Tashkent Day One

 My first big day in the big city, and it is big. Tashkent is the biggest city in Central Asia, the architecture is a unique mix. In the early 60s there was a large earthquake directly under the city center. This demolished almost everything. The Russian government stepped in to assist with the rebuild which gave the place an internationalist flair. Think wide boulevards and large buildings with large setbacks. Unusually for Soviet built cities, the more important buildings have geometric decoration which to my eye feels Islamic oriented. While Uzbekistan is nominally a Muslim country, you won’t hear the cries of the muezzin five times a day calling the faithful to the mosque. Uzbekistan sits in a middle ground and Tashkent especially is rather secular.

For my first stop of the day, I walked to the Polytechnic museum. This space has two exhibitions, the upper floor is a science museum geared to children. The lower floor is a car museum split between vintage Soviet wheels and modern production. The Soviet side was fascinating. Volgas for days and a few Moskovitches thrown in here and there. The star of the show was the two GAZ Chaikas. Volgas were available for the general public to buy and sometimes outfitted for the KGB. Chaikas were not for sale. These were produced for government garages and given away as gifts to important people. Yuri Gagarin revived one after coming back from space. These are imposing vehicles lovingly ripped off from 1950s Packards. In a room full of Soviet kit, they really stand out. The two cars they had on display came directly from state ownership to the museum. On the modern side, the displays were mostly about showing off local Uzbek production. They are (naturally) very proud of their plants and have managed to localize a good bit of the supply chain. The cars on display were first run examples typically signed on the hood by the sitting president. One of the displays was a Chevy Cobalt which had this hilarious writing on the accompanying plaque, “ Cobalt combines comfort, sophistication and high dynamic quality, as well as non-aging traditional classic design.” for those not in the know, the Cobalt is best remembered in the US for a defect and scandal in which, due to cost cutting, airbags might not deploy in the event of a crash.

A sure sign that you’re about to have a bad day

My next stop continued my search for old cameras. I Reached out to a local camera shop and film lab, the only film lab in the country, to ask if they had anything in stock. While I waited for their reply, I cruised Chorsu Bozar looking for vintage kit. Chorsu didn’t have what I was looking for, it is mostly a food and fabrics market but nonetheless it was still cool to walk around. The layout is chaotic and if you don’t know your way around, you will get lost. Eventually the film shop PM’d me and let me know I was at the wrong bozar but they were willing to show me to the right one tomorrow. What luck! I washed down my good news with a Coke. When the stall owner started to grumble at me I stopped what I was doing and someone was able to quickly translate. This is a bottle return country and I was walking away with his deposit. Oopsie.

I took the metro back to my hotel for a rest and bumped into a surprise. A military band was in front of my hotel in block formation with people surrounding them holding flags. Just my luck, a Calvary parade was about to begin. The band struck up and a parade of horses, motorcycles, and a double decker bus with traditional Uzbek musicians followed. Great fun. I think this is the first time I’ve heard an army band play Miserlou. We should really do that in the US as well.

Pony Express

After a nap I went for dinner at a nearby restaurant and grabbed a drink at the Intercontinental. It’s close to my hotel and out here, cheap enough. Being the most “American” bar in the city, I happened to sit next to a fellow expat. This man was a high up working the local branch of the CDC. We talked news, politics, and Uzbekistan. It’s not official government guidance, but he recommends you exercise caution with the hot dogs in the bozor. On second thought, he felt a case of Tashkent Tummy might be a good warm up for Deli Belly. Oh dear.