Although my blog posts of recent places visited is way behind, I’ve just recently landed in New Zealand for up to 12 months.  This is the second time I’ve arrived  here in low season, or just after the peak season has finished.  Obviously the best time to visit is summer, with the peak months being December and January, but that’s also when everyone else is here  The schools and universities are off, the kiwis are travelling and everywhere is busy, so here’s a few reasons why off season is also a good time to visit, and there’s a lot of financial advantages for budget travellers.

1. Campervan Rentals Are CHEAP

Ok so you’ve landed in Auckland and the hostels are empty.  You get a bit down, but then you realise you can hire campervans from $30 a day!  Yes – $30 a day!  If you think that’s good, when you convert it at today’s rate it gets even better – that’s the equivalent of only £21 USD per day, and remember that’s not per person!!  Get yourself down to the tourist information, gather up the numerous leaflets then go calling around, or stroll along Customs Street West, Beach Road and Fort Street where outlets such as Spaceships are located and start to chat to them.  You’ll end up walking away with the keys to a van or converted MPV for less around the same as a bed in a shared dorm.  Note you don’t have to arrive in mid winter to get good deals on campervans – the last time I was here I sold a car and hired a van in the first week of the off season in May and got a superb deal.

2.  Ski and Snowboard Season

NZ may not be the same as the European Alps in size, but the terrain is superb and there’s a very healthy winter scene in the North Island around Mt Ruapehu, and much more so around the winter hubs of Queenstown and Wanaka.  It will be cold around there but there’s plenty sunny days as well. Many of the rental companies may offer 2 for 1 deals as well – Spaceships do 2 for 1 deals on both day pass tickets to some resorts and even offer free stays at a campsite ideally located by the slops on the North Island.  If you took up a lot of these deals, it could mean you’re effectively being paid for taking one of their cars if this is your thing.  You can also get similar deals for other activities like kayaking etc.

3. You Won’t Have to Book The Great Walks in Advance

One thing many people don’t appreciate is how popular some of the great walks in New Zealand such as the Abel Tasman Coast Track or Milford Track are.  To book these in peak season you may need to book many months ahead and you must stick to that date, or have the spare days to hang around waiting for last minute spots.  In winter there’s a good chance that some of these tracks may involve more risk and skill than you desire, such as winter mountaineering on the Tongariro Northern Circuit.  If it’s not mid winter you’ll get the same walk, in cooler conditions, less sandflies nibbling on you, and not have to book months in advance.

4. Ferries are Cheap

If you come to New Zealand and have the time, there’s a good chance you’ll be taking the ferry over from the North to the South Islands.  These can be pretty extortionate in peak season around December and January.

5. Cheaper Hostels

Many travellers arriving from Asia may get a shock at the hostel prices in New Zealand where it can be $20 NZD for a dorm bed, or over $60 NZD for a private room with shared facilities.  Whilst this usually offers good value with decent facilities, it still eats into your budget. 

There are ways you can reduce these costs by purchasing a BBH Backpackers Card for hostels in that scheme but that’s an extra $45 so you need to stay around 13 nights to get your cash back (although you do get some phone calls included for that price).  If you travel off season you may get the BBH member prices without having the card, especially if you stay for 5 nights or more.

This is just a sample of some of the reasons you should consider travelling in New Zealand off season.  The weather will be colder and a bit less predictable but at least there won’t be so many people queuing up behind you as you snake up the hills in your heavily discounted campervan!

Have you got any stories about how you saved a lot by travelling off season?  Let us know via the comments below.

5 Good Reasons to Visit New Zealand off season is a post from: Budget Travel Notes - Your guide to budget travel hints tips and tricks.

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I bought a Google Nexus One phone a couple of months before I left to go long term travelling.  Like the iPhone there’s a whole host of applications available, and many of them cover the travel market.

