The very name of Tashkent resonates with mysteries and conspiracy theories for India, connected with our erstwhile Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri's death. The city had a bit of an obscure feeling as we landed on a Saturday early morning. In a congested airport terminal filled with a cacophony of languages from across the world, it took a bit of time to converse properly toning down the pace of speech and bridging the language barrier as we changed currencies, took a local SIM (e-SIM didnt work!) took a taxi and left for hotel.
That spell of unfamiliarity was broken on the very next day morning as we met an Indian origin couple from Silicon valley in our hotel lobby. Our first day's guide Ruslan made us quite home with his confident communications and confident style taking us through the central monuments such as Amir Timur museum, Chorsu market and the iconic TV tower. Timur / Tamerlane is a national hero in Uzbekistan as he rebuilt a region decimated by Ghengiz Khan's conquest. The famous Silk Road passed through Tashkent and the vibes of that trading culture can be seen still in the Chorsu bazaar. A variety of sweets, fruits and artefacts trade there which have a connect to Indian / Turkish / Chinese / Iran cultures.. Pilaaf is the traditional lunch in Uzbek, which is quite similar to Pulau in India. Besh Qozon Pilaaf center stands as the most popular eatery in Central Tashkent area.. The Turkish tea culture is quite prevalent in Tashkent as well where people take pot of tea and spend an afternoon sipping the same and discussing their lives.
Shastri is revered deeply in Tashkent. He died here post 1965 ceasefire negotiations with Pakistan. There are two statues of him and the junction in which his statue is there is named as Shastri square. City is quite modern with wide roads, metro systems and well developed infrastructure from soviet times. The medical universities and education systems are apparently quite popular with large number of Indian students studying there.
Tashkent has a memorial for 1966 earth quake victims. In a quintessential soviet style, the true depth of the calamity was hidden from the world for long and it was pictured as a resilience of soviets . We had a unique coincidence where we visited the memorial on the same day - April 26 - when the quake in 1966 happened
Fergana valley which is famous for horses of the finest breed is about 5 hours from Tashkent. Today, there is a thriving GM factory there. Due to their monopoly till some years back, Tashkent is filled with GM vehicles , particularly Chevrolet,. The soil is quite fertile in and around Fergana & Tashkent and a number of fruits grow in good quantity.
Amir Soy mountain resort, which is about couple of hours from Tashkent is a nice getaway for most tourists. Very well maintained, the place would look really good during snowfall. Ruslan said that in the first three months of 2025, more tourists visited Uzbekistan than in entire 2024. Indeed, as the usual explored tourist places become more commercialized, unexplored destinations such as Uzbekistan will rise into prominence. Vietnam rose into prominence 2015 onwards. Uzbek will likely emerge as a destination of choice and a launchpad into Central Asia in the next 10 years.
Afrosiyaab, a highspeed train stands as a symbol of modernity in Uzbekistan, clocking 250+ KMPH led us to our next destination, Samarkand. More about that in the next post !
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Tashkent , Sydney, Melbourne, Taipei, Doha, Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Barcelona, Silicon Valley, Siem Reap, Bali, Hamburg, Berlin, Prague, Cairo, Alexandria, Hallstatt, Salzburg, Vienna, Dachau, St Petersburg, Moscow, Istanbul, Seychelles, Vizag
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