Category Archives: Uzbekistan Travel Blog

I’m off on my travels again, this time in the footsteps of Marco Polo, visiting Uzbekistan and four cities along the Silk Road.

Uzbekistan is a former Soviet republic, independent since the 1990s, south of Russia and North of Iran and Afghanistan. It’s one of only two "double land-locked" countries in the world – completely surrounded by countries which are themselves also land-locked. If you need it for a pub quiz the only other is Lichtenstein, a principality within Switzerland about the size of Guildford…

Uzbekistan is famous for its spectacular architecture. You probably have a mental picture of "somewhere in central Asia" with large Islamic buildings covered in blue tiles. That’s Uzbekistan. I’m sure there will also be people and activities, but I’ll confess it’s the blue tiled buildings which were the initial draw.

Over 8 days we will visit 4 cities along Uzbekistan’s section of the Silk Road: Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva:

After a gap of almost 10 years, I’ve returned to Light and Land as tour organisers, and the excellent Hayley Greenall of Travel Counsellors has organised the travel.

As always I’ll operate modified Vegas Rules: what goes on on the photo trip … is all material for Andrew’s blog!

I Like Going Places, But Not So Much the Going

Planning started with a strong sense of déjà vu, as there’s no such thing as a premium economy service between the UK and Uzbekistan, and the simplest solution (at least on paper) is to use Turkish Airlines via Istanbul, just like last year’s Mongolia trip. Chastened by my experiences on that trip I deliberately chose flights with a generous transfer window in each direction.

The first sign of trouble came about 6 weeks out, when Turkish emailed me to say that they were moving me onto an earlier flight from Gatwick to Istanbul. The reason was never given, but it smacked of consolidation to reduce their jet fuel use. The new flight timing wasn’t a big problem, but my "generous" layover had just become a long one.

I was prepared to accept the new timing, but it quickly emerged that in the process my booking had entered some sort of zombie state where I couldn’t manage it properly. It took Travel Counsellors 2 weeks to get it back into a usable state, and a further three to restore my paid-for seat bookings.

Setting aside my taxi deciding to take a very weird back-roads route to Gatwick, when there are perfectly good, straight main roads which do the same thing, travelling from Gatwick was much better than Heathrow T2, where the airport and airlines are conducting a social experiment on "can you run an airport without any people to help the travellers". Boarding and the flight were uneventful, but the plane took a whole half an hour taxiing around the Istanbul airport perimeter including at one point a full 360 circuit of the apron parking area!

Unless you are someone who can shop for 8 hours solid, a long layover in Istanbul presents a few challenges. There is almost no seating in the main departure lounge area unless you pay a restaurant to sit while you eat their food. Above there’s the IGA Premium Lounge which promises a relaxing environment in which to eat, drink, work if you want and sleep if you don’t.

They are not lying about the food and beer. The rest is somewhat misleading. When I arrive there’s a queue around the block to pay to get in, so bang goes my chance of getting my over-65 discount. Instead I use my pre-paid voucher which at least skips the queue. Inside I discover that there are precisely 2 chairs (already occupied) which are comfortable enough to sleep in and not in a main thoroughfare or under an enormous video wall large enough to illuminate the whole lounge. I didn’t get any sleep.

About midnight I left the lounge. For some reason, the gate for my flight would be announced 90 minutes before flight time instead of the customary 60. I soon found out why. The allocated gate was right at the end of the furthest branch of the terminal, and it took most of the extra 30 minutes to walk it. According to my Fitbit I walked nearly 10km at Istanbul Airport!

The Turkish word for airport gate is Kapilari. A capillary is a tiny blood vessel at the end of a long chain of other larger vessels. That sounds about right.

Boarding was the usual Turkish Airlines disorganised melee. First the gate has no visible indication of flight number. There’s a video screen above the desk showing a rolling promotional video rather than something useful like, say, the flight number and destination? You have to go and present your documents, at which point I found out that yet again my seat allocation had been changed under me, and then go back to sit in a seating area shared with other boarding flights and where you can only just hear the announcements. It’s a miracle no-one gets on the wrong plane. When they did call us forward it was everyone together and the token "by row" queueing system rapidly broke down into a bar-room brawl. I decide to take no prisoners and pushed through, but I really shouldn’t have to.

The flight took off at 01.40. You’d think that with such a start time they’d leave us alone to try and sleep but no, at 3am all the cabin lights came on and they served a meal! English canon rightly has no word for such a meal, at least not a polite one. I didn’t sleep much on the flight, either.

</rant>

On a positive note, the arrival in Tashkent was hopeful. In the arrivals hall I got money and a local SIM in straightforward transactions much simpler than the Mongolian equivalents, then my luggage arrived, and I had a friendly taxi driver. We’re staying at a very posh hotel in a smart, leafy area of the city, which looks suspiciously like where they keep the embassies. Promising.

They Also Do A Large One!

It turns out this is going to be a very exclusive tour. A family of four had to cancel at short notice for medical reasons, which leaves a grand total of three paying punters, including yours truly, plus tour leader Mehmet and the local guides.

Charlotte had also arrived early. We didn’t like the look of the hotel restaurant, and were advised to try a renowned Tashkent restaurant called Khan Chapan. Although reached down a slightly dingy side street, it has a delightful frontage on a small river, and we were able to sit outside (although without a blanket I was starting to get a bit chilly by the end of the evening).

The menu is generic Eastern Mediterranean / Central Asian fare, but beautifully cooked and presented with a twist. I went for "Khan’s Sword", and deliberately chose the smaller portion. Epic fail, as you can see. It easily fed both of us and provided extra meat for breakfast. And they also do a large one!

Tomorrow I start photographing Tashkent.