Almaty/Tashkent

Our last day in Almaty was spent doing a few touristy things. We went to the green bazaar (markets are the same pretty much the world over), Kok Tobe Tower (you can’t actually go up the tower but I did have my photo taken with the Beatles) and a bit of shopping in the Dostyk Plaza(I lost Steve and spent 1/2 hour looking for him and couldn’t be bothered to hunt for clothes after that). Not the most successful day but it doesn’t matter – I still love Almaty. Even when it rains, which it did, and we had to run inside the restaurant with our food.

And so to Tashkent.

Much hotter than Almaty, dirtier, less friendly, loads of tour groups and more expensive. But hey, got to take the rough with the smooth and can’t keep comparing everywhere to Kazakhstan.

We hit the ground grounding. Dumping our stuff at our hotel(which is fine, huge room) we headed for the museum of applied art, stopping on our way for lunch at a very strange, local lunch venue. We were the only foreigners in there but luckily we were able to use a bit of Turkish (language here has similarities to Turkish) and pointing to order. We had bread, soup and salad, all nice, for the sum of £3.50.

We then headed off to Khast Imam Square via the metro.

The metro is famed for its underground and it is quite cool. The nearest stop to us is the Kosmonavtlar station, with tiled portraits of Russian astronauts. If I had time here, I would make a note of the most ornate stations and visit them as the photos I’ve seen of them look stunning.

Khast Imam Square contains Teleshayahk mosque plus a complex of souvenir shops. Now, I don’t know about Allah, but Jesus was pretty cross when traders were selling stuff at places of worship. Didn’t seem right to me and we didn’t buy anything but Steve amused himself trying a few hats on.

Right next door, a mega mosque is being built. Why? How many do you need Tashkent?

We went for a drink in the nearby park. We ordered two beers which took an age to come. They were like wheat beers; very strong, made more potent by being given a straw to drink it with!

Tomorrow we have a very early flight to Khiva which is one of the more remote places on the Uzbekistan Silk Road Trail. Will be interesting to see – wondering if I might get “mosqued out.”