I’ve used a few of these on the move as part of this trip so I thought I’d write a review of some of the ones I’ve tried so far.  This has ended up being quite a long post, so grab a coffee and relax…..

Before I start I have to state what will be obvious to many if you travel outside your own country : smartphones will only become a truly useful travel tool when phone companies don’t make data roaming prohibitively expensive.  I just don’t get it….surely by now much of the infrastructure is in place and I would have thought they’d get more revenue from travellers if they actually made it affordable.  Until that happens I’ll be switching off data roaming, and I’ll be buying local sim cards when it’s feasible and worthwhile.  We don’t get charged more if we access say a British website from New Zealand – we just get the data.  With a bit added on for the administration, surely it should be feasible to do similar for mobile phones now  (admittedly I’m sure that’s simplifying the commercial situation a lot!)

Anyway, with this in mind I only really class an application as a true travel app if it can deal with this and perhaps work offline and synch things later – either via data roaming, or ideally wifi so you can update things in a hostel. 

As a side note it was only when I switched off data that I realised how long the Nexus One’s battery can last without all the regular refreshes and updates from facebook and the like!

Coming up is a review of MapDroyd, TravelDroyd, Evernote and a couple of currency converter applications.

MapDroyd

Mapdroyd is an offline (and online too I think) mapping application for the Android platform.  I used it with Open Street Maps and there’s an excellent coverage.  I downloaded Oman, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and China with no problems at all.  Despite this, the map shown is for Wellington.  Usually you’ll see a red marker showing your location, but I never wanted to show that here….

When out and about with MapDroyd, all I had to do was switch on my GPS, let it get a lock, and ask it to pinpoint my location and centre the map around me.  Trust me this is very handy if you don’t have a clue where you are in a city, or if you think the taxi driver is taking you on a wild goose chase.  The downside is that the maps aren’t as detailed and don’t hold as much information as say Google Maps – e.g. some street names will be missing, or in the local language and there certainly aren’t many points of interest highlighted.

Pros :

• Easy to set up and download maps.  Only needs GPS enabled if you PRE-download maps at home or over wifi.
• Easier to install than some other offline mapping tools such as rMaps (I’d love to get this working but ran out of time)

Cons :

• Maps aren’t as detailed as they could be, but that’s due to the OpenStreetMap open source project, so it’s only us all to ‘blame’ – not MapDroyd.  On a similar point foreign maps may have street names in local language making it hard to understand (e.g. if you don’t speak Russian!)
• No way of marking a point of interest (e.g. your guesthouse)

Verdict : Try it now.  A great way to find out roughly where you are.  It saved me $6 when a long distance taxi driver dropped me at a bus station and tried to get his mates to take me on an expensive fare which I worked out was just around the corner. This scenario happened a number of times.  To let you know how good it can be, this was in Tashkent, Uzbekistan!

TravelDroyd

TravelDroyd is kind of like a sister app to MapDroyd, but it involves downloading the application, then pay for additional travel ‘books’ specific to your destination of choice.

I paid for and downloaded the books for Beijing and Hong Kong.  The books will give you features such as turn by turn travel directions, detailed street and city maps, search and more.  The screen grab on the left is Hong Kong as you may guess, the content is grabbed from Wikipedia, with each entry marked with a ‘W’ sign.  Touching these icons will display the location such as ‘Nathan Road’ highlighted in the image, home of the infamous Chunking Mansions.  The Wikipedia entries are already downloaded, so there’s no need for a data connection to display the information.

Pros :

• Pure offline travel guide (but needs a data or wifi connection to download the application and books obviously!).
• Can save you constantly carrying a guidebook.

Cons :

• Some comments on the Android Marketplace have said how it’s unfair to charge for content from Wikipedia, but it is offline, and there are other features that may be worth a few dollars to you.

Verdict :

Very useful and quite cheap.

