ON BY BUS TO TASHKENT - UZBEKISTAN

8th - 9th Apr 2025

The bus to Tashkent....or nearly.

I went to a local supermarket to stock up on rations, to supplement the scones generously given to me yesterday, for the forthcoming bus journey to Tashkent. Alex and Dasha collected me from my hotel and first took me to a restaurant, Navat, (the same smart horse-meat outfit as in Almaty), for an early 'light' lunch before going on to the 'temporary' bus station out of town (the normal in-town one is being renovated, I think). 

Left: Dasha and Alex at lunch. We had bowls of a sort of stew and again, bowls of tea. Very good it was too and again Alex insisted on paying! We had to get to the bus station in time for my departure at 4.00pm.

It was about 20km west to the bus station through heavy traffic with much congestion. It took about 50 mins and I don't think Alex had been there before. The bus station, being temporary, was a bit of a 'dump', consisting of a few shacks spread over a large muddy and dirty area. We found the Tashkent bus parked innocuously at one end. I was hoping to pay (about £24) for the 9 hour (approx) journey by credit card (most places around here took credit cards), but it was cash only! I didn't have enough....and Alex paid for me again! I donated a few £ sterling I had in my wallet. I cannot get over his extreme generosity and helpfulness. He told me not to lose sight of the other passengers when we went through the border check points with, as it turned out, good reason. The driver was wandering around collecting the money and he appeared a rather sullen man who spoke no English. It was a perfectly ordinary bus and fairly full. I had two seats to myself. There were in fact two drivers, understandably, but it seemed that nobody on the bus could speak any English.

The bus left on time at 4.00pm and off we went down a long straight narrow road west. It was somewhat potholed and slow going between small scattered villages and houses built along the road for most of the way. Between the road and the houses there was usually a wide strip of grass on which the occasional horse, cow, goat or sheep was tethered and children playing. It was a bumpy ride (no photos). The route was to take us west into Kazakhstan, then a long way further west through Kazakhstan before turning south to the Uzbekistan border. After 2 hours we reached the Kazakh border. My UK passport seemed to cause the Kyrg customs officials some confusion and they took a long time processing it, as was the case when, after a walk down a muddy track, I got to the Kazakh side. I had lost sight of my fellow passengers by now. Out the other end and the bus, fortunately, was waiting. I had taken the photo at the top so I could remember the bus registration number! Into Kazakhstan and the roads became wider and for much of the way dual carriageway. There was a lot of truck traffic.

We stopped somewhere on route to change drivers (at about 8.30pm) at a roadside service station to refuel and which had a café, which was closed, but there were some WCs! The countryside was entirely flat grassland. Approaching the town of Shymkent we turned south towards the Uzbek border. We reached the border at about 1.00am (Uzbekistan is 1 hour behind Kyrgyzstan). More delays with my passport at both the Kazakh and Uzbek ends and I was well behind, and had lost sight of, my fellow passengers. On eventually escaping through the Uzbek side into a large car park.....no sign of the bus!!! I searched. It had gone without me! Oh dear! I don't suppose they cared. There were many shops and much activity around this big car park. It was by now about 2.00am. There  were also several taxis. I had to overcome my allergy to taxis and selected what I thought was an honest looking driver to take me onwards. It is only about 40kms on to Tashkent and I negotiated a price of $15 with the driver to take me to the small hotel I had arranged. Not a bad price and, as it happened, he was a very helpful, honest and decent bloke who got me to the hotel at about 3.15am!

On checking in I was told, unfortunately, there had been a mistake and they were fully booked up! The receptionist was most apologetic, got me a cup of coffee and arranged for a taxi to take me to another place relatively nearby (Eurolux Hotel) which had spare rooms, and was remarkably cheap at $25 per night. The receptionist here spoke no English but I got a very decent bedroom for what was left of the night. 

Welcome to Tashkent!

This short intro to Tashkent will have to do for now....more travelin' around the city to follow.