Working on a UZ/TJ/KZ late April - June itinerary, plz help!

[raspberrysoda]

Hi everyone,

I'm working on an itinerary. It's very basic and doesn't include travel time, and I thought about sharing its initial form and some questions regarding it.
Is it reasonable? Any changes you would make? Recommendations? I like archaeology, architecture, culture and hiking.

tashkent – 3 days
Samarkand – 4 days
Shahrisabz – 2 days
Bukhara – 4 days
Khiva – 4 days
Nukus/moynak – 3 days?
(going back)
Termez – 2 days?

Crossing border to tj

Dushanbe – 2 days
Hissor – 2 days?
Fann mountains – ? days
Panjakent – 2 days?
Istaravshan – 2 days?
Fergana valley stuff - ? days
Khujand – 2 days?

Back to uz

Kokand – 2 days?
Fergana valley stuff - ? days?
Fergana – 2 days?

Crossing border to kz

Osh – 2 days?
Bishkek – 3 days?
Ala archa - ? days
Tian shan - ? days
Skazka canyon - ? days
Karakol – 3 days?
Jeti oguz - ? days
Altyn arashan hot springs - ? days

Back to Bishkek

Fly back home


questions:

1. how safe are the Pamirs rn? I'm from Israel, and I don't want to be abducted by the Taliban or something.
* I know B2 level Russian, so that could help.
2. how easy are the border crossings between the different countries? How easy is obtaining the visas for the different countries? I don't need one for UZ but I do for the other two.
3. is solo hiking safe in TJ and KZ?
4. Will about 4000 USD be enough for a trip like this?

thanks in advance.

[couchpotato]

In Pamirs in general very safe. The most worrying part could be getting diarrhea. Stay away from the road side soup kitchen in the villages. You don't know how many days old that pan of soup is. In bigger cities, as long as the food is freshly cooked, should be safe.

Border crossing should be no problem. Although the last time in Uzbekistan, they really opened all the bags and checked everything. I hope by late April, all the land borders are opened. Unrest in Kazakhstan is widely reported. However, in late November last year in Khorog, Tajikistan, there was a protest that major news outlets didn't mention. And the authority has cut off internet and phone service in the GBAO region since. It is an unknown when will the authority allow tourist travel permit to GBAO. I want to go there in late April or May to visit friends in Khorog. Now there is a lot of uncertainty.

One thing to watch out is "fake police" in Kyrgyzstan, especially in Osh. Some people wear police uniform will pull you to the quiet street and ask for your passport. They search all your items and claim looking for illegal drugs. But what they are actually looking is cash. It happened to my travel companion. Stay at busy places. Don't let them drag you to quiet street.

Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan are very inexpensive to travel. You can probably do it with less than $2000 for two months there, depends on what you plan to do of course.

[Christian77]

Khiva is very small. I don't see you having 4 days worth of stuff to do there, unless you have plans to head out into the desert to see old qalas. And you will really have to love history and architecture to spend 4 days each in Samarkand and Bukhara. I haven't heard any nice things about Shahrisabz for a long time.

Hisor and Istaravshan can be done in half a day each. Hisor is a half-day trip (in and out of Dushanbe) and Istaravshan can be done on your way to Khujand.

Panjakent doesn't have much to look at. It's basically archeological digs. Every square hole looks the same. But you said you like archeology...

Fann mountains: you are too early for hiking at higher altitudes. So maybe go to Haft Kul (Seven Lakes) and/or Iskandarkul.

Pamirs are very safe for tourists (aside from road accidents). But check online to see how local politics are going in the Pamirs. The region might get closed at a moment's notice (local disputes with the government, nothing to do with the Taliban).

Many Israelis have visited all parts of Central Asia. They seem like they do fine. A few of them mentioned that there is a Whatsapp group for Israeli tourists in Central Asia. That was a few years ago, so I don't know if it still exists.

Solo hiking is safe on the main routes. If you break your leg someone will eventually show up. I've been annoyed by drunk shepherds a couple of times in Kyrgyzstan, but nothing serious. Some sheep dogs in Tajikistan are very unfriendly (but they haven't eaten any tourists yet).

I could do your itinerary for under $2000. But it depends where you want to sleep & eat, and how quickly/smoothly you want transportation to go (local shared transport versus personal driver).

Border crossings are all described on Caravanistan. Happy reading.

[AreWeThereYet?]

I, too, agree that Khiva in 4 days is a bit of an overkill.

Bukhara, on the other hand... I stayed there for 4 days and could've stayed for longer. It's a bit like Khiva (or at least it was back in 2017/18) but people lived in the town. It was marvellous just to walk around and get lost. Plus I went to see the football, which was a laugh.

From a security/safety point of view, I'm not Israeli so I can't really judge but you can always say you're from someplace else (unless you need to show your documents, you know) if you don't feel like it. At the end of the day sh*t happens when you least expect it.

