Uzbekistan is becoming more and more popular among our travelers. After hearing stories about the magical architecture of local madrasahs and mosques, dozens of types of plov and the hospitable Uzbek people, many want to see for themselves that all this is not a fairy tale – but after the trip they are disappointed with how things really are. “Subtleties” found out what exactly the guests of Uzbekistan complain about, and are ready to name six key disadvantages of the country from the point of view of a tourist. Perhaps the main disadvantage of tourist Uzbekistan is infrastructure. Hotels and guest houses are old or too basic. The staff can be indifferent to the needs of vacationers: the waiters will not notice that you have run out of bread or drinks, the cleaners will forget to put soap in the room. Wi-Fi can only work in the hotel corridor, for breakfast they can take out cold eggs and yesterday's salads. Tourist buses in the country are often ancient and uncomfortable, with guides or drivers having to fight to turn on the air conditioner and turn off the loud music. {{Detail|For the sake of fairness, we note that in recent years the country has been actively investing in the development of infrastructure, and this is really noticeable. Especially in Tashkent and the main tourist centers – Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva. /1n/29/1n29ahiohjwg0sk4w4g0g0w8k.jpg Travelers unanimously repeat: there are not enough good guides in Uzbekistan. Such that they tell with a soul, but at the same time to the point, and do not quote Wikipedia and do not spin fables. Those who travel on their own, hoping to find experts on the spot, should go through the forums in advance and interview friends, so as not to multiply reviews later: “the money was paid, but they didn’t learn anything new.” Guides of Uzbek travel agencies are sometimes accused of wanting only to get money without providing even the slightest quality service. In the order of things – promise three boxes, and then not show even half of the places from the declared list, or, having handed over the group to another guide, turn off the phone – they say, claims are not accepted. 1. Weak infrastructure
2. Good guides are worth their weight in gold
3. Dusty
Spring and summer dust storms for Uzbekistan are a severe version of the norm. And sometimes such a scary phenomenon as a dusty-sand haze happens. This is when a mist, similar to fog, hangs in the air for several hours or even days, only the air itself is not humid, but dry, with the smallest sandy dust, so it’s even hard to breathe. The reason for the appearance of such haze is called cutting down trees, high rates of construction, excessive abstraction of groundwater for irrigation, anticyclones. Uzbekistan itself is a very dusty and sandy place: half of the country's territory is desert.
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4. The food is too heavy and high in calories
The abundance of pastries, a large number of fried dishes, fatty and treacherously tasty pilaf, which is really cooked in a hundred different ways – there is no need to talk about dieting or at least its semblance in Uzbekistan. It’s really difficult to come back without extra pounds from here. In addition, the local cuisine is an example of unexpected combinations: for example, it is customary to dip meat and manti in the local equivalent of yogurt, and dumplings are stuffed with eggs and milk.
5. Cash is always needed
1 ruble is 145 Uzbek soums. When you change one thing for another, you get just piles of money, so you feel at least like an oligarch. It is inconvenient to walk in Uzbekistan with all this wealth: you cannot stuff thick packs into your pocket or purse, and few places accept bank cards. Euros and rubles are reluctantly accepted here, the exchange rates for them are extortionate. And if you don’t change it, then when the merchant starts to figure out what course it is today and what change to give, he will easily confuse both himself and the tourist.
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6. A lot of deception
Different kinds: “ancient” buildings turn out to be replicas. Souvenir merchants sell Chinese consumer goods, passing them off as local artisans, and sometimes they can substitute goods when they pack them for a tourist, seeing that he is in a hurry. In addition, such a sad phenomenon as overbooking is common here, when more seats or rooms are sold on one bus or hotel than they actually are. As a result, someone has to ride standing up, and someone has to spend the night in the same room with strangers or huddle with a large family in a tiny room.