STUCK AT THE BORDER - Tajikistans STRANGE weekly night train to Uzbekistan in Platzkart (3rd class)

[@SuperalbsTravels]

Looks like an experience! Too bad I couldn't find time for Tajikistan on this trip. 😊

[@JungBokLee]

thank you for your video....will help my trip on near future...thanks

[@andrewcoogans471]

I did the land border between Dushanbe and Samarkand one evening in a UK registered car - it was not a pleasant experience! At least you got the Tajik formalities out of the way at the station. I am surprised how modern the station looks in Dushanbe. Once I got the train from Moscow to Kazan that was continuing to Dushanbe - that would be one shocker of a journey if full! Great video, loved it.

[@Simon-Andersen]

Thanks for watching! There are some really loong train journeys out here. I was on a Bishkek-Kazan train that must have been 2 or 3 days if done in full

[@Macrorayan]

Thank you very much for the video. We followed your steps to go via train from Dushanbe to Samarkand in this way only 3 weeks ago. There was no issue with our departure in Dushanbe. Border crossing with Uzbekistan checked our luggage thoroughly. The train was full and more passengers come on board in Uzbekistan. Thanks for the video

[@hannahhobday2899]

Hi..I would like to know if it's safe for a woman to travel in this route by train. As I have to carry 25kg luggage so train is my opinion. Thank you

[@Macrorayan]

@hannahhobday2899 there are good and bad people everywhere. We are a couple so obviously no hassles.

[@OneManWolfPack]

Fantastic trip summary, great work!

[@avigdonable]

1:16 type a, type c and type i sockets. Very interesting.

[@gars1074]

I watch dozens of train travel videos and yours is one of the best! I also enjoy the destinations and countries you travel thru as they are not that common and seeing new, (strange) lands is facinating.

[@Simon-Andersen]

Thank you very much! I hope to travel to even more cool places in the future!

[@luridthingsCO]

Big thanks for this Central Asia experiences, Simon! I've always wanted travel there, maybe next year...

[@Simon-Andersen]

I had a great trip! Highly recommended

[@JuhaVnt]

Great work Simon! 👍🏼

[@Simon-Andersen]

Thank you Juha!

[@stanislavkostarnov2157]

in many ways, whilst a low price to a westerner, I would actually say the high price of the tickets sort of explains why so few use the train... the fact the train was so empty is indeed quite a luxury... must have been quite a pleasant overnight experience.

[@Simon-Andersen]

That is probably the case, along with it not being very frequent and especially the indirect routing.

[@trainenthusiast7695]

I'm glad to see how your journey turned out well. I've heard many bad stories from platzkart in the ex-USSR so I was scared it was gonna be another one of those 😄

[@Simon-Andersen]

I'm glad you enjoyed the video! I was pleasantly surprised as well, especially after a slighly rocky start

[@markolysynchuk5264]

All thanks to this train not being super-crowded.

[@alexandrtorgalo8164]

Dushanbe/Dushanba is "monday" in tajik and uzbek language, so this train departs from Dushanbe every monday. Dushanbe-Tashkent train was resumed in June 2022 after 30 years. Although this train is so empty, that train runs due to political reasons (better relations between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) and has best carriages of Tajik Railways.

[@percismehta8959]

We had the Kandahar Hijack during PM Vajpayres tenure - round about 1999., Wherin so many passengers died .

[@RUOKH]

Hello Simon. What an excellent presentation; a most interesting journey and unbelievable good value. Looking forward to further Asia journey's. A1+.

[@Simon-Andersen]

Thank you ❤️

[@hayma.najacha]

Nice information, I am searching about this trips betwen Tajikistan - Uzbekistan - Kazkhstan - Kyrgistan by train

[@Simon-Andersen]

Thanks, hope you have a good trip!

[@runoflife87]

Well, at least the carriage was empty.

[@andreymor5201]

Thanks for the video! So there’s only platzkart on this train?

[@Simon-Andersen]

There is also Kupe, but they are very old and non-ac, where the plazkart is mostly newer ac carriges, so in summer id skip kupe!

[@Bobrogers99]

The train was dated, but it looked clean and well maintained. As you point out, because of the lack of privacy, your trip might not have been so pleasant if the train was crowded.

[@gefitrop3496]

I was also surprised by the quality of rolling stock in the region. Some countries there even retrofitted their first class carriages with ac and plug sockets which works really well (maybe a little too well ngl).

[@maksymtabachuk7152]

the carriage where Simon travel is not really old. It's built in 2012 in Ukraine, i.e. being much newer than loco and some older carriages of the same trainset.

