Well, my time in Uzbekistan has come to end. It's been great, it really has. But at this point I haven't left Central Asia in 6 months and I'm very ready to head home.
My landlord is coming over to get the key in about an hour. I'm not sure what to expect. I mean the apartment is very clean, there's no damage and from what I can tell she's a decent person who wouldn't make ridiculous claims about me breaking things that I haven't. Really though, the only thing that would help me if something did go wrong and we did end up in a conflict over something would be UN Security. And that's one of my, I guess, underlying themes from my time here. People have no fallback, no security blanket. Call the militia? ha! So far there's no move to rename them here like in Russia and, from what I've read at least (I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong though) in Ukraine.
Flights going west from here tend to leave at odd hours. So I'll have a few hours, as a tourist again, to wander the streets of Tashkent. Then I will go to the airport. Airports in this part of the world are a special kind of hell. I've been to 7-8 of them and Tashkent is the worst, at least coming in. Everytime I've left Uzbekistan it's been overland and even that has been very difficult. For starters exit customs and immigration are ubiquitous in Central Asia. And very thorough. That of course is coupled with officials, who may be looking for a little something extra to help, uh, facilitate your experience. Anyway, it'll be fine, hopefully it's a slow night.
So thank you very much for reading, this will be my last entry. Time to move on with life.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Gold Teeth and Construction Projects
Just a couple of quick anecdotes from the past week. As my time in Tashkent comes to a close I find I'm having less and less to talk about. I'm starting to concentrate more on life post-Uze.
One of the Uzbek guys in the office and I had planned to go for dinner yesterday after work. Just after lunch he came to my office and asked if we could postpone till next week. He said he was having some dental work done, it wasn't finished and he was worried about the food damaging the work. Of course I agreed and then asked what dental work he was having done as more than one sitting sounded serious. He's getting 9 new false teeth. 9. The guy is two years older then me. I mean, fair dental care is not as advanced here as it is the west. Uzbekistan is a......developing country and things like going for dental checkups twice per year aren't that high on people's minds when they're just trying to survive. He assured me though that we was not going to get gold teeth, which is what most false teeth are still made of here, and was instead going to get ones that look like regular teeth. So that's progress....I think.
Construction projects can be impressive affairs here. Of course I have no idea as to the quality of the work or the wages paid to the workers, but the sheer number of people assigned to projects is amazing. This afternoon, I was walking by the main theatre in the centre of town. There's a small square to one side that I guess the government decided needed some re-doing. There were hundreds of workers there. This is a square that is not even the size of a typical Canadian city block. And it'll probalby be completely re-made in about 3 days. I just won't be sitting under any new structures that are built on it.
One of the Uzbek guys in the office and I had planned to go for dinner yesterday after work. Just after lunch he came to my office and asked if we could postpone till next week. He said he was having some dental work done, it wasn't finished and he was worried about the food damaging the work. Of course I agreed and then asked what dental work he was having done as more than one sitting sounded serious. He's getting 9 new false teeth. 9. The guy is two years older then me. I mean, fair dental care is not as advanced here as it is the west. Uzbekistan is a......developing country and things like going for dental checkups twice per year aren't that high on people's minds when they're just trying to survive. He assured me though that we was not going to get gold teeth, which is what most false teeth are still made of here, and was instead going to get ones that look like regular teeth. So that's progress....I think.
Construction projects can be impressive affairs here. Of course I have no idea as to the quality of the work or the wages paid to the workers, but the sheer number of people assigned to projects is amazing. This afternoon, I was walking by the main theatre in the centre of town. There's a small square to one side that I guess the government decided needed some re-doing. There were hundreds of workers there. This is a square that is not even the size of a typical Canadian city block. And it'll probalby be completely re-made in about 3 days. I just won't be sitting under any new structures that are built on it.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Variable Tip Rates, Couchsurfing and Interac Security
"Service" is often included in the bill at restaurants here. It varies from 10-20% depending on the place. During the World Cup the group that I usually spend time with started going to a restaurant called 'SV'. They have a big outdoor patio and during the games put up a big screen, it was very nice and the food was good. We've continued going after the games and, no longer needing a good view of the screen, have started siting on the tapchans, which are basically tables you can lie down on as well. As food is so cheap here we never really spend too much time checking the bill. However, this week some backpackers were staying with one of the group and, being beingpackers, needed to watch their money. Fair enough. One night we ended up at SV and they noticed that while the menu said a 10% service charge would be added to the bill, the bill showed that they had in fact added a 20% charge. Oh Uzbekistan. Anyway, I got to be the one to ask about it and the reason was, 'oh you're in the nice table, so we add more of a service charge.'
