{"id":5577,"date":"2025-08-02T10:12:36","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T14:12:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hellum.ca\/blog\/?p=5577"},"modified":"2025-08-06T23:46:00","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T03:46:00","slug":"uzbekistan-day-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hellum.ca\/blog\/uzbekistan-day-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Uzbekistan – Day One"},"content":{"rendered":"

[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” _builder_version=”4.16″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” _builder_version=”4.16″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” _builder_version=”4.27.4″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n

Harold and I did a lot of walking today – my preferred method of getting to know a city.<\/p>\n

But with a population cresting 6mill when including outer boroughs, walking will only get you so far. Plus it is the dry season here and very hot in direct sunlight – like 40C hot. It\u2019s quite tolerable in the shade and Tashkent is a rather green city (at least the areas of it we\u2019ve seen today). But being the dry season the foliage is lightly frosted with dust. It will be interesting to get out of the capital and see more of the country.<\/p>\n

We went first to the Chorsu market, being Saturday. And it is HUGE. There is a central, domed area dealing primarily in meats and cheeses, but the extended covered and uncovered market(s) go on and on and ON around the area. Clothing, food, metal working, wood working, nail salons, trinket shops and more. The first few photos below are from Chorsu.<\/p>\n

We then thought to walk to a cemetery\/mosque complex, but I interjected for lunch and we found a nice place – I have no memory of where it was. We had cucumber and tomato in a dill\/sour cream sauce, a kind of greek salad (but with some mild cheese like mozzarella) and \u00a0fairly bland soup with beef and noodles.<\/p>\n

Following lunch, we thought we\u2019d walk to the cemetery \u2018complex\u2019 of Shantaur<\/em>, but after much much walking could not find the place. I was exhausted from the heat and dryness, and we by chance saw an open gate down an alleyway and tried that. It was the right place, but quite underwhelming. The \u2018Complex\u2019 was just three small mosques enclosing a green area, surrounded on all four sides by construction and modern tower(s). Pics below.<\/p>\n

I installed the app \u2018Yandex Go\u2019, which is \u2018Uber\u2019 in this part of the world, and getting a ride back to the hotel was super simple.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve just woken from a nap (it\u2019s now 7pm) and Harold and I should either think of dinner or call it a night. He is on a different floor in this hotel and does not yet have a SIM card for his phone, so we are relying on eMail when apart.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Teas with some sort of apple cider flavouring. I bought a small bottle of saffron\/cardamom tea.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Butcher area of the Chorsu market. The smell of meat and death was strong so we did not linger.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The interior of the main complex for the Chorsu market, but the outlying avenues of shops under tents was far, far larger and went on in all directions seemingly endlessly.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Beef tongues.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Quail eggs next to chicken eggs.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In the bread section of the Chorsu market.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Square of a minor mosque downtown Tashkent.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Inside the small mosque of Shantaur.<\/p>\n

[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Harold and I did a lot of walking today – my preferred method of getting to know a city. But with a population cresting 6mill when including outer boroughs, walking will only get you so far. Plus it is the dry season here and very hot in direct sunlight – like 40C hot. It\u2019s quite […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"

Harold and I did a lot of walking today - my preferred method of getting to know a city.<\/p>\n

But with a population cresting 6mill when including outer boroughs, walking will only get you so far. Plus it is the dry season here and very hot in direct sunlight - like 40C hot. It\u2019s quite tolerable in the shade and Tashkent is a rather green city (at least the ares of it we\u2019ve seen today).<\/p>\n

We went first to the Chorsu market, being Saturday. And it is HUGE. There is a central, domed area dealing primarily in meats and cheeses, but the extended covered and uncovered market(s) go on and on and ON around the area. Clothing, food, metal working, wood working, nail salons, trinket shops and more. The first few photos below are from Chorsu.<\/p>\n

We then thought to walk to a cemetery\/mosque complex, but I interjected for lunch and we found a nice place - I have no memory of where it was. We had cucumber and tomato in a dill\/sour cream sauce, a kind of greek salad (but with some mild cheese like mozzarella) and \u00a0fairly bland soup with beef and noodles.<\/p>\n

Following lunch, we thought we\u2019d walk to the cemetery \u2018complex\u2019 of \u2018Shantaur\u2019, but after much much walking could not find the place. I was exhausted from the heat and dryness, and we by chance saw an open gate down an alleyway and tried that. It was the place, but quite underwhelming. The \u2018Complex\u2019 was just three small mosques enclosing a green area, surrounded on all four sides by construction and modern tower(s). Pics below.<\/p>\n

I installed the app \u2018Yandex Go\u2019, which is \u2018Uber\u2019 in this part of the world and getting a ride back to the hotel was super simple.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve just woken from a nap (it\u2019s now 7pm) and Harold and I should either think of dinner or call it a night. He is on a different floor in this hotel and does not yet have a SIM card for his phone, so we are relying on eMail when apart.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Teas with some sort of apple cider flavouring. I bought a small bottle of saffron\/cardamom tea.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Butcher area of the Chorsu market. The smell of meat and death was strong so we did not linger.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The interior of the main complex for the Chorsu market, but the outlying avenues of shops under tents was far, far larger and went on in all directions seemingly endlessly.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Beef tongues.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Quail eggs next to chicken eggs.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In the bread section of the Chorsu market.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Square of a minor mosque downtown Tashkent.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Inside the small mosque of Shantaur.<\/p>","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,22,82],"tags":[79,80,78],"class_list":["post-5577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tashkent","category-travel","category-uzbekistan","tag-tashkent","tag-travel","tag-uzbekistan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hellum.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hellum.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hellum.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hellum.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hellum.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5577"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.hellum.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5591,"href":"https:\/\/www.hellum.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5577\/revisions\/5591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hellum.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hellum.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hellum.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}