Uzbekistan
- Thread starter kuepper
- Start date
I went a few years ago, maybe 2014. Did Tashkent-Samarkand-Bukhara-Khiva then into Turkmenistan and back to Bukhara-Tashkent. We moved quite quickly with a busy itinerary so didn’t get to really explore each place in depth and mostly stayed central in the stunning old city areas, there’s so much to see and it’s surprisingly quite touristy on the Silk Road with decent English spoken at some markets. Plenty of local fabrics to buy, I still wear some light cotton tops I bought with Uzbek pattern trim round the house as they’re really comfy, I love my soviet relics too so plenty of old stuff in the markets if it’s of interest. Uzbek plates and pottery is great too, I have loads in my storage locker waiting to be brought over when I can move it.
Tashkent isn’t one of my favourite Central Asian cities but it has its charms, others in my group really enjoyed it.
I’m not sure what the money situation is like today, but we took dollars that had to be changed on the black market, our taxi took us to an old babushka that counted out massive bundles of Som notes to fill backpacks, it seemed dodgy but it was the normal thing a few years back - the common note was quite a low value and there weren’t many higher notes around, hence the massive bundles we had to carry around.
We found a decent Irish bar (as you do, and we had 3 Irish people with us!) and handed over piles of notes to pay our bill which the locals can impressively count in seconds. We went up the big TV tower which was interesting, even though our guide insisted on telling us the specs and history of various TV towers around the world!
I’m not sure if you still have to collect slips from every hotel for every person each night but this was something we had to do back then and not doing it could lead to big fines when leaving the country if you were checked (we weren’t), we nearly forgot this in our first hotel and I had to rush back, get the slips and only just made it back on the train.
Registan In Samarkand is stunning, absolute must see - we got some painted tiles of some of the patterns and I still have them on display. I don’t remember much else about the city but, funnily enough, I’ve just today finally put two Uzbek traditional patterned fabrics I bought in one of the nooks at Registan up on my wall.
We had good Plov (it’s their national dish and very tasty when done well, stodge when not. There’s even a plov museum in Tashkent but I didn’t get there) - manty (dumplings), laghman (noodles) and various shashliks are all staples and well worth trying.
Bukhara is one of my favourite places ever, amazing Timurid architecture like Registan, we found a cafe bar in the old town that looked over the rooftops, minarets and beautiful buildings, it was so relaxing and if I was to ever write a book that would be the place I choose to do it.
There’s plenty of famous buildings here (Kalon minaret etc) close together so easy to see, we bought an Uzbek carpet here too that’s currently in my storage locker in the UK, plenty of sellers and they are often stunning (edit: the carpets that is, not the sellers!)
Our amazing hotel owner took us to a big music concert at the local football stadium with big Uzbek acts, we were sat with the VIPs and interviewed for Uzbek TV - we got recognised after we returned from Turkmenistan! The hospitality of Uzbek people is amazing, I found them to be very generous and welcoming, completely different to the welcome the Brits Stoddart and Connolly got from the Emir of Bukhara during the Great Game! I think the story of this is told at the big Ark fortress, well worth visiting.
Khiva (the old city) is much smaller but still lovely with the Timurid architecture, we drove over the desert to get here which was great. It was short but sweet, however we did get very drunk here - I certainly recommend the Özbekistan brandy!
We mostly travelled by train and they were some of the most modern I’ve been on, absolutely fantastic and not the soviet relics I was used too. On our final overnight train back to Tashkent a couple of us were in a separate compartment and befriended a local guy, Talgat, with excellent English, he was a great lad and the next day as we got off the train insisted on negotiating a locals taxi fair to the airport for us, the taxi saw a load of westerners and was having none of it! Talgat’s pride in his fellow countrymen was hurt and he paid the taxi and refused money from us, an incredible act of kindness and completely in keeping with the people I met in that wonderful country.
Apologies for the massive reply and I hope you have a fantastic time there!
Tashkent isn’t one of my favourite Central Asian cities but it has its charms, others in my group really enjoyed it.
I’m not sure what the money situation is like today, but we took dollars that had to be changed on the black market, our taxi took us to an old babushka that counted out massive bundles of Som notes to fill backpacks, it seemed dodgy but it was the normal thing a few years back - the common note was quite a low value and there weren’t many higher notes around, hence the massive bundles we had to carry around.
We found a decent Irish bar (as you do, and we had 3 Irish people with us!) and handed over piles of notes to pay our bill which the locals can impressively count in seconds. We went up the big TV tower which was interesting, even though our guide insisted on telling us the specs and history of various TV towers around the world!
I’m not sure if you still have to collect slips from every hotel for every person each night but this was something we had to do back then and not doing it could lead to big fines when leaving the country if you were checked (we weren’t), we nearly forgot this in our first hotel and I had to rush back, get the slips and only just made it back on the train.
