live from Tashkent
Part one because there are so many things to say and I can only be bothered to type out a few short lines about my travels/travails for work in Central Asia-
Kazakhstan was cold while Uzbekistan is hot.
Uzbekistan really needs to rethink how they denominate (?) their currency. If USD1 is equal to 1311 som, (at the official bank rate... the black market rate is not much better. They were offering about 1428 som to the dollar) then changing at USD300 would be a bad idea, because the largest denomination note would be 1000som! go figure out how much I had to carry when travelling around Fergana valley. (I also had to pay for an official dinner at some chinese restaurant in Tashkent which does not accept credit cards and I had to pay 375000 som! Thank God the bank bundled 1000 som notes into wads of 100 and tied them with rubber bands. I just had to reach into my briefcase and toss over 4 wads of notes and get the lady boss to count out 25 1000 som notes back to me. Like someone said, you feel like some mafia/drug dealer.
The other irritating thing abt this region is horse meat. The Kazakhs and Uzbeks serve horse sausage at every meal. Its got a strong smell and its damn salty!
The most hilarious story abt horse sausage was that I was at a lunch with some singaporean businessmen who have businesses in Uzbekistan. As with most things in this country, its an all male table. And the various drivers were there as well. One businessman was telling everyone else about how his driver (who is 60) just married a 43 year old woman and he's taking "Miagra" (which is like made in India Viagra) so his new wife of 2 months can stay happy with him and not run away. My driver goes to say that is stupid. Horse sausage works just as well. You have the stamina of a horse and your penis will be as big as one when you do it.
All this while, I was politely nibbling away at a slice of horse sausage (which is damn fatty).
(Did I mention that this was a conversation in Russian but I managed to understand it from translations and guessing the context... oh and he used the word penis in the midst of this russian conversation.)
And for the rest of my time here in Uzbekistan, my driver has always offered me an extra helping of horse sausage, saying that a young man like me needs all the "strength" I need to "keep up".
(pun very intended... haha)
Oh, did I mention that my driver has two wives... and looks like a cross between retired England rugby players Lawrence Dallaglio and Martin Johnson...
more hilarious anecdotes to follow.
p.s. I've had to eat horse sausage for the last four days. I can't feel or see any difference. Then again, I've not been in a position to test that theory out... haha!
Kazakhstan was cold while Uzbekistan is hot.
Uzbekistan really needs to rethink how they denominate (?) their currency. If USD1 is equal to 1311 som, (at the official bank rate... the black market rate is not much better. They were offering about 1428 som to the dollar) then changing at USD300 would be a bad idea, because the largest denomination note would be 1000som! go figure out how much I had to carry when travelling around Fergana valley. (I also had to pay for an official dinner at some chinese restaurant in Tashkent which does not accept credit cards and I had to pay 375000 som! Thank God the bank bundled 1000 som notes into wads of 100 and tied them with rubber bands. I just had to reach into my briefcase and toss over 4 wads of notes and get the lady boss to count out 25 1000 som notes back to me. Like someone said, you feel like some mafia/drug dealer.
The other irritating thing abt this region is horse meat. The Kazakhs and Uzbeks serve horse sausage at every meal. Its got a strong smell and its damn salty!
The most hilarious story abt horse sausage was that I was at a lunch with some singaporean businessmen who have businesses in Uzbekistan. As with most things in this country, its an all male table. And the various drivers were there as well. One businessman was telling everyone else about how his driver (who is 60) just married a 43 year old woman and he's taking "Miagra" (which is like made in India Viagra) so his new wife of 2 months can stay happy with him and not run away. My driver goes to say that is stupid. Horse sausage works just as well. You have the stamina of a horse and your penis will be as big as one when you do it.
All this while, I was politely nibbling away at a slice of horse sausage (which is damn fatty).
(Did I mention that this was a conversation in Russian but I managed to understand it from translations and guessing the context... oh and he used the word penis in the midst of this russian conversation.)
And for the rest of my time here in Uzbekistan, my driver has always offered me an extra helping of horse sausage, saying that a young man like me needs all the "strength" I need to "keep up".
(pun very intended... haha)
Oh, did I mention that my driver has two wives... and looks like a cross between retired England rugby players Lawrence Dallaglio and Martin Johnson...
more hilarious anecdotes to follow.
p.s. I've had to eat horse sausage for the last four days. I can't feel or see any difference. Then again, I've not been in a position to test that theory out... haha!