September 11, Tashkent

We’re back on the road. It’s our second day here in Tashkent and it is awesome. Came with Mishka and Fainka. Our flight here was delayed, so we only got in at 2:00am on Sept 10. 

Fantastically clean, wide, well-lit streets. Beautiful city. We have a nice hotel of the same flavor as the Ulaanbaatar one. Originally built for party workers, but they did even a better job modernizing it here. 

A quick historical note on why Tashkent avenues are so exceptionally wide: back in April 1966, a massive earthquake destroyed much of the city, leaving over 300,000 people homeless. Reconstruction became a major Soviet showcase project, with teams from across the USSR sent to rebuild Tashkent from scratch. They laid out a modern grid with massive, tree-lined boulevards and spacious Soviet-style apartment blocks designed to withstand future quakes, which gives the city its wide, airy feel today. And that's why there is no old old town - what was not destroyed, was demolished to make way for the modern town. They did recently build a new old town, but more about it later.

Fainka was hungry, so we went outside across the street into a 24-hour restaurant. It was full—people were smoking, eating, and so on. We spent two hours there. With the time difference of 9 hours, it doesn't really feel very late, and we barely got ourselves to go to bed to sleep when we returned.

For that reason, barely, barely got ourselves out of bed in the morning! We had a nice breakfast, it is totally like our hotel in Ulaanbaatar, but no aaruul this time.

Dan & I took a cab to the Chorsu Market. Very very impressive. A giant domed space with a ton of merchants inside on the two stories, and a broad belt of more food merchants outside. Watermelons, cantaloups, dried fruits, the biggest one yet—bigger than similar ones in Morocco.

It is interesting just how prevalent Russian is. When we were at the airport looking for the way out, Dan directly asked one of the guards in Russian where it is, and we were led. Taxi drivers, hotel staff, signs everywhere in Russian. And actually, some signs are in Russian only. Uzbeks use the Latin script now, and in general, there is a mix of English, Russian, and Uzbek writings everywhere. The kids would have had a blast with so much interesting Russian variant being spoken. And even the menus sound tastier. I keep taking pictures of funny usage of Russian - even on candies :) 

Everyone is so very nice and kind and welcoming. There is great variety of people. At the airport, we were stricken by women with dramatic facial alterations, amid those wearing head scarves, and Uzbek beauties will long eyes that look like they came out of the fairy tales... men that look in the similar range as well - except of the facial aberrations ones, LOL. 

Fainka and Mishka joined us at the market, we did a bit more of the market, particularly the bread section, lepeshki (pide is awesome!!!!!). They have the tandoor ovens right inside the market so you can see them being baked. This is a popular stop for the tourist groups. In general not too many tourists but definitely a lot more than in 

Then we went to nearby Kokaldash Madrasah and, then on to the Hazrati Imam complex, very pretty. On the way there, there is a beautiful newly built traditional-style heritage district, the Zarqaynar historical restoration area leading up to the complex, , full of pretty brickwork and cute boutiques. It's still finishing being built, so some store spaces are still up for rent and not yet on the main tourist maps!

Then we left Mike & Fainka and took a cab to meet up with Danik’s friends, Vladimir and Alexander.  They took us to a local restaurant for lunch. Interesting hearing their perspectives on the place, not easy to do business but they make good living and have no interest in moving anywhere. One still speaks only Russian. I suppose you can get by without the Uzbek language, and the other speaks Uzbek a little. Very nice people.

Then we went back to the hotel for a nap. It will take a bit to get our time figured out.

Woke up and went to grab coffee... $5 for an espresso tonic, though generally stuff and good food is much cheaper here.

Then we went to Amir Timur Square. It is beautiful. I had been there many years ago with my parents. We walked around and then met up with the Snitkovskys, taking a cab over to the famous Beshqozon plov center.

Beshqozon name literally means "Five Cauldrons." It started out modestly in the late 1990s and has grown into a massive culinary institution right next to the Tashkent TV Tower. Chefs cook up to 10 tons of plov a day over woodfires in gigantic cast-iron cauldrons, serving thousands of locals and visitors daily.

We ordered 4 types of plov. It was nice, but not as good as Dan’s father’s. I suppose it is mass-produced and hard to give it that much love at scale, but it was still good and I can imagine people who haven't tried homemade plov would find it lovely.

We walked back to the hotel, stopping on the way at a boulangerie for honey cake and Napoleon, having run out of strength, and then kept going.

There is some a 97th anniversary of the opening of the season at the Alisher Navoi theater that is across from our hotel. So there is a massive outdoor concert set up in front of our hotel, lots of build-out with fancy chairs and cool lights with AI overlays. There will be performances tomorrow, and they were practicing the light show setup at 11:00pm. It looked magical! We sat around watching it for a while before calling it a day.

Being September 11, we were also mindful that today marks the 25-year anniversary of 9/11. Continued heartbreak for the families who lost loved ones; in so many ways, life changed forever that day. For the generation born after, it’s a slightly different reality, Isabella said there was a moment of silence in her class, but not much discussion, which is sad. In some ways, it feels that over these 25 years, we as a society may have come to a place where it feels possible, even likely, that such a tragedy could repeat. So many new things have been built and rebuilt since then, but so many things broken, too. It’s an uncertain time, but I hope we progress in a positive direction from here.