Evernote

Not strictly a travel application but it could be a killer one.  Evernote allows you to synch notes between your browser and phone – e.g. clip bits of websites, add your own notes, screenshots etc.  When you are online, they are clipped to your account once setup, and the notes can be displayed on your phone.
Note I said CAN BE DISPLAYED on your phone – not SYNCHED with your phone.
Therein lies the killer bad point of this application.  If you travel outside your home network, this application is pretty useless apart from taking the odd offline note.  If this did a true synch with your phone you could have maps to guesthouses, itineries, addresses and loads more available offline on your phone.  I would have paid for this on my current trip, but sadly Evernote, I’ve not used you since I realised this.

Pros : Not many as a travel application outside your home network.

Cons : Doesn’t do an offline synchronisation with your phone. See note below though.

Verdict : Could be superb if offline synching was added.  I would have loved to be able to clip guesthouse addresses, maps and phone numbers to my phone and use them when wandering around but it’s just not possible when I was trying it.

UPDATE SINCE REVIEW : I just checked back the Evernote site and new features have since been added to the Android application – it is quoted that “This is the first step towards (drumroll, please) offline note storage, which will be coming soon.”  This could be a killer travel app when this arrives!

XE Currency Convertor

From one of most people’s favourite currency conversion sites comes a mobile app for Android.  You can select which currencies to update, enter a value in any of them, and the corresponding value in other currencies are show.  Sadly I ditched this application pretty quickly as it didn’t work offline, although when I tried it again just before typing this it worked ok.

Pros : Simple to use, and displays a lot of currencies on the main screen.

Cons : Must ensure it keeps working when offline.  Minor gripe is that you need to enter a second screen to enter a currency value.

Verdict : Promising but I need to try it offline more.  For the first while it gave me too many ‘Forced Closes’ on a Nexus One without the data connection enabled.  This seems to have been improved now though and their website states that it can be used offline – maybe I just got unlucky.

Currency Converter (Halmi.sk)

Similar to the XE Currency Convertor, but better in my mind as it’s been written to work offline.  Values are entered on the main screen but due to that taking up more space you see less currencies on the main page than the XE application.  A big plus for this one is that you can enter your own currencies – this may not seem like a big deal, but if you travel in countries where there’s a black market that gets 30-40% than the official rate, this is a really neat feature as everything is 30% less than the real currency value!

Pros :

• The best currency convertor application I’ve used so far.
• Allows you to enter your own currencies and rates – if that seems weird, you’ve jumped to the summary too quickly – read the paragraph above.
• Written to work offline – a must for travel applications to avoid those data charges.

Cons : None that I can think of!

Verdict : Install it now and update those rates before you travel.  Search for ‘currency converter’ with halmi.sk as the authoer as there are now many similar applications on the marketplace.

Other Applications

Have I missed some vital information on the applications above, or is there anything I’ve overlooked in the crowded marketplace that should be mentioned here?  Maybe you’ve switched over from the iPhone and missing your killer app on Android?  If so, let us know via the comments and I’ll whip up a second part to these reviews if it’s called for.

Travel Applications for Android Reviewed is a post from: Budget Travel Notes - Your guide to budget travel hints tips and tricks.

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2. Top Travel Tips – Trip Research, Budgets, Travel Tips, Technology and how to access some home comforts whilst on the road..
3. Budget Travel Trip Planning – Day 0

One of the things I sometimes miss when on the road is reading my favourite magazine.  Recently I’ve been using Zinio to read some magazines whilst on the road.  Zinio has been around for some time now but they offer discounted magazine subscriptions via their website, and the magazines are available to read offline on a variety of platforms, from iPad, iPhone and desktop (both through a desktop client and an Adobe Air client).  An Android client is also due for arrival soon which means this growing platform won’t be neglected.

The best thing of all is the magazines can be read offline, with the Zinio application alerting you when a new title is available.  This means you can read titles such as National Geographic Traveler, Backpacker, travel related titles like DestinAsian, and speciality magazines for Photography, Canoe & Kayak and many more.

