Thanks for the report!

Wow, I guess you are right, I would not consider going there and definitely not after reading this report. Numbers 1 thru 4 are the ones that are my reasons not to go. Interesting though.....

Aloha!

Thanks for posting!

If you are interested in a book that includes details of the author's travels in Uzbekistan and other
Stans, I recommend:


http://www.amazon.com/So-Many-Enemies-Little-Time/dp/0060524421

Steve, you are more brave than me! Going to Uzbekistan AND flying their airline. Glad you're safe.

Steve,now I understand why you told me that your wife won't travel to a 3rd world country again.With the world financial crisis,terrorism in Mumbai,upheaval in Bangkok, I'll rest comfortably for now in brrr Canada before venturing off again.
"Syl"

Thanks, Steve, for that great report. It was very interesting indeed. The only thing wrong with it IMHO is that wallpaper behind the print. My eyes are still recovering.

But bless you for posting. Few reports on Uzbekistan. The hotels and food sound excruciating. Imagine being on tour with 30 people with the squits. Stop - start - stop - start - stop - start - splat!

Bravo for trying it and thanks for letting us know. I'll just drop Uzbeckistan a few notches lower on my 'places I must see before I die' list.

Maybe I could put it on my 'places to see AFTER I die' list - or, given the food, maybe it should go on my 'places to see WHILE I'm dying' list.

I just now had a chance to go through your trip report from start to finish. You did a great job pulling it all together with pictures and narrative. I'm still convinced this is a country better seen from a distance though!

I may regret asking this, but what exactly did they serve for food there?

Eating while travelling has always been a great source of worry for me. All it takes is one point of contamination and it's downhill from there.

Thanks again for a very interesting post.

Let me guess on the food front: Plov, plov, and more plov??

Thanks for a very interesting report. I really appreciate it when someone posts a report from a place we don't often see mentioned on this board. After reading your report, I understand better why we don't often see it mentioned! I think I'll just read about it - visiting there appears not to be conducive to one's health.

Yes, lots of plov!!!

The dinner style is to start with everything on the table except the kitchen sink, including sweets, nuts, and salads. Then there's soup. It's a meat soup with 2 meatballs. For the vegetarians they take out the 2 meatballs (but it's still meat soup!)

Then they serve the plov or maybe some other dish with a small amount of meat. We did see fish a couple of times although it was on a buffet and very overcooked.

The best thing we had and enjoyed (and took home) was the roasted apricot pits in the shell. For those unfamiliar with this delicacy, apricot pits are popular in the middle east and are the size of small almonds. They salt and roast them and they are delicious.

Sounds a lot like my trip to Belarus.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threadselect.jsp?fid=2&tid=34991565

The Belarus report is as enticing as Uzbekistan (think I'll avoid that whole region). I'm not being disrespectful of either place, but it shows the toll of being run by the Soviets for so long.

Thanks to both of you for your trip reports.

I've just returned from a three-week trip around Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. I got severe food poisoning twice, both times in Uzbekistan, and so did a number of others in our group. That said, it was one of the most fascinating countries I've visited (and I've been to a few, see www.users.bigpond.com/g.w.meale ) and well worth a day or two of frantic dashes to the toilet. And yes, there are plenty of substandard toilets too, but there are usually good ones if you look hard enough.

Given the lack of adquate bathroom facilities as noted in Steve's report, it's no surprise that foodborne illness is a problem.

If a paying traveller can't get a working toilet and sink to wash their hands, what do you think the sanitation level of the kitchen and staff must be?

That being said, the Hepatitis A vaccine is important to get. Hepatitis A is the hepatitis you get from eating/drinking from food, utensils, drinks, etc. that have been contaminated by an active carrier of hepatitis.

steve:


Here are some scanned pix of Uzbek SSR in 1985...you mat see some familar sites...only a few...slide show is best to view...remember, they're scanned...I just returned from a journey into Russia, Belarus amd Ukraine..my third trip to these parts...the other two were SSR days.

We did this recent one on our own, but had to take tour to get into Uzbek SSR back in 1985.

:__ http://tiny.cc/4uRr4

stu

Merry Christmas to everybody!!

After Uzbekistan, my wife decided that we needed to get far away from the third world. So, our next trip is to the wilds of southern Italy (Puglia).

TOWER: Yes I recognize several of your pictures.

