A travelogue by Doug Burnett

http://www.traveldoug.com

Visas I applied for the visas myself which turned out, in the case of the Russian visa, to be a mistake. The Uzbekistan Embassy in Washington (http://www.uzbekistan.org) is now offering a multi-entry visa to US citizens without a letter of support. Mine cost $45 and took a little better than one week to process. For the Russia visa, I applied to the Russian Embassy in Washington (http://russianembassy.org). A dual-entry cost $120 and took more than two weeks to process. I found out later that an error had been made in the validation dates, which caused me some trouble on the way home. In the future if I need a Russian visa I will use a visa service - it's the only visa I have ever gotten that has nothing written in English. Just before I left I decided I wanted to make a side trip to Kazakhstan, so I FedExed my passport off a week before I was scheduled to leave. I sent it to the Kazakh Consulate in New York (http://www.kazconsulny.org) and waited nervously for its return. It came back just one day before I left. I swear I didn't have a good night's sleep the whole time it was gone and vowed never, never to do that again. The expedited visa cost $105. Travel Agents I used a number of travel agents and can recommend them all. I used Academservice of Moscow (E-mail: acs@acase.ru; Internet: http://www.acase.ru) for my Moscow hotels - the Moskva and Novotel. They supplied the support letter for the Russian visa application after I faxed them my credit card number. I also asked them to send a car to the airport, but the driver never showed up. After waiting half an hour I got a taxi from the airport taxi stand for $20. (I have asked Academservice for a refund, but so far they have ignored my emails.) I also made hotel reservations in Uzbekistan with Academservice: the Uzbekistan in Tashkent and the Samarkand in Samarkand. Other than the no-show driver things went as I expected. I had Salom Travel Agency in Bukhara (Email: raisa@salom.silk.org) get my Tashkent-Bukhara air ticket ($45 plus $10 service charge.) As it worked out I did this backwards. I should have used an agent in the city the flight originated from, as tickets can only be issued from there. If I had I could have avoided the service charge. In Bukhara I met a great resource: Aminjon Ahmedov (Email: aminjon@bukhara.silk.org). He arranged my trip from Bukhara to Samarkand via Tim ($20 each for two of us) and came along as guide/interpreter. We also spent several very pleasant evenings talking at Labi-hauz. I suspect that if you are in Bukhara, you won't have to look for Amin - he will find you. I highly recommend him. I used Fson Travel in Samarkand (Email: afsona@online.ru) for the trip to Shakhrisabz. I just happened to walk by the office one day and asked the price. They supplied a full-size Mercedes and driver for $40 - my hotel wanted $50. I split that with three other travelers so it only cost $10 each. After the trip to Samarkand in the little Daewoo, it was a relief to ride in a real car. The whole trip only took about five hours. I used Sairam Tourism of Tashkent (E-mail: silkroad@sairamtour.com.uz) for help with my trip to Turkestan in Kazakhistan. They arranged my flight from Samarkand back to Tashkent ($54) and for a car from the airport to the border and then back to my hotel when I returned the next day ($20). They also referred me to a Kazakh agent for the rest of the trip. I used Turan Asia LTD of Almaty (E-mail: turanasiakaz@asdc.kz) for the Turkestan trip. They supplied a car, driver, guide and hotel for the two-day, one-night trip to see the Khodja Akhmet Jassavi mausoleum. They charged me $215. This was the lowest quote I received - others were $300 or more. They also supplied the support letter for my visa. Why, you might reasonably ask, did I use so many different agents? In the beginning I didn't have a clear idea what I wanted to do and kept adding flights and side trips as I got closer to departure. In hindsight it's clear that it would have been more efficient to use just one agent, but in the end I met many helpful and friendly agents this way. Like I said, I can recommend them all. Hotels The Moskva ($48 per night) in Moscow was an aging soviet giant, slightly run down, but very well located. It was just off Red Square and near the metro and shopping. It's easy to get lost in it - it was a long walk from the entrance to the elevators. I received about 6-8 calls for sex services the first night I was there - that got a little tiring, so the next night I disconnected the phone. My room overlooked the central courtyard and was very quiet other than the phone calls. I didn't eat any meals there. There was a taxi service, slot machines and several convenience shops located in the huge lobby. It was too big to be friendly. The Uzbeckistan ($88) in Tashkent was another aging giant. I stayed in the old part of the hotel: the bathroom was a little dated and the furnishings a little tattered but I like these faded beauties. The best thing about the hotel was the location. It's near the metro and "Broadway," the center of nightlife in Tashkent. The food in the dining room was ok. There were pipes in the bathroom to hang your towel over, presumable to dry and heat them. There were also a few cockroaches that lived in the bathroom but they don't bother me - they don't bite. They had just remodeled the lobby and it was a little too palatial for me. I would cringe to see my wrinkled, dusty clothes in the shiny elevator mirrors. The floor-lady that did my laundry was very friendly, but spoke no English. In Bukhara I stayed at Sasha & Son. It's an old merchant's house with rooms around a pleasant courtyard. My tiny single room was interesting with floral designs painted on the walls and extremely short doorways - I scraped skin off my head before I learned to duck far enough. The breakfast was good and Sasha came by each day to say hello - a nice touch. The location is superb: just minutes from the pool at Labi-hauz. I made my reservation directly (sacholga@bcc.com.uz) and paid $25 per night. It was highly recommend on the Internet by other travelers - I agree. It's a great place to meet other travelers. I stayed at the Samarkand ($52) in the city of the same name. Much to my surprise there was no air-conditioning in the building. When I mentioned this to the desk clerk, she challenged me, "You need air-conditioning?" "Well," I replied, "I don't need it, but I sure do like it." It was better than 100 F (38 C) every day. I kept the door to the balcony open at night and it wasn't bad. I had a room on the 10th floor that had a great view of the Registan. A few cockroaches did share the room with me but I was getting used to them. Also, just one elevator was working for the whole hotel. At times it was near riot trying to get on it. The floor-lady was very friendly and would often come open the door for me as the lock was hard to manage. She also did my laundry. The breakfast was ok, but I ate most of my meals elsewhere. The café on the roof had a great view at night and the beer was almost cold. There was a noisy café in front so you would be wise to get a room on the north side. For such a rundown place it was surprisingly popular with tour groups. I actually liked it too - everyone was very friendly. The Turan hotel was a very interesting place to stay. It was on the main road out near the mausoleum but quite hard to find - we drove past it twice. All the other guests seemed to be Kazakhi and they didn't really looking like tourists - they might have been long term residents. There was a pleasant courtyard where kids played and adults talked. The room I had was basic but clean. The bathroom was modern, but no air conditioning. There was a restaurant and roof café. My room overlooked an open field and a courting couple chose to watch the moon from under my window - I heard them romancing. I didn't see much of the Novotel ($110) at the Moscow airport - just the locked floor my room was on and the small conference room where breakfast was served. My room was the sterile, modern one you would expect. I stayed at the Novotel because I didn't want to spend the night at the Moscow airport. The "visa-less" transit feature I used might be cheaper in the end than getting a Russian visa. If you have 12 hours to wait, as I did, it's a convenient place to stay. Ann Arbor, Michigan September 2000 Moscow Tashkent Bukhara Tim Samarkand Turkestan Visa problem Information Travelogues Send your comments to: