Having spent in Tashkent almost a year I want to share its bright and dark sides as they seem now.
The most incredible things about Tashkent for me are its flowers, fruits and buildings. The best season in Tashkent is from April to May when everything is blossoming. Roses are everywhere, in every yard, there are blossoming cherries, and almonds, and apricots, and peaches, and a lot of exotic trees from all around the globe. Blossoming is incessant – starting in April it continues way into autumn. An abundance of fruit is characteristic for the streets of Tashkent too, as you can literally eat mulberry right from the trees almost anywhere. There are apricots, cherries and other fruits accessible around your house, no matter where you live. Persimmons are eatable early in the autumn as well as grapes and what’s not.
Tashkent is very green. There are aryks (an irrigation channel system) and sprinklers everywhere allowing for plants to grow even in dry seasons. There are a lot of big trees and some green areas. Though, the situation deteriorated in comparison with Soviet time a lot of trees were cut giving way to roads, parking lots and office buildings.
Tashkent is developing rapidly. It all started with the current president several years ago. New European-looking parks, clusters of office buildings, construction boom. It all goes with a cost. People buying cars create traffic jams and pollution, the city development leaves it with less trees and walking zones. Providing people use mostly cheap sorts of fuel and some industries are corrupt there’s a lot of pollution.
My second impression of Tashkent was better than the first one. At first you think that it looks like all Soviet cities with simple high-storey residential complex plus modern-looking shopping malls plus a little chaotic small business in cheap pavilions. But details are important. Soviet architects tried hard to make this city beautiful. Yes, they built more or less typical houses, but they decorated them very creatively using local ornaments, mosaics, trying to make a good design. And it really gives you a pleasant impression when you walk not only in the city center but in any district. Neighborhoods (mahallyas) with small private houses are even better to walk through as they are usually very clean, neat, have all sorts of design ideas and a lot of greenery there. There’s little left of the old Tashkent with typical Uzbek housing, but you can still find a couple of neighborhoods near the main religious complex.
The climate here is a little harsh. Yes, there are mild seasons like the Spring and the Autumn, but in the winter temperatures could go down to minus 20 and as high as plus 10 in January, and all in two days. In Summer from July to August there’s chillya – the season of really hot and dry weather, so air conditioners at home is a must, as well as aqua parks all around the city.
The city is still developing, but rapidly. You can find modern parks, buildings, chain shops, bike lanes but as well traditional bakeries, markets (bazaars), private houses. Traffic is badly planned, there are a lot of new cheap building that spoil the landscape, there are huge avenues for cars which are hard to cross, so, these things are all typical for countries at the beginning of their growth. I hope, it will all improve soon. Another issue is you can hardly find a decent playground for kids. They exists but they are either paid or very old and rusty.
Local mentality is quite controversial from the point of view of foreigners. Uzbeks mostly are very hospitable, polite, easy-going, workaholic, but at the same time if they are irritated, they can easily go mad (like most of other people probably), being polite in general when they drive a car they are inclined to break rules, to drive recklessly with a lot of nervousness, driving is very chaotic here. Another thing is being polite means they are indirect when they need to decline your offer or request. It might be annoying as even if you agree on something, it doesn’t mean you get what is agreed on. They don’t like criticism, so there’s a huge problem with feedback. There are almost no decent recommendation systems for that matter. A lot of issues are solved through personal relations. What they like is big families and big gatherings to spend time together whether it’s soccer or visiting restaurants. People are mostly still poor and the middle class is small but growing. There are both Teslas and Mercedes as well as ancient Soviet cars on the streets but generally they are Chevrolet as there’s a local factory making those. The government is trying to support the cult of local history characters like Amir Temur (Tamerlan), Ulugbek, Beruni, Alisher Navoi and others. Everything is modernizing even though traditions are strong. There are modern theaters and clubs in Tashkent both in Uzbek and Russian languages. For example, one of the most famous outside Uzbekistan is Ilkhom theater. Another observation is local women can wear hijabs, and still other women can wear skirts opening their legs and not wear anything on their heads. So, there are modern and secular people as well as very traditional and religious, and both categories are quite tolerant to each other. It is interesting that in pharmacies all drug boxes are open, having no stickers, and even more – you can buy one blister or even one pill separately. And still another observation: sellers might easily ask for the PIN code from your credit card to process payments, they don’t see any problems with that.
