TR Tashkent Uzbekistan, 2008 Trip anniversary

[Mishenka]

Here it is one year later and finally I decide to write a TR. One year ago tonight I was boarding my flight from LAX to SVO2 then on to Tashkent, Uzbekistan to meet Galina.  It was crazy at LAX because they were in the middle of renovations at Terminal 4 where Aeroflot was supposed to be checking people in. When I got there, No Aeroflot. They redirected me to terminal 3. The flight was better than expected with the best service Ive had from Aeroflot. Even the food was pretty good.  The flight was flawless nonstop from LAX to moscow with a 4 hour layover then another 4 hour flight to Tashkent arriving at 4 AM. Would she be there when I landed? more later......

Backflash to 1999.  Galina and I had met in Moscow 9 years earlier while she was there with her son who needed eye surgery. We were both still married to our spouses at the time. By now we have both been single again for 5 or 6 years. I was on my third trip to Moscow in 1999 doing some music concerts, radio shows and helping distribute food, clothing, baby diapers and other personal items to families who needed them. I had given Galina a cassette tape or a CD of my music. I didn't think about her again until one day, out of nowhere 7 years and 6 months later I get this email from her.  Galina wrote a short letter with a few photo's asking how I am doing etc, so I wrote back. I didn't remember her from these newer photos, so I had to ask what she looked like before. Then it hit me, Oh that girl, but now she has changed,, totally changed. Here are some photos, used with permission. First a Before Photo with her son from 9 years ago, then recent ones. Galina is with her nephew Yaroslav in photo 2. There are many facial expressions we must learn to read to fully understand a FSU woman. THis could take a life time.

[Mishenka]

I had been flying 24 hours by now and landed in Tashkent at 4:35 Am. I was filling out forms for customs and they didn't want to let me through for some reason. I didn't  understand a word of Uzbek, and this guy didn't speak good Russian and no English at all. By now everyone from the flight had passed through except for me. its now 5 Am and by now Galina is thinking, where is my Mishenka? She could hear me having heated words with this agent. he wanted money,, but I had no cash on me. ( on purpose) Finally I figured out he also wanted 2 copies of my documents. So I stood there making a hand written second copy and he still wanted money, I said no,  and finally let me through.
 By now I'm frazzled. I haven't slept in two nights. I turn the corner to find Galina and Pavel with huge smiles running to me. It was like in the movies. She was running across the room screaming my name in happiness. No one has ever run to me like this except my daughters when they were little. We walked to the taxi, forced the luggage into the trunk of the tiny taxi. We sat together in the back seat while Pavel sat in front giving directions to the driver. From the time we sat together in that first taxi Till the day I left Tashkent Galina and I were attached at the hip.

We arrive near her flat and have to walk a block or so to her door. It's now 5:30 AM and we must sleep. She had bought a new sofa, so I assumed I would sleep there tonight, but she said no, you will sleep in my bed. I didn't want to argue with her about anything so I said OK. I expected she would sleep on the sofa. but now, Once I was in bed, here she was saying, I cannot sleep on sofa. I said OK, I will sleep on sofa and you sleep in your bed, She said NO! we will sleep together. You didn't fly to Tashkent to sleep alone!  I'm not one to argue. we slept well,  we woke at 1 PM to birds singing and a nice warm sunny day in Tashkent and my first of many morning and night massages! I was truly in heaven. Pavel had gone to work at 8 Am and we were alone with the day to ourselves. Now I would find out how good her English was without the use of the on line translator she would use speaking on Skype. Pavel spoke good English so we always had him to translate when we needed.