I hosted a couchsurfer for a night this week. I think I mentioned couchsurfing a few blogs back but I guess it's a website where people can organize both hosting and stays for free, couchsurfering, around the world. I haven't actually signed up for it myself but another person here who does it had so many poeople staying with him that he asked if I could take one of them. The guy was nice, and Canadian. Still, I'm not sure if I would do it myself. I mean if you're really travelling on a budget it could extend your trip, but in Uzbekistan it just brings about so much potential for trouble. The reason is that you have to be officially registered where you're staying and you can't do it if you're on a tourist visa and staying at a private residence. You can have gaps for a few nights but if it gets, apparently, beyond 3 days and you get noticed by the police you'll be fined and deported. It happened to some couchsurfers who were in town a few months back.
Debit machines have slowly started to make their way into businesses in Tashkent. As far as I know they're only for Uzbek bank cards. Until this week though I'd never seen anyone using one. Anyway, I was at a small grocery store near my apartment, waiting in line to pay and the woman in front of me pulled out here bank card to pay. She handed it to the cashier. The cashier stuck the card in the machine, which looked exactly like ones you see in Canada, and asked her for her pin. She told him and he entered it. I guess security precautions will come later. Yeesh.
I hosted a couchsurfer for a night this week. I think I mentioned couchsurfing a few blogs back but I guess it's a website where people can organize both hosting and stays for free, couchsurfering, around the world. I haven't actually signed up for it myself but another person here who does it had so many poeople staying with him that he asked if I could take one of them. The guy was nice, and Canadian. Still, I'm not sure if I would do it myself. I mean if you're really travelling on a budget it could extend your trip, but in Uzbekistan it just brings about so much potential for trouble. The reason is that you have to be officially registered where you're staying and you can't do it if you're on a tourist visa and staying at a private residence. You can have gaps for a few nights but if it gets, apparently, beyond 3 days and you get noticed by the police you'll be fined and deported. It happened to some couchsurfers who were in town a few months back.
Debit machines have slowly started to make their way into businesses in Tashkent. As far as I know they're only for Uzbek bank cards. Until this week though I'd never seen anyone using one. Anyway, I was at a small grocery store near my apartment, waiting in line to pay and the woman in front of me pulled out here bank card to pay. She handed it to the cashier. The cashier stuck the card in the machine, which looked exactly like ones you see in Canada, and asked her for her pin. She told him and he entered it. I guess security precautions will come later. Yeesh.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Cooling Down, Food Poisoning and Restaurant Confusion
The temperature cooled down by a few degrees this week. It's a relief. I've never lived in such sustained, scorching weather. It's supposed to heat up again next week but I'm thinking the evenings will stay a bit cooler....yes things are so exciting I'm talking about the weather.
I do think I've set some kind of world record for food poisoning. I wonder how that could be measured....maybe I'll just leave that alone.
After so many years learning Russian I still sometimes have trouble ordering food in restaurants. It usually happens when the server asks a question I'm not expecting and makes the rest of the interaction really confusing. This week myself and a couple of others went to an Uzbek place for lunch, wanting, or course, Uzbek food. The server came over, we started ordering and then she told us that they had, well hot dogs or hamburgers as well. At first she said hamburgers but then the offer changed to hot dogs. I was so confused that I was being offered burgers or hot dogs at an Uzbek place that the rest of the order got, well, very confused. It's not like those things are rare at all here, they're everywhere, just didn't expect to have them offered to us at an Uzbek place.
I do think I've set some kind of world record for food poisoning. I wonder how that could be measured....maybe I'll just leave that alone.
