Tashkent

Another round of the visa-game, this time for the Kazakh and Chinese visas. Outcome in short: I got the Chinese visa in one day (you simply pay more) and left after 9 days of waiting without the Kazakh one…

Tashkent as a travel destination is best avoided. There is not much to see, it’s hot and the policemen are a nuisance; everytime you walk through an underpass or into the metro you need to show your bag and they spend a couple of minutes trying to understand my passport. But it was nice to stay a bit longer in one place for once and work on what I want to do after I reach Tokyo.

The Amir Temur Museum, also visible on the banknotes of Uzbekistan.
Some of the buildings around the central square/park would not have been out of place in Ashgabat...
... while others could use a bit of a face lift.
The stork has some symbolic meaning in Uzbekistan, but people where unable to tell me what. Maybe the president just likes them.
Waiting for my lunch of 'Samsa', breadrolls filled with meat, potato or cheese, backed stuck to the wall of an open oven.
The Chorchu bazaar close to my guesthouse; pay attention to the cars and see the result of having one car factory in the country and a restrictive government.
Inside the big dome of the bazaar. The white balls are made of dried cheese (I have yet to try them out actually...).