CBT Arslanbob, Jalalabad & Kazarman: reviews

[steven]

Please share your experiences with CBT offices in Arslanbob, Jalalabad & Kazarman. We summarize at CBT Kyrgyzstan.

[bert]

CBT Arslanbob:
Very nice guy, good English. Gave me some good info to go hiking on my own. I could leave my car in front of his office while I was gone. He offered to watch it.

Stayed one night at homestay 18 upon his recommendation. Very nice home and hospitable family. Western toilet and proper shower. At 500 kgs including breakfast good value for money.

Would definitely recommend to go there. CBT how it should be.

[pvanpeters]

CBT Arlanbob (june 2017)
Very friendly and enthusiastic.

We booked a mountain bike tour with them. I understood it was one of the first time they did this, and with us being Dutch they were very eager to have us trying this out and giving them some advice how to maintain the bikes When one of the bikes broke down, the guys did everything to borrow another bike from someone else and having us continue the trail. The tour had a picknick break with a local couple who arrived earlier and prepared shashlick, tea, fruits. All in all, fun and very friendly atmosphere.

We stayed in a homestay (forgot exactly which one) where the owner had invested in a bathroom (which was after a week travelling a nice selling point compared to the others). Garden with place to sit outside, view on the mountains.

Btw, there is a nice article about Arslanbob featuring the CBT : https://roadsandkingdoms.com/2017/insid ... ut-forest/

CBT Kazarman (June 2017)
CBT Kazarman is one homestay accomodation , so the CBT does not function as a local office for distribution amongst the community, since there is only one (correct me if i'm wrong)
There are a few seperate rooms (fine), and a decent bathroom where we were not supposed to use the toilet (exact reason unclear, but we got a bit the feeling that the owner wants to keep the 'fancy' toilet for herself, and hence guests have to use the outdoor hole).
All in all it was fine for a nightly stopover, but we didn't really have the local CBT/homestay feeling. Maybe that also relates to Kazarman being quite a strange place, with the deteriorated buildings and drunks following you on the street in the evening.

[mcli]

Update on CBT Arslanbob homestay prices:
1000 KGS per night per person, including breakfast
350 KGS for dinner

It is also possible for find more affordable homestays as long as they are not affiliated to CBT. A family is hosting us for 200 som with an optional breakfast for 300 som. Their homestay is neither on maps nor online.