I.

“In general, I like to draw, but in the Islamic religion, it is forbidden to draw living things, so I wanted to become an interior designer.”

II.

The train ride from Tashkent to Samarkand was a little over 200 kilometers, but it took four and a half hours. I was surrounded by Uzbeks  — or, who spoke either Uzbek, Russian, or Kazakh, which I can’t tell. I had been listening to random music to pass the time, yet when I checked again, only an hour and a half had passed. Beside me, a university student returning home from Tashkent for holiday began communicating with me through Google Translate. And so, silently, we typed to each other for the entire ride.

The Uzbek sleeper coupe was arranged in a U-shape, six bunks gathered together, upper and lower. The people from the upper bunks all sat on the lower bunks to eat and talk. I had thought the people beside him were his family members — perhaps I misunderstood from certain parts of the conversation — because during pauses between his typing, they would also say things to him, or lean over to look at what I had written, curiously, exchanging friendlyness when our eyes met.

Right before I was about to leave, he typed:

“Are you getting off?”

I thought, but I already said at the beginning that I was going to Samarkand… I replied:

“Yes, I’m going to Samarkand.”

He smiled while subtly shaking his head, then typed back:

“Don’t get off. Stay. I have another 6 hours to go alone.”

I asked,

“Wait, you all don’t know each other?”

After a while, the man beside him — whom I had thought was his father — handed me a piece of bread and sausage. Along with it came a sentence:

“Eat bread.”

The efficiency of translation was very low. In reality, most of the conversation only stayed at the level of very basic information. Once, I said that here, I could neither understand nor read anything, and that I wished I could speak Uzbek. He said:

“Yes, if we spoke Uzbek, I would have a lot to say.”

III.

记飞机迫降：

原定塔什干-努库斯-阿克套航班，在努库斯落地后复飞，现在迫降在离努库斯大概150公里的一个原本没开工的小城机场里。

下降阶段，因为感冒我的耳朵一直疼，我心想这个航空和瑞安一样猛……前面几排有婴儿一直在哭，我想可能也是耳朵疼吧！小孩的哭声成为整个过程最戏剧性的部份。

离地面还有一小段距离，房子还小小地看得清的时候飞机突然重重地下降几下，然后突然抬头猛升，类似剧烈颠簸之后，旁边的大姐害怕把舷窗关上了。

随后我其实什么也看不到纯靠猜，过了几分钟飞机降落了，旁边响起稀稀拉拉的掌声，但没有持续三秒就消停了。我感觉稳定但快速滑行了很长一段时间，我觉得滑行不应该是这么久。又抖动了几下，旁边的大姐抱住了我的手臂。我觉得飞机丝毫没有要停下来的意思，我打开舷窗发现我们又在天上了。

从复飞到迫降有40分钟左右，全程大多数时候都很颠簸。我看不到窗外，不知道事情的严重性。机舱偶尔用乌兹别克语和俄语播报，身边的人原本很安静也开始传话了。周围没有说英语的。大姐问我 …>$~]•*|¥&€…Uzbek? 我发出我唯一知道的一个俄语词儿Китай（中国）。前面的人也回过头来看我一下，我只能笑笑。

这个时候我已经感觉我的身体非常紧张了。我闭着眼睛靠在椅背上休息了一段时间，每次睁开眼旁边的人都有新的动静，比如右手边一排的哥们3个人齐齐阅读座椅前面的安全须知卡啦，我一左一右的人打开telegram发信息啦（这个时候我也打开微信但是信号连不上），或者后面的哥们头靠着窗祷告啦……有人站起来打开行李架拿包，旁边的人都叫他赶紧坐下坐下。也冒出过两个想法：

我不能拿着中国护照一个人死在什么不认识的地方
今天早上就吃了一个饼干，中午以为在飞机上有小食，结果只发了一瓶水。万一撞得半死不活我没吃饭还能坚持多久啊

迫降之后我一开始还不知道没有降落在努库斯，以为只有一小时中转了，很着急地找重新值机的地方，有会俄语的中国人问我想找什么，和机场的工作人员（一开始就只有一个……）沟通之后告诉我我在乌尔根奇。明天原计划去阿克套看海底遗迹应该是看不成了，这边还断断续续地刮沙尘暴，就算去了天气应该也不太好。等了快一个小时，机场终于开灯，小卖部开张了，才买了点零食吃。

Places: Almaty · Tashkent · Samarkand · Bukhara