Uzbekistan

Why visit Uzbekistan? A question I’ve been asked plenty just lately. Central Asia is not a part of the world that has traditionally been on the British traveller’s radar. Our adventures in Afghanistan over the last couple of centuries have been filed in the ‘Best If Quickly Forgotten’ drawer. The Silk Road? As kids, we were more likely to visit the Cutty Sark and learn about the clipper ships plying sea routes from China to London. And then most of the region disappeared into the bleak abyss of the Russian Empire/Soviet Union for more than a century. Out of sight, out of mind.

Times have changed. I think my eyes first cast curious glances at Uzbekistan in the early Noughties, after watching Simon Reeve’s series, Meet the Stans. More recently, Joanna Lumley provided inspiration with her Silk Road series. Generally speaking, Uzbekistan is getting a lot of positive press these days.

The sudden flood of enthusiastic write ups on travel blogs, videos on YouTube and reviews on Trip Advisor has been by design, not accident. Uzbekistan was almost impossible to travel to until a new president with new ideas took power about six or seven years ago. Nowadays, most folk can visit visa free. The national airline has expanded and offers direct flights to more places than ever. And the country’s KGB derived propaganda machine has put itself to good use persuading the world that the charms of Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva should be on your ‘must see’ list.

In the aftermath of the first novel coronavirus wave, when most countries kept their borders tightly shut, the Uzbeks did their best to welcome visitors back. When some nations demanded $3k deposits from tourists in case they needed hospital care due to Covid, Uzbekistan offered a guarantee of $3k worth of free care if you got unlucky with the virus.

To return to my opening sentence. There are many answers to the question, ‘Why Uzbekistan?’ It’s cheap. It’s exotic. And it’s at that sweet spot – all the facilities for tourism are in place, but the tourists haven’t yet come in the sort of numbers that have overwhelmed so many other parts of the world. It’s got some of the glamour of its Islamic neighbours, without any of the head choppy chop stuff. It’s different. It’s vibrant. It’s a chance to tread the same path as so many folk who crossed the Silk Road over the last several thousands of years.

But my favourite answer when asked why I wanted to go to Uzbekistan is this: Uzbekistan wanted me to come visit. They want you to go too. They’ve opened up to the world and invited y’all in. There’s a welcome sign up in the arrivals hall in Tashkent’s international airport, and they mean it. Being wanted and valued is an important and often overlooked aspect of travel. So Mrs P and I booked our tickets, boarded an Uzbekistan Airways flight at Heathrow, and we set sail. Figuratively speaking, of course. The days of the Cutty Sark are done.