The applications ensure titles can be read where and when you’d like to read them whether that’s on your laptop or iPhone, on the plane or on the bus,  and they remain in your library forever.

After using the application on my desktop whilst travelling through Central Asia and New Zealand I find it’s very easy to use, and pages can be flipped or zoomed without too much hassle.

Whilst I prefer having a paper magazine, there’s enough to carry around with you in these days of limited baggage allowance.  Guidebooks and the like take up an awful lot of that allowance, but sometimes I just like to kick back and read something familiar.  If you’re really missing the gossip you can even get titles like Hello!, OK magazine, or NME if you want to know what new music you’ve been missing on when travelling down the rivers in Borneo. If it’s the lifestyle stuff, check out the iPad, MacUser or Maxim magazines.

One of the biggest benefits if you’re a regular reader of a magazine is that you won’t have to try and find the outlet selling the English magazines at some extortionate price in Bangkok. Some of the digital subscriptions allow you to have a full scubscription for 76% less than the newstand price which may mean you get a year’s subscription for the price of a couple of issues bought overseas.
If you like the sound of that, click on the link below and try it out.

Online Magazine Subcriptions – reading when on the road is a post from: Budget Travel Notes - Your guide to budget travel hints tips and tricks.

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1. Top Travel Tips – Trip Research, Budgets, Travel Tips, Technology and how to access some home comforts whilst on the road..

I’m often sitting around wondering what alternatives there are to ‘just travelling’, and feel you can get a lot more out of your trips, particularly long term ones, if you get in amongst the local communities and get a real feel for what they are about.  One of the best ways you can do this is to volunteer for local and international organisations.

In recent years, many people are sceptical about ‘voluntourism’ opportunities as it often seems the companies organising are lining their own pockets as much contributing to a greater cause.  Although that’s quite a generalisation, there are some organisations like this.

If you are considering volunteering and either don’t know where to start, or want to get a better feel for what it’s all about, then you should read a copy of The Underground Guide to International Volunteering by Kirsty Henderson from NerdyNomad.com.  I’ve had a copy of this book for quite some time now, so a review is far beyond the point of being overdue (apologies Kirsty!).

So who is this book for?

If you are sitting there wondering what different kinds of volunteering are available this book will open your eyes to many options from fee based placements, free placements and actually crafting your own.  Even if you don’t have a clue what you want to do, it’ll give you many ideas to get your creative juices flowing, not only in terms of what you can do, but also where you can do it, how to go about it, and most importantly finding an organisation that suits you.

Having volunteered in Borneo for three months myself, I think a lot of people consider volunteering merely as an opportunity to feel good and give something back.  This book also explores many of the other benefits you can get from volunteering such as personal development, improving your CV and meeting some superb people, and all whilst you are helping out a good cause.  This is an often overlooked part of the process and you’ll get a lot more satisfaction out of your time if you consider these other side benefits – it will help you match up with the right organisation for you.

When I volunteered it was with an organisation I wanted to work with for some time, but the options covered in this book are wide and varied.

If you don’t know what to expect when volunteering this book will also give you an overview of some of the conditions you can expect and the practical stuff like visas, insurance and living conditions.

Why should you buy this book?

You could think this is ‘just another ebook’ but Kirsty has a diverse background balancing a nomadic lifestyle working online with many placements volunteering in places such as Haiti, Bangladesh and Indonesia.  Although a great deal of her work has been for the Hands On Disaster Response organisation, this book is not biased towards their causes, as admirable as they are.

The other great thing about this book is the large number of interviews with active participants across a number of programmes so you get a balanced viewpoint. Rather than just writing an ebook to cash in, 50% of the proceeds are going directly to HODR to give something back.

There has been a great deal of effort went into this book and it’s one of the most professionally laid out ebooks I’ve laid my eyes on, so at $14 it’s a bit of steal.

Where do you buy it?

