Eurostan

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This was the exterior of the Museum and some other nearby elements of Amir Temur Square.





I was planning to return here the next day when it was open.





Temur (also known as Timur or Tamerlane) was considered the founder of the Termurid Empire and Uzbekistan seemed to incorporate him and his empire in their official history, I guess as part of their ‘greatness’. All countries do it; seeking to use events from their past, or which they can reasonably well corrupt as being ‘their’ past, to make themselves feel special.

The wiki entry on Temur/Timur is interesting,

Timur - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

not in the least because whilst it describes his vast empire and conquests, doesn’t pull any punches in describing it in what we’d now consider a mass genocide. Genghis Khan was the same, as realistically were the ‘holy’ crusades. (My generic view of the world pre-enlightenment is a bunch of men roaming about saying ‘submit to me and my beliefs or you all die’) The modern world, especially some countries right now, would do well to remember the difference between barbarism and enlightenment!

Enough darkness; there was some more light on the walk back to the hotel.




They went on for maybe 6-800 metres with some sideshow style games, food stalls and and street sellers along the route.

 

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Next was another one of those wonderful serendipitous moments in travel: I was just heading back to my hotel in the general direction I knew it to be; choosing which way to go or which streets to walk down by whether they looked interesting. I saw some people dressed in interesting outfits and so headed that way and came back around the Navoiy Theatre building.



Ohh, this looks interesting.
So instead of heading back to the hotel I grabbed a prominent spot along the fence and enjoyed a couple of hours of free concert. You needed a ticket to go in and sit on the supplied seating and I couldn’t get one there so watching from all of 20m away it was!

Local horns and drums welcomed the orchestra and conductor.


I’m not an opera or orchestra goer so excuse any mis-terminology!


Local bloke gets standing ovation on arrival.
Also, there must have been a large ‘jumbotron’ TV setup at the front of the theatre as they played not just shapes but pictures, songs and clips on it.







It was a really interesting mix of classical music, classical singing, what must have been local cultural music and songs, mixed with Abba, Queen and they even had a go at Evanescence - Bring me to life. Ballet dancers, Cossack dancers, and that guy who looked like a Mongol warrior and rode up on a really large horse!

Amazing evening. The crowd was probably 20 deep behind me during the event and everyone just seemed to be in good spirits and enjoying it.

The next afternoon I passed by again and it was all cleaned up with the last prices of equipment being taken away. Bravo, Tashkent!

 

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Inside the State Museum of the Temurids were mostly replacement pieces of cultural interest, the real pieces having been appropriated by other more well known institutions!








“for some reasons…they were taken abroad”


I should have this inscription as part of my email signature block!


Seeing this painting reinforced the idea that I really should have gone to Samarkand. I have seen photos from others (including AFF trip reports) who have been there and it looks spectacular.


At this point I refer you to my AFF avatar image…

 

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In the evening I walked over to Tashkent City Park where they have an hourly water fountain show and plenty of people go to meet up, hang out etc.

It again felt completely safe walking around and most of the roads, footpaths etc were clean and in good condition.




Fields of lights again.


The Hilton was an ever changing billboard for the large US fizzy drink company.


The water display was good, ran for about 15 minutes and got the crowd going by concluding with Gangnam Style blasting out over the park speakers.


Hard pass on the polonium tea flavoured ice cream.

Rather than walking back to the hotel I caught the metro. Paid the lady at the booth my 3000 som (~40c) for a ticket and waited all of two minutes for the next train.






Each station apparently has its own theme. This one I was alighting at was named Kosmonavtlar, and celebrated Soviet cosmonauts.

 

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Of course I don’t just come to Tashkent ‘for make benefit cultural understanding’ (yes, I know it’s not Kazakhstan), but also for the single golf course in the country: developed by and mostly played by expat Koreans.

Tashkent Lakeside GC






The clue is in the name! Nice enough course but probably too over-watered.

My compulsory caddie was a Korean-Uzbek named Victoria. She also spoke fluent Russian and was okay with English too.