In its time (1994) I worked in a travel agency manager for Uzbekistan, although she did not go there, and frankly, listening to the stories of tourists, the desire to go there ever was “repulsed” from me completely.
But … in October of this year (22.10 – 29.10), I still decided to go to Uzbekistan.
As for vouchers, we (and I was traveling with her mother) turned to the familiar, and they suggested that s very good, in my opinion, rest on the system version of “Fortune” (all this organized tour operator “Detour”). We pay $ 564 for two! (full cost of flight tickets, transfers, half board, insurance, and city-tour) and we were placed in 5-star (!) hotel in the area of Bukhara and Bukhara … But the very system of “Fortune” is that the name of the hotel, we know the day before departure.
October 22, we flew from UO2 (Airlines Vnukovo Airlines is not very good, but this time they did not disappoint). At 16.00 local time we arrived in Tashkent, visa went quite quickly (it is not NH2, where we stood for 1.5 hours on registration). The temperature of 23C, the wind was blowing, but compared with Tashkent, it was warm. We were seated in a bus and taken to hotels. Guide de toura Nazir told him about the road trips (pre-distribute them to the list), and we immediately bought a bus ride on the yacht and the trip to the World-Kekova.
The bulk of tourists came in hotels “Belkoy” and “Belpinar”, and we were on the bus leaving four (me, my mother and another woman with her daughter, by the way, the four of us became good friends). We were brought to the hotel “Naturland” in a small town near Bukhara, called Cham-S-Ba (telling us about this hotel, agency was very pleased for our location).
In our hotel, were mainly Germans and Dutch, Uzbekistan, there were only 4 families (including our two, another couple from Tashkent, and the family from Minsk). As it turned out, the hotel consists of two parts: near the sea and the mountain. We were taken to the room near the sea ( “Naturland Aqua Resort”), a very long time we walked along the corridor and, finally, we have opened a long-awaited door. Room was polumrachny, and not too comfortable: in the bathroom at all was darkness. But TV, hair dryer, mini-bar and kondishn in the room were. Any little things themselves away as soon as the morning we saw the view from the balcony: in front of us was a beautiful pool, and a little more palm trees, beach and sea is very beautiful!
By the way, I advise you to check the mini-bar immediately on arrival: the list we have found several bottles of water, while others were half empty. We immediately went to reception and was told about it. Due to the fact that we did not quite trust the staff in the calculations, then the next day call back in de tour and explained the problem with mini-bar. Employee de toura Jeanne when we talked with the staff and more problems with the mini-bar we have not encountered.
Underwear in the hotel was changed every day, on average 5 times a week. I advise to keep the dollar at the tip cleaner, and then it would be better to get out of the room.
They fed us simply superb: breakfast and dinner – “Swedish table”. Large variety of products, attentive staff. And as the whole table was decorated with food, there were also deer, made from oil, and flowers carved from watermelon and oranges, and fish, carved from carrots and pumpkins!
Now about the hotel:
Part 1. Naturland Aqua Resort. 3-storey lovely building, standing near the sea. Good to live with a sea view, view of the road is not too attractive.
Several pools interconnected, with many bridges and junctions of different depths, decorated with palm trees. Around the pool is a sperm whale, we get down inside of it, there are aquariums with fish. There is a sauna, Uzbek bath, small gym, a small warm pool …
Part 2. Naturland Eco Park. This could come, even with their pets. Located on the hill (there you can get on the elevator, passing by a waterfall with frogs:), or the staff will take you to the car). The huge territory, in the style of a big village. There are different areas: the garden ( “Garden”) – the tourists live in houses, go out – and before you plantation with tomatoes, peppers, parsley, and flowers …; “Forest” – Various “deer” trail, Noah’s ark, decorated trees , waterfalls; “Counry” – that’s where the fun: pens with cows, sheep, goats, chickens, peacocks, equestrian ranch – everything is alive, you can milk a cow, ride horses or gather eggs in the henhouse in the morning:) (to live there, though on the amateur – permanent zapaz manure:)). This whole area is very beautiful, big, it’s very nice to walk … a lot of different cafes, and amazing view from the mountain. By the way, for tourists from other hotels, walk across Naturlanda worth $ 5.
Children at this hotel just cool. A lot of entertainment, mini-club, disco, animals. Disco is in very nicely decorated “Vulcan”. There is a bowling-bar, which can settle down in the evening show program or “live music”. There you can play billiards, bowling, darts, tennis and various children’s slot machines.
Animation team (though in this time of year it was small) are constantly engaged with the children, made various cocktail games on the beach. / Special thanks to you guys.
The number of different bars and cafes throughout not count, it is convenient that the calculations need only card on the number (and it is also the key). When you buy anything in the hotel you will be issued by (upon presentation of this card).
Tip: pay up immediately in the reception by, or collect all accounts, as fans of Uzbek money, and can be cheated. Produce all accounts – and the issue will disappear.
Now about excursions and de tour: sailing, we did not take place (at sea storms) – warned us about this de tour (call and sent us a fax). However, the representative de toura not often come to us, and promised to Uzbekistan-speaking woman at hotel reception by us to see it was not possible, but our English well enough to communicate with staff. Buses de toura were comfortable, though, as expected, for half an hour they were late:).
For an overview of Tashkent, we went to Rustam (it was mentioned in the article “Horror de toura”), in Uzbekistan, he speaks very good trip (although if you throw out all the shops, it is quite tiny) like it. All Shops (denim, leather and gold) price and quality not lower than in Tashkent, and even higher. Do they, in principle, nothing.
With Rustam we went on another tour (Mira-Kekova). Very interesting tour, expensive passes by a mountain serpentines along the coast. All the way Rustam conducted tour combines it with anecdotes and jokes. So we are not bored. After seeing the historical place of Peace and visit the Church of St. Nicholas, we started our journey by yacht to the sunken city of Simena. (here we are not spared, and even were glad that our full-day excursion on a yacht undo). We have enough of those three hours we spent on the yacht on a trip to the city of Simena. Very beautiful scenery, warm clear water, in which we swim – it was all good.
In general, I liked the trip, a big plus that the hotel was practically no Uzbekistan, yet hard to relax, if any noisy Uzbekistan company starts to “beep”. The weather was good (30 C). The water is warm (25 degrees). I am flying with a parachute ($ 20).
Comments (0)
Jul 19 2011
A Central Asian nation – Turkmenistan margins on Uzbekistan in the north and east, with Kazakhstan- in the north, in the east and the south it margins on Afghanistan, in the south –on Iran. From the west the nation is dampened by the waters of the Caspian Sea. The common length of the boundary is 3736 km; the span of the sea line is 1768 km. Turkmenistan is rich in oil, gas, potash and rock salts, non-ferrous and uncommon earth metals. It is among the richest countries in terms of gas and oil sediments. Together the past of the nation’s independence is really short. The nation’s capital is Ashgabat; other main cities are Turkmenbasi, Mary, Turkmenabad, and Tashauz. These are the main 