Head on over to the The Underground Guide to International Volunteering homepage, purchase a copy, brew a large coffee, kick back and start reading……you can also have a warm fuzzy feeling that you’ve made a charitable contribution in the process.

The Underground Guide to International Volunteering Review is a post from: Budget Travel Notes - Your guide to budget travel hints tips and tricks.

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We were lucky to arrive in Osh just after the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office lifted their ‘all but essential travel ban’ to Kyrgyzstan.

We never spent much time here as there was a limited amount for us to do in the city, and we had a rough plan on where we wanted to head in Kyrgyzstan :

The day we arrived we thought we’d treat ourselves to a ‘slap up’ meal after being on the road a few days, so it was off to Rich Man’s for dinner.  It was a bizarre experience as we mistakenly ended up in a private room, but there was the fullest menu we had seen so far during our trip.  The food was ok and we stuffed ourselves.

In Osh the market is reputed to be the largest in the area outside of Kashkar.  Whilst travelling I’m much more of a market person than museums as I think it makes you appreciate the locals and their daily life a lot more.  The Osh market covers an area almost 2km long and is generally divided into different sections.  The market was great selling everything under the sun.  If you arrived here to prepare for a trekking trip you’d be able to pick up many different types of food from here.  For some reason, the UK supermarket Morrison’s seemed to dominate as the plastic bag of choice – they were even being sold in batches for $1 on one stall.  I can only assume that they have slipped out some factory in China as opposed to Morrison’s having some business tie up in the region!

The fruit and the herbs are always the areas I find most interesting in the markets in this part of the world as there so many items not available back home, and in the supermarkets it always seems overpackaged and marketed, and you’re forced to buy quantities you may not need, which only leads to waste.

The only other sites we visited in Osh were Solomon’s Throne which is an unmissable ridge shaped mountain in the centre of town.  The view from above is shown as the top picture of this post.  It’s a brief walk (and 3 Som to enter) to get to the top giving you views over the city centre.  We could just see the snow peaked mountains in the distance due to the haze.

We spent time nailing down our plans in Kyrgyzstan which ended up being :

Arslanbob, a last minute addition to go to Sarey Chelek, BIshkek to visit a friend, then Cholpon Ata for Lake Issy Kul, Karakol for some trekking and back to Bishkek, maybe stopping on the south shore depending what happened  That’s a pretty bog standard trip to Kyrgyzstan but we had discovered that it was not possible to visit Lake Song Kul yet as the mountain pass was still closed in May – we would need to be a month later to access there, especially to see the best of it.

Although we were offered a car organised by Osh Guesthouse for $290 for 5 days to take us to Bishkek, we decided to go it alone to save cash and have the experiences, so it was off to the bus station in the morning which is at the end of the market, near the centre of town.

Osh, Kyrgyzstan is a post from: Budget Travel Notes - Your guide to budget travel hints tips and tricks.

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1. Directions to Osh Guesthouse, Osh, Kyrgyzstan
2. Kyrgyzstan – Entry through the Osh Border
3. Tashkent to Osh using Osh Guesthouse

One thing that seems to get mentioned a lot on the Lonely Planet forums is how hard it is to get to Osh Guesthouse.  Now we found it really easy, but then we got picked up from the border

When I imagined Osh after reading the forum entries I imagined it to be one dusty town in the back of beyond – I don’t know why I still thought like that as I’m pretty well travelled, but when I got there I didn’t think it should be so hard to find the place.  The one thing that puts people off when hunting it down is that it’s not like your average backpackers and it’s basically an apartment being used as a guesthouse. It could also appear as thought it’s in a run down area, but that’s just because its in an old soviet style apartment block, so here’s the lowdown.