First order of business was to go to the bank and get some cash. There are no ATM's in Tashkent that dispense US dollars. Galina explained that we can get about 10,000 more Uzbek dollars if we exchange with her friends, so we went to the bazaar to exchange them. I asked Galina what will $10,000 Uzbek buy,   she told me a Kilo of Bananas and a few tomatoes.  The exchange was 140,000  Uzbek sum to $100 US. I never had 140 $1000.00 bills in my hand before. Its quite a stack of money. I had exchanged $300 and felt rich with $420,000 in my pocket. At todays rate that 420 is $450,000. She took half and I took half. We went shopping for foods at the Bazaar and brought it home to cook dinner. Pavel came home at 6 and we began to prepare all this food. Then her Brother Aleksey and his son Yarik come over for dinner. I was reminded, when you marry a Russian Woman, you marry her family. They were always together. To a Russian Woman, her family is EVERYTHING to her. She treats them more precious than gold.  We ate roast chicken that night.




   

[Mishenka]

Day 2:
Learning Russian family customs. #1. never wear shoes from the street, into the house. There is an imaginary line in the floor that we never stepped over once we entered from the street. Shoes off at the door please. Ok, thats easy, now, rule #2 we don't wear our street clothes in the flat. Once worn outside, they are to dirty to sit on the new sofa. We changed into T shirts and ... well, thats about it. T shirts, undies,shorts #3 never whistle in the house, you will loose all your money. OK, I got caught a few times and money just appeared in my checking account. I guess I proved this one wrong. Next, #4 if a bird poop's on your shoulder it brings good luck,, OK that happend also. #5  if the bird poop's on your shoulder after you whistle in the house you double your good luck. Lucky me. New rule #6 no need to make plans, just live for the moment and if it is God's will, it will happen, if not, don't worry about it.  Ok I come from a world where I plan and make things happen. They simply will not get done if I don't do them. This is not something I can teach Galina. Her slogan is still, " if it is God's will it will come to pass"  Ok, this can be true in many cases. However, when it comes to daily life, I like to make plans.

It's time to go out and see the city. We choose to meet Pavel and Alexy for lunch. We arrive at this restaurant. Taxi was about .75 cents to travel across town. 4 for lunch cost about 30.00 for everything. It was a nice clean place with fesh salads, Kabobs, and rice.

[Mishenka]

Day 3: Until I went into the city I had no idea how modern it was. When I think of Central Asia I think of desert sands and heat waves. Galina takes me to Japanese Gardens for a walk around the park on a cool fresh morning. The Park is near the UN Building NATO limo's and US Embassy. I remembered the US had used military bases in Uzbekistan to launch the war in Afghanistan. I had forgotten we were not far from the border. Later that day we went shopping for veggies to make dinner and went home to cook together. More on this later.

[Mishenka]

Day 4 Shopping day in the city.

Still in jet lag mode, I slept in late. By the time I woke Galina had been up cooking Kasha for Pavel and he had gone to work. Galina informs me the refridgerator is not working and the food will spoil. I said no problem, it's old and not worth repairing, lets go buy a new one. Her eyes got huge, she said noooo, I never had new refridgerator it is too expensive. It's OK, Now you will have new one. Pashli! Let's go shopping, ladnah? Ok,  call Pavel and ask him what is the best brand to buy and where to meet him during his lunch break to go to see them.We took a taxi and met Pavel where some 50 shops line the street with all kinds of appliances and things for the home. I went a little crazy. I had brought some special coffee with me for the trip, but They had no coffee maker, so, I bought one. She never had one before. We like to cook together but she had no sharp knives. I spent 8 years as a chef and restaurant owner, so I had to have knives. We went door to door comparing prices on refridgerators and bought that and had it delivered. Galina loves to bargain. They guy wanted $770 USD for it, I told Galina in a whisper, to offer him $550 cash, and showed it to him in my hand and said "delivered price". He said no, I cannot sell so cheap. I said Pashli! and walked towards the door and the man said wait, in English, so he understood me well. Ladnah ladnah, he says, oK where do we deliver? We followed him to the storage place, inspected the new fridge to make sure they will deliver the same one we paid for and loaded it into the mans truck with him, and they followed us to the flat.

