Uzbekistan, ergo sum!

 This day, my main goal was to cross the border with Uzbekistan. Crossing the border was pretty straightforward. I got on a mashrut. Which contrary to normal, left on a set time. I thought the border would be a certain distance. But after driving for like a minute, we stopped again. I thought we had arrived at another bus station. But no. This was actually the border. The mashrut stopped first at the Kyrgyz side so we could get stamped out of Kyrgyzstan. Then we travelled like 50 meters, where a Kyrgyz border officer came on board to check our id's. He demanded to see my exit stamp. I showed it to him, and we were off again. For like 50 meters. Uzbekistan border. Time to get out, and bring all our gear. We went into a large hall with only one booth. Which was empty. We waited for a while, before an officer saw us. Far back in the room. He exchanged (shouted) some words with the Uzbeks in our group. After a while, a passport control officer showed up. And we could get ut passport stamped. Then customs. Which was just a guy telling us to put our bags on a conveyor belt into a x-ray machine. After we had all been scanned, with him mostly occupied with talking to another guy, we were let into Uzbekistan. An hour and then some later, we arrived in Andijon. Where I would spend the night.

As I got off the mashrut, I was immediately "attacked" by a taxi driver. I didn't understand what he was saying, (no hablo Uzbek) so a local guy translated.

"The taxi driver wants to know where you are going? Fergana, Tashkent, Kokand?"

"I am going here!" I said and pointed to the ground. 

He smiled. "Really? Andijon?"

He explained it to the taxi-driver, who looked at me with disbelief. Admittedly, Andijon is not on any tourist maps. That's for sure. And I didn't go here expecting to find hidden gems or anything. It was more a practical thing. Travelling all over the world has taught me never to trust timetables. So I could have made the train to Fergana (needed to buy the ticket too), but if anything went wrong, I would be stuck. So I opted to get stuck on purpose. 

So one of the things I did this day, was to buy a train ticket to Margilon. A city close to Fergana. That was my real first goal in Uzbekistan.

But my very first thing was to withdraw some money. It was a bit weird going to an ATM, and asking for 1 000 000, without it laughing at me. The Uzbek sum isn't exactly top value. 1 000 000 sum is about $85... So I felt rich until I started buying stuff...

I also had to switch sim-cards. My Kyrgyz sim only worked a couple of clicks inland. I found a local provider and got 24Gb for about 40 000 sum (about $3). One fifth of the Kyrgyz sim. Not bad. Some sim for sum...

With my phone online, and maps working again, I walked the couple of miles down to my hotel. 

It was a very old hotel. Located in a backstreet. Where cars had to drive slowly whether they wanted or not. I loved it. 

After unpacking my bags, I went outside and had a walk around town. Just to see if I could find something interesting. And I did. Below are some of the images I took during my walk.

The next day, I got up, had a shower, and walked to the train station. At the station, I bought some food and drink for breakfast. The woman behind the counter didn't have the full change, so she gave me a ball of something I had seen before. I assumed it was something sweet since I had seen some kids eating these with a great appetite. I put it in my mouth. Oh, the shock! The horror! It wasn't sweet. It was sour cheese. My brain went into self-preservation mode. "SPIT IT OUT!" it screamed. I wanted to, but the logical part of my brain stopped me. Spitting out a local delicacy onto the marble floors of the train station? Not exactly the way to get people to love tourists. I tried finding a waste bin. All the while my face shrunk into a prune. Despite my desperate attempts to hide my disgust. Keeping a straight face isn't easy when your whole body is dying. My brain trying to cope with not trying to vomit. But I found no waste bin anywhere. I had to chew the chewing gum texture. In the end, I managed to swallow it. I flung open a chocolate bar I had bought and devoured it. Just to get rid of the taste. YUCK! Sorry. You may love your cheese, but I cannot stand it. In my defense, cheese is one of the food items I am very picky about.

I got on the train, and found my seat. The car was hot. Steaming hot. Packed with people. I broke out a sweat. Immediately. And it stayed that way for the remainder of the 1 hour trip to Margilon. When I arrived I was stinky and sweaty. And ready for some air conditioning. But first, I had to find a taxi. Which was harder than I imagined. That is, not hard to find a taxi. But a driver that understood where I was going. Nobody knew the hotel, let alone the street in Fergana. Or even the area. But finally, I found one that was able to figure it out. And he zoomed me to the hotel. With only a little help from me and my GPS. 

I came to Fergana for one specific reason. Something I wanted to do ever since I saw it on YouTube. But more on that tomorrow.