I assume you’re carrying a Lonely Planet Central Asia book or similar (we weren’t).  I won’t reproduce the map here for obvious reasons, but basically if you’re on the main road ‘Kyrgyzstan’ then it shouldn’t be too difficult.  If you land in town from the border, you’ll probably pass an area on ‘Kyrgyzstan’ that’s got a small square with quite a few people sitting around, or follow round to the general area from the bus station.

You’ll probably have an idea when you’re in the right area on the main road so here’s what you want to look out for :

If you’re heading away from the market, look for a large building with ‘Megacom’ signs on it.  This is next to a small lane – you want to go down this small lane.  At the end of the lane, turn left, and you’ll see a view like this :

You then want to head over to the right, past the silver shed, and walk up the tree covered lane :

When you get on this lane you take the third door on the left, and walk right up to the top of the stairs.  The door is normally left open and you’ll be greeted with the small lettering of Osh Guesthouse as below :

You may not like the look of what you’ve seen here but it is what it is – a budget backpackers guesthouse in Osh. Although it’s not your average western hostel you can get a wealth of information from the owner.  You can contact them in advance to get picked up, arrange long distance taxis, or see if he knows of anyone else wanting to follow the same route as yourself.  The last bit alone could save you a small fortune if you want to cross over to China and can share the costs with someone.

Of course he’ll hire you cars, drivers and guides for your entire stay if you want.  At the time we were there (May 2010) I think a car for 5 days was around $290 to Bishkek (taking in sights on the way), and $500+ for a sightseeing week with packed itinery and guide.

Directions to Osh Guesthouse, Osh, Kyrgyzstan is a post from: Budget Travel Notes - Your guide to budget travel hints tips and tricks.

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1. Tashkent to Osh using Osh Guesthouse
2. Kyrgyzstan – Entry through the Osh Border
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We crossed the border at Osh into Kyrgyzstan on 18th May, by which point Kyrgyzstan had been taken off the British Foreign Office ‘don’t travel’ list.  This wasn’t a huge concern apart from the insurance aspect of it – if something did happen and the insurance had to be used it would effectively invalidate the policy.  For situations like this I think the Foreign Office can be a bit heavy handed as I reckon the risks to foreigners were very low and only likely to be a potential issue around Osh, Jalal-Abad and Bishkek anyway.

The border crossing was very straightforward for us – a quick ‘salam ailekum’ to the soldier, shake of his hand and we were through to the checkpoint.  For some bizarre reason which I don’t understand we had to swap cars just before this point, even though our driver wasn’t coming through the border with us.  We had been in the same car all the way from Tashkent.

Unlike what most people report, our registrations for out nightly accommodation weren’t checked which was a bit of a surprise to us as the border guards had little else to do – the border was still closed to locals apart from exceptional circumstances.  After about twenty repeated pronunciations of our names, and finding out that we weren’t married we had passed out of Uzbekistan.

After walking the 50m through no mans land the Kyrgyz border guard had to be shouted over from his game of chess – that’s how busy the crossing was when we were there!

We were met at the other side by Daniar from Osh Guesthouse who took us to his apartment (the guesthouse), which was in a soviet style apartment block.

Kyrgyzstan – Entry through the Osh Border is a post from: Budget Travel Notes - Your guide to budget travel hints tips and tricks.

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2. Osh, Kyrgyzstan
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As we were travelling along the Silk Route we felt obliged to go and see the Yogdorlik Silk Factory in Margilan.  This was once one of the major producers, but is now dwarfed by the state factories outside town.  The big difference is that in Yogdorlik, the entire process is still manual.

Unfortunately when we arrived there was not an English guide around for the free tour, so we tagged along with a French tour group and picked up the odd bit of information.  If my guidebook was correct, the silkworms are grown in people’s houses after being bought for cheap from the state.  The owners then feed them with mulberry leaves until they reach the right size (by which point they are munching away at an incredible amount of leaves!) then they sell them back to the factory.

The tour started with the silk being extracted from the cocoons and the thread being created.  The threads are then dyed, and various garments made from this.  When we walked into the machine room where small looms were used the sound was deafening.

