Caravanistan

If it’s still running in September/October and if Pegasus are going to offer fantastically cheap flights to Central Asia again, I might try it out and report back.

Also: The train between Khujand and Dushanbe has been revived... At least for now - I think it says in the system that it will run until the end of May. It runs once per week (on Thursdays) and takes 22 hours 15 minutes. Something for aficionados of Soviet trains, I guess.

Thanks. Yes - I'd have spend the night there, I guess.
Alternatively, I'd go via Samarkand, but I'd really like to travel on the elektrichka trains once (for which, of course, there would be other options, but I like the idea of getting back to Tashkent like this...)

Does anyone know whether it is possible to get off the weekly train from Khujand to Volgograd on the Uzbek side of the border, rather than having to travel all the way to Samarkand? The Belarusian rail website shows Спитамен as border post, but a Google search suggests that this is still in Tajikist...

I paid cash for both the official and the shared taxi. I only set up WeChat/AliPay fully once I was in China and at that stage, I had not worked out everything yet. However, my Chinese co-traveller paid for the taxi from the pass using a QR-code - not sure whether it was WeChat or AliPay. The shared...

Yeah - since you are passing through Sary Tash anyway, I'd go for 2), too. Unless you really want to see Osh. You just need to make sure that whoever drives you to the border has the necessary permits to take you all the way to the very last Kyrgyz border post. Transport up to Ulumqat/Wuqia/Irkeshta...

You should be able to get tickets at short notice, unless we are talking about Afrosiyob trains.
Distances are great and shared taxis will be crammed and uncomfortable. And of course much less safe…

I’d be extremely surprised if that train was fully booked a month ahead. I strongly suspect you’d get a ticket on the day itself in Samarkand. And the train is going to be massively more comfortable than shared taxis and busses.

Well - you’ll just have to wait until they open the winter flights for booking. Some airlines in the region have even shorter booking periods. Don’t worry - these flight will at some stage appear on the major booking sites (although some of the flights with smaller local airlines won’t be bookable t...