"Tashkent" a Tashkent Travel Page by RB_Oakes

I have to say I really like Tashkent a lot. The city is comprised of many wide boulevards that are lined with trees. Housing is a mixture of run-down Soviet apartment blocks and traditional Uzbek houses. Neither looks like much though at least the Uzbek ones have courtyards in them. Copious time is being spent in Internet cafes (there's a million of them) and chaykonas. Prices are dirt cheap (especially now that I'm staying at Hotel Tara which is $2.50 a night). The entire place is safe and laid back. The biggest risk is dehydration, especially if you're silly enough to be in the hot sun.

For a place to stop over and arrange visas, it's great. Many people here speak some English, so between that and my limited Russian communication flows much more smoothly than in Russia.

As far as the visas go, the Kyrgyz embassy are very helpful. I showed up, then realized I forgot my pic. When I got back they were closed, but let me in anyway. Then, they said I needed a photocopy of my passport. So I left again and ran around trying to arrange that. I came back, and it was a good 45 minutes past closing time but they let me back in and I got my visa in about 10 minutes. Kazakhstan was good once I got inside. Too bad that only took 2 hours+ of thumb twiddling on the sidewalk outside before it hapened. And the guard was dumb as toast, too, and really got on my nerves.

But man is it hot - 37C in the afternoon, and because of the way they've set the time here the sun comes up around 5 and goes down by 8, thus by mid-morning its already well over 30.