Hello, I am starting a Central Asia thread as a forum to share and ask about traveling experience in this region.

Central Asia is referring to five -stan countries which are:
Kazakhstan 🇰🇿
Kyrgyzstan 🇰🇬
Uzbekistan 🇺🇿
Tajikistan 🇹🇯
Turkmenistan 🇹🇲

1. Basic information
This region is known historically as the central hub for the ancient silk road. -stan is a suffix of Persian origin, which means "land of". Historically people of East Iranian origin roam around the south of the land today known as Central Asia and Turkic people at the North of Central Asia. Over the span of several centuries the
Turkic people migrated south and became dominant political power in the region.
Most of the Turkic countries traces their modern history to the period after the fragmentation of Mongol empire in Central Asia. Tajikistan being a nation who traces its history back to the proud dynasties of the East Iranian peoples once dominated the region extended their roots further back to antiquity, encompassing of Sogdian and Bactrian cultures.

In the 19th century the Russian joined the imperialism race and colonized Central Asia. Later Central Asia transitioned to Soviet states. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, each Central Asian country went through different development. This includes Tajikistan, which went through a civil war in 1992-1997 that led to most Russians fleeing the country. This would be interesting for you as a traveler to observe personally.

Though a very rich region in the medieval time, Central Asia countries are not considered rich today. Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan are relatively better as they have massive oil reserves.

2. Visa free for Malaysian except Turkmenistan
Except for Turkmenistan, Malaysian passport holders can enter Central Asia countries without a visa. You will need visa to enter Turkmenistan. To get a visa, you need letter of invitation from tour companies certified by the government, this usually involves buying a tour package from these tour companies. Before Covid, there was a 5 days transit visa but it was never resumed after the pandemic. Please report back if there are changes.

3. Reasons to travel to Central Asia
First, Central Asia is a perfect place for history lovers as some oasis cities along the silk roads during the medieval time are preserved.
Secondly, Central Asia offers some stunning nature views that is not found in anywhere nearby, this include mountain views and vast steppe grassland.
Thirdly, there are a few culture influence in this region: Turkic, Persian and Russian culture. These culture reflects in their food, building architecture, language, dressing, music, etc. Here you can observe traditional Turkic food such as Beshbarmak to Persian influenced pilaf and to Russian borsch and pickled tomato.

Reserve

Reserve

26 days in Central Asia (May-June 2024)

Sharing my experience travelling in Central Asia for 26 days. In total I spent
10 nights in Kazakhstan
4 nights in Kyrgyzstan
8 nights Uzbekistan
4 nights in Tajikistan
I did not go to Turkmenistan.

This is my route:
Almaty>Bishkek>Osh>Andijan>Tashkent>Samarkand>Khiva>Bukhara>Dushanbe>Panjakent>Samarkand>Tashkent
On the second leg of the journey, I took flight from Tashkent to Astana, and from Astana took an overnight train to Almaty.


Some regrets with this itinerary:
1. Spending too much time in Astana. Astana is very boring. I'll probably cut Astana to 3 days instead of 5 in the original plan. 4 days in Almaty is just fine.
2. Spending too less time in Kyrgyzstan. I'll probably spend one more day in Issykul Kul if given the chance.
3. Some cities in Uzbekistan can be skipped as they feel repetitive. Personally, I think Khiva can be skipped if you have limited time. Khiva is too far away from other cities and the fortress do not really amuse me. If time is not an issue, why not? Khiva can still give you some unique experiences like the unique desert type weather or the civilian dwellings (the photo of building wall covered with mud is taken in Khiva).
4. Poor planning in Tajikistan. Usually people go to Tajikistan to do the 'Pamir highway' trip. This usually involves getting a group of four people and hire a 4WD to go on a week long trip to the mountain range on the east of Tajikistan and crossing over to Kyrgyzstan. I will probably not be doing that any time sooner especially with 3 other strangers. Another popular trip people will do is the so called 'seven lakes' in Panjakent, which usually also include getting a group of people and hiring a 4WD. So I think as a solo traveler my options are really limited in Tajikistan.

In total I spent around MYR 8,000 for 26 days. Below is the approximate breakdown:
Transport 2900
> Flight to Central Asia 1100
> Intercity travel 1400
> Intracity travel 400
Hotel 1900
Food 1800
Attraction and day tour 500
SIM Card 350
Souvenir 300
Others 300

My travel style is budget style.
I got flight ticket to Central Asia with launching promo from AA.


Accomodation
On hotel, I spent 9 nights in dormitory hostel, 3 nights in sleeper train. Normally I would avoid backpacker's dormitory, but budget single room are rather limited in Central Asia.

