This One Time At The Kazhakstan Embassy
Thursday, June 17, 2010
The tour of the Usbek part of silk route has come to an end, we’ve travelled from Khiva to Bukhara to Samarkand and now we are in Tashkent. Main highlights have been Registan Square in Samarkand, climbing the minaret in Khiva, the walking tour of Bukhara and the ice cold swimming pool in Samarkand. We’re now all minaret and madrassed out and looking forward to getting back into our tents.
Borat land visas are proving problematic! Pete went to pick them up yesterday and was told to come back today, and today he's been told to come back tomorrow so who knows what will happen. Apparently the passports are locked in the safe but the guy with the key isn't available...probably taken the day off.
In the meantime we’re living it up in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, spending the last of our thousands having a few lazy days. There’s not much to see here, last night an hours walk eventually brought us out to a restaurant and later we set off in search for the FM bar – a yearly visit for Odyssey. Unfortunately there was no guy with a drill up his nose (like there has been in previous years) but we did get to witness what can only be described as your little brother getting a lap dance which was incredibly disturbing but a fun night was had by all.. including the girls.
Another Uzbek highlight is the money exchange process, normally a quick visit to a hotel or atm is suffice for changing money but here the bank rate is roughly 1,500 Som to the Dollar whereas the Black Market rate is around 2,200. So we have been on the hunt for people carrying giant bags of money or a sneaky nudge nudge wink wink at a local supermarket is the trick. Very odd!
Dinner bill - roughly $20
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