely climate!!!). All too soon it was time for dinner and we headed up to a nice restaurant to enjoy a delicious Shashlik meal. At dinner we reflected on our favorite parts of Uzbekistan- many commented on the friendliness and graciousness of the people, some mentioned an appreciation of the art, others the chance to see the historical sites and as well, learn more about the country and its efforts in building a modern state after gaining independence.
On the later item, it is clear that the government has put a lot of thought and deliberation into how they are structuring the cities and the country. Tashkent is a thoroughly modern, well-designed city; I could not see much of the Soviet legacy architecture (unattractive, squat, block buildings). Tashkent and Samarkand were walkable and safe; Khiva and Bukhara had well-preserved and interesting old cities to explore.
One small part of “Magic City” with the dancing water fountains. To the left is a castle and one end of the zip-line came out of the castle, heading across the lake.
Umid had one last surprise for us, however. After dinner he took us to this place called “Magic City” so we could walk for a bit to digest dinner. We had no idea what to expect and thought it might be some kind of children’s park. Nope— while there were a lot of families, and children, there, it turned out to be a cross between a carnival, outdoor shopping center and entertainment area. It reminded me a bit of the strip in Las Vegas, minus the decadence and gambling but that was probably due to the dancing water fountains similar to those at the Bellagio. (There was a zip line that was strung across the lake and when the fountains stopped, people were zip lining across.). The site used to house Soviet buildings and a developer basically tore them down and built the complex. It is a HUGE draw not only for locals, but apparently for people from other parts of the country who come to visit the capital city. Since it is summer and a weekend, the place was packed— we lost David at one point and had to go back to the meeting point to find him- it was that crowded.
We called it a night after that as our van to the airport the next morning was an early departure at 7:15am. The trip to the airport was smooth and saying one final goodbye to Umid, we went through customs and boarded our plane to Istanbul, where we were each going our separate ways. I will remain in Istanbul for some days to rest and explore the city before my next adventure in Central Asia.
It was a great group, with a great guide and an overall wonderful trip!!!!!