Caravanistan

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/kyrgyzstan/osh/transportation/alay-baza/a/poi-tra/1391576/356887 https://www.google.com/maps/place/Kashka-Suu+Baza/@40.5393629,72.8551022,583m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m13!1m7!3m6!1s0x38bdac017f5a2e85:0xe0a3c61dc6f47b95!2sOsh,+Kyrgyzstan!3b1!8m2!3d40.5139985!4d72.8160976!3m4!1s0x3...

Photos have to end with lowercase ".jpg".

The transit visa rule is that the airline must relay the correct/relevant arrival & departure information to the government. So far only one airline does this.

Take a look at the visa pages here and most of your questions will be answered. I suspect that most guides — especially those arranged from Uzbekistan — won't be very familiar with actual facts and information about the historical site in Penjikent. Your best bet would probably be to contact ZTDA or...

People aren't going to/through Kazakhstan for the purpose of terrorism, so I don't see why it should be a problem.

If a special permit was required, I expect we would have heard about it here pretty quick. As it is, in the last few days we have reports from people passing through Xinjiang without permits, so I expect the guy you talked to was wrong (which isn't surprising, as I'm not sure why a guide for Chinese...

For someone who wishes that people would describe "facts", it sure is misleading to post that link in a thread about terrorism.

With your time limitations, I don't think Qarshi makes sense (Shymkent may not, either). You may not be able to visit all the places I listed, as it is. Doing the loop clockwise makes the most sense given when you're visiting: you want to visit the mountainous regions as soon as possible to maximize...

Unless things have changed, getting a visa for this highly unlikely. In the past they have rejected applications for any time in September.

You can cover your general itinerary much more efficiently if you do something like this: - Almaty - Charyn Canyon - Karakol via Kegen - Bishkek - Osh - Murghab - Langar - Khorog - Dushanbe - Penjikent - Samarkand - Bukhara (- Khiva) - Tashkent - Khojand - Ferghana - Tashkent to Shymkent Is there so...