Walked to the immigration counter got our passport chopped and was 100m away from Uzbekistan. That is easy and near.. But when we arrived at the Uz immigration we could see a queue forming. We got help from some old tourists to get our immigration form in English and was filling it up in duplicate indicating how much cash we have with us..
at the border between Kyrgyzstan and Ubekistan
After queuing for about 20mins finally it was our turn and successfully cross the border w/o any hassle or customs check on our bags.. Hmmmm walked out and was approached by the taxi drivers. Luckily they had a guy who could speak English who translated for us that a ride of 6hrs to Tashkent the capital of Uz costs USD20/pax in a shared taxi. Since there isn’t any bus available we had no choice and waited for another 2 passengers to Tashkent so we could be on our way.
It didn’t take us long, about 15mins later 2 guys from Turkmenistan joined us on the ride and we were on our way. Or so we thought. Suddenly the translator guy told us that the car that was going to take us to our destination is after a check point about 5km ahead but there would be a car that will bring us there. First thought was, here we go again, getting conned again but the guy told us it’s free. Phew… For a while there I thought we were gonna have to pay. Anyway we loaded our bags into the car and off we went to go to the other car.
10 minutes later we reached the other car and the old man said that his son is going to be the one driving us there and furthermore he said that his son is also fasting. Well at least we’ll know when to break fast and at least we’ll be sure that the place we gonna be eating at will be halal.
The roads were very good and proper actually. I was thinking that it’s gonna be another bumpy, graveled road ride but it was tarmac all the way. Along the way, after about 3 hours later, the driver stopped for a toilet break at what seems to be like a common rest area with shops selling food and lots of the local bread. Oh yeah while we were there, a lady accidently went into the man’s toilet without realizing it until she came out, done doing her business. She was blushing and her friends were laughing at her when she came out.
The many non stalls
See how big the nons are
I was looking over at the stalls across the roads, the way the ladies who is selling the local bread is rather interesting. They would hold up their bread and wave to the passer bys and gesturing them to come over to buy their bread. There is at least 20 diff stalls there selling the same bread most of them is doing the same thing. The way they display their bread is as if the bread is some accessories or clothing. But I think the way they are doing their sales works as the customers would just walk over and buy from those that are enthusiastic about selling their bread. The bread comes in all sizes and the biggest we saw is like a extra large pizza..
After all the bread selling we were on the way to Tashkent. The land along the way is quite flat and we couldn’t see any nomads or yurts. This place seems to be quite “modern” compared to Kyrgyzstan but the air isn’t as good. The sky seems really hazy and grey. We notice that there is many police stops and check points along this highway to Tashkent. Wasn’t sure of the reason but just knew we had to stop quite a few times to register and fortunately one of the Turkmen guy help us to do it, we just have to wait in the car.
Finally it is about mahgrib time, we broke our fast in the car with the sparking water given by the 2 Turkmen guy. Very soon we were in Tashkent area and had to part our ways with the Turkmen guys as they seems to be heading another way and hoped on to the drivers friends car.
The driver gestured to us if we wanted to eat first or pointed ahead to eat. We gestured back saying anything but he just drove off about 15mins later he stopped at a restaurant called Tamagoh somewhere… We went in and saw that one of the waitress is a Russian lady, she could speak a little English and asked what we wanted. We asked for chicken but no chicken was available so she said they had beef and pointed to the picture on the menu and said Beef steak, beef stroganoff and beef noodle.. Ramli chose beef steak and I had beef stroganoff. Another waitress came along with a tray of salads, we chose a egg and crab meat mayo salad and a mix ham salads.. Wow is so tasty!! Just like back home…
When our food was served we were more impressed!! The beef stroganoff was served in thin slices and with chips, it reminded me of rendang, Ramli’s beef steak is a beef patty with egg, rice and salad.. Both of them is really tasty.. We enjoyed this dinner!!
Right after we headed to a Hotel Rovshan that the one of the taxi driver was telling us is real good and very cheap at the border. When we arrived and saw the lobby we knew it wasn’t as cheap as he said it to be. We paid the driver and he left, Ramli went in to ask the price of the hotel and came out in shock. USD50/night!! My goodness this is really expensive and the taxi driver say is cheap… We stood outside not knowing what to do as it is already about 2030hrs and the road seems really quiet and we thought if we were to go in search of another cheaper option as per our book we might get lost and have no place to stay since it is already late. We were discussing when 2 man came out from the hotel and asked us what price we were looking at cause they said that this hotel is the cheapest around the area. We told them our budget of USD25-USD30 and they told us it isn’t possible as Tashkent is the capital of Uz thus the prices are higher and if we go to Samarkand or Bukhara we might get cheaper but not here..
We hesitated for a while and one of the guy said that they could give us USD45/room here.. Seems we didn’t have much choice so we agreed and registered to check in. The price was including of breakfast and when we told them we were fasting they said to come to the café after 0330hrs they will have breakfast… Ohhh that is nice we thought. The hotel room is clean and nice, with tv, hair dryer and all accessories..
We settled down and rest for the night looking forward to the sahur break fast tomorrow..
No comments:
Post a Comment