Registan In Samarkand is stunning, absolute must see - we got some painted tiles of some of the patterns and I still have them on display. I don’t remember much else about the city but, funnily enough, I’ve just today finally put two Uzbek traditional patterned fabrics I bought in one of the nooks at Registan up on my wall.
We had good Plov (it’s their national dish and very tasty when done well, stodge when not. There’s even a plov museum in Tashkent but I didn’t get there) - manty (dumplings), laghman (noodles) and various shashliks are all staples and well worth trying.
Bukhara is one of my favourite places ever, amazing Timurid architecture like Registan, we found a cafe bar in the old town that looked over the rooftops, minarets and beautiful buildings, it was so relaxing and if I was to ever write a book that would be the place I choose to do it.
There’s plenty of famous buildings here (Kalon minaret etc) close together so easy to see, we bought an Uzbek carpet here too that’s currently in my storage locker in the UK, plenty of sellers and they are often stunning (edit: the carpets that is, not the sellers!)
Our amazing hotel owner took us to a big music concert at the local football stadium with big Uzbek acts, we were sat with the VIPs and interviewed for Uzbek TV - we got recognised after we returned from Turkmenistan! The hospitality of Uzbek people is amazing, I found them to be very generous and welcoming, completely different to the welcome the Brits Stoddart and Connolly got from the Emir of Bukhara during the Great Game! I think the story of this is told at the big Ark fortress, well worth visiting.
Khiva (the old city) is much smaller but still lovely with the Timurid architecture, we drove over the desert to get here which was great. It was short but sweet, however we did get very drunk here - I certainly recommend the Özbekistan brandy!
We mostly travelled by train and they were some of the most modern I’ve been on, absolutely fantastic and not the soviet relics I was used too. On our final overnight train back to Tashkent a couple of us were in a separate compartment and befriended a local guy, Talgat, with excellent English, he was a great lad and the next day as we got off the train insisted on negotiating a locals taxi fair to the airport for us, the taxi saw a load of westerners and was having none of it! Talgat’s pride in his fellow countrymen was hurt and he paid the taxi and refused money from us, an incredible act of kindness and completely in keeping with the people I met in that wonderful country.
Apologies for the massive reply and I hope you have a fantastic time there!
FabioPorkpie
Well-known member
This is what I love about this forum! It goes far beyond just football!
Somebody asks if anybody has any travel advice for Uzbekistan and you are thinking ‘bit of a long shot that, mate!’
And then boom, a whopping great reply full of fantastic tips and advice! Brilliant stuff!
Somebody asks if anybody has any travel advice for Uzbekistan and you are thinking ‘bit of a long shot that, mate!’
And then boom, a whopping great reply full of fantastic tips and advice! Brilliant stuff!
SmallTown
Well-known member
This is brilliant! Superb advice. I’ve always wanted to go to Samarkand I guess I’ll have to add Bukhara to this list
Haha it is pretty niche! I can also offer my services for all the other Asian former soviet republics too!
If you get the chance go for it - do it as a Silk Road trip so you get the sights and the adventure! I loved it and would definitely go back and take my time a bit more, linger in Bukhara and get to the Aral Sea too - I had a few friends do this from both the Uzbek and Kazakh sides but it’s one of the places I never made it to in my time there.
Actually, that reminds me, one of the reasons I preferred Bukhara to Samarkand was it was just more relaxed and our hotel guy was really chilled and helpful and the city gave off the same atmosphere.
We were there in June/July which isn’t peak season as it’s stupidly hot, but Samarkand was still quite hectic and our young randy chaperone the hotel sent out with us kept perving on one of the lasses in our group, we had to skilfully duck out the hotel to avoid him tagging along the next evening. That said, Registan is an amazing sight, I’ve just glanced back at some of my pics and it’s really impressive, as was the Bukharan architecture - I really wish I could remember the exact location of the cafe I mentioned as it was a superb spot for a beer and food whilst taking in the mosques, madrasahs and minarets.
One regret is I didn’t go on the Tashkent metro, it looks superb from photos and I loved the Moscow metro. At the time there were rumours of police harassment of tourists on there so we avoided it, since then I’ve heard that’s been sorted as they don’t want to scare people away.
Also, an excellent website that helped me loads during my time in Central Asia is https://caravanistan.com/ - it has loads of guides and a useful forum, there should be a decent amount of up to date information regarding money, security precautions, sights etc on there.
We were there in June/July which isn’t peak season as it’s stupidly hot, but Samarkand was still quite hectic and our young randy chaperone the hotel sent out with us kept perving on one of the lasses in our group, we had to skilfully duck out the hotel to avoid him tagging along the next evening. That said, Registan is an amazing sight, I’ve just glanced back at some of my pics and it’s really impressive, as was the Bukharan architecture - I really wish I could remember the exact location of the cafe I mentioned as it was a superb spot for a beer and food whilst taking in the mosques, madrasahs and minarets.
