Uzbekistan – Non-stop bread

July 20-23

Hello everyone!

My final stop in Uzbekistan, and on my Central Asian summer aside from another day in Almaty, was the largest city in the region. Tashkent has a population of over 2 million people and is the capital of this fascinating country.

What am I doing? NON of your business!

Tashkent is only about 25 km from the Kazakh border crossing

It was a stop on the Silk Road back in the day but has now been transformed, firstly by the Soviet Union and more recently by its attempts to become more modern and cosmopolitan.

We were told Hotel Uzbekistan is often on
many postcards. As if it looks...nice...

The invasion from the West, led by Coca-Cola...

The bustling city has what all metropolises need in order to function: an effective transport system. Tashkent’s pride and joy is its gleaming metro system.

A facade in Oybek metro station

The amazingly cool Cosmonavtlar station, whose wall colour
becomes darker to represent the movement towards space

I mean gleaming. Each station is allegedly cleaned every 15 minutes (I never saw anyone cleaning it). What I did see were some beautiful stations which were reminiscent of those I was wowed by in Moscow at the start of my trip, five weeks ago.

Vladimir Dzanibekov was the first Uzbek in space

London's Tube stops could do with a spruce-up!

We were told that Tashkent’s metro is one of the oldest in the former Soviet Union. There are some obvious differences, the main one being that you don’t have to seemingly travel to the centre of the earth to get to the platform, but it is a beautiful, effective way of managing the city’s burgeoning populace.

This is a picture from a famous Uzbek story. Our guide told us that it is still
studied in school, much like Shakespeare for the British.

'Cotton' lights showing the infamous industry of the Uzbek SSR

It was the Soviets who made Tashkent, along with Almaty, the prominent city in Central Asia. Tashkent was made capital of the Uzbek SSR in 1930, taking the role from Samarkand. Interestingly, many other nations wanted Tashkent within its territory; owing to its large Uzbek ethnic group, the city was placed in what we now called Uzbekistan.

A design style found across the former USSR

The golden globe is a more modern monument

The main places of interest are reasonably spread, meaning the metro is useful in the summer heat (temperatures often peaked above 40°C). There are the usual reminders of the glory days, with a statue of Tamerlane soaring above his eponymous square. The poor horse, a male, is missing a key part of his anatomy for some reason.

Tamerlane atop his stallion

Like Samarkand before it, I was pleasantly surprised
with the greenery that could be found in Tahskent

Walking up Broadway (that really is the name of the street) from this statue gets you near a fascinating museum called the History Museum of the People of Uzbekistan. The museum charts the history of the land, from cavemen to strongmen. I wasn’t feeling well at this point – truth be told, I’ve felt pretty rotten the whole time in Tashkent – so couldn’t appreciate the encyclopaedic knowledge possessed by our charming guide. The info was coming so thick and fast it kept making me want to sit down. Though other forces may have been playing their hand at that time…

The outside of the building is an interesting design

I wasn't prepared to pay three times the price of my ticket
to take photos - this is an internet image of the museum

The museum touches upon two tragedies which have befallen Tashkent in the last century. One was the Second World War. The museum said that one and a half million Uzbek troops fought for the Soviet Union – 400,000 didn’t return. This is shown poignantly at the war memorial, which has a flick book of each name. It goes on for a disturbingly big distance.

The list stretches out from an eternal flame

Just one of many books, showing the names of the fallen

There is pre-Soviet history visible in the centre of Tashkent. One example is the Khast Imom square, which has a mosque and a small building called the library. In this library are many copies of the Qu’ran, including copies in Braille, a raft of foreign languages and one which is the size of a thumb. There is also the oldest known copy of the Osman Qu’ran, which has been dated to the 7^th century and was written on deer skin. I’m not sure how special the Osman part makes it – that was the person who wrote it.

The Qu'ran was returned to Tashkent in 1990 and
is kept safe in the building on the left

This is one third of the whole Qu'ran - the other sections have been lost

The other main reminder of Tashkent’s past is actually its bustling present: Chorsu Bazaar. Under a large dome, a sprawl of colour and noise occurs on a daily basis. The interior is just for meat and cheese (and dried fruit on the upper floor), with hawkers selling all kinds of things outside.

Under the dome - it's actually very well organised

The fruit and vegetables are kept outside the domed hall

One of the popular items is called non: bread. These circular loaves are omnipresent in Uzbekistan.

This bread was in Samarkand - too pretty to eat!

Non is transported in very efficient ways

At the bazaar in Tashkent, we watched the bakers do their thing. Make the dough, knead it, shape it, shove it onto the wall in a fiery pit – you know, the usual. Whilst watching this unfold, one of the bakers gestured at me. I walked casually forward. Suddenly a broom with dough on the end has been thrust in my hand. My turn, it seems.

The dough is stuck on the wall and bakes in intense heat

Having a go with the oven

After thankfully being warned to take my hat off, I tried to steer the bread towards the left wall of the oven. I had to get a bit closer, and that’s when the heat hit me, scorching my eyes. Seemed hotter than the gas crater, that’s for sure. I just about put it in the correct place (slightly touching another loaf but he said it was OK), scooped it off about five minutes later, gave him 2000 som (20p, 25c) and was on my way with my fresh, sumptuously-smelling bread.

Trying to fish out my bread

To get the bread out, you use a longer stick with a pot on the end

It’s little moments like that which have made Uzbekistan such a lovely place to visit. Warm, friendly people who are always willing to help, feed and interact with you. Tashkent has issues it has to deal with before it reaches its potential (I played ‘Count the Policemen’ one day and lost count) but it has a history, a culture and an identity. The whole country does. It’s been one I’ve been very happy to see and the regret of not coming here when I lived next door has certainly been extinguished now I’ve seen the Uzbek part of the Silk Road in all its majesty.

This is where the truck has taken me - some on the ride are going as far as Xi'an and Bangkok

One final shared plov - running will need to be stepped up a lot after this trip!

Love you all,

Matt