Chimgan, Perfect Getaway in Uzbekistan

The capital of Uzbekistan, Tashkent, is the city where we landed for the first time, the airport named after the 1st president of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov Tashkent International Airport. We landed very early that day, around 4AM, the airport is not that big, there are 3 flights that arrived around the same time, but the queue are managable, It wasn't took a long time for us to exit the immigration and proceed to baggage claim.

Hubby bought Uz cell simcard in the airport, and get the internet package, that will be used for 4 of us to connect to the internet during our trip.

5AM we out of the airport, sunrise will be around 7.30 AM, so it's completely dark and cold outside. Our first destination is Chimgan, it's a small village 85km from Tashkent, there is a new ski resort around the area, less fortunate for us, the snow isn't thick enough for skiing, but still it was great to be there, enjoying fresh air.

We should have wait until the sunrise before we took taxi to Chimgan, the driver was ripped us by twice of the normal price. It's very dark along the way to Chimgan, not many lamppost on the road. My imagination going wild, I imagine a border post during Soviet era, we drove there for 2 hours, and reached our 1st guest house even before sunrise. It's very cold and the gate is still closed. We wait around 30 minutes outside, but got entertained with the beautiful view, sunrise over snowy mountain.

A young man was passing by, and helped us calling the guard, that finally took us to our guest house. It was a warm wooden hut, clean and comfy. We had breakfast, try to adapt to read the menu that written in cyrillic, try few apps to translate it. Nobody speaks English there, and the experience using translation apps is the greatest ice breaker. It's our first time to try milk porridge, it's local breakfast, and the one that we ate in the guest house was so far the best one during our trip.

After short rest, the guest house arrange taxi for us to go to Amirsoy, the new ski resort. It's a brand new resort, everything still shine bright, eventhough the ski season hasn't started yet, we can go to the top using the cable car. Different view, ambience, and also people that we met, we officially start our holiday 😎. 

On the way back, Max, our driver told us about Charvax Lake, that has spectacular view too, with the pyramid resorts, looks like it was legacy from Soviet era. In Charvax you could do paragliding, but not on winter days. We came almost at the end of the day, 5PM, when the sun will set soon, the wind blows so strong, it increase dramatic ambience of the place.

The next day,  we plan to head back to Tashkent, for a night transit, before we continue our journey to Samarkand. Early in the morning, I take a walk around our guest house. tried to capture morning life in this small village.

Uzbekistan, my Unintended Wish that Came True

It was more than 2 years ago, when we visited Uzbekistan pavilion in Sheikh Zayed Heritage Festival, we got Uzbekistan's tourism magazine. The cultural performances and of course the food mesmerized me, it made me put Uzbekistan in my bucket list, someday, someway I will visit this country that culturally and historically rich.

Winter 2021, 2nd year of Covid pandemic, it's been so long we only stay in UAE. Our family already fully vaccinated, me and hubby also got booster, we made a plan for winter holiday. We checked on Abu Dhabi green lists, and pick a country that could be our winter fairytale getaway, unfortunately the covid case in the region was raising. So we should change our destination. We re-check the green list, and do small research for covid precautionary measurements, needs for quarantine, and also the number of the case there, and the final decision goes to Uzbekistan. Yes, it's a country that already in my bucket list, and yeah, we got more than we expect 😊.

Since I'm busy with my study and works, hubby prepare the itinerary, booked all hotels, plane, and also train for commuting to other city there. It's not easy, since Uzbekistan was opened for tourism not more than 5 years ago. Not many hotels are listed in popular hotel reservations apps, for particular destination I browse through their instagram account and try to get info via DM, furthermore some of them replied back in Russians. 

And to book the train ticket, especially Afrosiyob, the fast train that connected several big cities in Uzbekistan, it surely challenge your patience, the web supposed to be open 30 days before the trip we want to book, but it's not the fact, everyday you should check whether it's open or not, or you can use travel agent's services to book for you.

For people like us, who loves to travel planned but unplanned, we love to arrange everything by ourselves, there's flexibility in time and money. Uzbekistan is quite challenging, but at the same time it's enrich our experiences. 

National language in Uzbekistan is Uzbek language, but people widely use Russians for their daily communications inter-ethnic, Uzbekistan was under Russian Empire during 19th century, and in 1924 as an independent republic within Soviet Union until their independence on 31 August 1991. In several area, like Samarkand and Bukhara, people use Tajik languange for daily conversation.

With a long history, and so many great emporium ruling the lands, old cities like Khiva, Samarkand, and Bukhara are rich city during silk road era. Uzbekistan is a promising cultural and heritage tourism. I'll try to write about our trip by the cities we visited.

