My introduction to Tashkent
First impressions of Tashkent — a city still finding its feet after Soviet rule, with bare trees hiding its beauty, a sublime Good Friday Mass in a Catholic church, and the best vegan fried noodles. (5 min read)
Joanna Lumley lied — Tashkent does not look like Paris, at least not this week. While there are some stunning blossoms and lovely beds of tulips, the trees are not yet green. The city obviously does not have its best clothes on yet; in May it will be much nicer. I bet Joanna visited in May.
Right now the bare trees expose Tashkent’s shoddy side. There has not been enough investment in infrastructure — most of the housing looks Soviet and in need of maintenance and the roads have not been prioritised. This is ironic because there are a lot of cars — mostly modern ones, but there also old polluting ones. Occasionally, the horns honk like taxis used to in NYC in the 90’s.
I have to stop myself from thinking I’m in Armenia (which is the closest I’ve been to Russia). Poverty, grey skies and Russian accents.
It is a time of transition in language — from Russian to Uzbek — but there is still a lot of Russian script around. While the Uzbek words are challenging in Latin script, they are impossible for me in Cyrillic. I am making an effort with Uzbek and I love the way an Uzbek’s face lights up when I try to say “rahmat” (“thank you”).
I can’t get my head around what a typical Uzbek looks like. Some people obviously have Chinese or Russian ancestry but there is an altogether different strand. Unlike the former, they are handsome people who look a mixture of Asian and Iranian.
People are generally lean and smartly dressed. Most people in Uzbekistan are Muslim but, in Tashkent at least, only a small proportion of women are veiled.
Today’s museum visits suggest there is a huge way to go to achieve gender equality in Uzbekistan. Aside from amazing applied arts by women (who are all anonymous in the museum labels), there are no stories about women in the national museum — but many stories and photos of “powerful” men. Advancing women’s employment is one of the pillars of the current government but, sadly, the pictogram they use for this pillar is a sewing machine!
I walked nearly 20km today visiting museums, church (it is Good Friday) and the best vegan restaurant in Tashkent. My hotel is well located close to Amir Timur Square but today’s itinerary had me circling the city.
The Museum of Applied Arts is small but lovely — showcasing beautiful textiles; hand-embroidery from 19th century and later machine-embroidery; carpets and printed cloth; carving and awesome tile work and ceramics, including ceramic children’s toys.
The Museum of the History of Uzbekistan is not one of the great national museums of the world. There are interesting prehistoric artefacts which testify to the very long human history of this area; some stunning bronze age pieces and several BC relics from various faiths. The country’s strategic location has meant lots of conflicts and conquests and many of the artefacts referenced this. There are also some important early Islamic objects in the collection. But as the chronology gets closer to the present day, the narrative becomes blatant propaganda rather than museology. And that’s where I stopped being a fan and started thinking about Donald Trump. And the reason I was thinking about the orange one is because he has obviously learned a thing or two from the Soviets who had almost a century of lies and disinformation.
The visit to the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was sublime. Although the church was “closed” a priest let me in to join him and another praying the Divine Mercy chaplet (in Polish). This was perfect for Good Friday and I later viewed carvings of the best stations I’ve ever seen.
The 90 minute walk to my vegan lunch was worth it! I chose the vegan version of the Uzbek classic called “Fried Lagman” — involving home made noodles, sweet peppers, tomatoes, onions, Chinese cabbage, jandouque, garlic, ginger fried over a high heat with lots of herbs and spices. Followed by a green salad chaser.
Getting around Tashkent with Google Maps is not straight-forward. None of the streets have signs. And the footpaths and bikeways are parallel but several metres away from the road. So Google frequently gets lost and thinks I’m somewhere I’m not. I had several detours, including one that reminded me of walking through the projects and another that delivered me to a metro stop that saved me an hour of walking.
This evening I met the people who are in my tour group of 12. Mostly they are very well travelled and interesting. There are several Brits so, needless to say, they went to the pub after dinner while I took the road less travelled to my room.
I hope this gives a bit of a taste of my experience. Tomorrow I take the golden road to Samarkand, the highlight of the trip and the beginning of the end of my fifties.
© Paul McCarthy & Iluminar.au
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