Schlink Attack: Khazrati Imam Mosque and the Old City Neighborhood

Monday, October 26, 2020

Khazrati Imam Mosque and the Old City Neighborhood

If I ever go on a walking tour of Tashkent again, I promise to remember the following:

1. Public bathrooms are very hard to find on walking tours.

2. Bring water, but not too much (see #1).

3. Bring snacks. Avoid the kind of hangriness that even ice cream and fresh non can't cure if you wait too long. Also, making unannounced pit stops where the group is likely to lose you before venturing into a maze of unmarked streets is probably not a good idea.

4. The city is huge. Before we got to the good stuff, we covered long boring distances over littered and broken sidewalks, neglected landscaping, and rows of temporary fencing, all while listening to the roar of urban traffic and construction.

5. Free walking tours means literally all walks of life could be on the tour: masked, half-masked, non-masked, jerks, cool people, whiners, dog-walkers, nosy and intrusive photographers, networkers, smokers, etc...

6. Beauty is everywhere, especially in between the noisy spaces. You just have to look. It's etched into the stone and wood, sewn into the fabric, glowing from the children, and illuminating the neighborhood paths.