Traveling in Uzbekistan Based on Our Experience

Before I write more about another cities that we visited during our winter holiday, I would like to write about our traveling experience in Uzbekistan. I want to share all the pros and cons that we faced during our trip on winter there.

Winter in Uzbekistan is mild winter, many areas got snow, but it's not as thick as our previous experience in Turkey, also we went at the beginning of winter. Even the ski resort hasn't got thick enough snow to start their ski season. We are fully ready with our winter attire, but at some times we didn't need to fully wear it. So make sure you check the winter forecast before you go, we were freezing in Bukhara, because of the wind with a little snow fall, but in Tashkent, we prefer to wear our sneakers and put off our thermal wear.

Internet connection, hubby brought a mifi and bought a local number and fill it with data package, so 4 of us can have internet connection through it. But, we can't use the number for calling since we don't put it in our phone.

Transportation, there is car rental available in Tashkent, but since hubby too lazy to adapt with the traffic, and we expect snowy road, we did't rent any. We decided to use taxi, but beware the car size in Uzbekistan mostly are small, it's different situation with UAE, where we resides. Most of cars also use methane as their power supply, so the baggage size is getting even smaller, you can find a big methane tank there.

When we headed to airport and try to get bigger taxi, we got Chevrolet Optima 😅.

Taxi is easy to get in all cities that we visited, in Tashkent we use Yandex apps to hail taxi, it's easy and you don't need to have local number, as long as you have internet connection, it works very well. And you will pay based on the taxi meter in driver's app. 

In Bukhara and Samarkand we prefer to hail taxi on the road, since it's easier to recognize which one the taxi are, they put sign on top of the car. And you can bargain the rate, but the minimum rate is at 20.000 so'm, if we move 1-2 km. average rate is 10.000 so'm per km.

Our guesthouse host in Samarkand advise us to use Taxi Ok apps, but you need to have an active local number to use this app.

For a long distance trip, like Tashkent - Chimgan, you should bargain the taxi price before you use the service. We found our hotels are helpful enough to arrange taxi for us, except for the first time, when we took taxi from the airport, early in the morning.

Tashkent metro is very special, it's very easy to access, cheap, and historical. For me it's more than transportation, but also very interesting to get lost in it 🙆. You only need to pay 1400 so'm per person per access.

Train, we booked afrosiyob train ticket 30 days before our planned trip, it's a fast train with limited schedule, so it's fully booked very fast. If you already have itinerary arranged before 30days, you can try to contact local travel agent that will help you book the train ticket. Since hubby loves challenge, he booked everything by himself 😘. It's a good experience using Afrosiyob, fast, clean and comfortable, we tried both VIP and economy class, all good and we spent arund 10 USD - 30 USD for each person per trip, depends on the class and distance. There are another type of train, but it took longer travel time, you can check it at https://railway.uz/en/

Accomodation, we use hotel reservation apps to find the hotels. But to find hotels in Chimgan is different story, so little choice in the apps, you can check google map and see so many hotels there, so I try to search their instagram account, and contact them one by one. Mostly responding very well, but few only responded in Russians.

The payment system also another challenge, especially outside Tashkent. They usually only accept Visa or another local/Russian payment network, rarely they accept master. And if they accept, they will charge you 10% for the payment fee. Getting cash from ATM (bankomat), you'll get charged by local bank and your origin bank.

Food, the food in Uzbekistan were satisfying for me. I'm an Asian that used to eat rice everyday, and everytime I travel I used to craved for rice or instant noodles. Strangely, I don't feel that in Uzbekistan. You can find rice, bread (in every corner of the country), soups, noodles and all are seasoned perfectly.

Our family enjoy to explore new places and find out about all things about new places we visit. We will try to combine all the experiences of leisure, historical, and also try to get new knowledges during our travel. And we got more than we expected during our travel to Uzbekistan. 

While traveling there, every night I was busy try to find out about the history, since the country has a rich culture and history, and we really enjoy talked about it. Not to mention, discussion with many local people about how's life there. So make sure what you want to get from your holiday before you plan it.

The exchange rate during our visit :

1 USD = 11.000 UZS (so'm)

1 AED = 3000 UZS (so'm)

Tashkent, the Capital

Tashkent is the busiest and  the most cosmopolitan city in Uzbekistan, but the weather really comfortable to take a stroll along its street and enjoy the atmosphere. Was the 4th biggest city during Soviet era, Tashkent truly give you a glimpse of the golden era of USSR. As a fact, it was rebuilt as a model Soviet city, after 1966 Tashkent Earthquake.

You'll feel the mix of cosmopolitan and old city when you walk on Tashkent street. The hotel that we stayed is located around city center, is a very busy street until midnight, but it also near to university complex that offers great view for afternoon stroll. 

You'll find lots of statues of important figures of Uzbekistan in every corner of the streets, that usually surrounded with park, where people can enjoy the afternoon there. And in the center of the city, Amir Temur Square, where there's big statue of Amir Temur, the first ruler of Timurid Dinasty, is the national hero of Uzbekistan.

The highlight of this city for me is the metro network, legacy from Soviet that still used up until now. The feeling of getting lost in the metro network is so amazing, you'll feel that you ride a time machine that throw you back to the 70's, moreover all the announcement is on Uzbek and Russian, as a person who don't have any idea about this languages, paid attention to every station is a must. And also the metro costs you very little, only 1400 so'm per person or around 50 fils in AED, for each entry, once you in, you can try each line of the network and admiring the grande metro stations.

