Uzbekistan Uncovered: Go on an Adventure With a Local!

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Nasiba

7 Days30 Days!

Extra Cancellation Days
only for the first TripMate

26 Aug 24 → 02 Sep 24

Guided trip

8 days

6 stops

5 Mates

Uzbekistan

What's special?

It's the center of Central Asia!

Hey dear travellers! This late summer, I will, as usual, be visiting my second home: beautiful Uzbekistan ☀️ Aand I would be more than happy to take some of you along and make some epic memories together! I've already been to the first 2 trip stops, in fact, in the city of Samarkand: for the first 18 years of my life. But we'll be exploring Bukhara and Karakalpakstan together! We will see a bit of everything: nature: mountains and lakes, culture: food and just hanging out with locals, and some intense phenomenons including the Aral Sea i.e at the end of the trip, especially in Karakalpakstan, we'll take a jeep tour through the dried out Aral Sea.

About me: I'm Nasiba, 31, from Germany and Uzbekistan. I have been travelling a lot?: mainly Caucasus region, Iran, and Central Asia. (Shared trips to one of these regions are yet to come!) and I KEEP FALLING IN LOVE with travelling.

Regarding the accomodation: Let's stay at authentic Uzbek "hovli"s as much as possible! They are somewhat equivalent of villas, but very ordinary people live in them as there's a lot of space in the steppe. It will be a mix of seperate rooms and shared rooms. Honestly, I can't predict this upfront: if you have strict preferences and still want to join, just let me know. At the end of the trip, I'll head out to another interesting western uzbek city, called Khiva, for further exploration and to catch the melon festival. You'll be welcome to join, but I'm not adding it here as it might be too much. What's included in the price: 🛏️ Accomodation & Transportation 💵 An organizational fee * Please bear in mind that the organization of trips includes a lot of coordination, adminstrative effort and energy, so JMT trip leaders charge their travel fees as well as an additional comission, and I am no exception. I am mentioning this extra to avoid misunderstandings that we do it for free as it has happened before. Any questions about the trip? You can let me know in the Q&A section!

What's included?

Inter-City Transportation

Accomodations

Adventure Trip to The Aral Sea

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Nasiba

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Central Asian Adventurer 👣 Living in Germany 🥨

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Samarkand

Day 1-3

On the first day of the trip, I'll be happy to welcome you in my hometown, Samarkand! Which I believe, I know inside out. But everytime is like a first time for me, so I would be happy to show you around and talk you through the 2000 plus years of its history and culture and why we all look like Persians - but not so quite, Turks - still not much, Slavic - tiny bit, and a bit Chinese! And accordingly, you will witness the harmoniuous existence of some elements from all of these cultures. We'll stay three and a half days here: on one of them we will explore the historical sites and the Siab Bazaar! On another one, we will visit small family-owned eateries and craftsmanship shops, where you can try things out as well! And finally we'll take some day trips!

Aman-Kutan

Day 3

We'll take an exciting day trip from Samarqand to one of the mountainous villages. It is a peculiar 5-storey village, which is organized by the height levels. We can indulge in some real fruits and food here, hang out with shepherds: they love tea, alcohol, and are quite fun people.

Bukhara

Day 3-6

After Samarkand, let's visit it's twin city Bukhara. The other highly persianate city of Uzbekistan. And the other empire capital of the former Persian empire. Prior to Russian invasion, the city was similar to the canal cities of Europe: Amsterdam, Venice, Brugge.. Some, but very few have preserved to this day and there are two big lakes near Bukhara. We'll explore those lakes, the old town with the Grand Bazaar and some of the remnants of the last empire: The Uzbek Bukhara Emirate.

Tudakul Lake

Day 6

Let's arrange a day trip to Tudakul! I don't have pictures of it, but imagine a sweet water lake in the middle of the desert. To be honest, I also don't know what to expect here, it would be my first trip too. But many have said they like the lake and the new resort-style facilities. There are still wilder parts of it as well as ones with more local flair. We can discuss which side to pick to hang out at once the group has formed.

Nukus

Day 6-7

After Bukhara, we'll head over to Nukus, the capital of the Karakalpak Republic, famous for their highly nomadic and super friendly (even by Uzbek standards) people. But the capital is very westernized, we'll have to leave the city a bit to see a very local way of life. Karakalpaks are highly nomadic(to this day), but at the same time, their meals are mainly fish-based. I find them very exquisite and original. We'll visit a local family for some Karakalpak lunch and get to see some Yurt life, if we are lucky, from very native perspective. By taking a day trip from Moynak, we'll go through some ecological disaster, I don't know how else to call it. People say it's beautiful on its own, but it's just a result of recent tradegy of Aral Sea's dessication.

Moynaq

Day 7-8

Moynak is a reminder of what science might lead to, if applied wrongly. Once a beautiful bustling town famous for its lakes and fishing industry, the cultural capital of Karakalpaks now suffers from a series of environmental challenges: dust and sand storms. We will not stay here long, just a day to see the Aral catastrophy and dead navy ships of Bukharan Emirate (the remnants of which we'd explore in Bukhara) while driving through some otherworldy landscapes. Will be a bizarre view! We'll come back to Nukus, and stay one more night here. You can arrange your flights from here to the capital Tashkent. I can help you with that, however, I cannot accompany you and it's not included in the price calculation here. I myself will be heading to Khiva and from there back to Germany. You are more than welcome to join: we can also discuss this, once the group is formed. But it's not included in the cost calculation of the trip here.