 

 

An Ode to a Friend

Awalnya aku hanya berpikir ini seperti amanah-amanah lain, tidak pernah terpikir amanah ini menjadi amanah dari sebuah akhir perjalanan hidup seorang manusia.

Amanah yang kuterima dari sebuah percakapan lewat Whatsapp, meski mengagetkan, aku hanya berpikir tenang, semua akan berlalu seperti yang sudah-sudah.

Sebuah amanah yang membuat emosi naik turun seperti mengendarai roller coaster selama lebih dari sebulan, hingga saat inipun saat semua akhirnya selesai, aku masih belum memahami status emosi dari akhir sebuah amanah ini.

Sebuah amanah yang membuatku merenung akan perjalanan hidup seorang manusia, perjalanan hidupku, perjalanan hidup anak-anakku nanti.

Sebuah pelajaran mahal yang kuterima dari seorang kawan, hadiah terindah dan berharga di akhir perjalanannya dalam hidup.

Usia kita terpaut 11 tahun, saat kabar itu datangpun, aku membaca dan menjawab pesan-pesanmu sambil menyelesaikan setrikaan yang menggunung.

Aku masih berpikir ini hanya hal biasa, namun cukup menabrak konsentrasiku, musik yang kuputar di mobil terdengar datar tak bernada selama perjalanan mengantar anakku ke rumah temannya. Aku merasa dingin, tidak meluap-luap menumpahkan kesedihanku, namun semua terasa mengerikan dan absurd.

Hingga keesokan harinya, aku mendengar tangisan pecah dari belahan jiwamu kawan, mengoyak kesadaranku, mendengar kabar bahwa hidupmu tak akan lama lagi.

Saat itu dirimu hanya meminta tolong aku dan keluargaku untuk menemani keluargamu saat dirimu berjuang melawan sakit yang menggerogotimu. Tak ingin kau berbagi pada dunia tentang keadaanmu, pun aku tak tega untuk berbagi pada semua. Perjuanganmu sudah sangat berat, tanpa perlu ditambah beban menjelaskan ke dunia apa yang sedang kauhadapi.

Namun karena keterbatasan tenaga dan waktuku, aku ingin membagi beban ini dengan kawan yang lain, yang tentu saja engkau juga percaya karena kita telah banyak menghabiskan waktu bersama dan berbagi banyak hal.

Saat kutelusuri jalanan yang pernah kita lalui bersama, berat rasanya membayangkan untuk kembali kesana tanpa kehadiranmu saat musim dingin nanti, saat tenda-tenda biasa kita bentangkan, dan aroma sate kambing yang kita bakar di panggangan spesialmu. Malam-malam kita bercakap hingga pagi di depan api unggun, di bawah cahaya bintang. Terlalu banyak kawan....membayangkannya pun sudah membuat aku rindu.

Dunia ingin tahu tentang dirimu, akupun lebih banyak menghindar, meski akhirnya beberapa mendengar kabarmu, tidak mudah bagiku untuk bercerita. Aku hanya berharap semua mau mendoakanmu, doa-doa yang akan menguatkan perjuanganmu. Hanya itu yang kuminta dari dunia, meski tak semua menerima dengan baik, aku tak peduli kawan. Biarlah semua menjadi cerita dalam ruang yang kaubagi bersama orang-orang yang kau cintai.

Pun aku tak dapat banyak membantu, hanya mencoba menemani dan menyemangati belahan jiwa dan permata hatimu.

Hingga akhirnya tibalah hari itu, ditemani suami dan anakmu, engkau meninggalkan kefanaan dunia, menyelesaikan perjuanganmu dan juga perjalananmu. Saat mengantarkan ke peristirahatanmu, kauberikan senyum terbaikmu, yang akan selalu kuingat. Kau pulang dalam keadaan terbaikmu, sungguh keajaiban yang dipertontonkan oleh Pemilikmu bagi kami, tak henti membuatku takjub.

Dunia ternyata tidak sesederhana pikiranku, terbawa emosi aku berbagi pada kawan-kawanmu juga, yang membawa kekecewaan bagi keluarga yang kautinggalkan. Hanya maaf yang bisa kusampaikan kawan. 

Amanahmu ternyata bukan hal yang mudah untuk diemban, maafkan aku jika tak bisa menyelesaikan dengan sebaik-baiknya.
Aku merasa beruntung menerimanya. Terima kasih kawan atas hadiahmu, selamat jalan dan bahagia disana kawan. Semoga persahabatan kita tak lekang oleh waktu meski kita sekarang jauh.

Abu Dhabi, September 2021