塔什干的考驗 Trials of Tashkent

每到一個新的國家，我往往都會經歷一段撞牆期，這段期間因為對環境不熟悉，或者現場情況和網路上說的不一樣，會有種做什麼事情都不順的鬼打牆感，而且也得花上額外的時間去解決。這就是我在烏茲別克第一天的感覺。

從伊斯坦堡飛到烏國首都塔什干，早上七點順利在機場拿到簽證並入境。正當我還在高興一切照著計畫進行、沒有意外的時候，撞牆期的挑戰便接踵而來。

Whenever I travel to a new country, the first day can always be challenging. I often have to spend extra time and effort to deal with unexpected circumstances in the unfamiliar environment. Sometimes it could be quite frustrating. This is what I experienced on my first day in Uzbekistan.

The flight from Istanbul to Tashkent landed at 6:30am, and I passed the immigration smoothly around 7am. The easy experience, however, didn’t last long.

首先，我那號稱可以漫遊130多國的手機，在抵達塔什干之後的確是連上了漫遊，但只維持了短短30秒，接下來得透過手動設定在半小時後重新連上，但同樣的30秒之後又會再次斷線；在青年旅館用wifi問了美國那邊的客服，始終無法解決。那時候心想，好吧，沒有漫遊就沒漫遊，城市裡總會有些像車站或政府機關附近有wifi吧？殊不知這個城市裡還真的完全沒有公用的wifi，最後只好靠著紙本與離線地圖在這個陌生的城市裡撐過一整天。

接下來是換錢。一般而言，機場的匯率都不太好，因此我一開始就打定主意要進市區之後在再換錢，卻忘了那天其實是個國定假日,所有的銀行都休息一天，而偏偏自動提款機在這個國家又是稀有物。最後好不容易在市中心找到了一台ATM，直接用跨國跨行提款的方式拿到了烏茲別克的萬元大鈔。（烏茲別克的貨幣som對美金大約是1:8000，拿著幾百萬元到處跑是這邊的常態。）

下一個挑戰是語言。塔什干作為一個首都，很多指標都有雙語標示，但是這個「雙語」指的是烏茲別克語和俄語，兩個我不懂的語言，這個問題在搭地鐵要看表示換車時尤其麻煩。後來我的策略是讀俄文，至少出發前背過西里爾字母，可以像日文片假名那樣先讀出來再猜意思。

First trial: no mobile data on my cell phone. My carrier claims that data roaming is available in Uzbekistan, and it was - only in the first 30 seconds. After that I could reconnect occasionally, but didn’t last any longer. Then I thought, this is not too bad. Tashkent is the capital, and it should be possible to find public wifi networks somewhere? I was wrong. It was impossible to find any public wifi in the city. I had to live on paper and offline maps all day.

Trial #2: currency exchange. Since the exchange shops at airport usually don’t offer good rate, I decided not to do exchange at the airport, and it was proven to be a wrong decision. As I arrived on a national holiday, no bank was open, and ATM was scarce in the city. After a couple of hours of search and 3-mile walk, I finally withdrew cash from my US account at one of the few ATMs in the city.

Trial #3: reading signs. Many sings in Tashkent are bilingual, but they are bilingual in Uzbek and Russian. It was particularly challenging in the subway, where you have to understand the signs to get on the right train. Eventually the strategy I developed was to read Russian first, as at least I can try to pronounce Cyrillic alphabets and guess what the words mean.

最後一個挑戰是：發現這個市區比我想的要乏味一些。這裡不像我接下來要拜訪的那些充滿歷史氣息的絲路古城，整個城市瀰漫著濃濃的前蘇聯風味：寬大筆直的網狀街道、龐大堂皇卻不得其門而入的公共建築、隨處可見的警察和軍人，走在街上嗅不太什麼人文氣氣息；幸好大街以外的世界還是有著驚喜：讓人聯想到以前駱駝商隊的露天市集、香料味四溢的抓飯、宛如地下宮殿的地鐵站。對於想要來看世界文化遺產的旅人來說，塔什干只是個路過地方，給我的整體印象也不算太好，但不可否認它的中亞融合蘇聯風味仍然是個賣點。

塔什干碰到的各種挑戰讓我對這個國家的印象不是太好，幸好當天晚上搭上了一班長途火車，這段人生至此最難忘的火車旅程將第一天的陰霾一掃而空。火車上究竟發生了什麼事情？請待下回分曉。

Last trail: this city is not as attractive as I thought. Like many other Soviet Union cities, it was rationally designed and to some extent dehumanized. This is drastically different from the Uzbek cities I’m going to visit, which are full of cultural heritage and history. Fortunately, there are still some hidden gems in the city: delicious plov (rice plate), vibrant bazaar, gorgeous subway stations, etc. Soviet ideology and central Asian culture come together here. Tashkent is not a big tourist city, but it attracts people in its own unique way.

Although the first impression was not that great, the train trip that night was the most unforgettable one in my whole life. What happened on the train? Will share in my next post :)