After so many years learning Russian I still sometimes have trouble ordering food in restaurants. It usually happens when the server asks a question I'm not expecting and makes the rest of the interaction really confusing. This week myself and a couple of others went to an Uzbek place for lunch, wanting, or course, Uzbek food. The server came over, we started ordering and then she told us that they had, well hot dogs or hamburgers as well. At first she said hamburgers but then the offer changed to hot dogs. I was so confused that I was being offered burgers or hot dogs at an Uzbek place that the rest of the order got, well, very confused. It's not like those things are rare at all here, they're everywhere, just didn't expect to have them offered to us at an Uzbek place.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Puff the Magic Dragon, No Smoking
Not too exciting of a week this week, so just a couple of short anecdotes. People, at least the people in my office here, really really get into social events, usually in the form of singing and dancing. Friday after work our new boss organized a BBQ in the backyard of the office. So about 5 we all trooped back there and there was a nice spread of food and drinks. Actually really nice. After about an hour the first suggestion to start singing was made. Russian songs, which I don't know, so no problem. After a while though that got boring and there was a call for an Italian song, then a Japanese song and then Canadian and American songs. damnit. Italian and Japanese songs were no problems but the 3 of us (2 Canadians and 1 American) couldn't come up with a song that we all knew the words too. We decided to do a folksy-type song and eventually settled on 'Puff the Magic Dragon' which I found the lyrics for on-line. None of the local staff knew the song but I think it may have raised an eyebrow among the other western staff who did. Maybe not the best song considering what the office is. Anyway, fun times.
The building I live in here is an L-shape and my living room overlooks the inside corner of the L. On Wednesday evening I heard a big commotion, almost an argument coming from the inside corner. About an hour later I went out for dinner an saw the, well, loud discussion was still going on between about 20 of the building's residents. On Thurday night I came in after dark and found there is now a spotlight fixed on the side of the building, pointing at the corner and a big no smoking sign hanging from one of the trees. I guess some teenagers had been smoking by the building and bothering some of the people. The light doesn't shine in my window but I really don't know how the people on the first floor are supposed to sleep now. Maybe their bedrooms are on the other side.
The building I live in here is an L-shape and my living room overlooks the inside corner of the L. On Wednesday evening I heard a big commotion, almost an argument coming from the inside corner. About an hour later I went out for dinner an saw the, well, loud discussion was still going on between about 20 of the building's residents. On Thurday night I came in after dark and found there is now a spotlight fixed on the side of the building, pointing at the corner and a big no smoking sign hanging from one of the trees. I guess some teenagers had been smoking by the building and bothering some of the people. The light doesn't shine in my window but I really don't know how the people on the first floor are supposed to sleep now. Maybe their bedrooms are on the other side.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Staff Turnover, Wrong Numbers, Lady Gaga and Almaty
Well the first three are pretty short as I spent the week in Almaty, but just little things that made me go, 'huh?'. I have two regular places that I got to, one is a coffee shop (where I am right now) and the other is a pizza place. In the 4.5+ months I've been here I think both have had several complete turnovers in staff. I mean it's not like I'm at either one everyday of the week but I get to both fairly consistently, man I miss Starbucks, and people that were working there even a few weeks ago are nowhere to be found. I mean are they paying Gordon Campbell'esque minimum wage here? Oops, it slipped out.
People are sometimes very convinced they have dialled the right number. Very convinced. I went to buy milk this morning and left my phone in the apartment. I came back 10 minutes later and there were 4 missed calls from a number I didn't recognize. Sure enough 5 minutes later it rang again. I said, 'hello?'. The person said 'hello' back and hesitated. I said, 'who is this?'. The response was, 'what do you mean who is this?' I said, 'I think you have the wrong number.' The response, 'what do you mean?'. Understanding guy that I am I said, 'who do you want to speak to?'. The response, 'well this used to be my number'. I paused, thinking this could go on for a while and just hung up. No more calls since then.
In the taxi on the way over here, again with the taxis, my driver was about 60-65 years old. He had the radio on. About halfway here a Lady Gaga song came on and he cranked it. I guess she attracts fans from all age groups.
