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)
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