This is my 5th day in Turkmenistan so I better get out of the country soon because my transit visa only permit me to stay here for 5 days. Went to the taxi stand at 8 something and tried to take a shared taxi to Farab. Had to haggle hard and those guys weren’t honest. After getting my money, the drove me to another shared taxi stand and had to bargain with the driver again to get to the border. Finally, arrived at the border around 11am.

Passing the Turkmenistan border was quite smooth, I just need to fill up a custom declaration and a custom official just did a quick search on my bag. I heard some stories such as the police will look at every pictures and will check on the laptop but that didn’t happen to me.

In no man’s land, between Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan border

Had to walk around 2km to the Uzbekistan checkpoint.

The Uzbekistan checkpoint is more bureaucratic, there are a lot more checks and forms to be filled. In total, I think the border crossing took around 2 -3hours. Changed into some Soms at the border.

The official market rate is 1USD~1500 som but the black market will provide 1USD~1900som. The biggest bill of Uzbekistan Som is just 1000som, around USD$0.50. So if I am changing USD$100 into Som, I will have around 200 bills of 1000 Som. Since I don’t trust the guys at the border, I just changed some small amount. It takes a lot of effort to count every single bill and the money won’t even fit in my pocket. Sometimes money changer will give stacks of ~ 400 bills of 500 Som for a bill of USD$100.

Then took another shared taxi to Bukhara from Uzbekistan border (an hour drive, 16,000 som~USD$8). The taxi driver quote me 60,000 Som at the beginning. Took some effort to haggle the price down. I am tired of taxi drivers, in most countries, taxi drivers are just waiting to pounce of unsuspecting travellers. That’s why I seldom take taxi, it’s not so much about the money than the feeling of being cheated.

Got to Bukhara at 3pm. There are many hotels and B&B guesthouses in the old city. After visiting a few hotels around Lyabi Hauz square which most of the hotels and attractions are located, got a deal at Nasruddin guesthouse. (16,000 Som~USD8 for a room because it’s the low season).

Around Lyabi Hauz area

Use the back road to city center

Finally ate something at 4.30pm. Plov is sort of the national dish of Uzbekistan, every region has a different way of cooking it. (3000 Som~USD$1.5)

Got some fries at a caf? and the people there are very friendly.
Friendly owner of the cafe

The owner even drove me to the Ark at the north part of town.

I remembered some travellers told me that the Ark is a waste of money, so I didn’t go in.

Across the ark

Walked around the old town, Lyabi Hauz area.

A Uzbek girl, Habiba invited me to her house

for tea and pasta.

She told me that the average salary in Uzbek is just around USD$40 a month and life is pretty tough.

Camera shy

It’s very quiet at night around the old city because weather is getting cold and most guesthouses are empty.

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