January 2020
In January, we started planning to visit Uzbekistan, in part to participate in celebrating Navruz, the spring festival that also is a sort of new year's holiday. We bought plane tickets and started making hotel reservations. We did not have to do any research to decide on hotels, since Paul had visited last year and wanted to stay in the same hotels. We tried to make train reservations, but it was not possible to use the Uzbekistan Railways site to pay for tickets, as they apparently do not accept credit cards from outside the country. So we were planning to buy tickets once we got to the country and could pay cash. Our first transportation was to fly to Urgench (near Khiva), giving us several days to arrange the train trips or get a car and driver if the train was not available.Not long after we made our initial plans and reservations, the first hints of the expansion of areas affected by the "novel coronavirus" were hitting the news, though the focus is still on China.
February 2020
We are reading guidebooks and online information, making plans to bring fabric back for backpacks made by Taluuma Totes, and starting to gather things we would need for the trip. Trying to decide what to take for the potential variations in temperature was the most difficult issue. Winter coat? Jacket plus sweater?Also, Paul's foot is still giving him trouble, so should he take the orthopedic boot in addition to the smaller brace. Then a "pop" in his other foot raised the importance of that question. He went to urgent care, where an x-ray showed there was no broken or dislocated bone, and a visit to the podiatrist a few days later suggested that rest and continuing to use the crutches would probably be all that was needed. Hobbling, not driving, and spending more time sitting down made for a slower life.
Conavirus is becoming more of a concern, but we felt like our plans were sufficiently protective that we could continue with the trip.
March 2020
Now we were getting our backpacks out and becoming more serious about things like how much money to take, getting fresh bills from the bank, etc.We were three days away from leaving for Uzbekistan and about to finalize our packing when we saw information about that country quarantining people from many countries, including the United States. Apparently, there are no confirmed cases of COVID-19 there, and they are trying to keep it that way. So we would have to spend 14 days in a hotel. But what does that mean when you are staying in small hotels with no restaurant? Could we fly to our first destination or would we have to stay in Tashkent? Would anyone actually be checking?
An email exchange with the U.S. Embassy in Tashkent did not provide much reassurance, and the wording of the notice was pretty specific that if you had been in the United States (and some other countries) you would have to self-quarantine for 14 days. The information on the website includes the following statements:
- Visitors subject to self-quarantine must be kept in their place of residence (house, hotel, hostel, etc.) for up to 14 days, not be allowed to communicate with people other than family members, and not be allowed to visit public places.
- Disciplinary sanctions will be imposed in the event of disciplinary violations by quarantined individuals.
The first statement is pretty clear. While I am not sure about the meaning of the second, I am not one to risk violating something in a country such as Uzbekistan.
So we were forced to cancel our trip. It is disheartening to have to put away all the travel items we had gathered in preparation for this trip. The small benefit is that we don't have to deal with the problems people have had in reentering the country, and we are here in case anyone in our family comes down with this illness, but every-day things like cooking dinner are not what I expected to be doing today! I would much rather be writing about and posting photos of mosques and markets and large kettles of plov (rice and meat and spices, oh my!). Another day....
Let's hope we can find a time to go when things calm down. It looks like a place with many beautiful and interesting places to visit, as well as lots of great food to eat.
