Musuem
Limousine
We walked around and decided to go do some “sight seeing” in Tashkent. We took the train to Amir Timur Sq which costs us only 400cym/each = SGD0.30. Got there and saw a wedding couple was having their picture taken near a museum with a long limousine parking alongside…Whoah so grand …. After we asked our way to the Post office to get stamps to post our travel update envelopes to our dearest friend in Singapore… After walked to the Amir Timur Sq itself around where the statue of Tamerlane was and sat down for a while to look at the men that were playing chess there and trying to enjoy the “boring” park.. But they had very beautiful roses and flowers planted around the square. When I was trying to get a picture of Ramli at the statue a couple approached us and asked where we came from. They spoke to us in Uzbek and Russian which we don’t understand a single thing. After much giggling we knew they are Ilhom and Saryora whom are also fellow muslims but not doing the fast. They tried to invite us for Iftar thru the phone with their 5 yr old son who can speak a little English. We declined as we thought that it will be really difficult to communicate with them.. Bidded farewell after exchanging emails.
Amir Timur Sq
Mr Amir Timur
Wasn’t much to see so we walked towards somewhere hoping to find the pizza bakery stated on the map on the Trail blazer guide.. We walked about 1hr and didn’t see any pizza bakery but only saw a fast food place called The Big way which is also selling pizza and headed towards te restaurant to have our Iftar.. We ordered a assorted meat pizza, roast chicken pieces with rice and a salad. The food was good but a little costly, total for the dinner was 19000 cym = SGD14.40…. Since the dinner was so expensive we had to stinge and walked our way back to the hotel while stopping for 3 times at different supermarket to get some supplies for Sahur the next day.. Bread, chicken sausage, butter and tomatoes and some drinks … Walked about 1hr before we reached our hotel to rest our tired feet and rest for the night again after watching some music channels on tv…
Next morning we only went out about 1630hrs to the Chorsu bazaar hoping to get some cheaper food for Iftar.. Took the train as usual and figured out that to any stations it costs 400cym.. As the metro only serves the city thus we figured it might be the reason why the price is the same to anywhere on the track. Alighted at Chorsu station and walked up to the bazaar and ventured around the place. There was specific areas selling specific foods or things.. Spices, vegetables, cookies/sweets, fruits and groceries… We walked around and got ourselves, grapes, oranges (5500cym for 2 = SGD4.16), peaches, tomatoes and egg. 2 more days it will be the end of Ramadhan and time for celebration so we got some chocolate cookies to celebrate on our own… they resemble the cookies we have back home during Raya so we thought we might not get so home sick with these substitutes… Kekkekek
Iftar time, headed to the food area. Bought some pastries, a roast chicken tigh and headed to the kebab stall to await for Iftar. Orderd beef and chicken doner kebab which tasted quite good.. of course Ramli didn’t stop there, he continued to have hot dog bun and a shashlik (beef kebab)… Than we headed back to the hotel and snooze thru the night…
We had a good sahur today, boil egg and sausage sandwich with cheese and tomato…Stayed in the room till about late afternoon before we headed out to the internet to try upload some pictures and update our blog. The connection wasn’t that good and I only manage to update another 5 days on the blog which is still happening in India while Ramli only manage to upload 1 pic on FB.. WAHHAHAHAHHA
After headed to Chorsu bazaar by train to have our Iftar. There wasn’t much selection so we ate the same.. But today I had a beef burger which tasted like mutton… But still manage to swallow all down with the help of lots of tea… Ramli had the Beef doner kebab and shashlik.. Nothing much happen after… Same routine back to the hotel… Only difference is that today is the last day of fasting… And both of us are thinking so much of home and trying our bests not to drool over the food we are imagining … Wahahhaha
Ramli's Lamb Doner Kebab
My Chicken Doner Kebab
Shashlik
Hot dox?
Our Raya Cookies :(
It feels so different after a month of fasting and you don’t have to fast today… Today is Hari Raya in a foreign land… As we expect that mosts shops wont be opened so we just lazed in the room watching non stop music mtv and cooked local Uzbek instant dry noodle with fried egg and fresh sliced tomatoes for lunch.. only got out of our rooms after mahgrib to look for dinner. The hotel didn’t have dinner but the hotel owners son offered us local uzbek noodle soup and bread with really fresh cucumbers… It tasted great and since we are already full we just went to the provision shop to get some snacks and drinks… But today Ramli miraculously found out that there is many more channels on cable and we watched Shawshank redemption on Sudan TV in ENGLISH!! Nothing much happened at rested for the night… Nothing compared to a Raya back home…
We were waiting for this day to come as finally as the guard said the embassy will be open today… We got up and prepared to check out hoping that we could successfully get our transit visa application submitted so we could get out of Tashkent to Samarkand to do some real sightseeing. We had our free breakfast of fried egg, toast and blueberry tea and headed to the Turk embassy about 0930hrs.. Arrived at about 1015hrs and was told by the guard to have our name written on the lists. We were no.40 and 41…Hmmm we we skeptical if we would be able to get in as the embassy only work from 1100hrs till 1300hrs …. We waited and waited and waited for them to open.. While waiting we met a American guy who already submitted his transit visa application 2 weeks ago and was here to collect his visa. He was no.6 on the name lists and when we asked what time did he come to write down his name.. He came at 0530hrs!! My goodness.. Later came a Italian guy who submitted his application last Thurs and came at 0730hrs to have his name at no.26… He told us the last time he came they only serve up to no.25 as it was 1300hrs they just close and the rest have to come back the next day..
So I guess both of us wont have hope to get in… Sigh.. The doors opened finally at about 1115hrs and people were ushered in by 2s or 3s but not according to the name lists!! The situation was chaotic and with us not speaking any Uzbek or Russian it made things much more difficult for us.. The American and Italian was looking at each other and shaking their heads and giggling… Even the guard couldn’t keep order … But finally someone came up and got the lists and told the guard sternly that he should follow the lists…So one by one people went in in order at times… The American and Italian got in and came out shaking their heads.. The Americans visa seems to be rejected but was told by the consular to come back next Monday… He looked really devastated as he had already waited for 2 weeks… The Italian guy was told to come back on Thurs the same week as he requested for a express service which means additional money to be paid..
Seeing them make us feel really worried… Cause if we don’t get it we might have to fly into Iran… which is the last option we want to take… Anyways we stayed on and see if we had hope of getting in.. Seems many of the people who already had their name written gave up and left and so we got in at about 1245hrs… We were so happy but it was only short lived. We went in and requested for the transit visa form.. While we were filling up the lights suddenly came off from inside.. it was about 1255hrs and the consular was preparing to go home… Ermmm I quickly took up my form and went to the counter, he saw me but waived his hand and flick the last switch and left. His assistance told us that it is close and we have to come back tomorrow…
We were like what???#($&%$&%)%*#94 but no choice we had to leave and try our luck tomorrow ….
We went back to the Big Way to have lunch and later headed back to the hotel to check in again for then night. The room we were staying in previously had been taken so they gave us another bigger rooms with one double bed and a single bed for the same price of USD35/night at a special discount..
We decided that we will head to the Turk Embassy the next morning after Subr prayers to have our name written earlier so we have a better chance to get it done….
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