Friends, I continue my story about a trip to the unusual ship graveyard near the Uzbek town of Moynaq. In the previous article, I wrote about how we reached the first point of our route - the city of Nukus. From here to the former shoreline, you need to travel another 150 kilometers. Let me tell you how to do it on your own.
Trip from Nukus to Moynaq
The most challenging part of the trip was finding information on how to get from Nukus to Moynaq on a regular scheduled bus. Such a transfer option to the ship graveyard would be the most economical, but there are other options: you can buy a tour, drive your own car, or book a taxi. In Uzbekistan, there is a system of ride-sharing trips, where you pay for your seat in a taxi rather than the entire cab. In this case, you may travel with complete strangers.
It took us several hours to find the bus station, but we were prepared for this, so we arrived a day before the trip to the ships. Online maps have a point called "Nukus Bus Station," but in reality, the station is located in a completely different place. It is surprising that this non-existent object has a review from one of the users of the service.
The Sarancha Bus Station, from which buses to Moynaq depart, is located in the western part of the city.
The bus from Nukus leaves at 9 a.m., and the return trip from Moynaq is at 3 p.m. Locals recommend arriving at the bus station in advance. As it turned out, this was one of the most useful pieces of advice on this trip: both times, the driver closed the doors and set off 10 minutes before the scheduled time.
The cost of a one-way bus trip is 25,000 sum per person (2 dollars, April 2024). I was told that one seat in a shared taxi would cost 40,000 sum (3 dollars), and Yandex Taxi estimates a one-way trip at 425,000 sum (33.5 dollars).
The bus ride from Nukus to Moynaq takes about three and a half hours. During this time, it makes several stops. At one of them, locals were selling pastries and samsa; prices here are much lower than in Tashkent. In the first article about this trip, I already wrote that many streets in Nukus and Moynaq are covered with a layer of salt brought here by the wind. During the bus journey, you will see a huge number of such areas.
From the bus stop in Moynaq to the ship graveyard is about four kilometers. We decided to cover this distance by car, paying another 30,000 sum to a local resident. Judging by the fragments of his speech that I could understand, this is a very large amount for such a trip.
Near the ship graveyard, there is a small museum, but we did not spend time there. The cost of visiting the exhibition was 15,000 sum, and taking photos with a camera costs an additional 100,000 sum.
The return journey from the ship graveyard to the bus stop took us about 50 minutes. There is a small tea house at the bus station where we managed to have manty with tea. This snack cost us 35,000 sum.
In the next part of this series, I will tell you about how this unusual graveyard formed in this desert area.
Have a nice trip!
Ship Graveyard in Moynaq - approximate budget for two for three days:
- Round-trip flight from Tashkent to Nukus - 1,408,000 sum (110 dollars);
- Standard hotel room with breakfast - 143 dollars;
- Round-trip bus fare and taxi in Moynaq - 130,000 sum (10 dollars);
- Taxi fare around the city - 57,500 sum (4.5 dollars);
- Total: 3,403,500 sum (around 270 dollars in April 2024)
