Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
TAXI¨TIPS
Every car is a potential taxi in Tashkent, but essentially there are two forms: licensed
cabs and 'independent' cabs. The former have little roof-mounted 'taxi' signs. The latter
are jut average cars driven by average dudes.
Independent taxis generally leave it up to you to pick the price, which is ine. As long
as you don't insult them with your ofer, they will usually accept it. The minimum fare
for a short hop is 3000S, but this can be as little as 1000S if there are other passengers
in the cab already (as will often be the case). Longer trips will cot 5000-10,000S: un-
less you're supremely conident of ofering an acceptable amount, always agree a fare
before you get into the car.
Licensed cabs - especially those waiting outside bars and hotels - are a diferent
beat, so always agree a fare in advance and expect rates to be a little higher.
If you jut want to book a taxi rather than wait and haggle on the treet, you'll pay only
slightly higher rates by getting your hotel to dial
Taksi¨Lider
(
%
244 77 77)
or
Millen-
nium¨Taxi
(
%
129 55 55)
.
Cab drivers tend not to know treet names (and when they do, it's generally the
Soviet-era ones), so use landmarks - big hotels and metro tations work bet - to direct
your driver to your detination.
map. if you listen as the train doors are about to
close, you'll hear the name of the next station at
the end of the announcement: '
Ekhtiyot buling,
eshiklar yopiladi; keyingi bekat…'
('Be careful, the
doors are closing; the next station is…').
PUBLIC TRANSPORT
Buses, trolleybuses and trams cost 600S, pay-
able on board to the conductor or driver. Most of
them are marked in Latinised Uzbek and given
a number (though some older buses are still
marked in Cyrillic).
The destination of public buses, trams, trol-
leybuses and marshrutkas is written clearly in
the window. Useful stops for tourists include: the
Chorsu Bazaar
and
Turkuaz/GUM stops
, on
opposite sides of Navoi near hotel Chorsu; the
train station ('Vokzal') stop
on Shevchenko op-
posite the train station; the
Grand Mir
(Rossiya)
hotel on Shuta Rustaveli; and
TsUM
(Toshkent
Univermagi).
As a major sanatoria centre in Soviet
times, Chimgan today boasts a few newer
resorts and retreats to complement the
usual diet of decrepit yet still-functioning
concrete Soviet hulks. And the Chorvok
Reservoir offers more mellow outdoor
pursuits such as fishing, swimming and
canoeing - ask about these at the Chorvok
Oromgohi hotel.
This entire area is known locally as Chim-
gan, a reference to both its biggest town and
its central peak, Bolshoy Chimgan (3309m).
2
¨Activities
Trekking
Ugam-Chatkal National Park covers the
mountainous area west and southwest of
the Kyrgyzstan border, from the city of
Angren in the south all the way up to the
Pskem Mountains in the fingerlike, glacier-
infested wedge of land jutting into Kyr-
gyzstan, northeast of Chimgan town. The
Pskem top out at 4319m but are off limits
to all but well-heeled heli-skiers because of
their location in a sensitive border zone.
Should the situation change, this will be-
come prime virgin trekking territory.
For now, all of the national park's acces-
sible terrain lies in the Chatkal Mountains,
which stretch into Kyrgyzstan. Lacking the
stratospheric height of the big Kyrgyz and
Tajik peaks, the appeal of the Chatkals is
their accessibility. Escaping civilisation in-
volves walking just a short way out of the
Chimgan or Beldersoy ski areas.
Around Tashkent
Chimgan & Around
Just over an hour northeast of Tashkent
by car lies
Ugam-Chatkal¨National¨Park
,
an outdoor haven loaded with hiking and
adventure-sport opportunities as well as
more relaxing pursuits. The mountains here
are not quite as extreme or scenic as the
higher peaks around Almaty and Bishkek,
but certain activities (heli-skiing, trekking
and rafting come to mind) are more acces-
sible and at least as challenging.