[@gefitrop3496]

Central Asia is one of the most fascinating regions of the world. I spent 12 days in Uzbekistan this year and I saw some of the most beautiful buildings, met some of the kindest people, and had some of the coolest experiences ever. I can only highly recommend going there, it is really cheap (with flights and living quite luxuriously, we only paid 1.5k per person, on a budget you could easily get below 1k) and will be the trip of a lifetime!

[@Simon-Andersen]

It's been one of my favorite trips! And yes everyone is so friendly and the value is great! I stayed 28 days for less than 1.5k :D

[@gefitrop3496]

@@Simon-Andersen yeah it was so cool, everyone wanted to know where we were from and we even got invited to tea and dinner once, which was so cool

[@fontenbleau]

​​​​​​​​​@@gefitrop3496it's not what you think at first view, you must ask if invites was religious or business matter, because you must repay. Westeners forgot by centuries the sense and purpose of this asian tradition which still alive there and in pure religious form just a simple help against depopulation in harsh climate. Inviting complete stranger in home with fully feeding him and bedding always come with exactly same repayment - so you must also take migrant or any poor hungry person into your home feeding him and even providing a bed with even the best bedding. In that ritual there's slight references to gods in form of strangers but mostly it's just community help in the absence of any accommodation or food service locally, which prevails in such regions for centuries (no small business because of poverty or no connection to popular trade routes). The purpose is clearly written - if you welcome complete stranger, god may help you and in the need in foreign lands may also find the same in such situation. It's religious base for local strangers, but in modern mercantile base-which getting major than religious same ritual with foreigners is just the form to get business contacts but without business cards (which not used there) and the main sense there is to get support from you in the future as repayment for getting all family members through the border in Europe, it's always there, they will call you. Cental Asia is the biggest region exporting only cheap labor (except Tajikistan gas, but it's closed for anyone), it don't have visa regime with Russia but European visas is very hard obstacle for locals, which also want to feed families and sanctions indirectly hit them because countries there very depend on foreign import and foreign currency supply, which vanished from Russia. Standard situation like in Iran, Venezuela and Cuba, where foreigners even run away from the annoyance of invites into every house for tea (esp in Iran), but it's just a simple locals hope of emigration, you are just a tool, there's no people happy in their poverty anywhere. It's the region of horizontal social nets and the highest worldwide corruption with nepotism as main form of it levels on planet (job without connection possible only abroad in Russia). Poverty=high birth rate in combination of nepotism explain the main export product - the humans with labor not needed locally.

[@rbrouns9569]

Great honest video.👍

[@Simon-Andersen]

Thanks for watching :-)

[@PtrkHrnk]

9:10 + 5 euro for the bribe 😅

[@Simon-Andersen]

Maybe other travelers have better luck than me :P

[@stanislavkostarnov2157]

@@Simon-Andersen not to call this OK or Normal I think you were quite lucky... you did not have to pay much, and it seems like the guard was not overly aggressive in the way he demanded the bribe... most bribe stories I heard were much more of a harrowing ordeal often involving nearly physical abuse.... so yeah, as strange as it might sound, you probably experienced the results of recent progress on the anti-corruption front....

[@lemonofish869]

1:16 Weird how the station uses Chinese power sockets. I was under the impression that Tajikistan uses the europlug.

[@Simon-Andersen]

They do, on the top its an EU plug, maybe they plan on cater for trains to china in the future? I'm not sure

[@lemonofish869]

@@Simon-Andersen Actually the one on top is also a Chinese plug, albeit an older standard which happens to be compatible with the euro plug. China uses different plug types for ungrounded (2-prong) and grounded (3-prong) appliances, therefore all power sockets have both plug types since they are not compatible with each other.

[@mariadelmarjimenezarroyo]

Please do a review on AVE Basico onboard the S102/112 "Pato".

[@Simon-Andersen]

Next time i visit spain!

[@mariadelmarjimenezarroyo]

@@Simon-Andersen Ok thanks. I travel onboard it to Málaga

[@henrikwessels3843]

Is this your main job or how do you finance this trips?😊

[@Simon-Andersen]

I'm currently doing a paid internship as part of my university studies, but otherwise mostly just from my previous part time job and traveling cheaply (hostels, off season travel etc)

[@epidamnios]

good evening from Greece Let me ask you something;;; from dushanbe to samarkand, is there an evening train only once a week??? if so, do you remember which day??? thank you very much

[@Simon-Andersen]

Yes there is, this train runs every monday night at 19:26 from Dushanbe to Samarkand arrives next morning at 08:22

[@symonmajewski1826]

Can you get a ticket going in the opposite direction along the same route? From Samarkand to Dushanbe? Thank you!