I think you both paid your travel dues in Uzbekistan!

Enjoy Italy.

Wow! That is a trip report! I understand that you are now on a list of forbidden authors in Uzbekistan. I hope the tour was a financial travel bargain. We will not be going there at any price. Now, Italy, sounds good. I look forward to your travel report from Puglia.

Elainee:

I really tried not to be too negative...

I found the country fascinating and the people friendly but I guess that's not enough to go back or recommend it to anyone else.

Now that I am well past my college years, I need nice hotel, clean, working bathrooms, and food that will not make me sick in order to go to that country. Many countries, including some I have not yet visited, meet those requirements. Maybe Uzbekistan will get there in time for me to add it to my list.

"The Stans" have been at the top of my list for a long time now but other opportunities keep popping up. I guess I'm a strange one...your report makes me want to go even more! The history of the region is fascinating to me and as for the accommodations and food...I didn't get sick in India, so I figure I can beat the odds in Uzbekistan as well. I can be super careful. The internal flights option is truly scary though. Maybe hiring drivers would be safer? How was the traffic? Did anyone follow traffic rules at all?

Great report - thanks so much.

Jahlie:

There's not much traffic, at least there wasn't much 2 years ago when I started this thread. On the other hand, I don't think you want to drive there. Hire a driver, or multiple drivers...

My wife swore she wouldn't return to the 3rd or 4rth world. She much prefered our latest trip where we wined and dined our way through Bordeaux and Dordogne in France.

call me nuts, but in '85, I found the food offerings to be quite acceotable in Bukhara, Samarkand and Tashkent. My wife agreed. With about 19 people in the group (only way you could get in back then), I don't recall one case of the squits!
stu

Hi again...in my imagination the Stans are a bit like Iran but more rustic and with far fewer tourist amenities. If that's the case, then the food, toilets and accommodations are things I can deal with. I've seen it before and will see it again. I guess European destinations, while delightful (my husband and I travel there at least twice per year), don't have the same challenges and exotic fascination for me. I really enjoy third world travel. I've since read up on Uzbekistan and looked at some hotels online and they don't seem so bad. I'm glad to hear, tower, that you had such a good time. I know - when we go - that we'll take an independent trip, probably hire a car and driver and look for adventure. Tell me tower, what was your favorite experience? Any disappointments?

Tell me tower, what was your favorite experience? Any disappointments?

Jahlie, we'd be going back to 1985. I had "business" in USSR in the 60's and was somewhat free to travel around with few restrictions, but in '85 the only way in was by an invited tour group. We have always been fiercely independent travelers worldwide, except in '84 (China).'85 (USSR),'03 (Cuba, where I went legally but had to meet certain requirments).
The scanned picures I included to Steve in '08 above no longer open, so here are my very few scanned Uzbek SSR pics. Not great but descriptive in what Uzbek SSR was all about back then. As I said in response to Steve's thread, I found it to be exotic, adventurous, food was acceptable, and in most cases unique and tasty, and lodgings archaic/rustic but also acceptable when expectations are not unreasonable.

I looked for a Four Seasons back in '85, but alas, none to be found!

Reminder: I'm not talking about today's Uzbekistan..only yesterday's Uzbek SSR.

https://picasaweb.google.com/stuarttower/SceneOfBukharaSamarkand85# (these are just few of hundreds, each can be magnified
by clicking on the icon and moving mouse around)

(I'm also an Angeleno, Jahlie, just off Mulholland and Beverly Glen).
stu tower

Then I'm your neighbor Actually, we are planning on going to Uz after a meeting my husband has to attend in Istanbul next year. Tibet will have to wait yet another year but I like to take opportunities when they arise. We've been postponing that trip for a few years now because something else always pops up.

In any case, I'm cruising Lonely Planet's Thorntree, downloading info and am so excited about visiting Uz. From what I gather, the place has changed significantly since you were there and I'm wondering how it will compare with Iran from the mid-seventies? I lived there for a year. Central Asia Is so interesting yet a bit removed from the usual tourist routes.

Thanks and I'll keep you posted

jahlie... I live on Angelo overlooking Benedict Canyon...looks like we dodged the bullet on the 405 closure. If you wish, I can scan several additional UZ pix. I was serious when I said that the food was interesting and nowhere near as bad as others wrote. You can reach me at rozstu1 at aol dot com.
stu tower