Uzbekistan – March, 2001

+ Uzbekistan Airlines are acceptable. Flights are only ¼ to ½ full in business class and slightly more so in economy. Business class has less legroom than other airlines such as Continental. Advantages to business class include first on and off, and a much easier check in in Tashkent with separate Customs and Immigration.

+ Arrival in Tashkent was much more straightforward than Kyiv in Ukraine. No medical insurance to purchase but fewer immigration and customs check points to handle the arriving passengers. You need to ask for the customs form in English. Everyone was helpful.

+ Register your visa. I was staying in a small town 40 km outside of Tashkent and had to go to Tashkent to register. Ukraine citizens can register in the smaller locations. Have someone with you who understands the system and speaks Russian. Even they may need to depend on the generosity of others to help complete the process.

+ There are police checkpoints about every 20km on the roads. They will check your passport.

+ The black market rate for dollars to sum is twice the official rate. It was 880 sum to the dollar on the black market. Have someone who is local handle exchanging money for you.

+ Costs: minibus taxi is 25 cents one-way for 40km; Metro in Tashkent is 5 cents each way; all tourist attractions appear to be about $1 for a foreigner; the ballet and circus are about $1 each; dinner for 4 at a nice Georgian restaurnt was $16; 1.5l bottle of water is 25 cents, meals in the local places and one the road were about $1 each for soup, kebob, bread, and tea. In the Sheraton in Tashkent, coffee was $4 and a 1.5l bottle of water was $8.

+ The weather was very pleasant. It was rainy for about 3 days out of 14 but they were evenly spread out and did not last all day long. Bring a jacket because it does get nippy when it is overcast but no jacket is needed when the sun is shinning.

+ The Tashkent metro and minibuses are very good ways to get around the city.

+ I picked up some very nice tapestries and other mementos in Bukhara.

+ Not including the children hawkers in Bukhara, most people don’t speak English so having a guide is very beneficial. I did not feel unsafe at all during the trip.

+ I can highly recommend Gairat Sharahmatov at gairat77@hotmail.com. For $65/day he provided a comfortable car, driver, guide services and B&B accommodations for 2. We did Tashkent, Samarkand, and Bukhara in 5 days. The home stay accommodations ranged from adequate to very nice. Dinner one night was with a family in Samarkand; great way to met the real people of Uzbekistan. Gairat will also help you to negotiate for your purchases. The car we were using had government plates that allowed us to bypass all but one of the police checkpoints and their associated lines.

+ “Uzbekistan, the golden road to Samarkand” was the guidebook I took along. Gairat is mentioned in the Lonely Planet Guide.

+ Internet cafes are available but not as widely as other countries I have visited.

+ The bread is very good. I did get tired of kebobs and plov. Korean salads are available and very tasty.

+ The Tashkent ballet and circus are worth a visit but the zoo was very sad compared to other large city zoos (e.g., Singapore, Houston, London).

+ Uzbekistan is still very much a herding society. You will see little boys and old men tending sheep, goats, and cattle along all roadways and grassy areas in the smaller towns.