Tashkent

After a splendid time in the Skyteam lounge, meeting my fellow travellers over a glass of bubbly and delicious food, we came down to earth with a bump on boarding Uzbekistan Airways flight 202. It had the same sort of shabby, grubby look of trains on the Northern line - seats sagging and creaking, well worn carpets and dog eared magazines. After avoiding the cinema for a couple of weeks in case the film was shown on the flight, I was dismayed to see no screens. They did however have hanging screens above every three or four rows, but the one and only film showing was Arnold Shwarzeneger in Robot Man, so the lack of an individual screen became less important! It was the air stewardesses, though, who provoked most comment from the passengers. In the whole seven hour flight not one of them had a facial expression even approaching a smile. Everyone began to remark on how rude and bossy they were; very poor ambassadors for their country. When we left the plane they were conspicuous by their absence. It was really quite funny.  Only a mild amount of chaos at immigration before arriving at the Miran hotel and possibly the largest hotel room I have ever stayed in.  A couple hours of sleep and I am ready to explore.....