Central-Asia-Travel-Experiences-and-costs-2019: September 2019

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Tashkent (Uzbekistan) to Khujand (Tajikistan) surface traveling--latest, on September 27, 2019

Yesterday, I wasted a lot of time looking for the Tashkent to Khujand bus. There is a lot of misleading information on the Internet, about that bus service.
Here is what I found out:
1. The bus to Khujand (supposedly) leaves from Tashkent IF it arrives from Khujand. [This is what the 'Information' lady told me, inside the bus station. It was now what I wanted to hear. I was looking for a regular service that I could rely on.] BTW, the closest metro station to the bus station is Olmazor--walking distance.
2. The other option is to take an electric train from the South Railway Station to Bekobad (the border). The closest metro station is Chilonzor--around 2.1 Km away from the South Railway Terminal/Station (Janubiy Vokzal). Cross the border on foot and then take shared taxi from there to Khujand. But the electric train service got interrupted on September 25 and won't be back on till September 26.
3. The comparatively expensive option is always there. Take a shared taxi from Quyluk Bozor (closest metro station is Tashkent/Toshkent--either walk from that metro station or take a taxi for around 10000 Sum to Quyluk) for around 15000 Sum to the border (Bekobad). Cross the border on foot and then take a Tajik shared taxi to Khujand. And this is exactly what I am going to do today.

Saturday, September 21, 2019

The latest location of Afghanistan Embassy in Bishkek, Krgyzstan--as of September 21, 2019

The Afghan embassy in Bishkek has been on the move. On Friday, September 20, I went to 28 Chehova St hoping to find the embassy there. It was not. Now that building is taken up by an IT office. A kind man working in that office help me find the new location of the Afghanistan embassy.


28 Chehova St. (the old location of the Afghanistan Embassy)	--now an office

The new location of the Afghan Embassy is in a gated compound by Gospital Mikrokhirugiya--close to the intersection of Baitik Baatyr St. and Jantoshev St.

The location is shown by the white dot. [I was walking from the Afghanistan Embassy to the Uzbekistan Embassy and the blue dotted line was my path from one to another.]

Thursday, September 5, 2019

Rental bikes outside the metro station

Food delivery man

Found this food delivery man going into the metro station to catch a train. Was he carrying a pizza in his large rectangular backpack?

The metro station

At night I went out for a little while; made a few Facebook Live videos. Went to the nearest metro station.

Russian SIM

Had a very short sleep last night. Jet lag does not let me go so easily. Later in the morning, walked to a MTS store and bought a MTS Russian SIM for 350 Roubles. Unlimited Internet usage for two weeks and 500 minutes of calls within the Russian Federation--not a bad deal for less than $5! I wonder if it is a special package for the tourists.

Grocery shopping, the first day in Moscow

I headed for the nearest grocery store, as advised by Google, but found another one much before that. Water, milk, bread, eggs, salad dressing, plums, and carrots--all for less than $5.

Room $33
Airport Express $7
Groceries $5

A total of $45 spent the first day--not bad at all!

Finally in my room, slightly before 10 pm

But then I had to go and buy food for the morning.

Reaching Belorussky train station and looking for a McDonald to get the Internet access

It was a huge thing. My room reservation was in my Yahoo mailbox and I did not have Internet access--even when the Google FI SIM was working fine on roaming and I was able to call Mojahid Mirza using my phone. There was a McDonalds near Belorussky station, but in order to connect to their WiFi I needed to provide my telephone number--and only Russian telephone numbers, starting with 7 were allowed. I talked to a young man eating there. He understood my situation and made his phone a hotspot, for me to connect. I was able to retrieve the information I was looking for: what is the address and how to get there. This young man also showed me how to take screen shots on the phone--you press 'Power' and 'Enter' button at the same time. If I had screenshots of this information, I would have been in a much better position. I thanked the young man. He left and being bitten by this technology, I spent some time writing down the information in my notebook. Outside the McDonalds, the rain had become even lighter. I had the Troika card which I recharged with some money, inside the metro station. Took Line 5 from Belorussky metro station to Prospect Mira and then from there, Line 6 to reach my destination station.
At my destination station I did not know which direction to go to. First a young woman in an eatery, and then a young man eager to practice his English helped me in reaching my address--and in between I had a taxi driver who gave me completely wrong advice. I wonder if he did not know or he was intentionally wanting me to lose hope and ask him to take me there.