Bishkek Tours and Trips

Both tour leaders were very good. The itinerary was very good ... we saw and experienced so much! The tour group was fragmented and poor ... the worst group of people that I have travelled with. In particular one person on the tour refused to speak with or acknowledge me and one of the others on the tour, bringing all of the charm of a spiteful girls playground to the experience. A tour group is a transient and fascinating experience in social balance. Even if you don't get on with people there has to be a recognition that making the experience uncomfortable for other people on the tour is not acceptable.

Varied and very interesting trip to three Stans of the Silk Road. Kygyzstan revealed beautiful scenery and traditional ways of life. Kazakhstan showed a mix of ancient history and modern city life. Uzbekistan was full of awe inspiring culture and buildings associated with the Silk Road.

This was a good introduction to Central Asia that packed a lot of experiences and information into 16 days including the natural wonders of the magnificent Tien Shan mountains, valleys and gorges between, lakes, forests , deserts and parks , ancient preserved and rebuilt ruins filled with history, and the bustling cities each demonstrating their uniqueness, history, influences and progression.

As an Exodus staff member (Senior Consultant), I’ve been lucky enough to travel on quite a few trips but Central Asia has been on my list for years. This is an incredible trip visiting 3 Stans, and all very different from each other. The scenery and hiking in Kyrgyzstan was spectacular and the Golden Eagle experience was a real highlight. Uzbekistan was such a contrast to the first 2 countries and some of the sights were breathtakingly beautiful. All of the countries were fascinating in their own way and our guides Vitaliy and Dilshod were excellent! Both very knowledgeable and gave us great insights and the history of each place we visited.

There were 12 of us on this journey. All were experienced travellers: curious, well-informed, energetic, good-humoured and punctual. Many of them kept detailed photo records and journal accounts of what they were seeing. We came from very different backgrounds, but all managed to get on well together which greatly enhanced the trip. We appreciated each other. Our Tour Director, Begaim, was managing her first Explore journey, and gained in assurance with every day that passed as she settled into her job; she ended up being very popular and highly valued. One of our local guides, Bekhruz, also stood out for his knowledge and his skill in communicating it. He asked us to submit questions that he could discuss during long bus journeys; these were penetrating and challenging but he handled them all with aplomb. The organization of this complex journey was a logistical tour de force. It used buses, an aeroplane and cars to cover terrain that was often very rough — many roads were not made up and were full of ruts or potholes. Towards the end, Explore provided FIVE vehicles with FIVE different drivers to get us across the desert: very good drivers they were too. Hotels were mostly of very good quality. The final one was decorated in white and gold which was the pervasive colour scheme of Ashgabat: positively luxurious and certainly beautiful. One hotel did not have enough furniture to satisfy this particular traveller (the present reviewer) who would have liked a table in her room. However, all were clean and safe. We stayed in 2 yurts: one was very comfortable with toilets and washroom beside each installation and a well-equipped central module where food was served and songs were sung. The other, near Darvaza, the “gate to hell”, was much simpler, with two shared toilets quite far away from the yurts. These were difficult to visit at night. Some of our group were “under-whelmed” with Darvaza where the fire is slowly abating, but remains a tourist magnet. The journey was on the whole well-structured. Explore supported us in procuring visas for Turkmenistan though the local guide there made a mistake in charging the same amount of entrance money for EU and UK passport holders. The UK is charged more! This matter was rectified. An irritant was that Mastercard was often declined and sometimes this was in places where there were no exchange offices. People borrowed money from each other. Explore may wish to suggest in future that VISA cards might be more widely accepted as a supplement to Mastercards. I have already said that the roads were very rough. The journey to the seven lakes followed a bone-shaking trip the previous day with yet more bone-shaking to get to lakes 6 and 7. More of the same. The village of Erbent turned out to be almost totally devoid of interest, except for a statue. Some changes could be envisaged here. Explore is becoming ever more inventive in finding interesting things for us to do. We saw how eagles were trained, how felt was made and embroidered & how yurts were assembled. We saw how “the best paper in the world” was made at Konigil, Samarkand, how the horses performed (including Przewalski’s which have a museum dedicated to them); how men kidnapped women on horseback in order to avoid paying the bride price; how a small band of musicians could make music from almost any domestic implement. I was even asked to dance with one of the troupe. We saw some of the best architecture in the world. One of my favourites was a building that I had seen during my first visit to Uzbekistan: the Ismail Samani Mausoleum which was completed in AD 905. I was able to compare it with a little picture that I have cherished ever since my first visit. This was a powerful journey that gave us indelible impressions. We all appreciated it greatly.

Rifa our leader was great over Kyrgyzstan to Uzbekistan. The over all trip gave a great insight to Central Asia. A number of the countries it would be great to explore them further. As they had so much to offer.