Day Twelve
Got up at 6 AM
and took a warm bath. Went to sleep
again, and then woke up at noon . We helped Timour get all the supplies
together for a trip to his dacha. The
table and chairs were very heavy. Nonetheless,
we got everything to the car and loaded up.
Kade, bless her heart, was corralled in the backseat behind chair legs
and table tops. I sat up front with
Timour. We started on our way. The first stop was at a hyper-mart where
Timour could buy supplies for the weekend getaway. As he shopped for essentials, we sat in a
food court and had a latte.
Off we were to the dacha – we were excited. It was an hour and a half drive. Along the way, Timour had a chance to talk
about Tashkent
Tons of cars were on the highway heading south of the city
limits. Besides the fact that people
were driving erratically, the drive was quite nice. I enjoyed seeing the views of the
countryside. Timour pointed out a huge
estate where people go fishing and stay overnight.
Just before we pulled up at Timour’s dacha, he drove us back
some exceptionally nice dachas priced in the $500,000 range. He also made a pit stop at a small grocery
store that sat on the corner of two gravel roads. Timour bought some cigarettes.
A few minutes later, we were driving down a dirt lane. There was Timour’s rustic dacha. We parked just outside the fence and started
unloading the car. A gate was opened and
soon we met Timour’s father and Sasha.
The air was fresh and cool. We
were all anticipating a good time.
Shortly after we put our bags in our room and got a tour of
the “estate,” I sat down at the table for some sausages, bread, cheese and
jam. I also drank lots of hot tea with
lemon and sugar.
A bit later, Kade and I went outside to try the banya. We both thought it was incredibly hot. Still, since it’s a big part of the local
culture, we just had to try it. We
stripped down, took showers and went into the sauna.
Sometime later in the day one of Timour’s friends arrived. His name also happened to be Timour. He was accompanied by a fairly lovely Russian
girl from Volgograd
Later in the day, when I felt I was ready, I made my way to
the banya a second time.
A nude and half-inebriated Timour was already waiting. He had been sitting in the sauna for more
than an hour. He was beet red and his
back was marked up with scratches from the birch leaves. After taking a shower, it was my turn to get
the full treatment of a Russian banya. I
didn’t think I could last ten minutes. I
lay down on my stomach and Timour took the hot birch leaves and proceeded to
whack me from neck to toe. Then, I
rolled over and got a similar treatment, except for the fact I made sure to
cover my privates. I didn’t want them to
be whacked…not by birch leaves anyway! After
the bashing and some more heat, it was time for a very cold shower. Supposedly this has major therapeutic
effects. Then, after the shower, the
heat cycle started over.
Timour was a tad disappointed when I wanted to go in after
only two cycles. We walked out onto the
deck of the banya. Timour didn’t mind
revealing himself to anyone in the yard and any neighbor that wanted to see. Russians seem much less modest than we
generally are. I’d have to admit,
though, that the cold air was nice on my naked body. I could only guess that in winter everyone
races around the snowy yard entirely in the buff.
Dinner consisted of pilaf and shashlik. Timour’s dad had already been working on
marinating the meat. Timour, himself,
was in charge of cooking on the open flame.
He said it was a technique he mastered after many attempts. The shashlik was done the old-fashioned way,
with a grill, charcoal and lighter fluid.
We ate the first part of dinner on the porch. Later we took it inside. During the course of the meal, many toasts
were made. It was a fun night. Instead of doing late-night banya treatments,
I went to bed with Kade.
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