My 2005 Travel Experience

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Hello All, Yes, it was four years back but only now, I am thinking of writing about it. I went to my husband's home country to visit him for the first time after he left my country (that was before we get married) I was very anxious and I couldn't even get some sleep during the eight hours flight from Kuala Lumpur to Tashkent. It had been a year after he left and I missed him very much. I reached there around 4 am and was lucky that my husband was there waiting for me. We went straight to the hotel where I already booked earlier. To apply for a tourist visa, I need to book at least 3days 2 nights package and stay at the hotel which is going to be my guarantor while in the country. I went to so many interesting places in Tashkent and historical sites in Samarkand. Those places are very beautiful and I like them very much. In Tashkent, there are just so many parks to visit and the amazing fact is that, they have many pharmacies and internet cafes too close to each other. It won't be a problem if you get sick or if you need to access internet. I didn't even see any big shopping malls or hypermarkets there. There is no KFCs, McDonalds and most of the famous fast food restaurants. But they have a Japanese Garden Park as according to my husband, because of so many Japanese visiting and working in the country. I enjoyed eating their food too as the cuisines are totally new to me. Unfortunately, the people were not too friendly and sometimes, quite rude to you. They don't really respect foreigners. I also had a few bad incidents while holidaying here. When I reached the airport, the immigration officer didn't even welcome me to the country, asked me questions in his language and whenever I asked in English, he just ignored me and kept talking to his colleague next to him. He stamped my passport and just threw it. I had a bad impression of them right there but telling myself that the most important matter is I am able to see my husband. While staying at the hotel, I was asked many times by the bell boy whenever I came back to the hotel from somewhere. He didn't even open the door for me but instead showing his hand to me to stop and asked me, "What you do?" The first and second time, I told him politely that I am his hotel guest. The third time, I was a bit angry and told him sarcastically, "I am your hotel guest. Room Number XXX. Any problem with that?" and 'cursed' him in my language After three days staying in the hotel, I checked out and my husband rented a house for me for my entire stay there. Since he still had to work, I was left alone in the house for a few days. I was afraid as I could see from the very beginning, that the people don't speak English. This is one of the NIS countries which mostly speak their own mother tongue language and a bit Russian. I had a hard time dealing with them without my husband. Once, I was walking at the park with my husband and was taking pictures of the beautiful surroundings when out of a sudden, a girl in a shabby clothes came to me. She showed her hands to me and I asked my husband who was walking in front of me what did she want. My husband asked me to ignore. I think the girl was asking for money but since all the money kept by my husband I just ran faster towards him. Out of sudden, the small girl came from behind and shoved a small rock to my face. My husband stopped her and spoke something to the girl and she ran away. I asked him what did he tell but he didn't want to say anything about the incident. There was one day when I was alone at the house and someone knocked the door non-stop. I was so scared but I went to look from a small hole at the door. I saw three police men waiting outside. Unfortunately, my cell phone was out of battery and I couldn't charged it as I forgot to bring the proper plug and the fixed line had problem. I tried to call my husband many times and managed to get him once. I told him and he asked me to calm down while he tried to contact the landlord. Those policemen waited outside for almost half an hour and then they disappeared. I couldn't get my husband and when he came back, he told me that they always come to check the tenant and if you rent a house at a place which is not in your working area or if you are not registered to that area, you will be fined and to solve that, they always give money to the policemen. A day after, they came again knocking at the door. This time around, I couldn't get my husband at all and I ran into the master bedroom, locked the door and pulled the blanket up to my head! I was really scared and my husband told me to just ignore them as it is hard to deal with the police. Furthermore, I don't speak the language. But this time, I heard someone opened the door and called my husband's name. I went out and saw a big tall Russian guy entering the hall way. Behind him, were a few policemen standing outside the door. I recognized him as the landlord as I met him once before. Both of us stopped right in front of each other and didn't say a word for a few seconds. I uttered in English that my husband was at work with my hand showing signs and he just nodded and said 'Sorry!' and went out from the house, showing me the key a few times (asking me to lock the door). I also bumped into a fellow Malaysian (yes, only one) whom I met at the mini market while buying stuff. We looked at each other trying to figure out whether we're from the same country before we managed to say 'Hi'. She was there to visit some friends. I met her again during a flight back to Malaysia. She told me the same thing about the people. All in all, I enjoyed my stay there because of the beautiful places and my husband. If you asked me about the people, well.... I don't really like the way they treat foreigners. I feel like they are a bit arrogant sometimes but this is only my personal opinion based on my short stay experience there. Maybe there are good and polite people there but I didn't have a chance to meet them -of course minus my husband!