Hi all,
I was thinking about doing this way from Samarkand to Dushanbe through Termiz, but does anyone know if it's possible to do it straight?
That would save me a night in Termiz, which has not much interest for me, really.
Thanks in advance and greets,
Iker
Hi Iker! It is certainly possible. Done that about 3w ago. There is a daily overnight train from Tashkent (stopping at Samarkand around 2am) to Denov (odd days from T.) or Termiz (even days from T.). The former option is obviously better than the latter. In case you can catch only train to Termiz the best would be to get off at the point where the railway line from Karshi joins the Termiz-Denov line (about 1hr north of Termiz - have a look at the map) as this saves you couple of hours.
Once you are in Denov (at 1pm if you take the direct train) you take a short marshrutka ride to the vokzal in the centre where you should be able to catch a shared taxi for 50km ride to the border (8.000sum pp). Border crossing was fairly straightforward - you have to walk 600-700m through no man's land - only a bit time-consuming (because of Uzbeks, Tajiks were easy-going). Once you are on the Tajik side you catch another shared taxi to Dushanbe (25tjs pp, app. 5usd). The distance is only 60km but the road is under reconstruction so count on about 1h30 to get there. Good luck, Bostjan