Uzbekistan: 6/10 (When fundamentalism stands in the way of love)

Quote from Lucio Buffalmano on August 30, 2021, 1:11 pm

Women: 5/10

• Beauty Rating: 6.5 / 10
• Quality of Girls: 5 / 10
• Ease of Hooking Up: 1 / 10
• Relationship potential: 7 / 10

I met a professional woman and despite her English wasn't exactly stellar, she was awesome.

I wrote in the past that I might have stopped sharing romantic/sexual stories.
But I think this one is interesting from a power dynamics perspective (plus, one of the two above elements is missing :D)

The Perfect Day…

In the morning we drove to the mountains with two of her friends.

And there I tried paragliding for the first time.

It was great and the view was truly beautiful.

We even had a mini emergency landing.

The wind had stopped and we couldn’t land back where we started as planned.
So we glided down to the bottom of the hill, beside the lake that we were only supposed to look from above.

The fact that he spoke no English wasn't helping to prepare the landing.
But somehow it went well:

The paragliding man was even happier than I was and so proud of me. Maybe glad I didn't break an ankle or something :).
Some people joked he was too heavy for the little wind. But I don't think that had anything to do with it, he was great and I'm very thankful for his 

There was also a camera crew for a national TV station.

It was there to record how locals spend independence day with a paragliding experience.

As the only foreigner, they asked if they could interview me.
So I ended up on Uzbek TV wishing the country "happy independence day" in Italian :).

Because of that, there was a lot of attention around me.
And that for sure increased my status (and attraction, which was already there and more than enough by my own calculation, but it certainly didn't hurt).

Plus, it was a very beautiful place, with a woman I liked.

So, everything great until here...

... Without Icing on The Cake

Once back in the city we went shower (and I napped), and met later in the evening.

First something to eat, and then we went for something to drink.

On the way back to the hotel I went for hand-holding in the car.
I thought that was going to help bridge the transition to intimacy -and I think it did help-.

We stopped in front of the hotel for some last-minute resistance.

But it wasn't just last-minute resistance.
Apparently, it’s illegal in this country to bring locals you are not married with.

I knew that already from a previous girl.
As soon as the reception guy tried to stop her, I was lived.
So when she left I went back to confront him and he explained they were legally obliged to stop female guests who held a Uzbek passport.
BUT I spoke to him, and I was confident I could have taken a girl back anyway.

I recorded that interaction as part of some examples I want to use for Seduction University:

• Pull home succeeds... Up until the reception

There are several techniques used, including framing the fundamentalists as "stupid" (when I say "you're here, they're there" I was marking the levels with hand gestures), which will reduce the amount of slut-shaming, and framing us together as "better". 

As soon as we walked in there was a different guy though.
My first approach: assume the close. I said "hi, we go a few minutes", and walked to the room.

That only partially worked.
And the fact that she stopped didn't help any.

I thought I'd find a way around it, but I wasn't taking into account her reaction.

I was insisting that we'd go to my room.
She spoke Russian to the clerk. And I mistakenly thought she'd be helping out.

And then the reception guy said:

You can bring your Covid test here and she can check it here

At first I thought "what the hell is he talking about".

And then it dawned on me:

She had fallen into such deep embarrassment that she went into "face-save mode" (at all costs).
So she made an excuse that she was there to check my Covid test.

Now there was no easy way out for me.
Or at least, not an easy way out that included intimacy.
Insisting that we'd go to my room would mean blowing off her cover and "throwing her (reputation) under the bus".
Also, her priority had shifted. Now it was "don't look like a slut who goes to someone's hotel room". So it was a bad 2 against 1, with the new narrative also against me.

Keeping up the charade for her, yours truly stood in front of the reception pretending he was getting his Covid test checked.

I was both angry and feeling guilty at the same time.
I had told her to trust me, and instead I put her in a very tough spot (from her point of view, but that's what matters).
Plus, I was angry at the stupid laws, and the idiot clerk who could just as easily ignore the laws.
But I've learned that when I'm overly angry at something or someone, it's often because I'm angry at having failed or done something wrong.

We went back to the bench after that.
I looked for some other options like booking another hotel room.
But besides the costs -$150- the time was getting tight for my flight.
So we sat on the bench for some more time and kissed teenager style.

Some of the most famous and romantic love stories are about unconsumed love.
Seems like some believe that unconsumed love is more romantic.

But I never agreed with that.

Food: 5/10

Nothing to write home about the local cuisine.

It was easy to find chocolate without added sugar though, which was cool.

Beauty: 6.5/10

The old silk road ruins are beautiful.

There is something about the silk road that always fascinated me.

It's the power of commerce.
The will of people to lead and enjoy a better life.
And the power of wanting to connect and trade with others.

Commerce never stops, not even during wars.
That might be the best proof that collaboration and the search for win-win exchanges is foundational to human flourishing as well as individuals success.

General Quality Of Life: 7/10

The major cities are clean and seem very safe.

Overall, there is nothing too bad about living or staying here.

What's missing maybe is the larger upside of richer, freer, more international cities.

Karting: 8/10

Except for a few people, karting is what I will miss the most.

As strange as it sounds, Tashkent sports a cool indoor track.
It has great, modern, made-in-Germany kart models, including an advanced and fast electric one (I think from a Schumacher's company, but don't take my word for it).

The only downside is that they only change the tires when they're beyond shot.
But there is an upside to that too: you need to learn to turn using your breaks and going in sideways (I'll make a video of it soon).

Summary

I might have to revisit Uzbekistan later on.

As I write at the airport, I’m still livid about the hotel situation.

Overall though, Uzbekistan is great if you're into Silkroad tourism.

And it's great to learn more about the effects of growing religious fundamentalism on a society that used to be more liberal under Soviet and Communist-aligned rulers.
You rarely hear about that (in the West): in some places, communism probably made for a more open-minded and freer society than liberalism did. At least when it comes to intersexual dynamics.

Also, Uzbekistan might be one of the not many countries left with tight control over the economy.
For example, there is only one model of car you see around: Chevrolets.
Other models are so heavily taxed that almost nobody can afford them.
That also makes for a unique experience.

But if you have only a few selected countries you can travel to, there might be higher priorities places to visit.