We arrived in Tashkent at 0335 despite the eBookers e-ticket displaying our arrival time as 0135.Since when does any bus, train, boat, plane, peddalo ticket print the arrival time at the new destination in the departure location time zone?Idiots!!!

We arrived in Tashkent and were bemused to see the passport control queue dwindle significantly when a group of elderly French tourists were turned back muttering 'visa' in their inimitable accent.Seriously, did none of them have a visa???Astonishing!With passport control cleared ok we saw everyone huddled around stands trying to translate the Russian forms that we assume need filling in.As I wander around, I spy the same form in English and when I tell Maria I have to dodge quickly out of the way to avoid the stampede for those same forms!!Done! Forms completed for Maria and me so we commence to immigration only to be told that we need the forms in duplicate.Done!Let's try again.Nope, apparently pencil is no good (we knew that but as we left our pen on the stand somewhere, we really couldn't be bothered to go to collect it)!At the third time of trying to make it through we then go to baggage claim where we wait, not particularly expectantly, for our bags to arrive.No sooner does the conveyor start then bags are immediately pushed off as the baggage handlers just throw them on, and they get pushed off again as they pass bottlenecks created by inappropriately placed pillars.A passenger jumps on the belt to sort things out, I help and Maria shouts at the airport workers to sort themselves out!No bags yet, this is looking bad, especially since there are only 2 flight per week from Riga to Tashkent.Still no bags...damn!Just as we're about to give up all hope and think about finding another useless AirBaltic staff member, like that's gonna happen at 3 o'clock in the morning, there, like a majestic beast walking out of the morning savannah heat haze, is Maria's bag.Then mine!We look at each other and smile with relief!

Anyway, we were actually greeted at the airport by a fully fledged member of the Arabian nights, albeit he was a few hundred miles off course.Akbar, our driver, was an absolutely fantastic guy and a total gentleman.You'd never know he'd been waiting for over 2 hours as we gave him the arrival time printed on our ticket.In high spirits he grabbed our bags, took us straight to the hotel, checked us in to the VIP suite, got us some water, went through our paperwork and gave us his mobile number just in case.What a lovely man!!The VIP suite is spacious but looks like it's been decorated by Stevie Wonder, high on acid in the '60s with Roy Orbison as his design consultant!We guess this is Uzbek high fashion, mmmmm, more like post cold war nuclear disaster from where we're sitting.The trouble is that there just happens to be a banking/finance convention in town until 5 May and everything is booked up with the 3000 or so delegates.We were lucky to get this even though we would never have chosen it if we had a choice.The convention also explains the decrepit, grey and aged nature of the passengers on our flight.We seriously could have been flying to one of those 'special clinics' in Switzerland judging from the state of them.I'm reminded of the end scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (not Raiders of the Lost Ark as previously posted) when the baddie drinks the water of life from the wrong cup, rapidly decays with age and is transformed into a pile of dust.Our fellow passengers looked worse than him!!!

We slept through the 0815 alarm, missed breakfast and finally got out of bed at 1330 (local time is GMT +5 hrs)...ooops.We wandered into town to find somewhere to eat and surveyed the area as we went, finding a good internet cafe and loads of local shops for buying the basics.We struggled to find a good lunch restaurant at non-tourist prices but maintained our search, hopeful that that a little gem would pop-up from the urban scrawl.

We finally found Angel's Food, a fast food joint that was pretty chic and seemingly frequented by the label bag wielding, long-haired, skinny young elite of Tashkent.Well kids looking to pull on a Saturday burger bar at least as all the young lads were checking out the talent every time potential new prey walked through the door.Our English speaking waiter, Elmourod was incredibly sweet, and even arranged for us to pay using USD as we didn't have enough Som, the Uzbek currency.Maria is obviously excited about Japan as she insists on calling the local currency Sumo, which fits in a way as you need the strength of a Japanese wrestler to carry the notes around!Anyway, we managed to spend 27,000 Som on our meal (2 coffees, large pizza and 2 desserts) and had to go to the manager to exchange our $20 USD.She gave us the change and we turned to walk out when she gesticulated not to and told us to come back.Why we wonder? Well, for one she hadn't given us our change but the full exchange amount and we were leaving without handing over so much as one cent!We apologetically handed over the 27,000 and tipped Elmourod $2, which he seemed extremely pleased with.Again, we were about to leave and all they could say was the book, the book.'No, we don't want a book thanks', as we turned to go.'The book, the book', they said again.What were they jabbering on about????They then handed us the book; a visitors book for us to write a comment!!! Ha ha ha - we were very complimentary.Oh, the meal of 27,000 cost $13.50 (£9)!!!We like this place.

We bought 5 litres of water on the way back for 1300 (£0.43) and on our return to the hotel Maria told the receptionist how expensive their water was (3000, $1.5 for 2 x 1 litre bottles).OK, so it's still cheap by UK standards but is a positive rip-off here!! It's funny how we never even consider the price of water back home but that we argue the toss over a few pence here!