Tagged: Uzbekistan

My Central Asia itinerary

I thought some of you might be interested in my Central Asia itinerary as well as what I’d do differently next time, so here you go:     Looking back, I would change a few things about the itinerary. I was contemplating staying at a yurt camp in Uzbekistan between...

Three reasons why you should visit Uzbekistan soon

Don’t worry, I won’t start with click-bait-y blog titles. I can warmly recommend a visit to Uzbekistan as soon as possible. Three reasons why I think you should visit rather sooner than later: 1. It is really cheap right now. The government fixes the exchange rate of the Uzebkistani Som...

The currency exchange market in Uzbekistan

Officially, one US Dollar is worth 2’900 Uzbekistani Som. Inofficially currently around 6’400 Som. There are various reasons for it and I recommend reading some articles on the topic of you are interested. But basically the government doesn’t let the currency free-float which causes the official exchange rate to be...

From Samarkand to Dushanbe/Tajikistan

After six days of Uzbekistan, looking at countless medresses and eating too much schaschlik and somsas, I was ready to move on to Tajikistan. Uzbekistan was great and now is the time to visit. I’ll have a post soon on why I think you should better go soon. While the...

A visit to the Urgut Bazaar

About 30km outside of Samarkand lies the village of Urgut. It is know for the big bazaar, which supposedly is especially big on Sundays. After asking around for a while, I found myself in a shared taxi to Urgut and from there in a Marushtka to the bazaar. It was indeed...

Samarkand: former capital of the Timurid Empire

Samarkand would be my last stop in Uzbekistan and I was really looking forward to my visit as it is probably the best known Uzbekistani destination. After the delay on the train ride, I did not want to waste further time and left for the Registan, Samarkand’s premier landmark. Samarkand used to...

Bukhara to Samarkand with Uzbekistan Railways

The next leg of my trip would take me from Bukhara to Samarkand. Since this is also part of Uzbekistan’s Railways network, I was happy to give them a try since at least trains don’t have to deal with bad roads.   I tried to buy a ticket a day...

Cars in Uzbekistan

During my first days in Uzbekistan I thought to myself, “wow, Chevrolet really does have a very high market share here“. Turns out, thanks to their joint-venture factories with the Uzbekistani government (whereby General Motors just hold a 25% minority), they practically have a monopoly as import duties for foreign-manufactured cars...

Bukhara: onwards on the Silk Road

After a very pleasant stay in Khiva, my next stop would be (as is the case with 90% of travelers in Khiva) Bukhara, one of the main cities of the Silk Road and a historical center of commerce and religion. The drive would be a long one and my hostel...

Khiva: my first stop on the Great Silk Road

After visiting the Savitsky Museum, I wasn’t keen on spending much more time in Nukus. I packed my bags and headed for the shared taxi stand to get to Urgench and then Khiva. Maybe this is the right time for a few words on the transport system in Uzbekistan. It...