Central Asia Bucket List: Two weeks in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. And Georgia.

It’s hard to decide which cities to visit in central Asia because I’ve never heard of any of these places. Tashkent versus Samarkand versus Bukhara in Uzbekistan. Almaty versus Askana versus Chuy Valley in Kazakhstan. Central Asia isn’t as part of the zeitgeist as, say, Europe.

The only movie I found about central Asia was Borat, which I found amusing, but also kind of insulting. I could see why the Kazkakhs didn’t want to be associated with it and how it’s probably not an accurate representation of their country.

We also stuck Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and Tbilisi, Georgia onto our trip even though they are very hard to spell. We ended up choosing the bolded cities above for no particular reason.

Here’s our bucket list for that trip.

1. Take the fast bullet train in Uzbekistan

First class seats on the fast train costs a whopping $19 to go from Samarkand to Tashkent. It zips you right along! A 4-hour car ride turns into a 2-hour train ride. They give you free tea and pastries on the trip as well.

2. Splurge on airfare

Turkish Airlines just started a new direct route from Denver to Istanbul. We wanted to reward this move and buy business class seats.

I’ve flown business class before when I worked as a lawyer and my law firm was paying for my flight. It’s every bit as fabulous as you think. If I had infinite money, I’d spend it on business class seats every flight.

Turkish Airlines wanted $3,817 each for 24 hours of roundtrip comfort. I don’t know if it’s worth it. It’s so luxurious, but it’s also a significant percentage of my yearly budget! For one day! Eek.

In the end, this was something we decided not to buy. $3,800 was more than either of us were willing to shell out apparently. We ended up spending $3,317 on all of our flights for both of us.

That’s the thing about Lean FI. You won’t be able to afford everything. And that has to be okay. If I had worked a few more years, maybe I could claim Chubby FI and splurge on business class flights with less guilt. But maybe not. I absolutely can afford it right now. The gap between my red and green lines are pretty big at this point.

I just don’t want it enough.

Mark and I each got a row of three seats to ourselves in coach. I slept ten of the twelve hours of the flight going to Istanbul. The flight back was…less pleasant.

3. Experience central Asia

Everything is so boxy in central Asia. There were very few decorations on the walls in our Airbnbs and very little color.

Everyone is very friendly and exceedingly honest, though. We gave the wrong change more than once and the merchant gave us our money back each time. The area feels very zen with people sweeping leaves constantly. We always felt safe.

4. See parts of the silk road

Samarkand, Uzbekistan is the ultimate silk road city. The silk road is where the Chinese shuttled their goods west way back when. The markets were huge and seemingly never-ending. We got lost in there. I’ve never seen so many eggs in one place in my life.

5. Go on day trips from the cities.

We ended up driving from Bishkek to Almaty to avoid airfare. It saved us about $150 and we were able to leave at a more convenient time. Plus, land border crossings are kind of interesting.

6. Try interesting sounding food

We ate plov (rice dish) in Uzbekistan and Khinkali (dumpling dish) in Georgia and oromo (noodle dish) in Kyrgyzstan. And by we, I mean Mark. I’m not eating horse meat. The food was okay. They didn’t use many spices. I even lost a couple of pounds on this trip, but I will say that the pomegranates and strawberries were beautiful and delicious. We try to go to an Indian restaurant in every country we visit and that’s always fun.

How do I plan a trip?

So, how does one plan a trip? One being me.

Seed of inspiration

Like most things, start with the why. Inspiration can strike from anything. Area you want to visit? Time of year you want to go? Activity you want to do? Cheap flight? Cool hotel?

For this trip, I started with the time of year. September is my birthday month and I like to spend some of it out of the United States.

Weather

What’s a country that has nice weather in September? We don’t mind going during the shoulder season or off season, but we do like when the weather is nice.

The internet tells me Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Georgia are lovely countries for visiting in September.

Safe?

Does the State Department of the United States consider them safe? If yes, you’re good to go! If not, I’d pick another.

The State Department wants me to exercise normal precaution in all these places. Excellent.

Activities

I like checking out viator.com to see what activities there are to do in the area.

Kazakhstan has some beautiful hiking. We could do a day trip to Tajikistan from Samarkand. Maybe some hot air ballooning from Tashkent. Georgia has some interesting caverns.

Flights

I use skyscanner.com to monitor my flights. It tells you when prices go up or down and you can snatch them when they’re down if you’re booking far enough ahead of time. I started planning this trip five months beforehand and bought flights intermittently when they were on sale. I saved about $175 by using skyscanner this trip.

Accommodations

After flights, we have to decide between Airbnb and a hotel. Airbnbs are much cheaper, but hotels just feel easier. Airbnbs are more modest, but have more space. Hotels are simple to find and check into and come with amenities like a gym and a pool. Maybe a hot tub or free breakfast. If we’re coming in very early or very late, we like hotels. If we’re on a special diet and plan to cook a lot, we like Airbnbs. When we need a laundry stop, Airbnbs are good. When we’re spending extravagantly, we go for resorts.

Here’s a tip. Search on hotels.com, but then when you find a hotel you like, go to the hotel’s official website and book directly with them. It cuts out the middleman and can save you hundreds. Plus, if anything goes wrong, the hotel is much more likely to help you. This tip works well for independent hotels and not big chains.

Miscellaneous

Other questions to ask: What’s the best area to stay in? How do you get to the hotel/airbnb? If you’re visiting more than one city in a country, what’s the best way to get around?

It’s helpful to find out if there are any ride sharing apps in the place you’re visiting. Apparently Yango is their version of Uber. We took it a lot and it was very cheap. Do not take rides from the taxi drivers that approach you. You’ll likely get scammed. The taxi drivers wanted ten dollars to take us to our Airbnb in Samarkand. Yango wanted one dollar.

Finally, make sure to check if you need a visa or any vaccines for that country. I needed a visa for Uzbekistan, but none of the others.

So many fun things to research.

As always, I carry my Google Fi phone that works pretty much everywhere, connecting to the local network automatically for $10/gigabyte. I pay for unlimited data internationally for about $45/month in a group plan.

I also use Global Entry and speed through immigration and we use lounges for the airports to save on food. We also use the Charles Schwab debit card that reimburses us for ATM fees and is usable worldwide.

Cost

Flights: = $1,693.86/person
Denver -> Istanbul -> Denver: $1,021
Istanbul -> Samarkand: $220
Tashkent -> Bishkek: $98
Bishkek -> Almaty (via car): $37
Almaty -> Tbilisi: $210
Tbilisi -> Istanbul: $89

Accommodations: $269.91/person
3 nights Samarkand (Airbnb): $79.88
2 night Tashkent (Airbnb): $64
2 nights Bishkek (Airbnb): $71
3 nights Almaty
2 nights hotel: $22.03 (credit card points. Value of $268)
1 night yurt: $156.75 (didn’t end up using because Mark got sick)
1 night Airbnb: $34
3 nights Tbilisi (Hotel): $0. We used credit card points, but the room was worth $543 for those days.

Transportation (Train ride, ubers): $121.05
This consisted of train rides in Denver and Uzbekistan and ride-sharing apps everywhere else.

As always, I don’t really count food because we’d need to eat wherever we are.

Total: $2084.82

I would save so much money if I didn’t like to travel. But then what’s the point of having money?