3 months trip - August or September

[Burton]

Hello everyone!

I’m planning a long trip to Central Asia (probably around 3 months), and I’m having a hard finding the right moment to go. I’ve spent the last weeks reading extensively through the website and the forum, which was incredibly useful. But I’m still struggling figuring it all out.

I detailed two plans below, and I would love to have your feedback on them (both on the general timing and on specific points – I’ve numbered them to make it more convenient to address individual points if needed).
The first plan is my original one, the one that I think makes the most sense, that I reckon makes it possible being in the “right country at the right time”. However, something came up, and I would clearly prefer going at the end of August (that’s Plan #2). I think it would be less “ideal” than going at the beginning of August, but I would like to understand how much less, to evaluate whether or not it would still be nice!

An important point is that I would like to travel by train whenever possible. Firstly because I love trains, and secondly because I tend to easily get motion sickness (I know, I probably didn’t choose the best place to travel...)

Also, I will have to work on my computer while traveling. That requires two things:
- I would have to bring my laptop with me (which may be quite annoying, especially in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan)
- I would have to find an Internet access regularly. I will make an exception while in the Pamirs, and probably during a week in Kyrgyzstan if I decide to go somewhere without much Internet, but apart from that, it would be nice to have Internet every day or couple of days at most (it doesn’t have to be lighting fast).

Finally, I will be traveling on a budget.

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Here are my two plans (both assuming that the KYR-TAJ border will still be closed)

Plan #1 – starts early August

1. Start in Baku – spend some days there
2. From Baku (or rather Alat) to Aktau by cargo boat
3. Aktau to Turkestan (the city) by train, following the Syr-Darya
4. Turkestan-Shimkent-Almaty by train
5. Some days in Almaty
6. Almaty – Bishkek by train
7. Then, up to one month in Kyrgyzstan. I see two options:
a. Renting a room somewhere, probably in Bishkek, which allows me to be able to work whenever needed, see the city, and to leave my laptop and other unnecessary belongings whenever I want to go somewhere else, like to Ysyk-Köl (see paragraph about Kyrgyzstan below)
b. Spending a week in Bishkek, around a week or 10 days around Ysyk-Köl, and move a bit around in the upper-half of the country
8. Bishkek-Osh (with probably one or two stops along the way)
9. After one or two days in Osh, crossing the border to Uzbekistan

At this point, it should be around mid-September

10. Ferghana: couple of days
11. Kokand: couple of days
12. Kokand – Khojand (Tajikistan) by train
13. Khojand – one day or two
14. Khojand- Dushanbe (with probably at least one or two stops along the road) by public transport/marshrutka
15. A week or so in Dushanbe – there, finding a Pamir guide+car as well as other fellow traveler(s) to share the costs
16. 8-10 days in the Pamirs (probably a loop, as the border is sill closed)
17. Back in Dushanbe – some days there to work and rest a bit
18. Dushanbe – Panjakent by public transport/marshrutka
19. Some days in Panjakent, small hikes in the Fangs
20. Panjakent - Samarkand (Uzbekistan)


By this point, it should be around beginning of October

21. From there, one month in Uzbekistan (highlight of my journey!), traveling by train, going in the Samarkand-Bukhara-Urgench-Nufus direction, then all the way back to Tashkent, and one week or so there. If I need more time, I just cross a border somewhere and back.

Anyway, that’s the very rough idea !


Plan #2 - starts end of August

1. End of August, fly directly to Bishkek (in order not to lose precious good-weather time)
2. Proceed from #7 to #21 of Plan 1
3. Once in Tashkent, I can take a train to Almaty, then back to Turkestan, Aktau, cross the Caspian by cargo boat to Azerbaijan. That is, ending where I start in Plan 1. I could also go back to Bishkek, and spend some time there. I have some time to think about it, that’s not the most urgent now.

With this plan, I should spend September in Kyrgyzstan, the first part of October in Tajikistan and in the Pamirs, and then be in Uzbekistan around the 15-20th of October, and leave a month later or so, which I guess isn’t bad, as it should be a bit less touristic than arriving there early October. I could also reduce the time spent in Kyrgyzstan a bit, in order to arrive earlier in Tajikistan.

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Timing-wise, I’m mostly concerned about two things:
- for plan #2: arriving too late in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. The yurts will probably already have disappeared, and I don’t know if these countries will still be as nice to go to in September and first part of October. Also, won’t the Pamirs be too cold by then? Will I find fellow travelers (as I cannot assume the costs of car+driver alone)?
- for plan #1: arriving in Uzbekistan during the peak touristic season, finding too many tourists (like me!), and struggling finding cheap hotels, train tickets (also, should I be concerned about the trains being booked by students coming back from the cotton fields in October?), having to book things in advance, which I generally don’t like doing.

A note regarding Kyrgyzstan: as for now, I’m not planning on doing long treks – I doubt I’ll have the stamina, and I probably won’t be able to get most of my trekking equipment by then (it is currently in another country). Maybe some 1-night walks if I can find some equipment, and if it’s doable (for instance, if I can stay in yurts). I can always come back 9 months later, fully equipped and in better shape. However, I’m contemplating the idea of doing a trek of some days somewhere on horseback, which would be a first for me. I will create a separate topic for this (as well as for other questions I have), but I wanted to mention it do give you an idea of the type of things I’d like to do in Kyrgyzstan.

I know my message is way too long, so thank you very much for reading! Any comments, feedback, suggestions will be greatly appreciated! I promise I won’t be a stranger on this forum once my trip is completed, and I will try to help people here with whatever I learn.