One regret is I didn’t go on the Tashkent metro, it looks superb from photos and I loved the Moscow metro. At the time there were rumours of police harassment of tourists on there so we avoided it, since then I’ve heard that’s been sorted as they don’t want to scare people away.
Also, an excellent website that helped me loads during my time in Central Asia is https://caravanistan.com/ - it has loads of guides and a useful forum, there should be a decent amount of up to date information regarding money, security precautions, sights etc on there.
kuepper
Well-known member
Thanks for all those posts Smoggie, it obviously made a big impression and your enthusiasm is infectious! I'll try and remember to post a bit of a review myself when I'm back. I'm on a group tour with another 15 ppl and I wish we had another day or 2 in Tashkent but to make you jealous we''ll be on the Tashkent Metro on Saturday afternoon, you can do a circular journey that includes all 3 lines and 6 stations but it's not clear if you're allowed to photograph anything. I've got the Bradt guide to Uzbekistan and DM'd the author Sophie Ibbitson @UZAmbassador on Twitter to clarify a few points.
I'll be a millionaire on Saturday too if I change £80, that's over 1,000,000 UZS!
The rooftop bar in Bukhara sounds like it could be either 'Under the Moon' at Hotel Asia Bukhara or Minzifa restaurant or Dolon or Old Bukhara.
The Aral Sea sounds interesting but it's in the autonomous republic of Karakalpakstan where there's a lot of aggro atm, pity as i'd like to visit the Kavitsky museum in Nukus too, so maybe another time.
My bucket list is to visit all the worlds socialist/communist/ex-communist countries so i'm jealous you've done the rest of the Asian ones. I'm going to Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia next year so I'll only be left with 3 on my bucket list - Turkmenistan (border is closed atm), Tajikistan and Mongolia - whether I can fit them in next year or not I don't know - at 74 i'm running out of time!
I'll be a millionaire on Saturday too if I change £80, that's over 1,000,000 UZS!
The rooftop bar in Bukhara sounds like it could be either 'Under the Moon' at Hotel Asia Bukhara or Minzifa restaurant or Dolon or Old Bukhara.
The Aral Sea sounds interesting but it's in the autonomous republic of Karakalpakstan where there's a lot of aggro atm, pity as i'd like to visit the Kavitsky museum in Nukus too, so maybe another time.
My bucket list is to visit all the worlds socialist/communist/ex-communist countries so i'm jealous you've done the rest of the Asian ones. I'm going to Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia next year so I'll only be left with 3 on my bucket list - Turkmenistan (border is closed atm), Tajikistan and Mongolia - whether I can fit them in next year or not I don't know - at 74 i'm running out of time!
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RoaryTheLion
Well-known member
74! Great effort. I’ve visited Uzbekistan but anything I add would pale into insignificance compared to Smoggle’s brilliant stuff. I found myself nodding along as I was reading it. However, I’ve lived for an extended period in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan so I’ll be happy to offer some guidance when that trip comes about.
You’re more than welcome, Central Asia is a little understood but unbelievably rewarding destination- I’d really love to hear your thoughts when you return!
Yes, very jealous that you get to see the Tashkent metro! Photos on the metros in many former soviet countries is or was restricted, I find it’s best to ask forgiveness than permission! A few sneaky quick snaps will probably be ok but don’t take risks if you’re categorically told it’s not allowed, if it’s unsure just keep an eye on any police and metro staff (especially the babushkas - they’re unforgiving!). I did get into bother in Turkmenistan doing this but my terrible Russian bamboozled the young police officer and he sent me on my way!
The Bradt guides were always my favourites from that region and I also follow Sophie on Instagram, she’s very knowledgeable about Uzbekistan and her photos make me want to return, which hopefully I will go see the metro and many other things! Funnily enough, the job that took my family to Moscow was from applying for a job in Tashkent with the same group, it’s a part of the world we’d definitely live in again if the opportunity arose.
I checked on the caravanistan website Uzbek money page and it seems the black market was eradicated and larger denomination notes are in circulation now, so you won’t have the dodgy (but quite fun) money changing experience- everything looks to be official and simple now. I’m not sure what the exchange rate was back in 2014 but I’m pretty sure it was 1000 som notes we were carting around in massive bundles!
Not sure on the hotel slips situation but I read that the previously very difficult couch surfing and camping are possible now, so I think that bit of needless bureaucracy has been done away with. If you’re on a group tour that’ll be sorted either way.
I’ll have a look and see if I can find it (if it’s still there) or at least it’s rough location. There’s plenty of places but this was just nice as it was taller and very peaceful.