Galina lives on the first floor of a 12 story building. I thought this will be easy.  Small problem, it didn't fit through the front door, or the kitchen door, we had to open a set of double windows to get it into the kitchen. Then it didin't fit into the space between the cabinets so I had to do a mini- remodel, have cabinets made to accomodate the new fridge. One thing lead to another and over the next 3 weeks we planned the new kitchen and nook area. New wallpaper, new ceiling, new windows, new lighting and electrical outlets, her old ones didnt fit the new fridge. 

It was great having this new fridge,  but after tranfering the food from the old one, it still looked empty. Another trip to the bazaar to fill the fridge. Here are some photo's of the new windows, cabinets, wall paper, iron bars and fridge etc. It's been said many times that if a married couple can survive a remodel, they will make it through anything. So far so good.

[mendeleyev]

Mishenka, nice report. We love Uzbek food! Many of the summer melons sold on Moscow street corners come up from the south and there are a couple of Uzbek melons that I don't know names for (not found in USA) that we look for in Moscow because they are so dang tasty.

My first trip to Tashkent was also in the late 1990s to do some writing for a documentary on Uzbek wedding traditions. I admire the culture and people but it's sad as to what has happened with the government in the past few years.

My regards to you, your Galina and to Pavel.

[mark2353]

Great story look forwards to the next trip report! Sound like it will be even more exciting.
best wishes to all of you!

[Mishenka]

Here are some photos of the foods we were cooking. While some became my favorites, others took some time to aquire a taste for  Uzbek Plov was one of my favorites cooked at the restaurants in Tashkent in hugh steel bowls.

[Mishenka]

One of the first things Galina wanted to do was take me to meet Father Mikhail at her Church.  Off we went to discuss being married there in Tashkent and to check if I met all the requirements of being married in the ROC, whether I would need to be baptised or not etc. He concluded that I did not need to be baptized in the ROC because my faith was the same as theirs. This was interesting because I had to take a crash course in ROC and understand all the teachings of this church in the FSU because they differ from USA in many ways, customs and state holidays etc. After reading countless pages of doctrine I found it to be more accurate to the Bible than most churches today. As long as we all understood we could live with our differences on what the Bible teaches compared to some of their man made rules and customs of the church/state which I don't practice or subscribe to. Here are some photos. These women sing like angels!

Easter treats to take as gifts, Mason waiting for his piece, the priest blessing the people, Aleksey, Yaroslav and the rest of us....

[mendeleyev]

Nice photos, Mishenka! Most definitely the Plov is a tasty dish.

[dusk11]

Great trip report.... My fiance is in Tashkent so I've made 7 trips in the last year to Uzbekistan and Russia. Its always an adventure....  Traveling to Russia is a pleasure compared to Uzbekistan.  I can honestly say Tashkent has the worst airport in the FSU.  Making your way through passport control and customs can take anywhere between 45min and 2.5 hours.

BTW, I just returned from Tashkent 2 weeks ago and the exchange rate is now 1800 soum to the USD on the black market. The economy is circling the drain and the government is one giant Ponzi scheme.  Doing just about anything from registering your visa to registering your marriage will ultimately require bribes.
 

[Mishenka]

Hello Dusk, yes you are right you can buy any favor with a little cash. Galina is well connected in government having worked as one of the cheif accountants for Uzbek Airways. Her brother also worked as a radio man aboard the cargo planes until the Gov there added a duty of 300% to all imports, except Russian and Chinese.Now the cargo part of the ariport is all but closed down.  On a brighter note, 1800 to one? Better for tourist but prices must be out of control for the locals. I need to get my girl here quick.

More photos: Thinking back, I now believe Galina was expecting to be married shortly after I arrived. We spent a lot of time at  her church with Father Mikhail talking about wedding plans. 

[Mishenka]

Time for a trip to the Tashkent Zoo,,, Please feed the animals, if you don't, they will starve to death.
more photo's  Pavel with Yarik, me and Gala, some sad and very hungry looking animals.

Mishenka

[Mishenka]

We all got up early and took the 3 hour train to spend a day in Samarkand. Location South East of Tashkent, close to the border of Afghanistan where USA used the airbase to launch the war.   More photo's
Mishenka

[Mishenka]

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