There is a small shop on the site where there are various silk products for sale from scarfs to jackets.  Like most tempting purchases so far we had to skip it due to the lack of space in our backpacks.

I’m sure I could have given a better description of the process if I was on a tour in my native language, which is usually offered.  Despite it being a bit of a hassle to get there for us, and relatively expensive, if you are in this area the Silk Factory is worth a visit.  Avoid a Sunday though as we arrived then when trying to find accommodation and I think that is the workers day off so there’s little to see.

As for the rest of the Fergana Valley it is reported in the guidebooks as very green a beautiful but we never found it particularly stunning and glad we never spent more time there.  This may be different if you go off the beaten track, but we had far more impressive scenery coming up in our trip so never went looking for it here.

I’ll put some pictures up here when I get some more internet time.

Yogdorlik Silk Factory, Margilan is a post from: Budget Travel Notes - Your guide to budget travel hints tips and tricks.

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To get us from Tashkent to Osh we hired a car from Osh Guesthouse to take us from Tashkent through Fergana valley.  Despite this not being a total budget option, we took it as we still had it in our head that we were pushed for time in Kyrgyzstan as we were aiming for an early June flight from Almaty, Kazakhstan to Olgii, Mongolia.  We also wanted to stop off at Margilan overnight so we could see the silk factory in the morning before heading for the border.

In hindsight, this isn’t the best option if you are tight for cash and have the time available, but it is a lot less hassle.  Normally this route would probably involve :

Tashkent metro to shared taxi point for Fergana, shared taxi to Fergana, shared taxi to Margilan, shared taxi to border (which may mean going back to Fergana which isn’t far).  If you avoided the Margilan bit I think this should cost around $30 each in total if you get lucky with the prices.  Our taxi for 2 cost $130, but it was faster and had less sitting around time – it would probably have been the same cost for 4 people though.

The major downside about this trip for us though is that we expected to get some help getting accommodation and it didn’t quite materialise.  We spent about an hour circling Margilan trying to find the silk factory and unfortunately the silk factory owners weren’t letting us stay in their homestay that night due to some issues with the toilet or something.  The driver got some information about another hostel from a very helpful guide at the factory and he told us it was about $25 a room and central so we could walk to the bazaar and get some food.  After asking directions several times, the driver ended up taking us to some hotel in a housing scheme on the outskirts of Margilan where we couldn’t eat, and were too far out to walk to any other places, even thought we think the hotel should only have been minutes away.  After some confusion we said we wanted to be closer to the centre, spoke to some owner on the phone, the price was misunderstood, and we got dropped in the fairly central ‘Hotel Aslan’ which ended up costing us a whopping $50 per night!  By this point we had been circling Margilan for around 3 hours and we hadn’t done anything so we weren’t really in the mood to try and discuss any alternatives as the driver spoke no English, and us no Russian.  We don’t know where the driver stayed that night but we’re convinced his car never moved, and convinced he never paid $50 a night…..but maybe we’re just being paranoid.

In the hotel we were told there was a restaurant, but it ended up only being used for breakfast, and we were walked 50 yards along the road to the manager’s restaurant and ate there.  He has said a meal was 8000 each, yet the menu price which we paid directly was about half of that.   When we checked out and tried to pay in dollars (as the room rate was displayed in dollars) he tried to use an inflated exchange rate (it was even inflated at black market rates!) so we had to punch another exchange rate into his calculator and offered that instead.  On the plus side, the room was massive, but the TV never offered any foreign channels so it really wasn’t worth it for us – a $6 a night room would have been fine.

We visited the silk factory (see other post) in the morning and crossed the border into Kyrgyzstan soon after.

