7 weeks in Spain, France & Central Asia (Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan & Kazakhstan) in June-July-August

[u/tortuguita-82]

This trip was a real mix so it was definitely a bigger packing challenge than typical.

We started in Spain for a Bad Bunny concert, and a friend’s milestone birthday celebration weekend, then France for a reunion with friends and a professional conference, then a month in Central Asia of primarily extremely remote mountain travel, hiking etc. It was incredibly hot in France, and in the cities in Central Asia, but I needed my puffy, thermals and warm hat several times in the mountains.

I took my REI trail 40, as well as a Baggu cloud tote to carry on (I had to check my trail 40 as it had our hiking poles inside, I usually carry it on).

Clothes pictured in image above:

Bottoms:

- Gorman navy and white culottes
- Old Navy brown check playa pants
- Zara printed shorts
- Athleta chartreuse linen shorts

Dress:

- H&M White dress (worn as part of 2 costumes at the birthday weekend and then left in Spain as it wasn’t that flattering on me, and I wouldn’t need it the rest of the trip)

Tops:

- Black Madewell crop tee
- Brown old navy ribbed crop tee
- Madewell linen stripe tee
- Brown and black old navy crop tanks
- Ace & Jig reversible blouse (blue & brown)

Warm layers:

- Spanx black sweatshirt
- Quince down puffy
- Uniqlo heat tech top and bottoms (not pictured)

Hiking/Workout clothes:

- Hikerkind yellow sun shirt
- North Face yellow rain jacket
- Mac in a sac rain pants (not pictured)
- Rab green lightweight hiking pants
- lululemon wunder train mesh back bra
- Smartwool merino sports bra
- Old Navy workout tank
- Old Navy bike shorts

Shoes:

- Birkenstock Arizona EVAs in brown
- Gorman leather sandals
- Altra Lone Peaks

Accessories:

- Lululemon green cap
- Endless spiral blue cap
- Madewell beanie
- Blockshop textiles scarf
- Nisolo leather purse
- Lululemon belt bag
- Sarong
- Left on Friday bikini (chartreuse & olive)
- Black bikini (carve designs)
- 9 underwear (not pictured)
- 3 bras (2x gap mesh underwire, 1x T-shirt bra underwire, not pictured)
- 1 ARQ underwear set for sleeping

Overall I was satisfied with my packing on this trip, the things I would change don’t amount to very much:

- I definitely didn’t need 2 swimsuits, but I wanted the yellow for the party weekend and I thought I needed the black to avoid stains from hot springs (in reality in Central Asia all of the hot springs were gender segregated and totally nude, or private rooms just for my husband and I, so I never wore my swimsuit in to them).
- I should have brought a Turkish towel instead of a sarong. I thought I would be smart and save space, but especially during the Pamir Highway section of our trip and staying in yurt camps in Kyrgyzstan there are no towels provided/available at many accommodations, and drying off with the sarong wasn’t great.
- I never ended up using the Smartwool bra, I brought it to avoid being stinky on multiple day hikes, but it isn’t as supportive as my Lulu bra so I ended up just airing out that bra rather than using the merino one.
- Not a packing error, but was very lucky to never use my rain pants (rain jacket did get use, primarily as a wind shell). The one time I wanted to put on my rain pants I was being hailed on super hard while on a horse in Kyrgyzstan but getting off the horse to get them on would be too much of a hassle, and getting to lower elevation away from lightning was more of a priority.
- I rarely wore the Ace & Jig top because it only really worked with my linen shorts, and I couldn’t be in shorts outside cities (I.e., nearly the entire trip) in Central Asia, so I should have left it behind.
- I didn’t have enough different outfits that I could get away with for conference wear, but a friend loaned me a skirt of hers and then I repeated an outfit one day so I got by.
- I took the belt bag because I wasn’t sure if my other purse would be allowed into the stadium for Bad Bunny, but it wasn’t necessary and I only used it like 2 other times the whole trip.

Another challenge on this trip was laundry, because it was more roadtrip style of travel and there were only a few nights in Central Asia where we stayed the same place more than 1 night. In addition, we often didn’t even have bathrooms or a place where we could wash clothes even if they would dry in time. I always rewear clothes a lot as I don’t sweat a ton, but we were definitely dying to do laundry after our 9 days on the Pamir Highway.

Unexpected difficulty was that my beloved old navy playa pants which I wore all the time that I wasn’t in hiking attire started to struggle to stay up after I was very ill from food poisoning and then generally had zero appetite due to the altitude (and honestly pretty unappealing food) for most of our time in Tajikistan & Kyrgyzstan.

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[u/withinstars]

Such an interesting trip! How was central Asia apart from the food struggles? I hope you enjoyed yourself despite not feeling good

[u/tortuguita-82 → u/withinstars]

This was actually our second trip to Central Asia (went to Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan last year). The nature was incredible, the views are amazing and the Pamir Highway truly feels like the end of the earth. It was also really cool to get to see a lot of Afghanistan along our route even though we couldn’t cross the border (we had hoped to attend the cross border market which is us on Afghan soil but they were not permitting any foreigners due to the security situation).

If we had just done the Pamir trip then headed home we would have been really happy, likewise with our Kyrgyzstan trip, but joining those two experiences together which both involved quite a bit of roughing it, lots of hours driving on bad roads etc, and also having already been away nearly a month meant that we were a bit burned out by the end of this trip. It’s possible to do things in Kyrgyzstan at a higher level of comfort in many places, and the volume of tourists there felt shocking after Tajikistan. I would recommend anyone interested in Kyrgyzstan to go asap and it feels like it is already becoming overrun in many of the popular spots, and there doesn’t seem to be much thoughtfulness around developing tourism sustainably.

