Last night was quite peaceful until I remembered something.. how am I to wake up without the operator’s morning call?? I don’t have my phone with me!
Thank God there’s Internet and there’s this “concierge” girl outside our dormitory, thus I went online and surfed onto translate.google.com and I typed this.. “I have no alarm. Please wake me at 7 am tomorrow? Thank you”
У меня нет будильника. Пожалуйста, разбудите меня завтра в 7 утра? Спасибо!
And I took my laptop, and with my pajamas I went out to show the girl who ‘jaga’ the dormitory.
ME: (waving to the girl) English?
She: (waving her hand indicating ‘no’) Nienteh.. nien..
ME: (beckoning her and showing my laptop screen)
She: (curiously reads the monitor.. around 5 secs later, she looked at me and nod)
ME: Rahmat!! (Thank You!)
She & Me: lol!..
Woohoo! Success! I’m gonna copy & paste this in to my MsWord for tomorrow usage as well… cause we still haven’t decided where we are going to stay next.
This two day is going to be a super meticulously-exhaustive long trip to Guzar then Samarkand, Zarafshan and Bukhara alongside 3 inspections all in a car covering a total of about 800km!!
We started at 8am and straight to our inspection for PFC Shurtan. We finished at around 11am we rode to their Stadium which is located 1hr 15mins from Qarshi (Karshi)..
A very nice stadium indeed..
Due to our tight schedule, in normal circumstances we have very little chance to visit the tourist sites. This time was very different, we were ‘kidnapped’ to this little historic town before heading towards lunch and then to Samarkand.
Brian, Dzung and I was “captured” and brought to this place where the Uzbek country’s war hero statue was erected. His name was Amir Temur..
Stepping down the car was a very demanding thing to do as the temperature soars into the super hot sunny and high 30-ish Celsius. Anyway, they shut down the car and we were woo-ed out of there.
Okay.. fine.. this place looks interesting enough..
The ruined castle that Amir Temur built
Wedding couples sprawled across the whole place. Taking photos..Wassup man.. Siao one.. Super HOT k?!
Anyway, Brian was telling me how bad his stomach was yesterday night and he couldn’t sleep the whole night and I was starting to feel it as well. My stomach was hurting throughout the entire lunch session.
Before we start our 3 hours journey to Samarkand they handed us some Uzbek hand-made caps/hats and two REALLY heavy breads.. Look at us.. :)
Ben, v3, Brian
We started our journey at around 2-ish and was expected to reach by 5 for an inspection to a famous Dinamo PFC in Samarkand. The journey was a scenic one but the air-cond in our car (Chevrolet SUV) doesn’t agree.. I full blast-ed the air-cond and only a puny blow reached my chest.
Nevermind the rotten-decaying AC and blazing weather, I was quite busy shooting the scenery along the way..
OQ YOL! = Have a safe trip!
Look closely! there’s an ad on the hills! (below)
Trees of cotton.. or is it Cotton Tree? either way.. Uzbek is the biggest exporter in Central Asia!
Donkaay!.. (say it like ‘Shrek’)
Samarkand!!
When we reached Dinamo, I already sweating badly. Then suddenly I feel a bad ache on my stomach and off to the toilet I went… for a few times. By the end of the inspection visit, I felt my fingers are getting cold and my body is burning. I’m having a fever!
I asked around for both diarrhea pills and paracetamol. Luckily I found both, apparently the Georgiy from UFF are also having stomach pain. Must be food-poisoning.. damnit!
Out of all these bad news, I received a good news from Georgiy that they have found my iPhone and are on its way back to the hotel. My partial relieved is mixed up with the pain in my stomach and sweat on my forehead.
The night has dawned upon us and off to dinner we went. I was all uneasy wishing we could just rest but their hospitality is second to none. We were again wine & dine & entertained..
I was so knackered when we were ferried to the next hotel I don’t even remembered what is the name. The only thing I remembered was, it was another scary hotel.. dark and the design very late-70’s.
Worst of all the first room I went in I saw -
1) A half empty mineral water bottle
2) Bed not properly made
3) Toilet not flushed (dirty)
4) One of the ceiling light was fused
5) Towel was used and not properly hung.
I was so so so disturbed by it and I quickly dragged myself and my bags to change the room quickly (I have never done so).. It felt like walking into someone’s room.. or worst.. that someone is still in the room.. creepy!
The next room was bearable but still wasn’t that comfortable. I remembered the pillow was as hard as a rock! Nevertheless I slept and suddenly woke up in the middle of the night. Feeling all hot and sweating. My fever is back! Along with my mild diarrhea
Without any medication, I figured if I wet the towel and put it on my forehead the fever will go away.
I woke up again at 0530hrs and found that the fever is really gone! Thank God for that! By 6am we left that forsaken hotel. The car ride to Zarafshan City will take us roughly 5+ hours.. Hope I can withstand it. I miss home already.
I’m an Uzbek because:-
1) I own a donkey or two.. sometimes I have a horse as well – as a mode of transportation
2) I will speak to you in Uzbek or Russian.. even though I know you don’t understand. I will try.. and try again.
3) I don’t drink with ICE.. actually.. what is ICE? Sorry no such thing here..