I spent the week at a conference in Almaty, Kazakhstan. I drove with 4 other people from the office in one of this big, white, UN Land Cruisers. It was cool to travel in, I have to say. I think it definitely got us through the border crossings faster than if I had been on my own or if we'd been in a regular car. It's a long drive. Took 11.5 hours there and 13 hours on the way back. And even that is only because our driver was going FAST. At various points I noticed that we were going over 170km an hour. The driver did seem to know what he was doing but, well, those aren't exactly the best roads in the world.
Almaty is the former capital of Kazakhstan. I was there previously with a buddy in the Spring of 2007 and it rained the whole time. This time it was sunny and warm (not scorching like Tashkent) and that made all the difference. I stayed with some friends in great, central location and was able to walk to the conference everyday. The conference was what it was. Are conferences ever useful? But walking around in the evenings was great. It's a much more western city than Tashkent. By that I mean there are, for example, bank machines that works, cars that aren't made in a Uzbekistan, a better selection and quality of restaurants and, from very superficial observation, a much more diverse population. I mean just because it's more western doesn't make it better but after almost 5 months I definitely know what I prefer. Anyway, good trip.
People are sometimes very convinced they have dialled the right number. Very convinced. I went to buy milk this morning and left my phone in the apartment. I came back 10 minutes later and there were 4 missed calls from a number I didn't recognize. Sure enough 5 minutes later it rang again. I said, 'hello?'. The person said 'hello' back and hesitated. I said, 'who is this?'. The response was, 'what do you mean who is this?' I said, 'I think you have the wrong number.' The response, 'what do you mean?'. Understanding guy that I am I said, 'who do you want to speak to?'. The response, 'well this used to be my number'. I paused, thinking this could go on for a while and just hung up. No more calls since then.
In the taxi on the way over here, again with the taxis, my driver was about 60-65 years old. He had the radio on. About halfway here a Lady Gaga song came on and he cranked it. I guess she attracts fans from all age groups.
I spent the week at a conference in Almaty, Kazakhstan. I drove with 4 other people from the office in one of this big, white, UN Land Cruisers. It was cool to travel in, I have to say. I think it definitely got us through the border crossings faster than if I had been on my own or if we'd been in a regular car. It's a long drive. Took 11.5 hours there and 13 hours on the way back. And even that is only because our driver was going FAST. At various points I noticed that we were going over 170km an hour. The driver did seem to know what he was doing but, well, those aren't exactly the best roads in the world.
Almaty is the former capital of Kazakhstan. I was there previously with a buddy in the Spring of 2007 and it rained the whole time. This time it was sunny and warm (not scorching like Tashkent) and that made all the difference. I stayed with some friends in great, central location and was able to walk to the conference everyday. The conference was what it was. Are conferences ever useful? But walking around in the evenings was great. It's a much more western city than Tashkent. By that I mean there are, for example, bank machines that works, cars that aren't made in a Uzbekistan, a better selection and quality of restaurants and, from very superficial observation, a much more diverse population. I mean just because it's more western doesn't make it better but after almost 5 months I definitely know what I prefer. Anyway, good trip.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Speaking Canadian, The Neighbour, Kazakhstan
Taxi drivers again. Seems like they're accounting for half my anecdotes. I have a very standard conversation, if you can call it that, in almost all of the taxis I ride in. It usually goes like this: taxi pulls up, we negotiate the price, I get in or wait for the next one. I then get a barrage of one word, or at least very short, questions until we get to where I've asked the guy to take me to. First question, 'German?'. As in, am I German. Always German, I have no idea why. 'Canadian' I respond. Usually followed by a pause as he tries to remember where Canada is. Then comes a varied combo of, 'why are you here?', 'are you married?', 'do you have children?' 'how much money do you make?' and 'Do you find Tashkent hot?' At this point I can almost answer them in my sleep. This past week though, one actually threw me off. The questions started out normally enough until the guy hit me with, 'Do you speak Canadian?' I mean I guess maybe in some kind of abstract way I do, and I almost said yes, but didn't and explained that Canadians speak English and French.
