Central Asia: Uzbekistan - Things to See/Do in Tashkent Part 2

Old Town

1. Chorsu Bazaar
Tashkent was one of the ancient cities appeared on the Great Silk Road. As with many ancient cities, there are bound to have markets. Grin. Tashkent's old town starts beside Chorsu Bazaar and this bazaar is one of the busiest, though old buildings have been replaced by modern ones. We met a young student on our commute and in our conversation, he recommended a visit to Chorsu Bazaar. Actually if there is a place he is to recommended, he suggested Chorsu Bazaar.

Chorsu Bazaar is open every day of the week from early morning to late in the evening. You could find jewelry, ceramics, pottery, nons (bread), souvenirs, cooked meals...

We bought some fridge magnets and potteries, had an early dinner of plov and shashlik before walking back to the B&B.

Very organised looking market eh?

Ohhh.. we bought some of these too!

Dinner of plov... (yum yum.. )

...and shashlik (yummy yummy too!)

 2. Juma (Friday) Mosque
Our initial plan was to check out the Juma Mosque then finished up at Chorsu Bazaar. However for some reason we couldn't find this mosque and not superbly enthusiastic actually because of the scorching weather. I am definitely not a big fan of summer holidays. Lol.

Well, this current mosque was built in 1990s and sits on a hill overlooking Chorsu Bazaar. The original building was since 16th century was destroyed by the Soviets. As you can see, we kind of saw this mosque from Chorsu Bazaar itself.

3. Khast Imam Complex
There's a few building in this complex - some madrassah, mosque and administrative building.

Notable buildings are Mausoleum of Abu Bakr Kaffal Shoshi and Moyie Mubarek Library Museum.

The Abu Bakr Kaffal Shoshi mausoleum was erected in honour of this Islamic scholar and poet from the Shaybanid period. When we were there, there were a few people there reading religious book.

The other one would be this Moyie Mubarek Library Museum. The primary attraction of this musuem is the 7th century Osman Quran, said to be the world's oldest. This deerskin Quran was said to be brought to Samarkand by Timur, then taken to Moscow by the Russians in 1868. It was then returned to Tashkent by Lenin in 1924 as an act of goodwill.

This library museum is the only one needing to pay admission fee, so you won't miss the building. Photography is not permitted inside.

4. National Food
We had our taste of Uzbekistan food in Tashkent at this restaurant near Gafur Gulom metro station. The restaurant name is call National Food. We first went there for dinner and wanted to order plov but they have run out of it. We went back the next day for lunch and yumm.. It was good plov! This place is really busy during lunch time too.

In this restaurant, there were stations of different dishes. You can walk around and look at the dishes before deciding which ones you want to order, then order at the counter (which is just a table with the manager, I assumed the owner) and pay upfront. He will give you a ticket and you can pass it to the chef who manages the respective food station. Well, this was what technically should be. Dinner time was much lesser people, so there was an English speaking staff took us around and ordered on our behalf. So we looked for him again when we returned during lunch time and he helped us ordered.

The chef posed with the roast lamb when he saw me took some photos :)

We ate this for dinner

We ate this for dinner

We didn't eat this

We ate this for lunch :P

5. B&B
Yes, Bed & Breakfast in Uzbekistan serves yummy breakfast. Since our first stop was Tashkent, this was the first breakfast we had in B&B. The spread below was for 2 person with free flow coffee and tea. They serve the best cherry jam!

Side note: I think my first new year resolution should be - Be less glutton :|