RCyyz

Romanianflyer - thanks for the trip report! It's fascinating! I've not read the whole thing yet (only just finished page 3) but I'm really enjoying learning of your travels to Uzbekistan - a place I hope to visit perhaps next year.

I'm assuming you don't speak Uzbek. How did you find getting around / seeing the sites without knowledge of the local language? Would learning the Cyrillic alphabet be useful before heading over there?

Romanianflyer

Thanks for the compliments, RCyyz!

I indeed don't speak a word of Uzbek and my Russian knowledge doesn't go much further than a few words like 'hello', 'thanks' and 'can I have a beer please'. Learning Cyrillic is always helpful for travels to ex-USSR countries, if just for deciphering some words on menus, train timetables etc. as even if you don't speak Russian/Uzbek you will easily figure out some words this way like place names or universally used words like 'шашлык' ('shashlik' - for the skewered meat) and such stuff on restaurant menus. That said, you can easily get around the more 'touristy' places without speaking a word of Uzbek or Russian and not understand the Cyrillic alphabet. Those working in hotels/tourism industry, as well as banks, will speak at least rudimentary English. Any other stuff which might be unclear can easily be explained with hand/feet (eg. once I needed to ask in a bank building to a security guard where in the building I needed to go to get a cash advance on my card when the ATM was out of order).

Getting around the sights is fairly straightforward in all cities, especially in Bukhara/Samarkand/Khiva where everything is walking distance. Just download an offline map on your telephone, read a bit in advance in a guidebook (or online) what you want to visit/about the history of each place - and you have basically all you need! It's not any more difficult honestly in my opinion than visiting any city in Europe where you might not speak the language, with the additional benefit that the locals in Uzbekistan are extremely friendly and much more likely to help you out.

RCyyz

Cool - thanks! ^ I noticed you had a Lonely Planet with you so I've also purchased a copy and will read it thoroughly lest I do anything monumentally silly.

Thanks again for the TR; I really enjoyed it.

Romanianflyer

Yes! I still like to occasionally buy/read a guidebook. This Lonely Planet I still had in my book cabinet, having bought it some 10-15 years earlier in my backpacking days (I always had a wish to visit Central Asia/fascination with the area - although weirdly enough I never managed to go and this was the first time I really "used" the book).

I'm not a person to walk across a city with a guidebook in hand (also as these days we do not need the maps in it as we have our phones to navigate with GPS). I'm much more of a person to wander semi-randomly around, although having in the back of my mind a certain few places which I do want to visit. The guidebooks however do make for some good advance reading and interesting background information about a country and its sights.

PVDtoDEL

Awesome report!

Last year when I went to Uzbekistan, I also discovered the cheap fares ex-KIV, so I flew KIV-IST-SKD. I ended up taking a minibus from Iasi to Chisinau rather than the overnight train from Bucharest, and while Iasi was really wonderful (probably my favorite city in Romania actually), the minibus was...not. Your train journey looks a lot more comfortable

Romanianflyer

Thanks PVDtoDEL!

Iasi is indeed an interesting city - and historically always has been much more important than Chisinau back in the days it was still one Moldavia and not like now one Romanian region and one independent state of the same name. For travelling to Iasi I also have frequently taken a flight to IAS followed by a minibus as its faster than the train and at least 50% cheaper than flying to KIV, but yes, the ride is torturous! Still better though than taking the bus all the way from Bucharest to Chisinau!

Interesting btw to read I'm not the only one eho noted the cheap ex-KIV fares. Seems to be an USSR thing - as TK (and Aeroflot and Belavia too!) often have great fares if you travel from one ex-USSR republic to the other - with the obvious exception of journeys commencing in their hub cities.

Right now I'm in Kazakhstan having used a similarly great business class fare from Mink on TK which was 60% cheaper than from any other European airport. Worth the detour and extra adventure!