Global Wanderer

20/11/23

After a quick shower and breakfast, I checked out of Hotel Sharq and headed for the airport. Dushanbe Airport is a classic Soviet-style airport, with a few vendors open selling coffee and soft drinks, and a large duty-free shop. By some stroke of luck, on the same flight to Tashkent as me was an NGO worker who I’d been talking to the night before (and who had coincidentally been on my flight TO Dushanbe as well!), and she suggested to me that I visit the Art Museum for a special exhibition on Modernist Architecture in Tashkent, before catching up for lunch so that I could kill some time before my train to Bukhara, which I gladly accepted.

After landing in Tashkent, and having my now-full page of Uzbek immigration stamps laughed at good-humouredly by the border guard, I caught a Yandex to the Art Museum. The exhibition itself was absolutely fascinating, and worth the visit – it covered the development of Tashkent’s modernist architecture during the Soviet era, the things that have been removed/destroyed, and efforts to preserve that style of architecture into the future as part of Tashkent’s history. As someone who really appreciates brutalism and modernist architecture, I found it very interesting!

Once I had finished up there, I caught up with Mathilde, the NGO worker from the flight, at Roni Pizza (sometimes Western comfort food is necessary!). After lunch, we parted ways, and I headed towards the train station. Around the corner from the station, I popped into a convenience store, ostensibly to buy a Coke. Attached to the convenience store, however, was a liquor store (they’re still very Soviet-looking here!), with a few people inside. I stuck my head in and ended up drinking a beer with a few elderly Uzbeks who were drinking ‘shots’ of vodka – about 200mls per glass!

I headed into the train station, and set myself up on a bench for the hour or so wait for the train. Eventually, the Afrosiyob train trundled into the station. The only seats left on the ride to Bukhara that were left when I booked the tickets were in Business, a whole $3 more than 2^nd class. 4 hours and a free croissant and coffee later, I arrived in Bukhara. A quick Yandex ride from the station took me to the edge of the old town, where I’d be staying in the same place as last year – Kavsar Hotel.

The Afrosiyob train arrives in Bukhara!