Monthly Archive: August 2016

Pre-planning a trip vs. planning as you travel

On my recent trip to Central Asia, I had pre-planned very little. This was slightly unusual for me as I generally plan the majority of my travel in order to make the most of it. However for several reasons, this wasn’t the case this time; I was still hoping to...

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...

Arslanbob: mountain village in Kyrgyzstan

I made it to Osh a few days earlier than I expected. My flight isn’t for another couple of days and Osh is not that exciting to just hang out there. Talking to other travelers and consulting the guidebook, I decided to drive up to Arslandbob, about four hours from...

Exploring Osh’s bazaars

After several days of long driving I was ready to just take it easy in Kyrgyzstan’s second largest city for a day or two. The drives from Dushanbe to Khorog, Khorog to Murghab and Murghab to Osh were all really special but I was done sitting in the car all...

The last stretch on the Pamir Highway: Murghab to Osh

Going into the M41 Pamir Highway, I knew it would be a lot of driving. Murghab to Osh would be the last stretch and I was was looking forward to a last, long day on the road. The scenery from Khorog to Murghab was great and I heard to Osh it...

Along the Pamir Highway from Khorog to Murghab

My driver and I left Khorog around 7am for the 317km drive to Murghab. His English was about as good as my Russian, so our conversations were reduced to announcing toilet stops and lunch. But he was a very good driver. We gave a ride to an Israeli couple for...

A day in Khorog – capital of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region

After a tough day of traveling, I was looking forward to relaxing in beautiful Khorog. It is situated in a picturesque valley with a river flowing through it, just a few kilometers from the border with Afghanistan. Khorog is the capital of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region in eastern Tajikistan. While...

The 12 hours drive from Dushanbe to Khorog

So with the plan to fly to Khorogh not happening, I mentally prepared myself for a veeery long drive to Khorogh, capital of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region in Tajikistan. My AirBnB host (who was from the region) suggested I’d be at the shared taxi stand at 8am. Knowing that it...

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...