We arrived into Tashkent around 9:30PM that evening and went straight out with friends of Alex's to a traditional Uzbek restaurant. Alex has been to Uzbekistan several times already and has many friends in Tashkent.
We spent hours eating and making toasts to friendship, travelling, marriage, children, The Uzbek People, friends who were in London but with us in spirit (K, we drank for you several times) and many other worthy causes. Before we knew it, it was 3AM and time to head home. Stumbling out of a taxi, we went to bed. The following morning, we met Timur from Dolores Travel, one of our sponsors. They also handled all of our travel arrangements in Uzbekistan and were very helpful and flexible with our delays and hiccups.
Mike struggling to stay awake...
We took some photos of the three of us and the car in front of the Shodlik Palace Hotel. Funnily enough, before Dolores agreed to sponsor us we had chosen this as our hotel of choice in Tashkent.
As the check engine light was still on, we had to take the car to a Toyota garage to have it looked at. Unable to find a garage we knew would have the diagnostics, we drove to the Toyota dealer and asked. They pointed us in the right direction, and we dropped the car off.
The main Tashkent train station
While the car was being looked at, some family friends took us to a nice restaurant by a river, where we tried to order plov, Uzbekistan's national dish. Being the national dish and extremely popular, they had sold out of it. Instead we had Lagman, which are a type of hand-stretched noodles and Honim. Honim are thin noodles with thinly-sliced meat, served with broth on the side.
Some delicious Honim
After lunch we drove back to the garage to pick up the car. It turns out all the issues were caused by a loose detonation sensor wire. The mechanics simply made sure it was tight and gave the car a once over. We wanted to be sure the car was functioning perfectly before crossing the Pamirs in Tajikistan.
We bade a fond farewell to Tashkent wishing we could have stayed longer with our friends.
Mike tightening the tyre before we left.
Some filterleas Uzbek cigarettes that Alex found to everybody else's shock and horror.