Another interesting place for us to visit are the museums in Tashkent, we visited State Museum of History of Uzbekistan, where we met lots of students group that doing study tour there. You'll get a brief history timeline of Uzbekistan, and you'll understand how historically rich this country is.

The second museum that we visit is Railway museum, yeah...we love train so much...And we really enjoy our visit there. Huge Locomotives, legacies of USSR really awed us. We also ride the old tourist train, that runs back and forth along the museum's.

Chimgan, Perfect Getaway in Uzbekistan

The capital of Uzbekistan, Tashkent, is the city where we landed for the first time, the airport named after the 1st president of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov Tashkent International Airport. We landed very early that day, around 4AM, the airport is not that big, there are 3 flights that arrived around the same time, but the queue are managable, It wasn't took a long time for us to exit the immigration and proceed to baggage claim.

Hubby bought Uz cell simcard in the airport, and get the internet package, that will be used for 4 of us to connect to the internet during our trip.

5AM we out of the airport, sunrise will be around 7.30 AM, so it's completely dark and cold outside. Our first destination is Chimgan, it's a small village 85km from Tashkent, there is a new ski resort around the area, less fortunate for us, the snow isn't thick enough for skiing, but still it was great to be there, enjoying fresh air.

We should have wait until the sunrise before we took taxi to Chimgan, the driver was ripped us by twice of the normal price. It's very dark along the way to Chimgan, not many lamppost on the road. My imagination going wild, I imagine a border post during Soviet era, we drove there for 2 hours, and reached our 1st guest house even before sunrise. It's very cold and the gate is still closed. We wait around 30 minutes outside, but got entertained with the beautiful view, sunrise over snowy mountain.

A young man was passing by, and helped us calling the guard, that finally took us to our guest house. It was a warm wooden hut, clean and comfy. We had breakfast, try to adapt to read the menu that written in cyrillic, try few apps to translate it. Nobody speaks English there, and the experience using translation apps is the greatest ice breaker. It's our first time to try milk porridge, it's local breakfast, and the one that we ate in the guest house was so far the best one during our trip.

After short rest, the guest house arrange taxi for us to go to Amirsoy, the new ski resort. It's a brand new resort, everything still shine bright, eventhough the ski season hasn't started yet, we can go to the top using the cable car. Different view, ambience, and also people that we met, we officially start our holiday 😎. 

On the way back, Max, our driver told us about Charvax Lake, that has spectacular view too, with the pyramid resorts, looks like it was legacy from Soviet era. In Charvax you could do paragliding, but not on winter days. We came almost at the end of the day, 5PM, when the sun will set soon, the wind blows so strong, it increase dramatic ambience of the place.

The next day,  we plan to head back to Tashkent, for a night transit, before we continue our journey to Samarkand. Early in the morning, I take a walk around our guest house. tried to capture morning life in this small village.

Uzbekistan, my Unintended Wish that Came True

It was more than 2 years ago, when we visited Uzbekistan pavilion in Sheikh Zayed Heritage Festival, we got Uzbekistan's tourism magazine. The cultural performances and of course the food mesmerized me, it made me put Uzbekistan in my bucket list, someday, someway I will visit this country that culturally and historically rich.

Winter 2021, 2nd year of Covid pandemic, it's been so long we only stay in UAE. Our family already fully vaccinated, me and hubby also got booster, we made a plan for winter holiday. We checked on Abu Dhabi green lists, and pick a country that could be our winter fairytale getaway, unfortunately the covid case in the region was raising. So we should change our destination. We re-check the green list, and do small research for covid precautionary measurements, needs for quarantine, and also the number of the case there, and the final decision goes to Uzbekistan. Yes, it's a country that already in my bucket list, and yeah, we got more than we expect 😊.

Since I'm busy with my study and works, hubby prepare the itinerary, booked all hotels, plane, and also train for commuting to other city there. It's not easy, since Uzbekistan was opened for tourism not more than 5 years ago. Not many hotels are listed in popular hotel reservations apps, for particular destination I browse through their instagram account and try to get info via DM, furthermore some of them replied back in Russians. 

And to book the train ticket, especially Afrosiyob, the fast train that connected several big cities in Uzbekistan, it surely challenge your patience, the web supposed to be open 30 days before the trip we want to book, but it's not the fact, everyday you should check whether it's open or not, or you can use travel agent's services to book for you.

For people like us, who loves to travel planned but unplanned, we love to arrange everything by ourselves, there's flexibility in time and money. Uzbekistan is quite challenging, but at the same time it's enrich our experiences. 

National language in Uzbekistan is Uzbek language, but people widely use Russians for their daily communications inter-ethnic, Uzbekistan was under Russian Empire during 19th century, and in 1924 as an independent republic within Soviet Union until their independence on 31 August 1991. In several area, like Samarkand and Bukhara, people use Tajik languange for daily conversation.

With a long history, and so many great emporium ruling the lands, old cities like Khiva, Samarkand, and Bukhara are rich city during silk road era. Uzbekistan is a promising cultural and heritage tourism. I'll try to write about our trip by the cities we visited.