Turkish airlines flight from LAX to Istanbul was very good. The business class configuration of the
Boeing 777 was so much better than the airbus 380. The service was excellent,
and the amount and variety of food they served us was astonishing. The new Turkish airline facility at the
airport (just opened last month) is impressive.
We have a long layover so we got a private sleeping room (only available
to TA passengers with more than 5 hrs layover) and bathroom with shower. It was great taking a hot shower after a 13
hour flight. The lounge is huge and super equipped with PCs, many hot food
stations and elaborate buffet. Makes LAX
lounge shameful. The international transit area is also beautifully designed
and has many food/beverage options and lots of shopping. The Istanbul airport
will soon be the largest in the world with about 200 million passengers per
year, but getting from our gate to the transit area and the TA lounge was easy
and not crowded, if a bit long. Bo’s pedometer says that she walked 3 miles in
this airport. Our second flight from Istanbul to Tashkent
was also nice. However, our pickups at Tashkent airport never
showed up so we took taxi to hotel (Lotte). Our first impression of the city
was WOW. Big wide streets, beautiful
buildings, lots of parks and flowers and not a scrap of paper or litter
anywhere. This has to be the cleanest
city we have ever seen.
And 90% of the cars are white Chevrolet. There are two Chevy factories in Uzbekistan. After breakfast in hotel we walked through a large park to the subway station. The subway is clean and efficient but the stations are very pretty. Built by the Russians like the Moscow stations. We exited at the bazaar and found ourselves in the midst of endless vendors. We got inside the large building (whose architecture is also quite intricate and interesting) and saw more meat being sold then we would normally see in 5 years. The market was also spotlessly clean – not a single fly anywhere. On the second floor there were hundreds of stalls with dried fruits, nuts and spices and all the vendors were trying to sell us saffron for some reason. From there we took a taxi in search of a textile place Bo had read about. The place (Bibi Hanum) is famous for making traditional hand-dyed and hand woven ikat clothes and accessories and their textiles are exhibited in several US museums, including the Smithsonian and the San Francisco Museum of Asian Art. It took 20 minutes and 3 phone calls to find the place. Bo made a purchase but the owner told us they could not take credit card since there was no internet at this new location so she drove us to her old workshop to complete the purchase. Then she dropped us off at the hotel and gave us a restaurant recommendation (Soy), which we put to good use almost immediately since we were hungry. It turned out great – both the outdoor ambiance and the food (lamb + salad). Then we took a different metro line back to see some different stations and walked back a different route to the hotel. Pedometer says 13 miles today.
And 90% of the cars are white Chevrolet. There are two Chevy factories in Uzbekistan. After breakfast in hotel we walked through a large park to the subway station. The subway is clean and efficient but the stations are very pretty. Built by the Russians like the Moscow stations. We exited at the bazaar and found ourselves in the midst of endless vendors. We got inside the large building (whose architecture is also quite intricate and interesting) and saw more meat being sold then we would normally see in 5 years. The market was also spotlessly clean – not a single fly anywhere. On the second floor there were hundreds of stalls with dried fruits, nuts and spices and all the vendors were trying to sell us saffron for some reason. From there we took a taxi in search of a textile place Bo had read about. The place (Bibi Hanum) is famous for making traditional hand-dyed and hand woven ikat clothes and accessories and their textiles are exhibited in several US museums, including the Smithsonian and the San Francisco Museum of Asian Art. It took 20 minutes and 3 phone calls to find the place. Bo made a purchase but the owner told us they could not take credit card since there was no internet at this new location so she drove us to her old workshop to complete the purchase. Then she dropped us off at the hotel and gave us a restaurant recommendation (Soy), which we put to good use almost immediately since we were hungry. It turned out great – both the outdoor ambiance and the food (lamb + salad). Then we took a different metro line back to see some different stations and walked back a different route to the hotel. Pedometer says 13 miles today.
holy moly.... i don't ealk 13 miles in a WEEK...you guys are amazing!!!
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