She's off again - Tashkent

[limey]

Thanks Griff, Glatt! I did get some sleep and wrote the last post after breakfast this morning while it was still fresh in my mind.
It seems a bit of a waste but the first day always ends up being an admin day. First stop - get some currency - you can't get this sort of money at Thomas Cook's. I pay the hotel bill by credit card, and mostly eat in the hotel restaurant so all I need is change for taxis and the odd snack, but it's taken me a while to work this out. I do have one of those travellers' debit cards (you top up your account before you go and it's a payment card which is not linked to you own bank account or credit card account so is safer) but I'm never convinced it's going to work in the ATMs in my countries of destination (though it probably would).
So I travel with USD (new notes, any that are defaced in any way are rejected immediately) and first up need to change some. The official rate to the USD here is 2,500 UZS to 1USD. Allegedly you can get a better rate, say 3,200/1, from the sort of taxi driver who does airport transfers for international hotels but I wouldn't know about that. I've changed a hundred, which I'm pretty sure will be plenty. I can't get over feeling very self conscious fishing a big wad of cash out of my bag and peeling the notes off (the largest denomination I've seen is US5,000 = USD2. That's an improvement on my last visit when the biggest notes in circulation were only UZS1,000), but I try to remember that everyone's in the same boat. Last time I was here I saw someone pay his hotel bill with two bulging carrier bags' full of cash ...
Step two - get a local SIM card in my smart phone. I have an unlocked one specially for this purpose. In this town I have to go to the head office of one of the two mobile phone operators (one Uzbek, one Russian) which is a taxi rode (UZS 5,000, there is a mater but no receipt) from the hotel. It's a ten minute walk back - the taxi driver explains the route to me. There's a pretty efficient electronic ticket queuing system so I take a ticket and wait about 20 minutes to be served. The mobile company has to take a copy of my passport, visa (which I had to get before I set off) and local registration card (drawn up by the hotel for me) and UZS40,000 later my phone is bulging with 1,100MB of data and about five dollars worth of calls at 2c a minute.
On the walk back to the hotel I noticed a café/canteen busy with local office workers and such getting their hot lunch, and a little tiny corner shop next to it.
You do have to watch your step because not only are the pavements pretty uneven, but I'd never trust a manhole cover or drain cover in this neck of the woods and often alongside the roads the "gutters" are gullies a foot wide and eighteen inches deep ...
And then the afternoon is spent making phone calls because few people seem willing to make a definite appointment time until you're actually in town.
It's pretty hot (25C) and humid today - rain would be good. Sunset is at 7pm and because we're nearer the equator than dear old Blighty, dusk-to-dark happens pretty quickly.

[limey]

This hotel room is enormous. 60 sq m. I reckon that’s the footprint of my house and it would probably contain Dani’s house two or three times over. I confess I booked here partly out of curiosity about the much commented on large rooms … also my last place let me down (no heating and a water fail …). I’m being charged around USD100/night, including breakfast.
It contains two queensize beds butted together just for little ol’ me; a bedside cabinet, an easy chair, two-seater sofa and coffee table, a desk and large office-style chair, a six-foot wide unit for the 42” screen TV and hospitality tray, a built-in wardrobe and a decorative cupboard unit of the same size complete with six decorative vases one on each shelf, and it still seems vast and spacious. I have no need to go to the hotel gym – walking around the room is exercise enough for me! I also have two bathrooms or, more properly, a loo (with wash basin and bidet-spray thingie), and a shower room (with another wash basin). I did an in-room 360-degree panorama video but it’ll take 46 minutes to upload so I might remember to add it when I get home.
There are one or two unusual facilities in this room. Bathroom scales (no I’m not stepping on those, no siree, nuh-uh!); a retractable washing line in the shower room (I used this, the hotel charges $5 to wash a pair of knickers); and gas masks in case of fire. I knew about these last from an online review of the place and, while surprising, I think they’re eminently sensible, since the vast majority of deaths in fires are caused by smoke inhalation.

[Sundae]

You know how people sometimes pocket the soaps or pack the towels from hotel rooms?
Please to take the scales with you.
I could do with seeing whether all my exercise and clean living is making a difference!

Can't wait to see photos.

[limey]

I can take a hint and a photo(but not the scales! ).


Views from opposite ends of the room. Please to excuse the rumpled bed ... The maid's not been yet.

Sent by thought transference

[Sundae]

It's a suite!
Yup, could fit my flat in there I reckon.

[fargon]

That's nice. A lot nicer than the Super 8 we stayed in last month.

[BigV]

limey, your room is big and beautiful!

fargon, I've always found the choice of that name for the hotel chain most unfortunate. It gives me the heebiejeebies.

[limey]

Here's a couple of photos of the hotel lift. The mirror is the wall and the marble mosaic is the floor.

Sent by thought transference

[limey]

Tashkent Westminster International University.

Sent by thought transference

[limey]

I was always right in the middle of town where all the big impressive buildings are.


I think this one is used for important international meetings.

A detail.

The storks in the roof are a sign of good luck.

Sent by thought transference

[limey]

Across the road from the hotel there was a medical college, I think.

Close up of mosaic detail. I think the building dates from Soviet times. They often included local cultural detail in the architecture.

Also a building which seemed to be a coach garage. What caught my eye was this bathtub at which guys seemed to have a quick wash. And was used as a source of water for car and coach washing.


Sent by thought transference

[limey]

There are lots of trees for shade in the street and plenty of parks (in the middle of town at least).

This is a gardening crew. Often the gardeners are women.

The main roads are all very wide; three lanes in each direction often. Or very narrow: I was sometimes startled when my taxi turned in to what seemed to be a residential courtyard entrance which in fact was a short cut to another huge street.
Here's a typical town centre street.


Sent by thought transference

[limey]

And finally ...
The hotel restaurant:

and the café round the corner where I also ate:


The second picture shows the food counter. It was more like a canteen in that the hot food was all on display and you queued to choose and be served.
You'll have to go and look in the food forum for food reports but I think I'll do them tomorrow. I've an early start in eye morning and ought to go to bed now.

Sent by thought transference

[glatt]

Were you eating at an odd time? Those places are empty!

[Griff]

I like the stainless (?) furniture in that cafe.