Category: 旅 / Travel

What happens twice will happen three times.
Third time’s the charm.

Japanese proverbs are contradictory. Statistically, it is probably a fifty-fifty chance, I just have to believe in one or the other. I am a type of person who sees as “the glass of half empty” rather than “the glass of half full”, so I am generally believed in the former.

My travel plans are overly meticulous, so much so that my friends question if vacation or a work trip. Yet, once I arrive at my destination, my plans become inefficient and far from meticulous.

Since photography is the main focus of my trips, I tend to allocate more time for staying at each destination. As a result, I am often able to visit fewer destinations than other travelers who travel similar period of time. Besides, even if it costs admission fees, I visit the same spot multiple times in search of better photo shooting conditions. In fact, last year in Croatia, I visited Dubrovnik City Walls 3 times, each cost 35 euros. Total amount was about JPY15,000, what tremendous extravagances I made.

This trip to Uzbekistan lasted 9 days. With said travel days, it seemed to create differences in the number of countries visiting. On my departure day at Tokyo Narita Airport, I saw a group tour going to both Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan within 7 or 8 days. This may be an example that being meticulous is not always synonymous to being efficient.

Main destination of this trip was Samarkand. I planned to stay for 3 nights. While I had meticulously planned the journey to Samarkand, I had not made any specific plans during my stay in Samarkand. I went to the main attraction, Registan Square, immediately upon arrival Samarkand and then figured out what my photography plan would be.

Registan Square was crowded with tourists, making it difficult to photograph. To make things worse, 3 massive former mosques (strictly speaking, madrasahs, Islamic schools) are lined at the east, north, and west sides of the Square. I had clear weather in daytime, and the sunlight was so strong which created harsh shadows. To shoot in forward lighting, it seemed necessary to visit Registan Square both in the morning and afternoon. I also wished to try capturing the beautiful sunset, and the nighttime illumination seemed even more stunning.

In the end, I visited Registan Square 6 times. While its entrance fee was not as expensive as Dubrovnik City Walls, considering Uzbekistan’s cost of living, it was surely at higher end. With such differences in mind, doubling the number of visits made the total cost comparable to the extravagance by visiting Dubrovnik City Walls 3 times.

What I absolutely wished to capture at Registan Square was a night shot including all 3 mosques of the Square in one frame. I brought a tripod specifically for this, but the actual shootings were extremely difficult.

As I was generally quite meticulous with travel planning, I booked a hotel within walking distance to Registan Square ensuring that I could visit multiple times. However, my plan beyond that was far too loose.

On the first night, I went to see the nighttime illumination at 9 pm. There were quite numbers of people, so I gave up entering the Square. On the second night, I arrived after 10 pm. Even though Registan Square closes at midnight, ticket sales had already ended. There was an observation deck in the free-entrance area, so I took photos from there. The distant view was not bad, but there were paid area’s facilities in the shot, requiring some AI adjustments in Adobe Lightroom.

Then came the third night. Since it was the last night in Samarkand, I went at 9:30 pm for safe sake. As expected, it was still crowded. I killed time until I was totally bored. At 11:50 pm, I finally got the Square to myself. It was indeed “Third time’s the charm.” A few minutes later, disgusted security guards told me that they would be closing in 5 minutes. Having a longer stay schedule definitely paid off.

Food became an issue when staying in the same city for 4 days. On the first night, I went out for meat, but it seemed I was not good at lamb. I quickly developed indigestion. I tried to visit local restaurants accessible to travelers, but the beef, likely sourced in limited quantities, was probably fought over by foreign tourists. By the time I visited such restaurants between photo shoots, it was sold out.

After all, my main meal became plov, an Uzbek dish. This way, I could eat rice and came with delicious tomatoes as a side dish. I found a good specialty place and frequently visited during my stay in Samarkand.

My first visit was around 3 pm, but the plov seemed to had been sitting in the pod for a while and was quite oily. Back at the hotel, I found that locals apparently know the optimal serving times of their favorite plov restaurants. Checking my favorite plov restaurant on Google Map, it showed the place would open at 9 am, so I went again around 11 am on the next day. However, they were still preparing for plov.

There seemed to be no way that they opened at 9 am while the preparation was still going on at 11 am. Assumed Google Maps was wrong, I braced myself for an one-hour wait. However, a ring sounded from the back, and then the plov came out surprisingly quickly. The dish was extremely hot, but the oil had gone rancid, making it clearly worse than the previous day at 3 pm.

Even I could learn something. On the final day, I went there around 1 pm and got fresh plov. It was incredibly delicious. “Third time’s the charm” was true for plov too. Having a longer stay schedule definitely paid off again.

My time in Samarkand was probably twice longer than the average tourists, but I was completely satisfied. This was probably mathematical: the longer the period of stay, the higher the probability of things turning out well.

Ultimately, how to interpret a proverb depends entirely on the outcome.

Yozan Uesugi, a famous virtuous lord of Yonezawa in the mid-Edo Period, had said “To achieve, one must act. To not act is to not achieve; this is true in all things. The inability to achieve is the result of inaction.” This is similar to an English expression “Where there is a will, there is a way.”

While searching for travel destinations a long time ago, I came across a square where had three massive blue Islamic buildings. Upon further research, I found it was Registan Square in Samarkand, a UNESCO World Heritage site in Uzbekistan. Apparently, I would fly to Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, and then take a train from there.

It sounded simple. However, Uzbekistan was one of those “stan” countries, seemed like a difficult place to visit including all necessary pre-arrangements. The biggest problem was the schedule. Tashkent was not a place where can be easily reached using a red-eye flight from Tokyo. The travel in and out of Samarkand alone would likely take more than two days.

