Thanks for pointing out the mistake ironmanjt - even though I should have never made the mistake, I'm not surprised that you are the one pointing it out given you speak quite a bit of the language what I figured from you trip reports!

And even though "only doing Tashkent-Samarkand" is still much more than most people in the world who will never set foot in the country, why not come back once to visit the rest of the region/places you haven't seen yet? I think that even though you have now visited all the countries in the world there are a huge number of countries that are so diverse with so many distinctive regions (eg Spain, Greece, Russia, Italy) that they easily warrant a repeat visit!

Thank you stmaus! It indeed the government has gone on a more sensible track in recent years in opening up. I didn't know about your example of the black market, but thinking about it, I always found the exchange rates at private exchange offices and banks to be very close to those I looked up beforehand on xe.com.

It seems the current government is quite opening up on a number of other aspects too one step at a time, e-visa for tourists, relaxing of religious freedom for locals etc., which indeed seems sensible.

You're very welcome lhrpete, thanks again for reading!

I'll try to post a daily update to make sure it is finished before your departure I already want to wish you a great trip, I'm sure you won't be disappointed by the country!