The Palace of Peoples' Friendship is a Soviet-era building of Tashkent that rewards a slow look, and the name itself is a period piece. Friendship of the peoples was a standard phrase of Soviet ideology, a promise that the many nationalities of the union lived in harmony, and Tashkent, with its mix of Uzbeks, Russians, Tatars, Koreans and others, was held up as the model of it. The palace, a large concert and congress hall in the modernist style, carries the ambitions of the 1960s and 1970s, when the earthquake rebuilding turned the city into a laboratory of Soviet design, and the structure stands out among the plane trees with its confident, geometric form.
Behind the heroic phrases is a real story. After the 1966 earthquake, the Soviet republics each sent teams to rebuild a district, and Tashkent became a kind of showcase of what the union could do. In the same period, the Tashkent metro, the first in Central Asia, opened in 1977, with stations decorated in tiles, carved marble and ornamental plaster, and the city grew into a major industrial and scientific centre, home to film studios and a famous film festival. The city also took in huge numbers of evacuees during the Second World War, and many people still speak of its generosity.
The ride from here goes to the Chatkal State Biosphere Reserve, in the western Tien Shan, northeast of the city, and the road out is a pleasure after the urban sprawl. It leads past Gazalkent and along the shores of Charvak reservoir, a long turquoise lake in the mountains, with smooth tarmac, gentle bends and fine views of snowy peaks. At the weekend, the road is busy with city people heading for the lake, the hills and the ski resort of Chimgan, so go early on a weekday for the quietest ride. The reserve itself protects juniper forests, walnut groves, alpine meadows and a population of bears, ibex and, high up, snow leopards.
Tashkent offers every service you need, with fuel stations on the ring road, though availability of petrol varies, so check ahead and keep your tank full. Food is plentiful and cheap: samsa baked in clay ovens, grilled lamb skewers, and bowls of cold sour milk drinks in the summer heat. April to June and September to October are the best months for the mountain roads, with a cool, bright light on the snow.