One thing I do remember is the Uzbek “thankyou” gesture of putting your right fist to your heart with a very slight bow of the head, I found it a lovely and genuine way of people to show gratitude, not at all in a subservient way.
Yes that museum is in such a strange location! If we hadn’t included Turkmenistan I’d have probably visited Karakalpakstan in 2014, but no regrets on that score because Turkmenistan was a stunning but utterly bizarre country! Visiting the Aral Sea from where I was living in Kazakhstan was a heck of a journey, but it’s one I hope to do if I return.
I’ve been to all those countries bar Mongolia (another on my list too!) so I’m more than happy to help if you have any questions, as you can tell I like to waffle on this subject so I’ll do a brief description:
-Kazakhstan - spent 5 wonderful years there, it’s massive so getting around can be challenging but there’s so much worth seeing and the people are absolutely amazing, I can recommend various places that me and/or friends have visited.
-Kyrgyzstan - my favourite ‘Stan but don’t tell my Kazakh friends! Its much poorer and the presence of the USSR is still strong as they didn’t have the money or will to decommunise like other nations (like Uzbekistan), I’m fascinated by that historical period so I love spotting a Lenin or hammer and sickle so Bishkek is easily one of my favourite world cities, it can be edgy here though. Kyrgyzstan’s natural beauty is breathtaking- the Tien Shan mountainous area around Karakol is truly stunning and time in the high plains is impossible to describe and photos don’t do justice. Great soviet antique shop in Karakol too that’s unbelievably cheap, I spent hours in there (and money too!)
-Tajikistan - very beautiful and a more Persian feel as the people aren’t Turkic like most of the region. I only spent a brief time here as my daughter was a baby so my plans for the stunning mountainous Pamir Highway with an Afghan interlude at Ishkashim were shelved! Dushanbe is a charming, leafy city and very nice to wander around.
Turkmenistan - just bonkers. Darwaza burning gas crater (“doorway to hell”) is amazing. Ashgabat is an empty city made of marble with police camouflaged in bushes ready to accost anyone taking a photo. Amazing ancient ruined cities where you can pick up pottery scattered by Genghis Khan and his invading Mongol hordes.
-Azerbaijan - Baku is a lovely city with old and new bits, although I did watch England lose to Iceland here, qobustan mud volcanoes are a great little trip.
-Armenia - Yerevan on my first glance was a bit ugly, then very quickly it transformed into a beautiful city with a great cafe culture, plenty of historical sights a short distance away too. Probably my favourite city in the Caucuses.
- Georgia - fantastic place and another that was surprisingly touristy. Tbilisi is great, so much culture and things to do. Easy to travel to the mountains or places like Gori (Stalin’s town with a fascinating museum to him). Georgian food is by some distance the best in the former USSR, I still crave a good anzhapsandal, lobio and khachapuri!
Apologies for another massive reply! I can’t help myself with Central Asia, I love the place and I hope you enjoy it too!
Haha I think several talented writers have beaten me to it unfortunately, there’s a good number of interesting reads on the region out there! A friend and I have discussed doing a niche book on Lenin statues as between us we’ve seen 100s on our travels, many from our time in Kazakhstan wandering the steppe villages and industrial provincial cities. I’ll add I’m not a communist or political in that respect, but I find the relics left behind from that era fascinating. I’m pretty prolific on my Instagram though and will hopefully get round to adding more Central Asian pics when I sort through my ever increasing mass of photos!
Youtubers "Bald and Bankrupt" and "Backpacker Ben" both spent time in Uzbekistan before they went on their crazy trip to Afghanistan. There might be some interesting stuff in their little films. Bald and Bankrupt is particularly good on central asia.
SmallTown
Well-known member
Not so good on Russia anymore after he got arrested!
kuepper
Well-known member
BTW what sort of thing did you mean by 'soviet relics' on markets in your first post?
Centralscrutinizer
Well-known member
I've never been to Uzbekistan but this thread makes me want to visit, sounds really interesting 
Sheriff_John_Bunnell_ret
Well-known member
If you are into history read "the great game" by Peter hopkirk before you go, about the cold war between Russia and uk in Victorian times. A lot of it takes place in that area. "The return of the king" by William dalrymple is more about Afghanistan but does touch on wider aspects of the great game and is a very entertaining read.
I never made it to Atyrau so I’d try to get there if I return. Had a week in Aktau around Naurus and it was pleasant- the valley of balls and desert scenery were stunning. Nursultan has just been renamed back to Astana again now as Nazarbayev continues to fall out of favour! Agreed on Almaty, a great city with easy access to the mountains and high lakes.
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I think his Central Asian stuff is quite recent, it was great seeing him visit weird places I’d been to! All of his soviet stuff is worth watching and he gets excited about soviet mosaics like I do! His Belarus and Ukraine vids, especially in the Chernobyl region, are fantastic, the old guy he keeps returning to see is a highlight.