UZBEKISTAN GUIDE TIPS. PART #2 TASHKENT MUST-GO LIST

It’s not usual and traditional guide, I warned you) But, I think that if you go there you will not regret. Well, you came to Tashkent International Airport and went to your hotel. The next morning you woke up with thoughts where you should go. And here we are, let’s go to:

1. Bazaars. You definitely should go to bazaar and feel it, not watch from the distance or see pictures but go into it: feel the spirit of bazaar, buy or try something there, talk to people and just watch over crowds of people who sell and buy diversity of products and lively atmosphere is everywhere. In the bazaar you can find almost anything you want, and the huge benefit of bazaar is the quality of products, food is natural and fresh. You can find sellers who have their own farm and sell their products in the bazaar. Also there is a good discount system there, yeah we don’t have complicated discount system with percents and etc., we just bargain, and tell the truth Asians are very good at it.

Tip: not just ask but demand discount! They say: “Ask and it will be given to you”.

There are about 10 large bazaars in Tashkent, but I will tell you about 2 of them. The first one is Chorsu bazaar which is near the old part of the city. Chorsu bazaar is more than 100 years and it was reconstructed more than 3 times. You can find either variety of souvenirs, handicrafts or delicious traditional food, spices and other products. Prices are pretty good there.The second one is Alayskiy bazaar. It is located near the centre of the city. Also very big and good one to buy food products or just walk and watch. Prices are not low.
Tip: if you are going to buy a lot of stuff you should take ‘araba’. Similar to big markets we have kind of carts, but with person who will carry it instead of you for fee, about 1$. You will see a lot of arabas when you enter the bazaar.
If you have never been to bazaar watch this video: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPPj-aJIS5U

Continue Tashkent Must-GO list

2.  A: Are we at the museum?

B: No, it’s Tashkent Metro
While you walk down in the city don’t miss M signboard and subway. It is our metro; by the way in Russian and Uzbek we use the same word - metro. It is worth to go there, because every station is unique, different from the others and has its own history. It is the first metro in Central Asia. Tashkent metro is not budget project; it is built from marble, gravel and decorative stones, also a lot of handmade there. I want to tell you about my favorites. Go to ‘Cosmonauts’ and ‘Mustakillik Maydoni’ stations. 

‘Cosmonauts’ station

Mustakillik Maydoni (which means Independence Square)

Tip: don’t take photo in the metro, because it is illegal here and duty policeman can ask you to delete shots. But you can go to Google and find pictures of Tashkent metro there.

3. Cultural and spiritual heritage. Holy places.

There are a lot of holy places, burial and mosques in Uzbekistan. Of course most of them are not in Tashkent. But there is one interesting place to visit in Tashkent. It is Madrasah of Abul-Kasim. There is centre of Applied Arts inside of Madrasah. So if you go there you will kill two birds with one stone. From one side it is spiritual experience of being in the holy place and from the other side you can see and touch cultural heritage. Madrasah of Abul-Kasim has interesting story, it was built in the 16^th century by Abdul-Kasim who was the leader of spiritual community. Madrasah was the place where a lot of people got education, skills and spiritual enlightenment. According to the legends there is a hair of great prophet Muhammad in this holy place. Also, you can see and talk to masters while they work on carving, stitching and other art handworks. You can purchase works of art if you wish.

4. Tashkent TV Tower
The Tashkent Tower is the tallest structure in Central Asia, opened in 1985. It is 375 meters which means it is taller than Eiffel Tower. It was built in the times of Soviet Union, maybe that’s why the restaurant which is inside of Tashkent Tower looks like you go back in time and find yourself in Soviet’s cafe. Ok, I’m just joking)) There is observation deck which is located 97 meters and there are prototypes of little towers from all over the world. You can take pics and enjoy of Tashkent panorama. Don’t forget to take your passport with you.

