The winter months haven't proved too eventful in Tashkent. The winter itself has been ever elusive, with a solid 3 days of snow max. I've been moved from the PE department to year 5 where I help in a class of 9; although only we average about 7 children most days. They're all angels so we got the better deal compared to the other year 5 class of 24 children.
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| Rare day of snow |
My parents came to visit at the start of March to experience everything Tashkent has to offer, along with a side weekend in Shymkent, Kazakhstan. They stayed in Hotel Uzbekistan on the main square, affectionately known as "the book." An old hotel, they weren't allowed to stay below level 12 as it apparently doesn't meet standards for Westerners. The receptionists there didn't decide to provide too much help; probably something to do with the 24 hour shifts they do once every 3 days. I'm sure there's logic there somewhere.
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| Staying in a Soviet book. |
After my parents dolled out the 6 month supply of cous cous, quinoa and tuna they'd bought me, we managed to flag down a taxi to take us to the walk through border with Kazakhstan.This proved mostly uneventful and we strolled through in less than 45 minutes to be hounded on the other side by people trying to exchange a wide array of currencies and taxi rides. After assuring the men that any number above 10 would be met with a cackle and a sassy finger snap, we found a nice taxi for $10 to take us all the way to Shymkent city centre in an hour and a half. He drove mostly on the wrong side of the road to avoid potholes, and we almost careered into oncoming lorries only 50/60 times.
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| Monument by the park of independence |
Shymkent is quite nice, and we got lucky with the good weather. The main highlight is the tulip shaped fountain. It's not really a highlight, and yet it is the main one. Luckily, I managed to amuse myself with the buying of a new phone, marginally cheaper than buying one in the UK.
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| The circus |
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| A tulip fountain to attract the tourists. We were the only ones there. |
After making the same tumultuous journey back to the border on the wrong side of the road, we got through with only a small amount of sexual harassment from the border guards. I'm not sure licking your lips and beckoning people over is really acceptable at border control, but there didn't seem to be a feedback form at the end so we let it go. Some more highlights of Tashkent included the cable cart around the TV tower and the red bus tour from the hotel.
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| Literally about to die in this car. |
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| Enjoying the sights of Tashkent from a moving vehicle. |
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| It's like being in London. It really is. |
The main event from the past week has been the celebration of Navruz; the celebration of New Year. Traditions involve taking turns to stir a pot of sumalak for 16 hours, before leaving it to cool and eating it at 6am the next day. We kinda made it following various antics in our friends' mansion, and the winners were treated to champions pancakes the next morning.
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| Being Uzbek, helping stir the wheatgrass. |
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| Losing all sense of self. |
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| Still stirring 10 hours on. |
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| Champions of the morning. |
