Uzbekistan was unknown to us, like a black box before we landed up there. The inspiration to go came from one of my colleagues who had travelled to 75+ countries and called out this one among all the countries in Central Asia. My colleague described Khiva as walking in history, which I didn’t really fathom at that point. He had categorially also described about the warmth of Uzbeks, the omnipresent chai in the streets and chatty nature of locals
As I read more about the country, I realized how little we know about Uzbeks despite being only 3 hours from Delhi, closer compared to my hometown within India. I had heard about Tashkent, the place where our former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri had passed away. There is memorial for him at Tashkent even today. I had seen shows about Samarkand on TravelXP but was unaware of the rick history of silk road and its past
To be honest, my parents were a bit skeptical going to an Islamic country, the mosques and religious buildings. The fear came not because of religious skepticism, but from expected requirements like wearing a burqa or sometimes being prohibited from entry as women. I somehow convinced them to step out of comfort zone and take it as it comes
Then came a surprise in the form of a missed flight! We had planned travel such that my parents would come from India and I come in from London where I had gone for office work. Little did I know that Heathrow airport in London shuts down at night to minimize noise pollution for residents close to airport. My Vistara flight scheduled for around 9 PM had some lighting issues which they tried fixing repeatedly by restarting engines (Yes, you read it right- everything is fixed by a restart!). After trying for an hour, they had to give up since they couldn’t take off past 10 PM
We were bewildered by the casual response that our flight would be cancelled, that too only when asked. Surprisingly, there was no ruckus and passengers just got out of the flight waiting for further instructions. Ground staff were clueless if our flight would take off next morning
I started checking for alternative flight options immediately, realizing that there was no way to be back in Delhi in time. I then checked for options to land directly in Tashkent and found a Turkish airline flight. That flight was supposed to depart next morning from Gatwick, 60-90 minutes away from Heathrow. I decided to go to Gatwick and spend a night in hotel close to the airport. There was no option of staying inside the airport since my flights were yet to be booked by an emergency desk
Booking a hotel was also a problem since it was past midnight and no bookings were allowed for previous day on booking portals. I then walked up to a hotel to manually request booking for the day. All this was possible thanks to my job which allowed me to take such decisions without thinking about monetary implications which they would cover
I spent that night in the hotel, managed to take the morning flight and land about an hour after my parents landed. All this while, they were too anxious and fretting over the possibilities of having to manage getting out of their airport, taking a taxi and reaching hotel on their own in a land where people didn’t speak much English. They also didn’t have currency or data packs enabled, since I was supposed to get all of that arranged by the time we land
My landing gave them a sigh of relief. We were thankful that our travel plans remained intact for rest of the holiday despite this glitch. We learnt a lesson not to plan last minute coordination plans in future
We were amused and overwhelmed when we landed at Tashkent airport. There were about 500-1000 people waiting with flower bouquets way past midnight. We felt special like VIPs for a moment. They had come to welcome their relatives who were returning from Haj most likely. The crowd gave us a glimpse of how close knit they are with family, how they can go beyond expectations
Our first close interaction with Uzbeks was at Khiva since we visited there first. Hundreds of school kids would sing Hindi Bollywood songs, talk about shows and characters like Ranveer-Ishani, request us to take photos with them. We realized that instant recognition as Indians came from the bindi my mom used to have on her forehead. The adoration for Indians most probably came from the days of Raj Kapoor during USSR times as movies like Awara, Mera Naam Joker took global fans by storm. A part of it has remained with Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan movies over the 90s
Uzbek food resembles Indian food quite a lot, with variations in names. Plov (Pulao), Non (Naan) are staples found everywhere. Choi (tea/ chai) is the language of warmth. Theor food is heavily non vegetarian, although you can get sub-optimal vegetarian options like non and cheese if you ask for it. I don’t think any country in the world has cracked tasty vegetarian food like India with the countless variety
There has never been any place where we were not asked for photos. Some of them were so overjoyed since we agreed gladly that they invited us home to have chai and lunch. While we kindly said we will not be able to join them, the genuine ask made us feel like we were at home with family
Although most people don’t speak English, we never had a problem communicating. We had booked tours through Instagram with small local businesses who turned out to be very reliable, friendly and reasonable on cost. They did not expect any advance payment, something that shows they can trust strangers from another country like India who are not known to be rich
Our view about Uzbekistan had completely changed by the time we left. It felt like home with family, despite so many cultural and religious aspects that are not similar. The stark contrast with coldness and non-interference at Almaty showed us how cultures can evolve so quickly few hundred kilometers apart. Maybe lack of too much wealth still keeps the interpersonal warmth intact, like the villages in India
We would love to visit Uzbekistan again and potentially host any Uzbek traveler intersted in visiting South India. Japanese and Uzbek are two cultures I deeply respect and hope to imbibe parts of it into my life