Checking out of the Lotte Hotel was very efficient. We got our boxed breakfasts, they called a taxi for the 10 minute drive to the airport, and we were at the check in counter, all in less than an hour after waking up. The boxed breakfasts were mostly packaged goods, except for an orange, which I ate. Luckily, we were still full from our late post-opera dinner.
There were actually two flights leaving the Tashkent airport for Istanbul at roughly the same time, one a Uzbek Airlines with code share with Turkish Airlines, and the other the exact opposite. We got bounced around three times from counter to counter trying to find the correct one for our flight.
We eventually checked in and got our exit stamp from the immigration folks. All our careful organizing of registration stamps and slips from each hotel was for naught. They just saw the cover of our passports and stamped us for exit. So, all the guide books and any travel blogs written before the mid-2018 aren’t valid anymore. The country’s really opened up to tourism.
It was a long 5+ hour flight back to Istanbul. We originally flew east to Ashgabat (Turkmenistan) to start the journey, and then drove further east to each city along the way in Uzbekistan. We were about as far east as India by the end of it!
On arrival in Istanbul, our baggage carousel was the farthest one (yet again), about 500m there and 500m back. It’s a large airport. At least we figured out the system of how to pay and get a cart. Given how much thought has been put into the UX of the rest of the airport, the poor design of the cart system sticks out.
Got in line for a metered taxi. The traffic was much better today, and we were at our hotel in just under 45 minutes.
Our room wasn’t yet ready, so we dropped off our bags at the hotel (the same one we’ve been using as our base in Istanbul, the Hamamhane in Beyoğlu) and went out for lunch at a restaurant a few steps away. Sat on the terrace and enjoyed the afternoon weather. It was a beautiful day, we hadn’t seen the sun for the past few days. Lunch was excellent!
After lunch, we did a whole bunch of laundry, washing about half the clothes in our packs. It’s very handy having a washer and dryer in the room. (We didn’t realize when we booked that our room was set up as a studio apartment - there are maybe 16 rooms in the whole place, and we’ve loved each of the rooms we’ve stayed in so far).
After lunch, we booked a visit to the 100-year old restored hamam literally next door to the hotel. We booked our appointments before we had lunch.
It was a new experience for both of us. First, we changed (the hamam provided disposable shorts and bikinis). Then, we sat in a marble steam room for about 20 minutes. After, our hamam attendants brought us into the next room, where they scrubbed us with a loofah mitt and rinsed us off. Next, we lay down on the hot marble stone and were covered with soap bubbles and massaged. Another rinse, then our hair was shampooed. The bathing part was now complete. Next, the towelling down with soft Turkish towels, and, finally, off to a dry room where we were provided cold sweet tea and dried fruits. There was also a scented face towel, which we later figured out was to place over our face and relax (aromatherapy). All this takes place in common rooms. The appointments at our hamam, however, are staggered, so there was just one other couple at each step. The whole process took about two hours.
It was interesting to try, although I don’t think hamams are my thing. Heather, though, enjoyed the experience.
Heather was feeling a bit tired from the early wake up and the two hour time change, and she was still full from lunch, so she crashed for the night. I was hungry, so went back to the lunch place next door for a quick bite. Overall, it nice relaxing day and a good start to the next leg of our trip!
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