Flying With Uzbekistan Airways From Bangkok Thailand via Tashkent, Uzbekistan to Tel Aviv, Israel

Flying With Uzbekistan Airways From Bangkok Thailand via Tashkent, Uzbekistan to Tel Aviv, Israel.

This past week I flew from Bangkok to Tel Aviv with Uzbekistan Airways. I must admit, when I purchased the plane ticket I was a bit hesitant, though the only available dates and at a reasonable price for the flights I needed was with Uzbekistan airways.

I was surprised to find the planes perfectly modern and more comfortable than some low cost carriers I have flown around Australia and the United States. They had my kosher meals; from Bangkok to Tashkent the meal was from a caterer in Europe, and from Tashkent to Tel Aviv, the meal was from Israel. The meal from Israel was perhaps one of the best kosher airline meals I’ve ever had. A nicely cooked chicken breast on well-seasoned rice that did not even taste like an airline meal. It tasted like something from a restaurant.

Every seat on my Uzbekistan Airways flights had its own video screen with options to choose movies, music, and games. I’m not much of a movie watcher but sometimes on a long flight I like to watch something. The movies offered were all Uzbekistan and Russian produced with not a single English film. Having no clue about Uzbekistan movies, I asked one of the flight attendants to recommend a couple of the films, which she did. I enjoyed watching them as they were an insight into the Uzbek culture, though the films were difficult to follow at times. There were no English subtitles available, and the only option was to listen to it poorly dubbed where in both movies there was one poorly spoken English male voice used for all the male actors, and one equally poorly spoken English female voice for all the female actors. When two male actors had their backs to the viewer while they had a conversation, it was hard to tell who was saying what with the same dubbed voice speaking the parts for both of them.

Something else Uzbekistan Airways may have over looked was the games that can only be played using the screen as a touch screen. There was no game console. There was a very enthusiastic teenage girl siting behind me who at times got carried away in her game playing and began tapping the screen behind my head enthusiastically, waking me up twice.

One thing that got my attention was the crates of tropical fruit passengers brought with them onto the plane from Bangkok. One guy had a bag with at least twelve pineapples, another had a container with over twenty mangoes. I questioned one of the fruit carriers who explained to me that in Uzbekistan they never get this fruit. They were bringing home as much as they could to share with friends and family.  Hearing this brought me to the quick conclusion that I could never live in Uzbekistan, because I live mostly on fruit.

Tashkent airport is rather Soviet drab. No much happening there. A concrete building with a couple of drinking bars and some poorly stocked duty-free shops.

All up, it was an enjoyable experience, and I’m looking forward to my flight back from Tel Aviv to Bangkok with Uzbekistan Airways.