Got
picked up by a taxi at 6:15. On a Sunday morning. Beautiful morning
though. Dropped of 15 minutes later at Salar station – a local stop
somewhere in the city. The reason for being there at this time of day
was an invitation. Nico has a couchsurfer friend who lives in
Tashkent and although he had never met him, he invited us to tag
along on an invitation for a day trip to the mountains. The beauty of
the internet.
The
train wasn't until 7:15 so we had plenty of time to hang out and look
for the mysterious friend who had been writing a short message to
Nico as instructions. Something like – “meet at Salar station,
we'll find you, if not, take train 1½-2 hours”. Great. Especially
since the guys profile picture at the couchsurfers website was only a
pair of feet and a deckchair. Hardly something we could recognise on
a station with around 100 other travellers waiting for the train. So
we waited. Together with an ever increasing group of other
travellers. There is this thing about trains in Uzbekistan that they
do not run that often. We realised that in Samarkand when we went to
the station there and the list of services for the whole day was
limited to 20 arrivals and departures in total.
Suddenly
an officially looking guy started to shout something in Uzbek and the
crowd of people moved towards the ticket office. Since we didn't know
where we were going it was a bit hard to go there and ask for a
“1½-to-2 hours ticket”. A young woman was standing at the
platform and when we asked her about help and that we only knew we
were going to a picnic place she said “no worries, I'm studying at
the English language center and we're also going to the picnic place.
Like everybody else here!”. And so we got tickets. 3200 Som per
ticket. Less than 1 US Dollar.
More
people had arrived so the station was feeling quite packed. Now the
official shouted something again. And the crowd moved down the
platform. So did we still no sign of Nico's friend. But we had a
ticket now so we were ready to go with the flow. Suddenly a guy
approached Nico and it turned out to be his friend. They were
actually a small group of friends, three of them and a fourth joining
a bit later.
A train
approached the station but when it stopped it was not at the
platform, it was a bit away. A few people walked across the tracks
and boarded the train which seemed to only carry a few soldiers. A
few minutes later another train approached the station. Still no
announcements or signs. This time the train was heading the wrong
direction though. Waiting a bit more and then our train. Got on in a
hurry and when we left the station the train was absolutely packed.
So we stood up for the next two hours the train slowly making its way
towards the mountains.
After
two hours the train was still packed with people. The train stopped
and it turned out to be the end of the line. It was a small station
in the mountains, a bit chaotic with all the people getting off the
train. So we waited for a minute, also because our new friends waited
for a fourth friend to show up. Suddenly we were asked to do an
interview with Uzbek TV. Being asked questions about how we like
Uzbekistan and about travelling. So we said the nicest things we
could come up with.
The
friends got a little impatient so we hurried after them up the
hillside and into a small valley. One of them was carrying a large
backpack and a barbecue. The ones they use for shashliq. Turns out
the guys had stocked up on food and drinks. After a bit of
reconnaissance a suitable place was chosen with a bit of shade, next
to the small stream. And so we stayed there for the rest of the day.
First
thing to do – drinks in the cold stream. Then collect firewood for
the barbecue while they were doing the first set of shashliq. Liver
and fat (tastes a lot better than in sounds). Some bread on the side,
the shashliq ready and we had the first serving of the day. Really
good. Then hanging out, having a nap, talking, laughing, telling
stories from our home countries. Second round of shashliq this time
with beef getting ready, some salad and third round also. In other
words – we got shashliq'ed out. It turned out the guys had brought
one kilo of liver and 2½ kilos of meat so no wonder we felt a little
full. We cleaned up our little camp and headed back for the station
late in the afternoon knowing that the last train had left, but we
agreed to pay for a taxi. They did the negotiations and the first leg
of taxi was to the nearest town. There we took another taxi to
Tashkent and then a third taxi to our hotel. All in all two hours of
taxi driving for around 30.000 Som. Less than ten US dollars.
Jumped
in the pool at the hotel to cool down after a full day on the
mountain and two hours stuck in a very small taxi. Looking back at a
fantastic day. Sometimes it really pays off to grab the opportunity
to go on an adventure which you have no idea of how will turn out.
Had a cup of tea for dinner. Still shashliq'ed out.
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