Tip: if you are not afraid of heights you can ask service staff to take you up higher, for fee of course. It is really incredible beautiful and exciting. Because it is very high and there is a narrow passage made from iron bars and the wind is wild. You carefully move and see beautiful city spread out before you. The best time to do it is sunset or night.

And our Must-GO list ends with

5. Tashkent City Tour
For those who don’t like to walk and explore city by themselves, there is a comfortable way to find out interesting places of Tashkent. We have City Tour Bus in our capital. Bus goes from point A to point B, but there are many stops and you can stay there as long as you want, you can take the next bus as well. As usually buses go every 30-40 minutes, just keep schedule with you.

You can get more information here: 

https://www.facebook.com/TashkentCityTour/?fref=ts

So, we started from morning wild bazaar and finished by panorama of night Tashkent. Hope you will enjoy your visit to Tashkent!)  

       

UZBEKISTAN GUIDE TIPS. PART #1 BEFORE YOU COME AND ARRIVAL

Uzbekistan is the country of contrasts and hospitable people, country of white cars and black outerwears. Here you can eat very delicious food only for 3$ and calm your soul and mind because we Asians don’t like to live under the stress and all the time run run run. Stop and see beauty of simple things here, in the country with great history and heritage. You have a lot of things to see and to try here; you are very welcomed in sunny Uzbekistan))) 

It’s all about money

First thing you should know relating to your money: you cannot bring out money more than you bring to Uzbekistan. So, it means that you should know exactly how much you need when you take money from your card in the bank and always keeping in your mind the exact amount you have brought. Our banks accept visa and master cards.

By the way as I say our country is not ordinary, don’t be surprised but we have two types of dollars exchange rate here. There are state and market (black market) exchange rates. And the second one is higher by almost twice. So, be smart and don’t change money in the banks, go and look for money changers. They usually inhabit near the bazaars or big centers.

The second thing is about old, pen-written or spoiled banknotes. Banks in our country don’t accept them; just very few of them so it would be better to bring new crunchy banknotes and do not have worries with it here.

If you decide to take with you more than 5000$ you should be ready to fill out form TC-28 (it can be filled at Tashkent airport on your arrival), it’s not difficult. And the last about money: you can bring out amount of sum (national currency) equals or less than 50 minimal Uzbekistan salaries (it’s about 1000$).

Tip: be polite to the customs officers and be honest when you answer their questions.

If you have some disease…

Maybe you already know it but I will say that it is prohibited by the law to take with you medicine contains narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances. To take them with you do the following: make copy of medical conclusion and doctor’s prescription where period and amount of taking medicine are pointed out. And if the amount doesn’t match to prescription, the custom officers have a right to confiscate it.

Arrival tips

When the plane lands don’t be surprised if our people would be look like hurrying people, they are ready to run. In this case don’t be super polite waiting all the people and skip them forward. Take your cabin baggage and go or run) First to the bus, after from the bus. There will be queues to the passport control move forward in an active way. 

After it you should find your luggage and go through the customs. Finally, you are free!

Tip: If it’s not essential for you to leave the airport earlier, skip forward all the people and after it calmly go through all the instances.

     

The first people that will meet you outside are taxi drivers. They will persuade you to get into their car, don’t be afraid, it’s normal here. Better to have someone who meet you but if you don’t have one you should know they will ask higher price than normally taxi cost. We have very chip taxi fee here, for 1 $ you can go a distance equal to 13 km. And we have a lot of taxi drivers. Usually people catch taxi, but in Uzbekistan taxies catch people.

Regulations for foreign citizens in Uzbekistan

For those who stay in the hotel the following information isn’t necessary. For the other travelers: you have 3 working days to make registration. It is the document where is information about where and how long you will stay here. If you violate regulations relating to visa or registration you will have to pay penalty (about 1000-1500$).

If you are going to move from town to town and stay in one town less than 3 days you are allowed not to make registration. Just keep all the road tickets as the proof.

Welcome to warmy Uzbekistan! In the next post I will write about must-do and must-eat lists in our country. Hope, it was helpful and interesting for you!)