Please send us your feedback by email: guide@samarkand.info and we will post your comments here!

Posted On: May 15, 2004 02:46:11 PM

 : Peter Bernauer
 : ok_peter@hotmail.com
 : Internet search
 Comments: Thank you for this very informative site. I would love to visit your beautiful country one day soon.
I especially appreciate the rich history and culture of Samarkand...and the entire region of Uzbekistan. If I can make one constructive suggestion - please include some more information about the people of Samarkand, their customs and culture. Also, if I should visit,
I would like to relate to people in the proper acceptable manner, with respect and mutual dignity.
Could there be some more photos in the galleries section...perhaps some street and country scenes, with local people?
And, I read on your site about musical evening entertainment and how one might evade the "admission fee" by using side streets... but I assure you that I would want to give the performers their due and pay my way in. I would come prepared for such expenses...after all, I'm on holiday to enjoy, and learn. I do like your site and encourage you to continue to reach out to the world.
And if you ever need an English editor, I would be glad to volunteer.

Peter Bernauer
Kelowna, British Columbia
Canada

 Posted On: November 02, 2002 06:36:27 PM

 : Erkal Tülek
 : erkalayaz@hotmail.com
 : Internet search
 Comments: I just wanted to thank you for your helps that I easily got from your site. Probably in 3 weeks I will be in Samarkand. And I will do my best to take beautiful pictures that I can send you.
Thanks a lot again...

Posted in 2002.

Based on your recommendation, I booked a short stay at the Orient Star Hotel in Samarkand. It was quite good, and very much a bargain at the price.

However, the Uzbek government had recently made changes in the exchange regulations, plus (I think) introduced a new computer system at the National Bank . . . with the result that I arrived in Samarkand to find that there are only 8 locations to exchange money, none of which could exchange money on Friday afternoon . . . the NBU computer was down, and the Hotel Afrosaib and the Intourist Hotel Samarkand had no Uzbek currency to exchange, nor did they know when they would get any money . . .with the result that there was no place to exchange money in Samarkand the whole weekend.

This is not the way to attract tourists . . . not when they make it impossible to obey the very stringent currency laws by not having currency to exhange, forcing people to use the black market or pay directly in dollars.

I did not have any real problems, as all I was purchasing were simple souvenir items and ended up paying in dollars when necessary, as I was able to get $50 changed before running out of exchange locations (which now close at 4:00, and almost all were closed on Saturday and Sunday, except the Intourist location, which as noted above, had no Uzbek Sum to exchange) . . .

Still Samarkand is worth a couple of days visit, and I am planning to send back some photographs to some ladies at the bazaar . . .

Thank you for you excellent recommendation on the hotel.

Christopher Shields

IFES Tajikistan