Tashkent. Day 21

 The observant reader, should such a thing exist, will notice that this entry is headed 'Tashkent'. Such a reader might be confused by this - surely we'd already been to Tashkent? Yes! And we are again. We flew to Tajikistan just to drive back here again.

But first we were obliged to see the sights of Khujand, such as they are. I did ask my guide where all the million-plus visitors to Tajikistan go, as they're certainly not at what we understand to be tourist attractions. He explained firstly that the number of 'tourist' conflates that figure with other visitors, and these are mostly locals who hop back and forth over the border. Then of the people from further afield, some are Russians avoiding the war with Ukraine and pushing up local house prices. Finally, if there are any actual tourists left, these are still mostly Russian and they don't comer for education - they grill their own shashliks and drink vodka on 'gastronomy tours'.

Our tour this morning, after a dispiriting breakfast, we had a fair walk to the bus. His Majesty the President (that's his title) is visiting Khujand and so our street was blocked off and we had to walk a block to reach our bus. He is democratically elected. In democratic elections.

Looking for the bus. Note deserted street.

The the tour started with a visit to the statue of Lenin. I'll save the photo as we couldn't get closer than a block for unclear reasons. But it's the one remaining statue of him in Tajikistan and is important because Khujand was Leninagrad for many years.

On to the museum. Our local guide was enthusiastic but it was mostly pictures of things and very few actual things. I think local tourism remains in its infancy. Next door was the Khujand Fort. Nothing of the ancient Alexandrian fort remains, this one was built in 2024 and houses various craftspeople of types familar to us and a large impressive hall of a type now very familiar to us.

Lynn enjoying the museum

Hall of Something
Lunch was in a cafeteria style restaurant. In keeping with the local cuisine everything turned out to be a patty of meat, cooked in varius ways or wrapped in various things.
Then on to the bazaar. This one was enjoyable mostly for being authentic and not at all touristy. It was also cooler than the adjoining square.

In the Bazaar

That was it for Tajikistan. The heat and dust was a little wearing and we were happy to be back on the bus. It was half an hour or so to the border. Then a routine we're familiar with. A succession of uniformed people looking at your passports, x-ray machines at the leaving and arriving country and lots of dragging our bags over dusty broken asphalt to the next building so we could join the next queue.

Finally we got out the other end, on a bus and had a two hour ride back to Tashkent. This was airconditioned and comfortable and we had time to listen to audiobooks etc. Now we're holed up in the Hyatt Regency. This has a soft bed and reliable wifi so I can write this before heading off to the bar.



Location: 1 A, Navoiy shoh ko'chasi, Тоshkent, Toshkent, Uzbekistan

Comments

  1. Dad23 September 2026 at 05:12

    Interesting.
    The first photo is a street scene showing some trees. Haven't seen too much vegetation in your other shots.
    Also, St Petersburg was renamed Leningrad by Stalin but in the '70s (I think it was) it reverted to its former very old name. But I suppose Khujand was also names Leningrad.
    Sublime spring days here.

    ReplyDelete

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