Walk Five Steps Forward. . .

Getting into our Tashkent hotel at 4 am was like breaking into an escape room. I got the directions after landing in Tashkent at 2 am:

The door code is 480. Press three buttons TOGETHER and pull handle down.

(Woe to the person without a hand or fingers, because this took both and all...)

Enter the hotel and take 5 steps forward (it was 8 steps), turn left, go forward 5 steps (it was 10) and you will see the room #1.

For second room, make 5 steps forward (15), turn to the left, go down the stairs. If you will have difficulties call me.

So we do have two rooms.

The owner had called me through WhatsApp right before takeoff from Istanbul. Surprised, I answered, sending apologetic looks to those sitting around me.

"I need to tell you some things," he said. "The person in your room, he is a problem. He has taken the key and gone to Samarkand, and won't be back until tomorrow. You will have a basement room with a king sized bed tonight. He is from Holland."

I had booked this particular hotel as a "get over jet lag" hotel -- it was inexpensive because it was a little further out of town, but it had a 9.2 rating out of 10. I figured Sue and I would need our own space after 24 hours of travel, so I had booked two rooms for three nights. 

So what could I do at midnight, minutes before takeoff and turning on airplane mode, about this guy from Holland who had run off with our key, and with no mention of a second room?

All I could say was, "Okay."

I found Sue after takeoff, sitting about twenty rows back because she had flown standby. "I think we might be sharing a bed in a basement this morning..."

She laughed, of course.

But now, two rooms. It's a funny place -- ornate, yet the bed is only a (surprisingly okay) very firm (hard) box spring and my toilet is not connected to the floor; it tips when used.

It's 11 am and Sue is still sleeping.

Here we are right after discovering we were texting in the security line with just two people between us:

(And minutes before we ran into Pam's sister and brother in law, Andi and Todd, in the American Express lounge, courtesy of Sue's partner-pilot, Cage.)

We met a Russian-speaking guy from Colorado Springs on the plane, and we are planning to meet him for dinner tonight; when I asked him "why Uzbekistan?" he said he had watched a YouTube video of a restaurant in Tashkent and wanted to try it. (He had other reasons, too, but he led with that.)

Now we get to try it, too.  And Sue is awake! Here we go!