Uzbekistan Trip. Day 1 : Kuala Lumpur to Tashkent

Uzbekistan, a Central Asia country was never in  front or center of our travel wish list, however it was a fascinating country with a lot to uncover.

A bit on Uzbekistan, language spoken are Uzbek and Tajiks, but Russian is the most spoken. It's pretty hard to communicate with the locals. And as their SOM currency is not being traded, we brought a couple hundreds of US Dollars for our 8 days stay in Uzbekistan. Money changers can easily be found in the city or even in the hotels. SOM 10,000 equivalent to MYR 4.30 and a naan bread cost around 1 ringgit.

Following our recent trip joining group tour by Zafirah Travel's, organized by my wife colleagues, it was our first to join a group tour. Best thing I don't have to scratch my head to plan on the holiday itinerary. We visited the capital city of Tashkent, Bukhara, Samarkand, and a day trip to Chimgan.

The Uzbekistan Airways HY 554 departed for Tashkent at 11.30 am and arrived Islam Karimov International Airport 8 hours later. It was 4 pm local time. After clearing immigration process, we were greeted by Mr Ilham, the local tour guide.

We reached KLIA by 7 in the morning

I had chicken during the meal served one plus hour later

Yeaahhh.. dah sampai!!

Winter is at the peak in end of January, and it was hard weather when we stepped outside from the airport  According to the forecast, temperature ranging from below zero to 5 degrees, that was midday. As dusk felt, we feel even colder.

Ilham took us for dinner at Sim Sim Restaurant before check-in to the Uzbekistan Hotel. We were amazed with the restaurant's interior once we stepped in. It’s hard not to be impressed by the architectural influenced from the Soviet Union era.

Speaking of the food, we were served with bread and salads as the starter. Then comes the rice and chicken with soup. Almost of the restaurants served varieties of peanuts, and apricot seeds is the most popular. If you want to learn the traditional Uzbek dishes, check-out this website.

Stumbled upon the Sim Sim's interior design

Nice table setup

And nice dining hall.. an absolutely wow!!

A typical Uzbekistan non that sold everywhere

A sweet and sour salads

There were many small dining rooms upstairs

It was freezing cold but we don't want to miss the photo-taking session

Blink blink.. Sim Sim...

After the dinner, we checked-in to the Hotel Uzbekistan. We had an early flight to Bukhara the next day. Nu'man started to feel unwell and he got sprained ankle when he did the road running of the school's event two days earlier. O-Oh... hope everything would be fine!