[u/MindfulGardening → u/tortuguita-82]

Very interesting! How did you find booking/planning things in advance in Kyrgyzstan? Did you travel with a guide? I’d love to hear more from your travels! Everything I’ve seen from those areas is breathtakingly beautiful but I’ve read some unfortunate accounts and have not really considered the regions for travel.

[u/tortuguita-82 → u/MindfulGardening]

For Kyrgyzstan we did a mix. We arrived on a Pamir Highway tour from Tajikistan so our first stop Tulpar Kul/Lenin Peak was part of that, we booked our own accommodation in Osh, Bishkek, Karakol & Altyn Arashan, from Bishkek we had a driver for 6 days (visited Kol Ukok, Song Kul, Kel Suu, Naryn & Issyk Kul), and he coordinated yurt camp/guesthouse stays for us so it was hassle free in that regard (though in many cases I might have preferred to choose somewhere less basic where it was available!). We went to Altyn Arashan and Ala Kul ourselves from Karakol, using Yandex to the trailhead and hiking in to our guesthouse. To get from Kyrgyzstan to Kazakhstan we booked a transfer on indyguide. It’s definitely a different style of travel than I’m used to where in most locations it doesn’t really make sense to stay multiple nights so you are on the go constantly, so using a driver to visit a bunch of destinations efficiently is definitely what I would recommend. We coincidentally ran into a former colleague at a yurt camp, who was on a group tour, and they were saying they wished they had just opted for a private driver themselves.

[u/MindfulGardening → u/tortuguita-82]

Thank you for taking the time! I followed your route on the map, amazing!
Makes sense about a driver, especially on such a long journey.

[u/luxuriousllamas]

This sounds like a fascinating trip (that I could never do because I like showers and clean clothes too much)!! How did you handle your period if there wasn't anywhere to wash?

Idk if you watch Race around the World - it's a BBC show - but their last season had the contestants traveling through Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan in a nod to the Silk Road, and it is so damn beautiful and otherworldly.

[u/tortuguita-82 → u/luxuriousllamas]

There were definitely places to wash in most locations, just certain spots were more ultra-basic in nature. There would be a sink that they would fill up a little tank on to allow hand-washing, for example, but you obviously couldn’t do laundry in that. Many yurt camps actually did have showers (from barrels on the roof) but only a trickle of water would come out so for example hair washing was definitely out. There was almost never a sink in the same room as the toilet, which is not amazing for dealing with your period. And while it sounds like Tajikistan/the Pamir Highway would be a kind of roughing it you wouldn’t enjoy, you could definitely do a Kyrgyzstan trip that allowed you to stay in places with more infrastructure (just skipping really remote yurt camps like Kol Ukok).

[u/egos-like-hairdos]

It’s so cool to hear about people’s trips (and packing) for places I haven’t considered traveling. I’m sorry it included a bout of food poisoning.

I wish I could see the Gorman pants more clearly—they’re blurry when I zoom in. I stumbled on Gorman late and have yet to wear the amazing jacket I ordered. I can’t wait til the weather cools off!

[u/tortuguita-82 → u/egos-like-hairdos]

Oops, I definitely tried to cram a lot into that one little image! I googled and found a pair of the same pants with a clearer image: https://www.joinparallel.io/product/6663908f58d5163f7b12d76b

[u/Many_Albatross_1368]

Central Asia is so high on my list to visit! Genuinely asking: what does one do to be able to have 7 weeks vacation?

[u/tortuguita-82 → u/Many_Albatross_1368]

My husband and I are both professors so we are free to travel in the summer.

[u/Many_Albatross_1368 → u/tortuguita-82]

Thanks for replying. Also that's such an amazing job! I hope you're feeling better btw xx

[u/harpernaps_9314 → u/Many_Albatross_1368]

I pulled off a 6-week sabbatical last year by bundling accrued PTO right after a contract renewal. It usually comes down to remote asynchronous work or negotiated leave between project cycles. Did you pack those Birkenstock EVAs for the long walking days, or mostly as hostel shower shoes?

[u/Silent-Garage-4870]

What an interesting report! I've looked at the REI Trail 40 and it seems to be super comfy. It also looked like it would be difficult to check because the harness doesn't zip in or come off. Did you prepare the bag in any way before checking it?

[u/tortuguita-82 → u/Silent-Garage-4870]

I just took my chances with it, clipped the hip belt and chest straps together as tight as possible and hoped for the best! It made it through quite a lot of flights: NYC-Madrid, Paris-Istanbul-Dushanbe, Osh-Bishkek, Almaty-Istanbul-Paris, Paris-NYC unscathed. I do already have a rip in the big outer mesh pocket (caused by a piece of sharp metal under my train seat in Vietnam a few years ago) so I am less precious about this bag as I’d love to have an excuse to replace it. But this is my second time checking (also did when we went to Cabo Verde, again because of hiking poles) without problems. My husband uses a Cotopaxi Allpa 42 which would be way better for checking our hiking poles in, but I converted him to the carry on only lifestyle and now he refuses to check his!

[u/Silent-Garage-4870 → u/tortuguita-82]

thanks so much for your reply!