I think I've finished blogging about my trip to Uzbek. I spent about 8 days (18-25 Dec 2013), including flights from AOR to KL that morning and at night, KUL - TAS. Masa mostly spent in the bus cus we crossed from state to state and paling cepat in 5 hours. We slept in Khiva for 1 night, Bukhara = 2 nights, Samarkand = 2 nights and Tashkent = 1 night. Well, here's a summary of it and some tips and general knowledge if you have a plan of going there. Firstly, the currency! They have their own currency called Som. 1000 Som = MYR 1.50. Before fly sana, tukaq siap-siap our money to USD. They only accept USD and Uzbek Som so there's no any chance of shopping with ringgit. But you can bring them as souvenir as my dad did this.
Second, the moment you nak settle those Visa/Immigration thingy, please be very patient and calm! People at the airport are ridiculously different and annoying from people yang we would happen to meet. Do you get what I'm trying to say? Macam bila kita sightseeing and what so not, people yang kita jumpak tepi jalan tu totally nice compared to yang kat airport la. Then, their airport memang la international but still nak membangun kot not too big and absolutely would make us proud of Malaysia hahahaha. Oh, dalam flight before touch down, the stewardess and stewards akan bagi DECLARATION FORM alah macam arrival card centu but depa punya kinda bit different. Kena isi total duit yang kita bawak in every currency. Kalau ada coins pon, cent cent semua kena tulis jugak. So haritu ada USD, MYR and IDR. And waktu balik, duit MESTI kena kurang dari masa sampai. Waktu sampai, maybe the officer akan randomly choose one person to check his wallet. After settle all those things, macam biasa claim luggage. I DIDN'T LIKE THIS SITUATION. Depa suka push orang lain huaaaaa tak sukaaaaaaaaaa. Haaaa! The moment bila dah exactly touch down, Uzbekians semangat gila applause. It's not our thing to tepuk-tepuk so yeah. I learnt SOMETHING new. Anyway, they had their independence on 1 September 1991.
Then TRANSPORT and TOILET, I don't know where to find the taxis and stuff because I pi with travel agency. But I'm very sure yang taxi ada outside arrival hall. TAKKAN TAKDAK right. Next, toilet! I couldn't handle the fact that a muslim country doesn't have water tap in their toilet like CAN YOU NOT? So everywhere you go, please bring along at least one water bottle, wet tissues ka apa. Bukan kat Uzbek ja naih, you pi mana-mana pon please bawak!
The weather pulak masa I was there, it was winter! The temperature around -6 to 2 degree celsius (according to itinerary). When we were in Khiva, it was so cold like really really cold. My hand and legs like froze gila. Macam ayam dalam freezer tu. Maybe sebab that time unprepared kot and attire not fully dressed. Samarkand pulak, -9 at night. Pendek cerita, temperature dia ubah suka hati. Ha! Prayer time! Cus it was winter so night is longer than day. Bit different kalau ikut state. Subuh = 4.30 but nak perform at 6 pon okay cus 7 macam tu baru cerah and you will never know it's morning or evening and sedaq eh dah malam. Zuhur = 12 ++ / 1. Asar = ada state 2.40 dah masuk normally 3.15. Maghrib = 6 and Isyak = 7.15.
Bila sightseeing, the people will greet us maybe with hello or Assalamualaikum. They pronounce Malaysia as Malayziya and when they asked Malayziya, we answered with yes and they all get excited. Depa jadi extremely nice and syok gila. But masa kat Bukhara, when my dad and I were walking nak balik hotel, ada this one guy said KONNICHIWA. I said konnichiwa back then bantai gelak dengan my dad. Some thought we were from Japan, Korea, Indonesia and not too mention India. Ada my friend kena, Bangladesh? Dia bengang sangat cus you know la isu bangla kan sensitif in Malaysia. I think their people don't know kot how does Korean look like. Indian, Japanese macam mana. That's why they hentam ja tanya but mostly tanya Malayziya. Oh the language pulak, they either use Uzbek or Russian. English so few la. I only know one word, that is RAHMAT which means thank you.
Then, FOOD! Mostly, makan dekat rumah orang Uzbek and 4/5 kali ja makan kat restaurant minus hotel . Food okay ja and don't worry, semua halal. Depa banyak makan daging lembu, kambing and ayam so little la. Ikan jarang sebab Uzbek doesn't have ocean so ikan depa ikan air tawar. Ikan depa just goreng and cicah sos then makan. Sumpah sedap I tell you! Lepas tu pulak, every meal mesti ada roti. So starter dia, roti, salad or nuts or maybe both, raw veges ( I liked tomatoes! ) wait ni bukan salad ka argh whatever, ada jugak kimchi! Then, sup pulak mostly sup ayam but if you're a vegetarian, just mintak they will cook something else. Starter saja dah banyak weh! Then, main course pulak. Maybe you will be served dengan nasik or mee or sup sayur yang masam and tea. Tea minum dalam small bowl macam Japanese/ Korean and segala negara yang budaya minum teh guna mangkuk. Teh dia sugar-free. Ada one time makan mee and dia ada letak yoghurt susu kambing, it was nice. Masa kat Bukhara, makan nasik Bukhara dia letak the whole garlic and the nasik kalau suluh dengan torchlight then you would see MINYAK yang extremely banyak. Nasik dia sedap and sweet. Okay after that, DESSERT! Cakes, ice-cream, pastry and semua were very scrumptious.
Souvenirs. Remember a photo yang I uploaded in another post yang I said I cleared them? Because I didn't know what to buy, so I bought them all! Keychain takdak langsung. Bila bargain, bargain habis-habisan and kalau dia tak bagi acah la nak keluaq kedai then dia akan bagi. Tapi kalau yang jenis okay tu dia okay ja, beli takpa, tak beli pon takpa. Tuntasnya, Uzbekistan is not a place to shop. Kalau you wanna know history, hence this is a right place.Well I think that's all. If you wanna know anything, just drop the comment below. Have a nice day ahead!
Till then,
-xxx Y