Back then, traveling via Seoul or Moscow seemed convenient. I kept in mind that Korea’s Asiana Airlines had 3-4 flights per week to Tashkent. Then COVID-19 travel restrictions enforced, and such memory sank deeper in my mind.

After all, it was like “where there is a way, there is no will.”

One day, a trigger that brought the memory back was the news of Asiana Airline and Korean Air would be merged. Asiana Airlines belongs to Star Alliance, so I can earn miles with All Nippon Airways (ANA). After the merger, Asiana’s mileage program will be a part of SkyTeam, which would be hard for me to manage. My motivation might be impure, but I started thinking it might be a time to go to Uzbekistan.

Around that time on a Friday, a gentleman sitting next to me at a bar raved about Uzbekistan. I probably listened more carefully than his drunk friend. We happened to leave the bar at the same time, so I struck up a conversation which I rarely did at that bar. He told me that while Uzbekistan is an Islamic country, being a part of former Soviet Union makes the country culture tolerant of alcohol consumption. He added that they produce not just beer, but also vodka and wine. Although he was not sure, but if grape producing country had distilleries, I might expect to find Uzbekistani brandy as well.

It was the time to have the “will” and believe that “there is a way.” I booked Asiana Airlines flights during the weekend.

I picked hotels using booking sites, but securing train tickets seemed like a hassle. Upon researching, I found Uzbekistan Railways tickets could be purchased online. It even allowed to select seats, so I aimed to reserve first-class car with single seating configuration.

However, while many sites suggested early advanced bookings were needed for trains, actual sale start date remained somewhat unclear. Many sites mentioned 45 days prior, but when I checked around 50 days ahead just in case, sales had already started. I needed to book three sectors, but availabilities were already limited: one sector with only one remaining first-class seat, one sector with a few remaining second-class seats but no first-class seats, and one sector available only for a train departing after midnight. I was completely late for securing train tickets. To make worse, I could not pay via the website. I hurriedly downloaded the app and managed to complete the payment.

After I purchased the tickets, I calmed down and re-checked trains via app. I saw that there were seats available on the days closer, so I started wondering if the release date might vary by train. I kept checking every few days, eventually tickets for lower-class trains had gone on sale. In the end, I never figured out the exact ticket sale start date, but I managed to connect all the segments almost on my desired schedule.

Preparation for this trip did not end with getting the train tickets. Just before departure, when I tried to print my reservation confirmation from the hotel booking site, something seemed off. Upon closer checks, I found that the booked hotel in Samarkand had vanished from the site. I e-mailed the hotel directly just in case but received no reply. This seemed highly suspicious, so I rebooked a different hotel. With departure only few days away, my options were limited.

This only bred suspicion. I contacted other booked hotels for minor reasons just to remind them of my booking existences. I planned to buy a SIM card at Tashkent Airport, but again, just to be safe, I purchased an eSIM in Japan before leaving.

I tend to be suspicious to others, but I do not learn much from my own mistakes. I drank too much the night before the departure. With almost no recollection, I flew to Seoul Incheon Airport from Tokyo Narita Airport. Next flight from Incheon reached Beijing airspace and headed west along the China-Mongolia border. It must have been a flight route steeped Silk Road.

Based on my research beforehand, the biggest obstacle was upon arriving at Tashkent Airport. There was an airport taxi counter inside the terminal, but its pricing was said to be too high. Once getting outside the airport building, touts for taxis were apparently relentless. It was recommended to use a ride-hailing app, but it seemed that these app drivers could not operate inside the airport. It was necessary to keep refusing the taxi offers until exiting the airport property on foot.

After clearing immigration and leaving the airport building, strangely, there were no touts of taxis. Indeed, no one approached me for any reason at all. I was thinking of charging through the swarm of middle-aged men and bolting straight to the road outside the airport premises, but there was no such chaos going on.

By then, my concern was the eSIM using LTE network, internet access was very slow. Still, the ride-hailing app worked, and I safely arrived the hotel near Tashkent Central Station.

I needed a nightcap before going to bed. While former Soviet Union culture made tolerance of alcohol consumption, I could buy alcohol drinks only at certain places. I asked where to buy beer nearby and went out for a liquor store.

The fatigue had not lifted by the next morning. This was definitely not due to the heavy drinking two days prior, but rather because I had COVID-19 two weeks before the departure and not fully recovered yet. Anxiety lingered for the journey ahead, but I mustered the willpower to get up and headed to Tashkent Central Station.

Since I was unable to secure a high-speed rail ticket, the train for the day was a regular express train with olden passenger cars. It was first class, but the seat was a bit worn. I had no time to blame such seat and fell asleep as soon as the train departed. After sleeping for about two hours, I woke up in the middle of a desolate wilderness. This must be the true scenery of the Silk Road. I drifted in and out of sleep as the train continued along the Silk Road.

The train arrived at Samarkand Station about 30 minutes late. I expected many touts for taxis here too, but there were only a handful. I quickly escaped from them and used a ride-hailing app to arrange a car to take me to the hotel.

It was before check-in time, but the hotel let me into my room. As soon as I left my luggage in the room, I decided to head straight to Registan Square.

Thanks to the dry season, it was a clear, sunny day. Under the blue sky, I explored magnificent Registan Square. The mosque inside the “Tilla-Kori Madrasah” was especially stunning. After seeing the main sights at the Registan Square, I went back to the hotel.

It took a day and a half just to get the Registan Square, my Silk Road journey was finally over. Although it was a long way to come, “where there is a will, there is a way.”

In Uzbekistan, I thought I got closer to what Yozan Uesugi had said.