Hooray!It's 12 o'clock and Akbar and Rusty are here to rescue us from the hell hole that is Raddus JSS to take us to Hotel Bek, 10 minutes across town.If only the Bek was available for our entire stay in Tashkent instead of our present style Alcatraz masquerading as a guest house!Our new accommodation is lovely with a double bed bigger than a small European state and the staff are friendlier than an Italian politician at election time.Oh, not forgetting the free and fast wifi present throughout the hotel.We have 90 minutes to settle in before we're heading off to town for our half day city tour.By the way, Tashkent means Stone City.

We're taken to a park with the magnificent bronze 'Statue of the Brave Man'.The statue was erected as a memorial to the 3,000 people who died when an earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter Scale hit Tashkent at 0525 on 26th April 1966.The structure consists of a block of intentionally cracked black marble, engraved with the date and a clock showing the time of the event, with a fissure in the ground leading from it to the bronze statue of a man rescuing his wife and child.It's a beautifully appropriate and thoughtful piece that communicates the events of that tragic day with a respectful simplicity.The bronze sits next to a manicured lawn surrounded on two sides by an ornately engraved fence showing scenes of the artisans hired to rebuild the Uzbek infrastructure, musicians to play to them whilst they work and, of course, women/cooks to ensure that all the needs of the hungry labourers are met during their labours!

We were told the other day about the story of the original and oldest Qur'an that was on display in Tashkent.The library in the Hast Imam Complex, originally dating from the 10th century AD, and our next destination, is the home of that holy book and we couldn't wait to see it.There's next to nothing left of the original square and everything on view has been constructed specifically as a tourist attraction.Rusty spends an age giving us the history of the site, explains that the Qur'an we are desperate to see was put together in Medina by Othman, who gathered the pages together to create the world's first Qur'an (they had been scattered, 10 pages apiece, in different villages to prevent it from being destroyed by non-followers, or so the story goes).The Qur'an was written only 19 years after Muhammad's death, is considered to be the oldest in the world and is even said to have been stained with the blood of Othman, the third caliph, in 655 when he was martyred by rebels.Rusty talks, and talks and talks and we listen attentively, but would rather be looking at this majestic tome we keep hearing so much about.Finally, we get to enter the library and can't help to be impressed by this massive 7th century book. Written on dear hide in Hejazi script, which is similar to Kufic script only third of it remains today.Although we can't take pictures the sight of this massive and historic artefact will be forever in our memories, not only for its sheer size, calligraphy and age, but also for the way this highly significant book has shaped the world stage over the 1300 years of its existence; the murder of Othman precipitated the Shia-Sunni divide which has split the Muslim world ever since.One page of the Qur'an is turned every month to prevent bleaching so if one has the patience, I guess it's possible to read the 250 pages during a lifetime.I'm not sure I'd be so inclined though, not least because I don't know Arabic!

We tour the rest of the complex, before moving on to the chorus bazaar and Kukeldash Madrasa.The market, Tashkent's farmers market selling spices, grain, dairy products and fruits and vegetables of the season, is a modern affair and in no way compares to the atmosphere and grandeur of those in Syria, Iran or Morocco.That said, we have a great time in the vegetable market taking loads of pictures, spurred on by the extremely friendly traders who want us to immortalise their wares in digital media.We can't help to be drawn to a young man with the most piercing blue eyes and when we gesticulate to him how lovely they are he can't help but beam us a huge laugh and we ask him for a photo.The whole family then joined in, including his dodgy-eyed, gap toothed mum, who was not impressed with her shots and told us to do them again until she gave us an approving smile and thumbs up.Lots more photos later, including a young boy in an Arsenal shirt, we move on to the hardware and furniture souk.Rusty shows us some highly decorated cots with a round hole in the base placed about two thirds down the length, a bowl, a blue wooden 'pipe' and an unpainted wooden 'penny whistle'.'What are these?' he asks us.Looking thoughtful as we consider the options, not even knowing that we're looking at cots at this stage, we have to admit defeat.'No idea' we utter in unison.He explains that what we are viewing is the alternative to the nappy and is still in use today.The bowl is placed in the hole, the baby strapped to the cot and the boy has the 'pipe' secured on his manhood, the girl sits on the 'penny whistle' and when nature calls the urine flows down the hollow tubes and gathers in the bowl!How wonderfully humane but we don't see hoards of traumatised locals roaming around so it can' be that traumatic an experience!However, he never did explain what happens when a call of nature of the number 2 variety occurs!

We visit the 'wedding' souk, where the locals go to by the traditional marriage attire and Maria insists on dressing me up in a gold and black grooms outfit for the amusement of everyone watching.Maria only manages to try on a couple of bride's hat!

The Kukeldash Madrasa, is a Qur'an school built in the 16th century during the reign of Abdulla-Khan by the vizier, scientist and poet Kulbobo Kukeldash; Kukeldash means "the Khan's foster brother'. The Madrasa is one of the largest and best preserved Qur'an schools in Central Asia and has the traditional composition of a large inner yard with hujras (pupils' cells) on the ground floor, dormitories on the first floor above and mosque in the corners.We were shown around the beautifully constructed courtyard and given an extremely interesting explanation by a calligraphy teacher of Arabic writing and art used in architecture.The talk was fascinating and we saw how the current western number system developed from the original Arabic, which seems quite logical when the evolutionary steps are written down in sequence.We also discovered that the majority of decorated tiles on the mosques, madrases and mausoleums are actually writing, even though only a calligrapher can read the most elaborately artistic designs. Most of us would think that we are merely viewing intricate geometric patterns, flower stems or simple splashes of colour thrown in for aesthetic pleasure.Not so it seems.

We went to a local belly-dancing restaurant for dinner but left before the tempo really got going. I've a feeling that we're going to put on weight in Uzbekistan as it seems that all meals are 4 courses consisting of salads, served with copious amounts of wonderfully delicious bread, beautifully flavoured soups, main (all meat dishes being either lamb or chicken) and dessert.We wash the lot down with black tea, for me, and green tea for Maria and steer well clear of the vodka which is ordered by the bottle.Despite the temptation to eat them, we don't go anywhere near the uncooked salads but dig into everything else with hearty appetites.