Two Weeks on the Silk Road
My wife and I just returned from an amazing two weeks (April 1-14) in Uzbekistan arranged by Aliya Japarova and Chapan Travel. I tried to arrange this tour myself (as I always do), but I had only one week to sort it out since our original plan to travel to Jordan was cancelled at the last minute by the conflict in the Persian Gulf. I discovered quickly that many options for places to stay and modes of travel during high season in Uzbekistan were fully booked, so I turned to Caravanistan for help. They put me in touch with Aliya, and in that one week before our departure from Atlanta, she arranged point-to-point planes, trains, and private vehicles between Tashkent, Nukus, Moynaq, Khiva, Bukhara, Samarkand, then back to Tashkent, plus hotels, tour guides, and transportation in all of those locations. Given a month or two to plan, I could have made most of these arrangements on my own, but I would still have not experienced even half of what we did. Aliya’s planning is so concise that while each day was jammed with sites and visits, we still had plenty of time for leisurely exploring on our own.
Aliya greeted our 1:00 AM arrival from Istanbul, took us to our hotel, gave us vouchers for all of the trip, and even presented us with some lovely ikat welcome gifts. The hotels were all very nice (none were a disappointment), centrally located, and staffed with friendly, English-speaking employees who catered to our every need… which was mostly extra coffee at all times of day! Every tour guide had absolutely encyclopedic knowledge of the history, religion, culture, and crafts of each region we visited. And the drivers were not only professional and careful, but also, like the tour guides, delightful to get to know personally. We swapped personal stories as well as WhatsApp numbers, so we are friends with several now that we are back home in the States.
I like planning my travels. I like the satisfaction of figuring out what to do when my surroundings are different and confusing. But two weeks is a short amount of time to see a country as large as Uzbekistan and as filled with staggeringly beautiful sites as anywhere in the world. I simply could not have had such a complete adventure without the help of Aliya and Chapan Travel. My wife and I are planning to go back to Central Asia for the remaining “Stans,” and we will certainly use Aliya’s expertise and connections when we do.








