Yours Truly,: Unforgettable Uzbekistan (Day 1)

السلام عليكم

With a bit of silence from me (just came back from Sarawak trip.hihihi), and a bit of loudness from the fireworks (yes, Happy New Year to you!) here I am again trying to spare you my story of Uzbekistan trip.

Our flight to Uzbekistan was on Tuesday, 4^th of December 2012 which was last month and last year (get it?haha). The only flight to Uzbekistan was on Uzbekistan Airways which their planes were painted in white, blue and green which I then learnt were the colours of their national flag.

Our flight was approximately 10.10 am and we had to be at KLIA by 7 am. Later after we check-in our bags, we had a group gathering with the other tour members. There, I figured out that I was the only youngster in the group :( Of course I was quite devastated of learning that I have no friends around the same age to make. The others were just all grown-ups and just a pair of sisters who I bet had already started working.

I tried to cheer myself up. I have my beautiful family with me to enjoy the holiday, why fret right? After the immigration and stuffs, we headed to gate C6. On the way there, exactly after we step off the train in KLIA, I saw a few of Uzbeks. *whistling* Uuu laa laa. They’re gorgeous!

In an international flight of course you expect some great movies ‘on air’ right? From my previous experience they usually had lined up international movies that had not even screen in the cinema for us to watch. Another let down; there was none!

All they serve to us was just local Uzbekistan movies. I don’t mind watching it, as long as it was in English and not in Uzbek language which I can’t understand a thing! There weren’t English subtitles at all! There were just some people translating it for you. The ‘best’ part was every male character has the same voice and boring intonation. Try to imagine that a little boy, a middle age man and a crippling old man has the same voice! It was quite hilarious if you ask me. I end up sleeping because it was so boring and that I was a bit tired of waking up early. Did it told you it was a 7 hours journey?

One thing that I love about travelling on plane is the land of cloud that can be encountered. Magnificent!

It seems like the 'lion' is taking a bath. Lol.

When I woke up, *yawn* “still a long way to go”. I stretched myself and bring my gaze to the small oval window. Hmm, the clouds over here look different. Oh wait! They’re not clouds! They’re actually ices on the mountains! Beautiful! Masya Allah :’)

Lunch up in the air. Lovely food :9

Alhamdulillah, we arrived safely at Tashkent International Airport. I immediately fell in love. The place was insanely beautiful! Masya Allah, the paintings of Allah were just so downright amazing!

One of my favourite. It looks like an oil painting huh?

First sunset in Uzbekistan :')

They are still trying to upgrade their airport, so it wasn’t in its best condition. Later, we headed to our bus. There, we met our tour guide; Mr. Ulugbek. We called him Bek.

Ulugbek the tour leader :)

Tashkent is the capital city of Uzbekistan. But we weren’t spending the nights there just yet. We headed to the domestic airport to take the domestic flight to Bukhara which is another state of Uzbekistan. We had to transit at the airport for about 4 hours.

Above; Sandwich. Below; Domestic airport.

Surprisingly, for a country of majority Muslim, they don’t have a Prayer Room. My Mom said even Korea Airport has it! We had to take our Wuduk at the toilet and did our Jamak prayer at a corner of the airport.

Once we touched down, all the local people will wear their jackets and coats. I wonder what the temperature was then. Us, being the Malaysia are somehow thrilled, and didn’t realize that it was cold. We still wore our cotton-ish blouses though the temperature was somewhat single digit degree Celsius.

We safely arrived in Buhkhara and we were famished! Had our first meal in Uzbekistan at the hotel.