Central Asia FAQ thread

The countries covered by this FAQ are: Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

It also de facto covers Xinjiang (China), Pakistan (being that it is a 'stan), and Northern Iran which are historically and technically part of Central Asia. In addition there are often questions asked here about Mongolia and Russia and occasionally the three Caucasus countries, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.

For Pakistan consider cross posting on the Indian subcontinent branch; for Xinjiang (China) and Mongolia, the North East Asia branch; for Iran, the Middle East branch; and for the others, the Eastern Europe & the Caucasus branch.

Here's some tips to make life easier:

1. Do your homework
The web is filled with basic information on Central Asia. Google is your best friend. Get your basic info first, then you can ask intelligent questions on the Thorn... more »

if you want to accompany me

i will go next week to tashkent so if one to accompany me so that we enroll in a tour compny

Russian International Passport

Hi! I'm a Russian citizen, i have the Russian international passport but don't have the internal passport. I was born and lived all my life overseas. Will i have a problem if i come to Uzbekistan? My relatives live there. Thanks!

Pamir Highway in August - what to wear??

I will be in Tajikistan for 3 weeks in mid August and first week of September. Will be spending a couple of days in Tashkent and then going by land to Bishkek. After that, the rest of the trip will be following the Pamir Highway to Osh and and back to Tashkent. It will probably be quite hot in the capital cities, but will I need warm clothing, ie: a down jacket, for the evenings while in the Pamirs? Thanks in advance for any response.

Irkeshtam Crossing into China

Anyone thinking of doing the Osh-Kashgar crossing around 5 July 2013 as it's cheaper for 2 -4 people so it would be helpful to have 2-3 others to join me although I do have a huge case which might be counted as 1 person?

kazachstan rusia mongolia

hiii to all
we are trying to change the rode and skip the entry to china for now
we are israhellis so we have free visa to rusia and mongolia.we want to do -Kazachstan go up from the neerest place to mongolia and cross to rusia and from rusia to mongolia on the clossest part there
DID ANYBODY DID IT????
dose anyone have any ideas how to make it with wich borders to cross or rodes to take???
will be happy to get some ideas
tenx danA

Health insurance..?

Hello everybody.

I'm planning a trip and I wanted to ask which kind of health insurance, if you had any, you used in Afghanistan.
Most of the insurance companies do not cover war zones, and I don't want to risk of buying just whatever policy, considering it is still a war zone.

Secondly, I'm a woman, and I'll be travelling solo.
Has any of you girls been travelling there by themselves and maybe feel to share a bit of advice? Is there anything especially important to take into consideration or is using your common sense and knowledge of culture enough?

Lavinia

Edited by: LaviniaC

trekking from Jelondi to Djavahangoz in Pamir (Tajikistan)

Hello, does anybody went to the Turuntaikul lake between Jelondi and Dzhavahangoz?
I would like to know if it's possible to find a inhabitants or sheperds on the way, to sleep at their place, in order not to carry a tent.
If anybody did it, how was it?
Thanks a lot?

Changing money/customs

Currently in Uzbekistan and loving it. We've been changing money on the black market, but it has just occured to me that we had to fill in a detailed form at customs when we arrived declaring all the currency we were carrying. The customs official stressed the improtance of keeping the form for when we left.

Can anyone help with what will happy when we leave (for Turkmenistan visa permitting)? Will we have to show receipts for where we changed money? Will they want us to account for all the money spent? Would one or two official exhange receipts do?

Thanks for you help.