It's been a fairly uneventfull week, wasn't even sure I was going to blog. Sometimes though this place is just a theatre of the absurd and there was another installment last night. I think I mentioned back in March, just after I got here, that one of my neighbours came banging on my door quite late one night complaining that my radiator was affecting hers and her apartment was cold. Anyway, another incident with the same person last night. It was Friday night and my turn to host a dinner for the group I usually socialize with. There were 7 of us in total. We ate and chatted in the living room after dinner. About 11pm we were still there and one of the group was standing at the living room window, which was open, while still partipating in the conversation. Suddenly a stick, probably a broomstick, whips across the window and almost hits her. Someone swung it from the apartment next door. It didn't hit her, but we were all quite shocked. Myself and another guy ran to the window, and sure enough there was the crazy neighbour from back in march leaning out and yelling at us to be quiet. She went back inside before we really had a chance to respond.
We were all quite annoyed, but decided it was for the best to quiet the apparently loud talking we were doing down a bit. So we did and continued on. I guess I had forgotten to lock the front door when everyone arrived. About 10 minutes later this neighbour opens the front door of my aparmment (my friggin apartment!) and walks in with her dog (her friggin dog!) to continue complaning. We were all stunned. I will gloss over what happened next but suffice it to say she quickly decided she had made a mistake and left...quickly. I'm quite certain it won't happen again. Seriously though, who does stuff like that!?
Unfortunately, I won't be making it to Tajikistan this trip. One more 'stan for the future I guess. However, my 'work' needed to take an extra car to a conference in Almaty, Kazakhstan next week so I get to tag along. It'll be nice to get out of Uzbekistan, I haven't left the country in 3 months. Geez, that's something I never thought I'd be able to say. Anyway, we leave on Monday morning and will be there till Friday. It's a long drive, that will be made longer because of me unfortunately. Foreigners (non-ex Soviet citizens) can only cross at certain border crossings. From talking to the driver on Friday we'll be going quite a ways out of the way to get to one where I can cross. Ah well, should still be interesting.
It's been a fairly uneventfull week, wasn't even sure I was going to blog. Sometimes though this place is just a theatre of the absurd and there was another installment last night. I think I mentioned back in March, just after I got here, that one of my neighbours came banging on my door quite late one night complaining that my radiator was affecting hers and her apartment was cold. Anyway, another incident with the same person last night. It was Friday night and my turn to host a dinner for the group I usually socialize with. There were 7 of us in total. We ate and chatted in the living room after dinner. About 11pm we were still there and one of the group was standing at the living room window, which was open, while still partipating in the conversation. Suddenly a stick, probably a broomstick, whips across the window and almost hits her. Someone swung it from the apartment next door. It didn't hit her, but we were all quite shocked. Myself and another guy ran to the window, and sure enough there was the crazy neighbour from back in march leaning out and yelling at us to be quiet. She went back inside before we really had a chance to respond.
We were all quite annoyed, but decided it was for the best to quiet the apparently loud talking we were doing down a bit. So we did and continued on. I guess I had forgotten to lock the front door when everyone arrived. About 10 minutes later this neighbour opens the front door of my aparmment (my friggin apartment!) and walks in with her dog (her friggin dog!) to continue complaning. We were all stunned. I will gloss over what happened next but suffice it to say she quickly decided she had made a mistake and left...quickly. I'm quite certain it won't happen again. Seriously though, who does stuff like that!?
Unfortunately, I won't be making it to Tajikistan this trip. One more 'stan for the future I guess. However, my 'work' needed to take an extra car to a conference in Almaty, Kazakhstan next week so I get to tag along. It'll be nice to get out of Uzbekistan, I haven't left the country in 3 months. Geez, that's something I never thought I'd be able to say. Anyway, we leave on Monday morning and will be there till Friday. It's a long drive, that will be made longer because of me unfortunately. Foreigners (non-ex Soviet citizens) can only cross at certain border crossings. From talking to the driver on Friday we'll be going quite a ways out of the way to get to one where I can cross. Ah well, should still be interesting.
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