4 ms·

Travelling to any ex-USSR countries on the periphery from the "western" world is taking a nice fun gamble. The bigger places in Kazakhstan are probably okay, a

Travelling to any ex-USSR countries on the periphery from the "western" world is taking a nice fun gamble. The bigger places in Kazakhstan are probably okay, and yeah, you likely would have fun in Tbilisi or Yerevan, but the chance of you having a very bad time in Bishkek or (heavens forbid) the Dushanbe is just too high. It could be a lot of fun, it would be fairly cheap by western standards, it will certainly be unforgettable, but it can go sideways in so many ways. Not maybe as sideways as Kabul but getting there. The right time to visit for fun exotic fun times was late 80ies (and I was lucky to have been in those places with my parents then). These days I'd highly recommend against it.

reducesuffering 2y ago
What kinds of things would go wrong? Robbery? What kind of chances are you thinking? 5%? 20%? A commonly posted traveler, Matt Lakeman, just visited Dushanbe and didn't get that vibe. https://mattlakeman.org/2024/06/20/notes-on-tajikistan/ https://mattlakeman.org/2024/06/20/notes-on-tajikistan/
viraptor 2y ago
> but the chance of you having a very bad time in Bishkek Could you tell us more? Is the issue just that outsider's problems will be ignored so you have a higher chance of getting stuck, mugged, etc.? Or some other more specific issues?
albroland 2y ago
I was in Bishkek last year and I don't see the risk; what concerns would you have aside from food poisoning? Dushanbe I agree with you, but simply because I found Tajikistan rather boring and desolate but in an unimpressive way.
reisse 2y ago
This kinda looks like baseless fearmongering for me. In Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan you'll be pretty much safe everywhere throughout the country. In Kyrgyzstan, I'd avoid rural non-tourist areas, but to Bishkek and tourist destinations I'd go without second thoughts. Tajikistan is questionable, but not Dushanbe.
poincaredisk 2y ago
As someone living "on the edge" (in one of the post-soviet countries which are now belonging to the "western world") I... don't understand your sentiment. I live in the EU, frequently travel to the western Europe and across the ocean for work meetings and conferences, and I worked for two years in France, so I'm pretty familiar with the west. On the other hand, for recreation I often travel south (think balcans) and east (excluding two obvious unfriendly countries). And these countries, their norms, laws, everyday problems, are basically the same as in the western Europe. I don't mean in abstract "we are all people", I mean really the post-USSR counties are very similar, just slightly poorer, less mature (getting used to democracy is not easy and not everyone succeeds immediately), and with the post-soviet "oriental" vibe that western people like to exaggregate. In short, I think this is a simplistic point of view, and one that is unfair to the people living in the countries you deem dangerous to "western" people.
- imp0cat 2y ago
  I don't think the Balkans are comparable. Sure, they were a war zone recently, too, but the EU integration there is much faster, probably because tourism is a major source of income for them. Just look at Croatia - they even have Euro as their currency now!

reducesuffering 2y ago

What kinds of things would go wrong? Robbery? What kind of chances are you thinking? 5%? 20%? A commonly posted traveler, Matt Lakeman, just visited Dushanbe and didn't get that vibe. https://mattlakeman.org/2024/06/20/notes-on-tajikistan/ https://mattlakeman.org/2024/06/20/notes-on-tajikistan/

viraptor 2y ago

> but the chance of you having a very bad time in Bishkek Could you tell us more? Is the issue just that outsider's problems will be ignored so you have a higher chance of getting stuck, mugged, etc.? Or some other more specific issues?

albroland 2y ago

I was in Bishkek last year and I don't see the risk; what concerns would you have aside from food poisoning? Dushanbe I agree with you, but simply because I found Tajikistan rather boring and desolate but in an unimpressive way.

reisse 2y ago

This kinda looks like baseless fearmongering for me. In Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan you'll be pretty much safe everywhere throughout the country. In Kyrgyzstan, I'd avoid rural non-tourist areas, but to Bishkek and tourist destinations I'd go without second thoughts. Tajikistan is questionable, but not Dushanbe.

poincaredisk 2y ago

As someone living "on the edge" (in one of the post-soviet countries which are now belonging to the "western world") I... don't understand your sentiment. I live in the EU, frequently travel to the western Europe and across the ocean for work meetings and conferences, and I worked for two years in France, so I'm pretty familiar with the west. On the other hand, for recreation I often travel south (think balcans) and east (excluding two obvious unfriendly countries). And these countries, their norms, laws, everyday problems, are basically the same as in the western Europe. I don't mean in abstract "we are all people", I mean really the post-USSR counties are very similar, just slightly poorer, less mature (getting used to democracy is not easy and not everyone succeeds immediately), and with the post-soviet "oriental" vibe that western people like to exaggregate. In short, I think this is a simplistic point of view, and one that is unfair to the people living in the countries you deem dangerous to "western" people.

imp0cat 2y ago
I don't think the Balkans are comparable. Sure, they were a war zone recently, too, but the EU integration there is much faster, probably because tourism is a major source of income for them. Just look at Croatia - they even have Euro as their currency now!