I used Agoda. I have checked also with booking.com, they offer more or less the same choice of accommodation.
The problem with Agoda's operation in this part of the world is they offer the booking through a third party provider. Except for the high end hotels, most hotels do not accept payment during the time of booking and payment is made when you arrive at the hotel. This booking process isn't very secure, and the hotel could cancel your reservation at any time, like what happened to me in Astana.
In Khiva and Almaty I opted for Airbnb because I want to see how do local house looks like. In Khiva the accommodation is within the fortress and in Almaty it is a soviet style apartment.


Currency Exchange
I brought USD and GBP notes as backup but never used them. I withdrew local notes from local ATMs. The exchange rate is quite favourable. ATM is also called Bankomat in these countries (and Russia).
I brought three cards with me: Gx bank Mastercard debit, Wise Visa debit and RHB Multi-currency Visa debit.

Most of Kyrgyzstan bankomat use 4 digit pin, so you need Wise here. Though I read there are 6 pins bankomat, it is rare.
Tajikistan bankomat also use 4 digit pin. You need Wise here. I was surprised there are so many bankomat on the street in Dushanbe. However, most of these bankomat belong to local financial institutions and you will not be able to withdraw money from them. I must had tried around 15 bankomats from one street to another. In the end, I was able to withdraw from bankomat belongs to Spitaman bank (though I was rejected by another Spitaman bank's bankomat) and Eskhata bank.
Not much of issue withdrawing from bankomat in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. They use 6 digit pin.

Cashless payment is more popular in Kazakhstan. Other than card payment, they also have QR payment (didnt have time to study).
In capital cities and most tourist attractions, restaurants and shops more or less have card payment service. Though it is still imperative to have cash.
For intracity travel, I used Yandexgo and pay with card. In Tashkent, you can pay for metro with card. Yandexgo is banned in Tajikistan. So you need to pay cash when hailing taxi from the street.


SIM card
For Malaysian telco sim card, Only Maxis support all 4 countries that I went.
Maxis - Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Tajik
Hotlink - Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Tajik
Digicelcom - Uzbek
Umobile - Kazakh
However, I was not able to connect to internet in Tajik with Hotlink even after activated roaming pass. I suspect Maxis might have the same problem. Ended up I bought a local sim card.

This post has been edited by Sycamore: Jun 23 2024, 08:17 PM

Sharing some photos


Passing through mountain range.


Victory Day celebration banner, Bishkek. Bishkek has a Soviet vibe especially the area around Ala-Too Square. Spending in Kyrgyzstan is very cheap.




Ala-Archa National Park, Bishkek.




Enroute to Osh from Bishkek.




Tashkent metro station, note the lamp is cotton flower. They follow Russian metro, every station has unique design.


Amir Timur Museum, Tashkent. Uzbekistan is very cheap. Though Uzbekistan is known for a tourist hotspot, there are alot more tourist traps compared to Kyrgyzstan.


Hazrati Mosque, Tashkent.

This post has been edited by Sycamore: Jun 15 2024, 10:58 PM

Samarkand Registan Square. Samarkand is the capital city during the reign of Amir Timur, who built a lot of building in grand scale, exquisite tilework ornamentation, and complex geometric vaulting systems.


Zoroastrian's fire altar, Afrosiyob Museum. Archeological finding found settlement during the Sogdian control. It was also recorded that Samarkand had the earliest paper factory outside of China (Tang dynasty) following Tang army's failed campaign against Abbasid.


Saint Daniel's Mausoleum, Samarkand. Notice the rare Syriac script in use.


Khorezm or Khiva is an oasis city in the desert. If you are a fans of 金庸, 郭靖 had been to Khorezm in 射雕英雄傳, The place is called 花剌子模. Before Mongolian invasion, Khorezm kingdom was at its peak. After Mongol empire fragmentated, Khorezm is under Turkic ruling and it has gone relatively weak. The fortress of Khorezm (Itchan Kala) is well preserved and is the focus of tourist visit.






Particular way of building houses in desert. At the outer layer they just treated with mixed mud with grass. I guess this works as it rains rarely in the desert. But when it rains once in the blue moon...




Khiva fortress during night time.


Passing through the desert to Bukhara.

This post has been edited by Sycamore: Jun 15 2024, 11:26 PM

Bukhara was the capital of Amir Bukhara right before the transition into the modern Uzbekistan.

Three cities in Uzbekistan that have slightly different vibes:
Samarkand features Timurid architecture which is grand in scale, decorated with luxurious tile and sophisticated geometric system.
Khiva/Khorezm is a small town with a well preserved fortress where all the attractions are within the fortress. Although there are still citizen living inside the fortress, the place feels very 'touristy and artificial' to me. Also the spending inside the fortress is tourist price.
Bukhara to me is a very lively city with the local residents living with the tourist attractions. When I was in Bukhara, there are alot local visitors as well, unlike Khiva where majority of the tourist was foreigners. The price of service is also relatively cheap in Bukhara.


