Uzbekistan does not make it easy for most nationalities to visit. My Letter of Invitation and Visa cost AUD$650 and took a month to obtain (my passport had to be sent to Washington in the USA). I’m guessing this must be easier for French and Germans, as they seem to make up the largest number […]
Uzbekistan Reflections Read More »
The Uzbek Som is a crazy currency. At the time of writing, the official exchange rate was USD$1 = 3790 Som, which is not necessarily problematic, until you realise that the most commonly used note is 1000 Som. And although Uzbekistan is quite a cheap country to travel in, even something that costs $5 suddenly
Uzbek Currency – The Som Read More »
The road from Bukhara to Khiva was an interesting one. For the first hour out of Bukhara, we were travelling through more farmland, once again playing with potholes and making slow progress. Then, as soon as the green fields and ubiquitous civilization suddenly gave way to the Kyzylkum desert, the road magically transformed into a 4-lane,
Khiva – Uzbekistan Read More »
Although the old city of Bukhara is full of Madrasahs, Minarets, Mosques and Mausoleums, it is also famous for its 3 surviving undercover bazaars, or trade domes – Taki-Sarrafon (dome of money changers), Taki-Telpakfurushon (dome of hat makers) and Taki-Zargaron (dome of jewelers). Those who have been reading along for a while can imagine why
Bukhara – Markets – Uzbekistan Read More »
The drive from Samarkand to Bukhara is a seemingly never-ending display of agriculture and what would appear to be Russian commission houses (all identical). Along both sides of the road, an irrigated, green region fans out to a width of a few kilometres, but look a little further and you can see the arid hills
Bukhara – Uzbekistan – Madrassahs, Minarets, Mausoleums, Mosques Read More »
After dire predictions about how strict the Uzbek border guards would be and long it would take us to get across the border, in the end only took 4.5 hours to cross from Tajikistan to Uzbekistan with the truck, the guards only interested in what medications we were carrying. This meant we easily made it
Samarkand – Uzbekistan – Jewel of the Silk Road Read More »
From Dushanbe, we had to travel a long way north to a very specific border crossing that could process the truck. The scenery continued to be very impressive for several hours Including lots of avalanche/rockfall shelters And several very long tunnels, including the Anzob tunnel, which runs for over 5km and is the modern link
To the border with Uzbekistan Read More »
Walking up a back street in Dushanbe on the way to the Hostel I came across these girls playing “elastics“. It made my heart absolutely sing to watch them 🙂 I have such fond memories of playing this game back in primary school – we were totally obsessed with it! It seems things have
Childhood memories in Dushanbe – elastics Read More »
After several days of bush camping, we rolled into Dushanbe – the capital of Tajikistan. To be honest, after wandering and exploring for 2 days, there doesn’t seem to be much to Dushanbe, it’s more like a very large town than a capital city. Everywhere you look in Tajikistan, you see President Emomali Rahmon looking
Dushanbe – Tajikistan Read More »
Although we didn’t get to bed until after 1am in Khorog, we were up early the next morning to head off for another long day of driving. It was going to take 2 days to get to Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, and given the roads we had driven on until now – no doubt
Along the Afghan Border – Tajikistan Read More »
