After my very strange morning in Tashkent I now had my afternoon flight to Urgench. I'd asked the driver the night before to come by 10.30 but the note from my agent said the driver would come at 11.30. My flight was 1.15 so I though that would be cutting it close but the hotel person said the airport is only 15 mins and not to worry.

When the driver arrived we went to the airport and my first time to see Tashkent by day away from the hotel. There were many Soviet era style apartment blocks as well as the occasional Lada car.

I was also quite excited when we passed by the Russian Orthodox Church which I wanted to come back and visit on my full day in Tashkent.

It was a pale blue building with several gold domes. Unfortunately it was overcast so the domes weren't glowing in the sunlight.

As we arrived at the airport I knew photographs werent allowed so I put my camera away. First I had to go thru a checkpoint where they checked my passport and ticket before letting me walk towards the terminal building.

In the building there was another security screening for my baggage and personal items. The check in was empty and I asked for a window seat. She also weighed my bag at 6.9kg which was just under 7kg so ok as I'd taken other items out and was holding them.

To enter the departure gates was another security screening. This time he opened my bag after the xray and was examining my korean coins and cellphone.

The terminal was brand new and modern unlike the arrivals hall the previous night in the other terminal. They only had vending machines so I got a drink for 2000 Som ($1).

When it was time to board everyone huddled by the door from the building to the bus which had a nice area rug. First they only took business class passengers in their own bus. After the bus left another business class passenger arrived. He was taken in his own bus all to himself while all the economy passengers waited. Then they allowed economy passengers to all crowd into waiting buses.

As we arrived at the plane people were boarding from the staircase to the rear doors. I was row 9 so wanted to go from the front staircase rather than make my way thru the entire plane but decided to just do what everyone else was doing.

They were not letting people go on the staircase but a man was holding people back and only letting them go in groups of about ten. When it was my turn I hoped I could make it to row 9 and still find space in the overhead luggage for my bag which fortunately I did.

As we waited for take off I could see an army officer with a giant rifle over his shoulder on the tarmac and many other officials. I wasnt going to take any pictures of this flight as they are so hyper sensitive about everything.

After take off we were above clouds so not much to see. The flight was about 90 mins and we shortly began our descent. I thought the inflight staff would all be male but they were ladies.

On arrival there was another armed guard with a giant rifle and lots of officials on the tarmac. Everyone silently left the plane and headed out to the gates.

It seemed very odd like leaving a funeral as everyone silently made their way wearing their black coats and hats. This was probably one of the most bizarre flights I'd ever taken after my very strange introduction walking around in Tashkent.

I was anxious to find my driver and get away from the airport so I could finally breathe and relax from all this tight security.

After my very strange flight from Tashkent it was a relief to meet my driver and head away from the airport and all the tight security. My driver's name was Anvar and he spoke perfect english despite the tour company telling me he only spoke basic english.

We immediately began chatting and I'm sure he found me quite curious. Usually they mostly get retirees who could afford the trip to Uzbekistan and know the history. Mine was a strange combination of eastern arabic sounding name on a Canadian Passport. He even thought I was only 28 so I didnt think it polite to correct him!

He was telling me the most popular tour groups are from France which is strange as they usually only goto French speaking countries, however, they had their own French tour guides. They also conduct tours in Spanish, German, and Italian.

For Japanese and all other nationalities tours are conducted in English. Very few people come from North America or Australia due to cost. Surprisingly they also get visitors from Israel to this Islamic country. Apparently many immigrated after the fall of the Soviet Union so come back to see explore family history.

Russians and Uzbeks were also intermarrying so you can't tell a persons ethnicity by their name. It all sounded quite fascinating and was going to be a much more relaxed and interesting trip exploring from now on.