Palace of Emir Bukhara in Kogan (Bukhara). The palace was built for Russian's last emperor Nicolas II though he never visited Bukhara. The building was later passed on to the Railway Department. The place is not officially open to tourist. However, the keeper is willing to help you to access the building as long as you are willing to help as well.


Buying a train ticket from Bukhara to Dushanbe is tricky. The train is operated by Tajikistan railway company, it starts from Russia Volgograd, passing through Uzbekistan and ending at Tajikistan Dushanbe. I have asked in Tashkent, Samarkand and Khiva, Uzbekistan railway do not provide booking service for this train. Only at Bukhara-1 (Kogan) I was able to get a ticket to Dushanbe with rm185. It is quite pricy, I think it's full-fare. The train's occupancy rate is only around 30%.


Ismoil Somoni's Statue, Dushanbe.



Artifact with Sogdian script. Earlier Sogdian script was written horizontally and later vertically. It was later borrowed by the Uyghur and then by the Mongolian and the Turkic nations. Inner Mongolia (China) still uses this script.


The cheapest oil in this region is actually cotton seed oil.


BYD as taxi in Dushanbe. kym? I was surprised that China have alot influence here.


View from Hisar Fortress. The fortress is contemporary rebuild and it feels artificial. However the view from here is nice. Hisar was a rest stop along an alternative branch of silk route starting from Kashgar. The main route pass through Fergana (大宛 in Chinese). It was also the capital city of East Bukhara during Bukhara Emirates. However the Russian choses Dushanbe as the capital city as it is located at the central point of all passing routes.


View in Hisar.


Dried apricot. Passing through a small village enroute to Panjakent.

This post has been edited by Sycamore: Jun 16 2024, 12:28 AM

Baiterek, Astana. The city is super boring especially al large part of the city are under development.


Khan Satyr, actually a shopping centre and not a very high class one. Kazakhstan is overall more expensive than Malaysia, especially Astana, around 10-20% more expensive than Kuala Lumpur.


Museum thingy.


Astana's new railway station Nurly Zhol. You can travel to Russia Omsk from here.


Almaty Ascension Church. Almaty is a city built from the scratch by the Russian. The earliest development area was around Panfilov park, which is where Ascension Church was located.


Almaty metro, same Russian design concept. It cost 100 tengre (rm1.06) per entry. Tashkent metro cost 1750 som (rm0.65).


Black Canyon or also known as Qara Canyon.


Kaindy lake.


Kolsay lake.



This post has been edited by Sycamore: Jun 16 2024, 02:20 AM

Dumpling, local call them Manti (饅頭).


Airan, fermented mare's milk. In Mongolian it's called airag. It is served as welcome drink to the guest.


Salted milk tea (right). It seems like the Turkic do not drink this as daily drinks, unlike Tibetan and Mongolian.


Beshbamark, national dish for Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. In simplest term it is broad noodles with chopped meat.


Lagman (拉麵). It is also called Uyghur Lagman. One of the very few spicy food in central asia.


Soba or buckwheat (蕎麥).


Potato salad (left) with horse sausage.


Very particular noodle soup. Russian style?


Fried bread with stuffed potato.


Samosa / samsa.

This post has been edited by Sycamore: Jun 16 2024, 04:59 PM

Plov, National dish for Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. It is originated from the Persian Pilaf. In simplest term it is a type of fried rice with particular cooking method. It is also called 'Osh' in some places, which means 'food' in Persian. Different places have different style of Plov.













Special green noodles in Khiva.


Turkey restaurant. Alot turkey and Georgian restaurant here.


Georgian Khachapuri.

Qurutov, national dish for Tajikistan. Shredded bread mixed with dissolved dried yogurt ball (qurut), vegetable and meat.


It says steamed fish in the menu but sigh...


Chakchak, the ingredients and cooking method are very similar to the Manchurian 薩其馬.


Syrne, mutton stew (front) and Kazy horse sausage (back).


Kazakh people also eat fried bread as an alternative to baked bread.


Horse sausage with a lot of pickled vegetable, seems Russian.

Wow! RM8000 for 26 days is dirt cheap. Includes international flight?
Was it a solo trip?

Yes it was a solo trip.
My travel style is a little backpacking plus budget style.
I got flight ticket with launching promo. Also, I spent 9 nights in dormitory hostel, 3 nights in sleeper train. On top of that I only spent little on souvenir.

I have added more info about budget to help travelers to plan ahead.

Btw, really awesome trip report. Kudos to you. I have a few questions.

1) I suppose it was mostly cash base transaction there? How did you juggle the money side?