[@Simon-Andersen]

Yes, you can book it at most major train station in Uzbekistan for both directions

[@OnkelJajusBahn]

While 23€ might be cheap from a European perspective. With a Tajik salary. 23€ for a platskart is actually pretty expensive.

[@Simon-Andersen]

That is a very fair point

[@peterbushby9009]

Plus 5 euro for the friendly border guard .

[@mariadelmarjimenezarroyo]

What camera did you use? It's very different

[@Simon-Andersen]

I have upgraded to a DJI Action 3

[@mariadelmarjimenezarroyo]

@@Simon-Andersen ok. But it is worse than the older one

[@nikzaleha9628]

Does the train run once a week? Or daily? Do you have the train's timetable?

[@Simon-Andersen]

Once a week on Mondays from Dushanbe at 19:26

[@sandrad81]

Oh… how would it be to travel on 1st class?

[@Simon-Andersen]

There are second class compartments onboard, they are a bit more private being a closed room, but not that much of an improvement

[@prettymiffedbrit]

So what is the going bribe? And does it have to be in Euros or the local currency?

[@Simon-Andersen]

USD GBP EUR is generally widely accepted in Tajikistan. I think Tajik som will do as well. Guessing anything of value around the 5 euro works

[@andrewcoogans471]

I was bribed by an Uzbek road policeman when I just arrived from Tajikistan. He was looking for dollars, but would have accepted Kazakhstani Tenge or Uzbek Som. I offered him Tajik Somoni and he was less than impressed! At the border the guards were happy with a 4 pack of toilet paper "for their office".

[@prettymiffedbrit]

@andrewcoogans471 Interesting. The only time I was bribed was about 15 years at a ski area car park near Madrid and I was with a Spaniard. Never had it anywhere else, even India.

[@andrewcoogans471]

@@prettymiffedbrit these border guards were just kids and although their German Shepherd was intimidating, they weren't. They more or less just took the toilet roll pack from the car and said they needed it for their office! Being in the situation where they had been picking the car apart for about 2 hours I quickly agreed and it kind of sped things up. I got overtly bribed by the Ukrainian border guard entering Poland who stated categorically it was €20, in 2 x €10 notes 🥴

[@prettymiffedbrit]

@@andrewcoogans471 ah very different bribery levels.

[@percismehta8959]

India had a 3rd class 10 to 11 back but now no more.

[@ananedelcu8034]

It s safe for a solo female?

[@Simon-Andersen]

It felt pretty safe to me! But I am a man so it's a bit hard for me to judge. In general people in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan were really friendly as was very curious what a westerner was doing there.

[@dr_tajikian8055]

What was the ticket fare

[@Simon-Andersen]

In the description and video at the end

[@GeorgeGy]

Just arrived from an (Ukraine) - Poland - Russia road trip. I was not allowed into Ukraine (having US passport) for reasons no one could explain. The Russian border guards in Kaliningrad did see the Ukrainian stamp and had the day of laugh. Apparently I failed to insert the 5 Euro in the passport. At least that the Polish border guards and few car drivers told me later when I crossed from Russia to Poland back. Before anyone wonders: my native tongue is Russian, I had US + EU passport and I was driving my own car. There was no misunderstanding on the Ukrainian side: the border guards spoke Russian without any trace of Ukrainian accent. The Ukrainian part of the trip (around Uzhgorod, Mukachevo) wasn't that important - and as ethnic Russian I refuse to bribe Ukrainian police. They should take care about their corruption on their own. The US consulate in Kiev was of no help, they can't do anything. The only place to complain is the HQ of Transcarpathian police or their equally corrupt judicial system. I was told that complaining in English is far better than complaining in either Ukrainian or Russian. At the Mamonovo - Grzechotki land border most of the Polish officers as well as passengers had experienced this at least once in the life, no one was shocked.

[@cteasdale1979]

Weird country

[@bobtudbury8505]

and still better than all the african train, except maybe south africa but they've probaly wrecked those too

[@Simon-Andersen]

Morroco supposedly has good trains! I've yet to travel by train in africa so i cant comment too much

[@bobtudbury8505]

darkest africa , believe me you do not want to@@Simon-Andersen

[@Danse_Macabre_125]

Morocco has TGV Duplexes, think those are miles better than this