The Bankiet

Tragically I don't have any decent photos of this fine occasion to share yet but hope I manage to give a flavour. As ladies here like nothing more than glamour and sparkle, even for day wear, you can imagine that the grand party to end the conference was quite something. Rather disappointingly, it was held at the same place we ate everyday so more good but repetitive salads & greasy soup with lumps of mutton fat ( a great speciality of the region) was the order of the day. This time it was outside though so we set off anxiously with jackets etc as though hot in the daytime there was a nip in the air of an evening - due I guess to the proximity of snowy mountains. Oddly ( and v differently from previous visits) alcohol was barely to be seen so great was the joy of me & my 2 rather dour colleagues from NL Latvia when Farida produced a bottle of Kazakh cognac which the director of NL Uzbekistan then felt obliged to second with an Uzbek bottle- if ever faced with the dilemma of which to choose, go for Kazakh 😊As is the way in these parts it is rude to sip at your drink as & when - all drinking is done communally after elaborate toasts. Luckily I was sitting next to Irakli from Georgia & as Georgians are known for their love of toasts thAt can go on for 15 mins, I didn't have to rise to the occasion myself. There was fantastic live music all night long starting off with local trad more classical stuff followed by 4-5 different singers who did a number from the country of each esteemed foreign guest except me!! I didn't complain however as the evening grew more & more riotous - despite the dearth of booze. Our Uzbek colleagues were very keen to get us on the dance floori & my N African moves stood me in good stead. Higlights were the usually morose Czechs boogying on down to various cheesy Russian hits from the 80s, but best of all the usually solemn director of the NL South Korea's very ideosyncratic interpretation of gangnam style. Once seen, never forgotten😂 How we laughed at the idea we might be chilly as we were spun round the dance floor by glittering gold- teethed ladies & gents alike! It did leave me with a wonderful sense of how that Soviet legacy of Russian language as a lingua franca across such a huge swathe of Europe & Asia is a wonderful thing & it feels a bit sad that for new generations it will be replaced by English...Read more