On our last day in Kyrgyzstan, we took a van to the border and waited in somewhat challenging passport control lines. But we made it into Uzbekistan and spent some time in the town of Andjian. We went to the local mosque and picked up some supplies for the train at the local market..

It was a long train ride from Andjian to Tashkent, but we checked into a particularly nice hotel. The next day we took a Tashkent city tour. We walked past several famous buildings and went through the National History Museum. Then, we went to a large mosque/madrasa complex that features the world’s oldest Koran. Lots of pix of ancient Islamic texts. a few of the gift shops, and another adjacent mosque under construction…

For lunch, we went Besh Qozon (Five Pots), saw some bread making, then went to the Tashkent central market. We finished the tour with a subway ride to the station of cosmonauts, just next to our hotel…

Instead of chillin’ in the hotel (or even taking a swim, I went for a walk, back to where I’d seen some old books for sale. Near there I met a guy selling old Soviet medals and memorabilia. Another guy showed up to help with some translations. I wound up meeting Uncle Kolya and Elbek, and buying some stuff. Then, Elbek took me to another area where there was more flea market action. A very pleasant encounter. That evening, I met with Christiane Ochoa, a former student who is a diplomat with USAID in Tashkent. (Note the private Karaoke booth? Weird.)

Christiane has had an amazing life so far. I recruited her as a promising scholar for the Naturalist Academy and she was in Mary Lynn’s choir. After graduating from the newly built CSU Channel Islands (during which time she also lived and studies in Spain & Peru), she went to Madagascar with the Peace Corps, got a masters in public health from Columbia, worked in Oregon, and now has an amazing job with the United States Agency for International Development. (Her boss, Samatha Power, Obama’s UN Ambassador, had just been in town the day before.) More on Christiane in a subsequent post…