Central Asia

[Closed Account 2]

Hi all,

Am thinking of going to Turkmenistan / Uzbekistan / Tadjikistan / Ferghana Valley in July / August.

Anyone been or got any recommend itineries ? Also would basic Russian be ok in terms of getting by. I've read that most over 30s speak good Russian (due to Soviet education system), but was wondering if anyone has any real experience of the region to back it up ?

Thanks!

[pineapple stu]

Read "In Search of Kazakhstan" by Chris Robbins for a few ideas. It's about a western journalist who goes to Kazakhstan on a whim and ends up staying for a few months, travelling the country, exploring its history and chatting for ages with its president. Very entertaining book and should give you a few pointers.

The current issue of a magazine I subscribe to called Wanderlust has an article on travelling to Krygzstan. Might be some help to you, in the absence of any practical experience myself!

[paul_oshea]

edmundo, please report back when you get here. its somewhere i would like to go to as well, that or mongolia, but I don't believe there is a great deal to do/see in mongolia...

[osarusan]

edmundo, please report back when you get here. its somewhere i would like to go to as well, that or mongolia, but I don't believe there is a great deal to do/see in mongolia...

A friend of mine here went trekking in Mongolia for 2 weeks, and said it was amazing. He was just talking about observing the country, watching people going about their daily life, etc. If you're not into that, then there's not a lot to see, he said.

[shedite]

I went to Mongolia a few years back. Very huge and bleak country. Nice to see how barren this earth can still be. There's plenty of lakes and forests, a canyon, volcanoes, and lots of buddhist monastries to be seen. There's also the Gobi desert. The capital Ulan Bataar is te only town with solid structures really, everything else is tents. Very bizarre.

[paul_oshea]

shedite you have been bloody everywhere. would you say it is worth visiting though?!

weren't you in cancun too and alaska?! How do you get to go on such holidays?

[shedite]

Never been to Alaska. I'm pretty addicted to travelling alright. Seems to be what I spend most of my money on really.

Mongolia's nice if you're in the area. We went on the trans-siberian and decided we'd had enough of Russia so cut down through Mongolia on the way to China. If you're ever around Beijing then it's worth a week/10 days to go up there. It's feckin freezing during the winter tho - we were there in August and we still had to wear Jeans and Jumpers every day.