Tashkent
Tashkent is quiet today as its a holiday to mark the end of Ramadan. We had four hours sleep last night as we got in so late and I had to be up this morning to meet a travel agent who I had asked to get train tickets for us. Buying train tickets here is fraught with difficulty, not least because you can never be sure when they go on sale. Tickets will go on sale anywhere between 7 and 60 days for some trains. In addition there is a lot of paperwork. I had arranged the purchase from New Zealand so I wasnt at all sure the man would turn up, but he did. We are now in possession of all our tickets including an overnight sleeper from Bukhara to Tashkent. We have no idea what that will be like. We wasted an hour at the hotel while they tried to mend the safe in our room. No luck so we had to just take our valuables with us. We explored the metro which is modelled on Moscow and very elegant. Signage is pretty minimal so navigation is a bit if a challenge. Also the station signs are in Cyrillic whereas the maps on the carriages are in Latin alphabet. There are no maps on the station platform so, all in all, counting stations helps. There is a very visible police presence in the metro - on the platforms, by the ticket office, in the corridors, at the entrances.
We went to Chorsu bazaar which was a bit quiet because of the holiday. It is housed in a huge domed building. If you like the smell of butchered meat and offal then this is the place for you. Animal carcasses abound as well as huge trays of liver and other organs. The odd small animal droppings indicate this is also a popular spot at night. Outside the bazaar are hundreds of stalls selling shoes and clothing. We had a good lunch. Temperature is in the thirties so walking around was a bit if a trial. We went to a supermarket and bought some food for breakfast on the train today. We treated ourselves to an ice cream and then went back to the hotel. I made the mistake of falling asleep at around 7 pm. I simply couldn't stay awake. I was awake at 3 am after a good 8 hours sleep and have been awake since then writing this and catching up on other stuff.
Better get showered and prepare for our train journey. The ticket man told us to turn up an hour early for the train as the security is similar to airport security. That should be fun. By this stage of the trip I've really had it with taking my belt off and having my body patted down.