June’s Central Asia is now fully BOOKED 🎒

Flights ✅
Accommodation ✅
Trains ✅
Internal Flight ✅

Kyrgyzstan 🇰🇬 Uzbekistan 🇺🇿 & Kazakhstan 🇰🇿 await!!!

Mum & I have booked our flights for the annual trip. Spain 🇪🇸 & Portugal 🇵🇹 by train:

Santiago de Compostela - Vigo - Porto - Douro Valley - Lisbon 🚆

Random price drop on my Almaty - Ankara Pegasus Airlines flight today. It was £143 yesterday and today it has been booked for £113.

Just one Fly Arystan ticket to book between Turkistan - Almaty and a train ticket from Ankara - Istanbul then my trip perpetrations are complete.

Anyone recently travelled from Tashkent into Kazakhstan? Either Shymkent or Turkistan (final destination)?
I can take a train direct to Turkistan, but it takes 8 hours and the border is meant to be quite a long wait.
Can I take a couple of marshrutka/shared taxis or direct bus?

Some of the cities high on my list that I want to visit:

- Damascus, Syria 🇸🇾
- Beirut, Lebanon 🇱🇧
- Shiraz, Iran 🇮🇷
- Pyongyang, North Korea 🇰🇵
- Alexandria, Egypt 🇪🇬

Still have 10 days leave, as well as 12 days off over Xmas/NYE, which means 3 trips left to book after Central Asia. Potential 3 from:

- Azerbaijan by 🚆
- Belarus by 🚆
- Egypt by 🚆
- Turkey by 🚆
- East or West Africa
- South Korea
- Northern India
- Lebanon

Thoughts on dating between a non drinker & drinker?

I quit alcohol in Aug as I just didn’t enjoy it, after effects or the impact on health/exercise. I enjoy nights out, events & socialising much more sober.

This is weird to most women on dating apps? I would date a drinker FYI.

Working on another potential trip to Turkey 🇹🇷

Istanbul - Izmir - Bilecik (via Eskişehir) - Söğüt - Safranbolu (via Ankara) - Zonguldak - Istanbul

Keen to delve into some more Ottoman history and Roman Ruins along the way.

If anyone has any recommendations in any of the following places, please let me know and send any blog posts:

Bishkek, Tashkent, Khiva, Bukhara, Samarkand, Turkistan & Almaty.

Central Asia awaits me in June!!!!

Booked this little delight in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan 🇰🇬 for a £63 (36% off) & 3 night stay (£21 a night).

I need to maintain some kind of swimming when I’m away as part of training, so this suits perfectly. Looks to be sauna facilities, too.

Still budget travel at £21 a night???

Thinking of taking a trip back to Turkey later in the year to Bilecik/Söğüt & Safranbolu.

My learnings of the Ottoman Empire & wanting to see areas linked to it is of appeal.

Completely forgot about my upcoming trip to Bosnia for the Bank Holiday next weekend.

Flying into Sarajevo with Wizz Air & departing with Ryanair from Zagreb.

The plan is to spend time in Travnik and Jajce, and a morning in Zagreb before flying back to Stansted.

To be totally honest if people aren’t getting this rule by now as it’s in the press constantly and has been for years, then you really shouldn’t be allowed a passport.

Train tickets for this 1st of several Uzbekistan 🇺🇿 train journeys are booked 🚆

In typical fashion my birthday in June will be spent solo on a 16 hour night train from Tashkent - Khiva.

Wouldn't have it any other way!!

Productive couple of hours in Cafe Nero this morning booking my accommodation in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan & Kazakhstan ☕️

11 nights total: £140.28
Nightly average: £12.75

My process is Booking(dot)com, sort by lowest price then find clean, best location, value with private room.

Central Asia itinerary is locked in. Mainly as I need to pre book all of my trains for Uzbekistan.

I’ll be starting in Kyrgyzstan, travelling through Uzbekistan and then finishing in Kazakhstan.

As the Uzbekistan 🇺🇿 train tickets go on sale 45 days in advance I have until the end of next week to confirm my Central Asia itinerary for June 🎒