Uzbekistan Trip. Day 1 : Kuala Lumpur to Tashkent

Uzbekistan, a Central Asian 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: the languages spoken are Uzbek and Tajik, 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 hundred US dollars for our 8-day stay in Uzbekistan. Money changers can easily be found in the city or even in the hotels. SOM 10,000 is equivalent to MYR 4.30 and a naan bread costs around 1 ringgit.

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

The Uzbekistan Airways HY 554 departed for Tashkent at 11:30 am and arrived at Islam Karimov International Airport 8 hours later. It was 4 pm local time. After clearing the 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 its peak at end of January, and it was hard weather when we stepped outside from the airport.  According to the forecast, temperatures ranged from below zero to 5 degrees; that was midday. As dusk fell, we felt even colder.

Ilham took us for dinner at Sim Sim Restaurant before checking 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 influence 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 all of the restaurants served varieties of peanuts, and apricot seeds were 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 a nice dining hall... absolutely wow!!

A typical Uzbekistan non that sold everywhere

A sweet and sour salad

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 sprained his ankle when he did the road running of the school's event two days earlier. O-Oh... I hope everything will be fine!