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While I’m all for letting the stars determine my next travel destination and am interested in astrocartography (a form of astrology that determines the best places to visit), that day I was looking for insight into love and career. I wasn’t there for travel advice, and his ominous words hit me right in the feels.
Family lore has it that when my mother was in her twenties, a psychic told her she would experience a devastating loss at age 40, and two months after she turned 40, her youngest brother, my uncle Howard, died of AIDS.
It felt more like a curse than a prophecy. I was confused. Would I be unable to travel because the plane might crash? Was nuclear war imminent? Or, even worse, would something happen to my parents?
But as my birthday approached, the longtime travel writer and semi-nomadic traveller found myself feeling a desire to re-explore a place that had such an impact on me.
I ignored the advice of astrologers and followed my own intuition.
So, I decided to ignore his advice and book a trip to Uzbekistan last minute.
I first moved to New York in 2007 after completing my MA in Middle East and Central Asian Security Studies at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Ever since attending a summer language program in the legendary Silk Road city of Samarkand, I had always wanted to return to Uzbekistan.
Since returning to New York, I have sought out opportunities to keep Japan in my life, including adding Japan to The New York Times’ list of “52 Places to Visit in 2019” and most recently taking on the role of English editor for The Bukhara Times, a Bukharan Jewish newspaper published in Queens.
The new job opportunity came up a few months before my 40th birthday, and I took it as a sign.
Planning a trip to Uzbekistan
I booked a flight to Samarkand with Turkish Airlines for $1,100, with a free layover in Istanbul, and then convinced my boyfriend to join me on the trip. Even though we’d only been together for six months and there was a 14-year age difference between us, he was totally up for the adventure.
My birthday trip was my fourth visit to Uzbekistan, but the first that I planned and arranged myself. A lot has changed since I first visited Uzbekistan in 2007. At the time, I traveled on a handwritten ticket that my dad arranged for me with a money order at a travel agency in Brooklyn, because Uzbekistan Airways didn’t accept credit cards.
Now, thanks to a series of economic reforms, it is possible to book a flight or apply for a visa online.
It was also my first trip abroad with my boyfriend, and we made sure to hit all the popular sights, including Registan in Samarkand (we scammed a security guard for $20 to climb to the top of the curved minaret), the walled historic center of Bukhara, and Tashkent’s bustling Chorsu Bazaar.
When my birthday comes
On my birthday, we enjoyed brunch on our hotel balcony, a balloon-filled balcony overlooking the old Soviet rowing canals that formed the backdrop for Samarkand’s newest attraction, the Eternal City.
After brunch, we flew from Samarkand to Tashkent. We had found business class tickets for $50 a seat, so it was a quick last-minute splurge. We checked into the Intercontinental and blew out birthday candles that evening on the rooftop restaurant.
I was nervous that day that it might be too dangerous to fly on my birthday, but everything went smoothly.
Although the trip to Uzbekistan was a birthday present to myself (it ended up costing about $2,500 per person), I realized that the real gift was that I had shaken off a family curse and learned to trust myself.