All in all, it was a very easy taxi ride for us between Tashkent and Osh, and it got us our night in Margilan and to see the silk factory.  The major downside for us is the way the accommodation worked out which is partially due to us not just booking somewhere ourselves, and because the homestay wasn’t available which Osh Guesthouse did try to give the driver details of.  In hindsight it would have been better just to stay in Fergana for the night (despite it pretty much being the anniversary of the Andijon massacre, which is when there can be occasional incidents).

Tashkent to Osh using Osh Guesthouse is a post from: Budget Travel Notes - Your guide to budget travel hints tips and tricks.

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1. Directions to Osh Guesthouse, Osh, Kyrgyzstan
2. Kyrgyzstan – Entry through the Osh Border
3. Osh, Kyrgyzstan

I’m playing a bit of a catch up on my blog for this post but I recently spent a couple of days in Bukhara as part of a week in Uzbekistan. I was lucky that a friend based in Tashkent organised train tickets and a small hotel to stay in so it was very easy trip.
Catching a train from Tashkent to Bukhara is no problem at all as there will probably only be one in the station when you go and catch it (unless of course you are there really early and it’s the train before yours!). Look out for ‘Vagon’ on your ticket with the coach number – this is displayed on the train on a bit of paper stuck onto the window next to the door. The seat numbers are displayed in the coach, but an inspector will check your ticket before boarding anyway. Depending on what train and class you get you may have loads of space for your luggage. I had loads of space in front of me as there were only our two seats for our table on the way down, but not so much on the way back although there’s always the overhead storage which has plenty space for oversize rucksacks.
Anyway, we were luckily booked into Lyabi House Hotel ($50 for a double inc breakfast) which is slap bang in the centre of old Bukhara town. You can probably guess by it’s name but it’s literally only 50m from Lyabi Hauz square which is the central area of old Bukhara. The hotel is based around an ancient courtyard where breakfast is served, and there’s WiFi too. Older reviews mention getting some great food here but they never served meals when I was there. It’s a good location to relax around as well if you want to sit back for a while in some outdoors space.
When deciding how to make the most of my limited time in Uzbekistan an ex-pat resident said if we were to visit only one other location to see Bukhara and I’m glad of the decision. I never had enough time to do the typical Khiva, Bukhara, Samarkand and Fergana Valley route – I was limited to Tashkent, Bukhara and Fergana Valley only.
Bukhara was a lovely setting which was very relaxing to wonder around for a couple of days. If you’re really into your history you may want to spend a few days here, but if you’re in a real rush I’ve been told it’s possible to do it at a push with a same day return flight from Tashkent, but that would be zooming through it!
Compared to Samarkand everything is within easy walking distance (30-45 minutes) and it can be interesting to get lost in the back streets as well. Although I’m not a big hisorical fan normally you can’t fail to be impressed by the ancient buildings such as the Ark fortress. Buildings have been here since the year 713, with the present form of building dating from the 16th century. The Kalon Minaret has existed in various forms since 919. In the past criminals have been dropped the 155 feet to a certain death below.
Walking around the streets is quite relaxing although I can imagine in high season it’s thronged with tour groups. There’s some great souvenirs from hats to carpets, jewellery and knives. There’s also a lot of impressive ceramics lined along the streets. There are many open craftshops ranging from a UNESCO backed carpet factory and school to men forging historic knives just off the main street. If you look for the UNESCO factory keep your eyes peeled for a discreet wooden door down some steps – I’m sure I walked past it several times in the backstreets walking round in circles before I noticed it.
There’s a variety of eating places, especially focussed around Lyabi Hauz square. I never noticed any English menus whilst there so usually I was offered the usual ‘shashlik’ kebabs.
It worth visiting the Silk Road Tea House where you’ll be able to sample a whole host of teas along with a platter to traditonal snacks (and you can get some really strong coffee too!).

The notes above have just skimmed the surface of Bukhara. Have you got any additional tips to add? If so, please leave a comment below.

Bukhara, Uzbekistan is a post from: Budget Travel Notes - Your guide to budget travel hints tips and tricks.

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