Uzbekistan & Turkmenistan vacation, Silk Road explorer

Environment

Most of the time on this tour is spent in towns and cities, but we do spend some time in the Kyzyl Kum desret, where we stay overnight in yurts. When exploring these areas on foot we take care to stick to any trails that exist and not to damage any of the flora, as some parts of the region are quite a fragile environment. We operate a strict no litter policy on our tours, and work to educate our drivers and other service providers so as to avoid contributing to this problem. We ensure that all litter at the yurts is disposed of properly – this means working with the owners to educate them about recycling, and taking waste back to proper disposal sites where possible.

Similarly, in conjunction with our local team we work with hotels and guesthouses to implement best practices when it comes to environmental matters – in some places this is far behind what we might be used to in other parts of the world. This includes basic things like not replacing towels each day, as well as saving electricity and turning lights off – small things but Central Asia is not as used to tourism as countries in western Europe.

Community

On all of tours we strive to include a strong focus on local communities and we are firm believers that tourism should have a positive impact on the places visited. On this tour we try to allow our travelers to gain a real insight into the traditional customs of the country; a good example of this is when we stay overnight in yurts in Yangigazgan. Not only is this a great experience for travelers but it means that small scale community based tourism projects, often ignored by mainstream tourism, are able to benefit from our visit. We also visit a small private museum in Gijduvan on this trip, which is working to preserve certain parts of the region’s heritage, and the entrance fees we include here help to ensure that its history is preserved for future generations.

Some of the sites that we visit are popular attractions, others less so –an example of these is the desert castles of Karakalpakstan. Relatively few tourists visit here and so the entrance fees that we pay are more critical than in other places in contributing to the preservation of their heritage. These sites are quite fragile, being made mostly of mud brick, and we ensure that our travelers do not unwittingly contribute to their degradation by briefing them on appropriate behaviour.

Parts of Central Asia are very traditional with certain codes of behaviour, and the people here are not always that accustomed to outsiders. We ensure that our travelers are appropriately briefed in order so as not to offend local sensibilities. This also applies to the numerous mosques and mausoleums that we visit on this trip; religion is important here and it is important that we respect these traditions.

We use locally owned suppliers and our partners here are deeply involved with the preservation of the culture and heritage of the country. Where possible we encourage our travelers to spend their money with local businesses; for this reason we do not include meals where it is feasible to eat outside of the hotels, in order that local restaurants are able to benefit from the presence of tourism, rather than the income being channelled just to the hotel.