I echo couchpotato's comment about 'fake police', or police on the prowl for some cash. I had that encounter in the Dushanbe bazaar; A friend suggested, in this sort of case, not to give the cops your passport but to provide a piece of paper with your embassy's phone number. I did precisely that, feigned complete ignorance, provided a scrap of paper printed in Cyrillic with the address of my local consulate (in Astana, but... details), mimicked a phone and just smiled like an idiot. The cops thought it was too much hard work for a bribe and let me go. If they really want to lock you up they'll just pick you up and throw you in a van...

Another thing I'd recommend is buffer times and not to have too strict a schedule. Sometimes the train ain't coming, or it's full, or it's pissing with rain, or you're told that if you stay an extra day in one place you can see something amazing...

And, lastly, I'm not too sure that the Ferghana valley has that much to offer to be totally honest. Osh and environs always seemed to me a bit hot, dusty, there's a seemingly endless traffic jam of trucks spewing all sorts of noxious gases and the local sport is talking badly of the next door neighbour. I'd rather hoof it uphill towards Sary Tash, Sary Moghul and the Lenin Peak basecamp personally.

[raspberrysoda]

UPDATED:

tashkent – 3 days
Samarkand – 4 days
Shahrisabz – 1 day, day trip?
Katta langar village - day trip?
Bukhara – 4 days
Khiva – 3 days
Nukus/moynak – 3 days?
(going back)
Termez – 2 days?

Crossing border to tj

Dushanbe – 2 days
Hissor – 1 days, day trip
7 lakes - ? days
Fann mountains – ? days
Rasht valley - ? days
Istaravshan – 1 day, day trip
Fergana valley stuff - ? days
Khujand – 2 days?

Back to uz

Kokand – 2 days?
Fergana – 2 days?
Fergana valley stuff - ? days? (margilan, rishton, andijan?)

Crossing border to kz

Osh – 2 days?
Uzgen – day trip?
Flight to Bishkek unless there's anything interesting on the way?
Bishkek – 3 days?
Ala archa - ? days
Tian shan - ? days
Skazka canyon - ? days
Karakol – 3 days?
Jeti oguz - ? days
Altyn arashan hot springs - ? days

Back to Bishkek
Fly back

already booked the flight. anything you'd change/anything to expect/anything you'd recommend/etc?

[Hound_Dog]

Rather than trying to force an itinerary, why not just go with the flow on what best suits you and your interests? Like a place? Stay longer, dont, move on. Too much planning is sometimes not a good thing.

UPDATED:

tashkent – 3 days
Samarkand – 4 days
Shahrisabz – 1 day, day trip?
Katta langar village - day trip?
Bukhara – 4 days
Khiva – 3 days
Nukus/moynak – 3 days?
(going back)
Termez – 2 days?

Crossing border to tj

Dushanbe – 2 days
Hissor – 1 days, day trip
7 lakes - ? days
Fann mountains – ? days
Rasht valley - ? days
Istaravshan – 1 day, day trip
Fergana valley stuff - ? days
Khujand – 2 days?

Back to uz

Kokand – 2 days?
Fergana – 2 days?
Fergana valley stuff - ? days? (margilan, rishton, andijan?)

Crossing border to kz

Osh – 2 days?
Uzgen – day trip?
Flight to Bishkek unless there's anything interesting on the way?
Bishkek – 3 days?
Ala archa - ? days
Tian shan - ? days
Skazka canyon - ? days
Karakol – 3 days?
Jeti oguz - ? days
Altyn arashan hot springs - ? days

Back to Bishkek
Fly back

already booked the flight. anything you'd change/anything to expect/anything you'd recommend/etc?

[raspberrysoda]

Rather than trying to force an itinerary, why not just go with the flow on what best suits you and your interests? Like a place? Stay longer, dont, move on. Too much planning is sometimes not a good thing.

This is true, but I can't manage to stay much longer than I intend currently.

[raspberrysoda]

Let's say my trip itinerary concludes to about 60 days - how many days further should I take before the flight? I thought about summing up to about 70, considering the fact I'll travel hundreds of kilometers from destination to destination - but is it enough? What will be the safest to do?

[AreWeThereYet?]

What I normally do (but bear in mind I've never really been able to take more than 30 consecutive days off work, and even in that case I had to do the odd email/call) is to buy the flight in and the one out and tell myself: OK, I'm coming in on the 1st and flying out on the 30th, meaning that I need to be in the departure city by, say, the 28th (a buffer's always a good thing!). The rest, I play it by ear. I might have an idea of something massive that I shouldn't be missing on, say, day 15th but that's as far as I go.

Planning sixty days on a day-by-day way, especially in Central Asia, is just a recipe to get acid reflux.

[raspberrysoda]

Planning sixty days on a day-by-day way, especially in Central Asia, is just a recipe to get acid reflux.

why acid reflux? lol