After a few hours long taxi ride I arrived in Tashkent. The driver drove around town for a little while to drop other passengers off. I was invited by 2 middle aged women to come in and have a cup of tea with them when they arrived at their house. But I decided to decline the offer. I had no idea where I was or how to get anywhere, they didn`t speak any English either, and off course I had all my luggage with me. The driver drove me around for a while delivering parcels to some houses. I was the last one in the car and he asked me if I wanted to go with him to deliver the last parcel at the other end of the city before he took me to my hotel. I had no idea how far it would be and I was getting tired and really wanted to make sure that I got a bed for the night at he train station. So I had to decline that offer as well. It could`ve been a nice guided tour around Tashkent otherwise.

Hotels in Tashkent seem to be pretty expensive. The cheapest place according to the guide book is located at the train station. So I went there and checked into the dorm. Just as I started handing over the money they told me that there was no shower. I figured that for a night it`s no problem not having a shower. But if I stay longer I`ll probably need to find a new place to stay. So I checked in anyway.

On the first night in Tashkent I went to the Alisher Navoi Opera and Ballet theatre and saw Il Pagliacci. In all Central Asian capitals they have big theatres that were built by the Soviets. All of them still do shows several nights a week. In Tashkent it`s pretty much every night of the week, and it`s either Opera or Ballet. I`m not very much interested in Opera but the ticket was only about 3 dollars. So I figured why not. It was very enjoyable. I didn`t understand much but had a nice evening anyway. After the show I went back to the hotel. I had left most of my valuables in my bag next to my bed and locked it with padlocks. I figured that was safe enough. But stupidly I had left the keys to the padlock laying on my bed! So much for trying to secure my things. In the room was just one more guest. A military man from Termez, on the border to Afghanistan. He spoke no English. But we talked anyway for quite a while. After a while he made a phone call to his daughter in Termez who speaks English. But when he handed me the phone so I could talk to her she didn`t want to say anything. There was also a drunk Korean staying in another room. He came in and started talking. He was very annoying so I tried to get him to leave for a long time before he finally understood that it was time for him to go.

I was in Tashkent mostly because I needed to get a visa to Kazakhstan. So the next morning I got up early and walked over to the embassy. I had expected it to take a couple of days maybe. But they told me to come back later that afternoon to pick up the visa. Sweet, I thought.

I spent the day walking around sightseeing a bit. Checking out some park, and monuments. And I found my way to the National Museum which wasn`t all that interesting. It was very well done, but just not all that interesting. Tashkent as a city wasn`t very interesting either. The streets are very wide. The distances are quite long. The buildings aren`t very nice. There are lots of big modern buildings, but also dilapidated old Soviet buildings. So I was happy that I didn`t have to stay very long.

The next morning I got up early and caught the train to Samarkand. Finally I was heading for the fabled city of Samarkand. This most mythical of real cities.