Uzbekistan: People and Culture

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People and Culture

When we first encountered Uzbek people, their facial features were striking. We had never seen them neither in real life nor on the media. We can see Indo-Iranians and Mongolians features in addition to their unique traits.
They are friendly and smiley.
They are not loud at all even when they speak in large groups.
Russian is the first foreign language, English and German come next. It is a little bit frustrating to see Russian speakers communicate with ease while we struggle with Google Translate, and consider ourselves lucky when we find an English speaker.
There is almost no international brands operating in Uzbekistan. However, you can get some foreign products. There is not a single McDonald’s in the country, but we had KFC in Tashkent (in Magic City)!
People do not smile or smile very little on the pictures. It is striking on the wedding pictures, the bride seems to be sulking.
Many people have shiny golden or silver teeth.
Even if they try to erase the traces from their soviet past, its influence can still be felt : in the clothing, the interior decorations, the drop ceilings, the chandeliers, etc.

All men are wearing trousers. Short pants are tolerated if you are a tourist.
Men have impeccable hair. Many dress in an old fashioned classy style. I often saw them do their hair and get the creases out of their pants.
Women like to wear velvet shiny outfits with glitters. They wear head scarves as fashion accessories.
Men only wear their hair short. We actually met a barber on a train and asked him if he ever had long haired male clients and he said yes! He showed us only pictures of men with hair about 15 cm long. I guess we don’t have the same standards. Uzbek often staired at me as I have shoulder length hair.
When people wear shoes without support at the back of the feet, they like them (too) small. Their feet are often exceeding those shoes.

Ride-hailing app: Yandex Go. Uber did not work.
When Google Maps does not work, you can try Yandex Maps and Navigator.
Yandex Eat can be used to order food.
On the sleeper trains (second class), they often share food. I would recommend to bring something to share.
When a train journey starts, they synchronize to do a short prayer, lasting a few seconds, bringing both hands close to their faces.
Most cars run with liquified petroleum gas (LPG) with the tank in the trunk. The emissions of the cars smell very bad, I am not sure why.
The Afrosiyob, the high-speed train, is much faster than the normal, sleeper, train. And it takes precedence over it. Our night train was delayed by two hours because we were waiting for the Afrosiyob. It is difficult to book it though.
The first class of sleeper train is far better than the third class. For twice the price, you are two persons in a closed compartment compared to 6. The first class is more difficult to book than the second class, but it is worth it!

Uzbekistan is a secular country
More than 90 percent of the population is Muslim.
The call to prayer (adhan) is significantly more quiet than in Turkey and Morocco.
The practice of the faith was restrained during the soviet era and the presidency of Islam Karimov (1989-2016).
Mosques have squirts or robes if your clothing is not suitable.

They are big tea drinkers. And they drink it with small bowls.
They love to eat plain bread. The definitely eat more bread than the French.
They love to snack on grains and nuts.
Plov is the national dish.
They primarily use cotton oil (as they are a big cotton producer), which could be harder to digest for foreigner.
The restaurant menus usually have the following sections: salad, soup, national dishes, shish kebab (skewers of roasted meat). The menus all look very similar! At the end of our trip, it was hard to find new things to eat.
Most of the time, something is missing on the menu, sometimes, half of it is missing. It’s worth arriving early in the day!
Alcohol is very cheap. We bought a good bottle of 50 cl of vodka for 50,000 soms (3.75 euros).
In the restaurants, they tend to clear napkins very easily.
Kebab still does not come with fries.

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