2) so if you redo you trip, what I am understanding is, less time in Astana and Kazakhstan. Also less time in Uzbekistan, more time in Kyrgyzstan?

3) which hotel booking website you rely on for this trip?

4) of the 4 countries, which one feels the most memorable?

1) I suppose it was mostly cash base transaction there? How did you juggle the money side?
I brought USD and GBP notes as backup but never used them. I withdrew local notes from local ATMs. The exchange rate is quite favourable. ATM is also called Bankomat in these countries (and Russia).
I brought three cards with me: Gx bank Mastercard debit, Wise Visa debit and RHB Multi-currency Visa debit.

Most of Kyrgyzstan bankomat uses 4 digit pin, so you need Wise here. Though I read there are 6 pins bankomat, it is rare.
Tajikistan bankomat also uses 4 digit pin. You need Wise here. I was surprised there are so many bankomat on the street in Dushanbe. However, most of these bankomats belong to local financial institutions and you will not be able to withdraw money from them. I must had tried around 15 bankomats from street to street. In the end, I was able to withdraw from bankomat belongs to Spitaman bank (though I was rejected by another Spitaman bank's bankomat) and Eskhata bank.
Not much of issue withdrawing from bankomat in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. They use 6 digit pin.

Cashless payment is more popular in Kazakhstan. Other than card payment, they also have QR payment (didnt have time to study).
In capital cities and most tourist attractions, restaurants and shops more or less have card payment service, though it is still imperative to have cash.
For intracity travel, I used Yandexgo and pay with card. In Tashkent, you can pay for metro with card. Yandexgo is banned in Tajikistan. So you need to pay cash when hailing taxi from the street.


2) so if you redo you trip, what I am understanding is, less time in Astana and Kazakhstan. Also less time in Uzbekistan, more time in Kyrgyzstan?
I'll probably cut Astana to 3 days instead of 5 in the original plan. 4 days in Almaty is just fine. Join day trip with local tour operators to the lakes or the canyons if possible.

Personally, I think Khiva can be skipped if you have limited time. Khiva is too far away from other cities and the fortress do not really amuse me. If time is not an issue, why not? Khiva can still give you some unique experiences like the unique desert type weather or the civilian dwellings (the photo of building wall covered with mud is taken in Khiva).

Usually people go to Tajikistan to do the 'Pamir highway' trip. This usually involves getting a group of four people and hire a 4WD to go on a week long trip to the mountain range on the east of Tajikistan and crossing over to Kyrgyzstan. I will probably not be doing that any time sooner especially with 3 other strangers. Another popular trip people will do is the so called 'seven lakes' in Panjakent, which usually also include getting a group of people and hiring a 4WD. So I think as a solo traveler my options are really limited in Tajikistan.

In Kyrgyzstan I'll probably spend one more day in Issykul Kul.


3) which hotel booking website you rely on for this trip?
Agoda. I have checked also with booking.com, they offer more or less the same choice of accommodation.
The problem with Agoda's operation in this part of the world is they offer the booking through a third party. Except for the high end hotels, most hotels do not accept payment during the time of booking and payment is made when you arrive at the hotel. This booking process isn't very secure, and the hotel could cancel your reservation at any time, like what happened to me in Astana.

In Khiva and Almaty I opted for Airbnb because I want to see how do local house looks like. In Khiva the accommodation is within the fortress and in Almaty it is a soviet style apartment.


4) of the 4 countries, which one feels the most memorable?

There are a few moments I really like.
Kyrgyzstan - Ala-Archa National Park hiking, mountain view.
Kyrgyzstan - road trip from Bishkek to Osh, mountain view.
Tajikistan - day trip to Hisar, the bustling bus station and the mountain view
Tajikistan - road trip from Dushanbe to Panjakent, mountain view
Kazakhstan - day trip to the canyon and lakes, lake view, mountain view, canyon view, prairie view, desert view
I never realized I like mountain so much until I went to central Asia.

This post has been edited by Sycamore: Jun 23 2024, 06:29 PM

nice sharing, hope can visit this part of the world too.
8k for 26 days is very cheap

Kazakhstan - reminds me of the guns r roses song, take me down to the paradise city where the grass is green n the girls are pretty!

highly recommended, pleasant environment where pace of life is perfect for travelling!

Just came back from Central Asia 2 weeks ago. Did 1.5 months, wanted to stretch it more but travel fatigue has kicked in on me.

This was the route I did



I am aware that I'm missing out on the best nature spots however due to the nature of my work I need to be on grid so I only managed to go off-grid during the weekends.

This post has been edited by mercindustries: Aug 22 2024, 10:08 AM

The chicks there putih gebu, and nenen besar..

Did you guys who posted the route maps above, rent a car and drive?