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7NNT25 Day 16: Chiang Mai > Bangkok > Ho Chi Minh City
Soundtrack: “Khe Sanh”, Cold Chisel Having left day 15 on a cliff hanger, I can reveal that I was able to get up in time to head out and get my laundry just after 9am, so I won’t have to buy any new clothes anytime soon. While I’m travelling with a few treasured items, my green The Clouds t-shirt that I got at a gig the night before I last came to Thailand, which has travelled a bunch since, was recognised by a friend of the band in Fort William, and was also photographed in the main court of the Rijksmuseum (two of us have now done this, so it’s…
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7NNT25: Day 15 – Chiang Mai
Soundtrack: “Yellow”, Coldplay (sigh) Khao soi day. I dragged my slightly tired carcass out of bed, quick stop for some hotel noodle and egg breakfast, and then headed out to a laundry I’d spotted on my wanderings that offered 50 THB/kilo. I handed over my trusty orange laundry bag (it’s been with me since at least 2009) and was told it would be ready after 6pm (note that I put in this detail about the time because I occasionally think I can do clever writer things, like foreshadowing future events, so you’ll just have to read along until I get to 6pm — FYI I’m under no pretensions that this…
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7NNT25: Day 14 – Chiang Mai
Soundtrack: “Umbrella”, Rhianna Sunday in Chiang Mai. Managed to wake in time for breakfast, it wasn’t the best sleep as congestion and coughing was a pain. Hotel breakfast nothing much to speak of, no types of cheese, congee, rice, noodles, sausage, and eggs basically. I skipped the rice and the congee, as I wasn’t sure how long they’d been sitting there, instead opting for the noodles, sausage and eggs. Noodle 7.0: Unnamed Thin Stir-fried Noodles (Royal Lanna Hotel breakfast) They were okay. Possibly an egg-noodle, with some green leaves in the mix. When you’re a tired and hungry traveller and want something to soak up egg yolks that isn’t white…
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7NNT25: Day 13 – Chiang Mai
Soundtrack: “Born This Way”, Lady Gaga / “Relax”, Frankie Goes to Hollywood The battle of the aircon continues. On one hand, Chiang Mai is starting its hot season, so daily temps are high 30s, mostly dry during the day but getting a bit more humid in the evening, so turning it off isn’t an option. But I’m yet to find the right setting that doesn’t require a bit of tweaking, but I’ll keep trying (of course, part of it is that now I’m here and unpacked I’m too lazy to as reception to change rooms, which might not make a huge difference as far as I can tell it’s just…
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7NNT25: Day 12 – Chiang Mai
Soundtrack: “Nikita”, Elton John I’ll probably keep throwing occasional remembrances from Uzbekistan into these entries as they pop up in my thoughts and as I start to process the similarities and differences to other places. One that I completely missed mentioning is that Elton John’s “Nikita” possibly plays constantly on a loop in the background of Uzbekistan Airways flights. I first heard it when we boarded the flight from Urgench, and thought it neat: the story of someone going through a soviet checkpoint and deciding they love the guard (pretty sure Nikita is generally a male name, but the film clip had a female playing the part, as Sir Elton…
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7NNT25: Day 10 & 11 – Somewhere in Uzbekistan
Soundtrack: any song about waiting in airports… Writing this in the Pie Republic outlet at Tashkent International Airport, consuming an overpriced chicken caesar sandwich and a cappucino, which in these parts is the same as a flat white. Also, the chicken caesar sandwich has tomato. Also also, the Pie Republic doesn’t sell any pies (though they do have meat filled somsas, which I guess comes close). That’s probably a metaphor for something, I don’t quite know what. In the lst two days I’ve experienced Uzbekistan airways, had actual gluten-free Uzbek food, walked a bit, sat around waiting a bunch, shopped for trinkets for the folks back home, and made sure…
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7NNT25: Day 9 – Khiva
Soundtrack: “Helter Skelter”, The Beatles Today we explored the ups and downs of Khiva, the old provincial capital and city that’s a mere 2,500 years young. Khiva, like many historical places, is a city within a city, there’s the old walled city, Itchan Kala, and then the rest of the city. Itchan Kala is largely a walled museum city, with the bulk of building done in the 18th and 19th Centuries (Ghengis Khan was here, you know the story). Much of the construction of the period remains intact, owing to the Khanate of Khiva capitulating fairly rapidly to the Tsarist forces, and then having their own revolution after the soviets…
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7NNT25: Day 8 – The road to Khiva
Soundtrack: “Wide Open Road”, The Triffids Somewhere on the road to Khiva, with no other people in sight, the only signs of civilisation being the power poles and the road itself, my phone showing no signal, I glanced at the dashboard and the realisation kicked in: the damn fuel light is on. I don’t know when it came on, but I figure that if this car is like most, that means it has at most somewhere around 50km worth of fuel. I start doing the maths, if we’re doing just over 110km/h, that gives us maybe 30 minutes. I’m not panicking yet, afterall the driver seems quite calm about it,…
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7NNT25: Day 7 – Bukhara
Soundtrack: “People Who Died”, Jim Carroll Band A full day in Bukhara that kicked off with meeting a new guide at 9am. She spoke fast and I’m really bad at remembering names, so I’m not sure what exactly her name was. Uzbek names also take a bit of getting used to, there’s a lack of Shazza, Kazza, Bazza and Dazza here. Mix this with a morning of more stories about 16th-19th century Uzbek Amirs and I’m sadly floundering in the name department. All credit to the guides, they definitely know their stuff and have got all the names, dates, and places sorted, but it’s a lot for someone who’s only…
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7NNT25: Day 6 – Samarkand to Bukhara
Soundtrack: Having hit peak Timur, it was time today to leave Samarkand and head further down the Silk Road to the old capital of Uzbekistan, Bukhara. I keep remembering and then forgetting that these are kind of the footsteps of Marco Polo, who came through here 800 or so years ago. Would have been cool if he’d been like the Vikings, and left some graffiti behind, but can’t have everything. I can safely say that he never took the fast train and watched the countryside scroll at 159 km/h. Though the fast train didn’t have the same level of service today, there were no free pastries or tea, boarding was…
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7NNT25: Day 5 – Samarkand
Soundtrack: “Sugar, Sugar” – The Archies Today was mostly a make our own fun day, so we used the opportunity to have a bit of a stroll around the city, mostly in the Tsarist Russian part. We’d noted a couple of shopping malls within walking distance, so thought we’d check them out. The first excitement in the walk involved a chicken. It may have been trying to cross the rather busy road, or it might have just wanted to loiter under a parked car, I don’t speak any language of chicken so I couldn’t ask. A couple of Uzbek gents appeared to be trying to direct it or catch it,…
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7NNT25: Day 4 – Samarkand
Soundtrack: “Turn! Turn! Turn!” – Pete Seeger/The Byrds A more sedately paced day after yesterday’s hustle. We kicked off with a late hotel breakfast, our Samarkand accommodation is smaller than Tashkent so the selection was scaled down considerably with only a few types of cheese, limited hot foods, fruit etc and some local options like samsa. First stop was a traditional crafts village on the edge of Samarkand. The Uzbeks have a long history of making paper, having obtained the knowledge from the Chinese — according to some folklore by force, where captured Chinese soldiers gave up the knowledge in exchange for their lives. Like many things, the knowledge was…
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7NNT25: Day 3 – Tashkent to Samarkand
Soundtrack: “Know Your Product” The Saints One thing that Uzbekistan has that Australia doesn’t is fast intercity trains, the sort that do the 300km from Tashkent to Samarkand in just over 2 hours. We were a little unsure at what economy class would entail, but need not have worried. As economy rail goes, it’s one of the best. There are comfy seats with a decent amount of leg room, the baggage space was a little tight but not as bad as some, and they provide free snacks and drinks. The snacks included a little bag with a pastry and a sachet of 3 in 1 instant coffee, icecream, and fruit…
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7NNT25: Day 2 – Tashkent
Soundtrack: “Going Underground” The Jam Our first full day in Uzbekistan was spent exploring the old and new parts of the capital, Tashkent, with our driver and also a guide who tried to take us through 15 centuries of history in 6 hours. In summary: most of the cultures that have dominated Uzbekistan over the centuries have had a mix of good and bad elements, except the Mongols, who were all bad. Seems like the Uzbeks still have a bit of a grudge from the days of Ghengis Khan, which I’m sure would make an Uzbekistan Vs Mongolia ice hockey game rather interesting. So here’s the non-wikipedia version: the Uzbeks…
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7NNT25: Day 1 – A whole lotta transit
Soundtrack: “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead” Bon Jovi We queued, we waited, we napped, we queued, we flew, we got there in the end. Due to reasons too boring to detail, our chosen airline to take us into Uzbekistan was Batik, a budget airline that doesn’t have a universal reputation for punctuality. When it’s on time it’s on time, but when it’s late, well, our 4 hour delay out of Perth at least wasn’t the 9 hour delay another of their flights was experiencing. I don’t know what went wrong but their schedule ran to the toilet faster than someone after a bowl of improperly stored rice. There are 4…
