Haggle Till you Drop

That's a description on how to negotiate given at some point in Lonely Plantet's Central Asia guide and it holds true for pretty any monetary transaction here. I mean there are exception but in any situation where there is not a pre-determined/labelled price you could really wind up paying anything.
'Taxis' can be the worst. '' because, like in Russia, you can stand at the side of road with your hand out and someone will stop almost immediately. Like hitchiking but it ain't free. You then say where you're going, the guy won't know, you explain in general terms, he says he knows (yeah right) and then ask how much. He then says, 'how much will you give me?' and the negotiation starts. When I first arrived I asked what were generally good prices to go, for example, from my apartment to downtown. However, stupidly, I was at first starting with what I thought was a reasonable prince meaning what I thought I should be paying. Of course that ended up meaning that I was paying quite a bit more than I should have been. I hate doing it, haggling over pennies (seriously, it costs about a dollar to get downtown from my place), but at the same time it's annoying when a guy asks way too much because he knows I'm a foreigner- I'm probably the only person in Tashkent wearing a red shirt today (black clothes are very popular). My solution has just been to massively low-ball and then take whatever he comes back with as it's probably reasonable.
Sometimes it doesn't work, which is ok as I then get into the next car that has inevitably pulled up behind hopeing to get my fare instead of the first car.

The Turkmen and Azeri visas came through which is excellent. My friend arrrives on the weekend. We're going to Bukhara till Sunday night then back to Tashkent so he can explore for a couple days while I work. Then on Tuesday night it's off to Nukus (still in Uzbekistan) and then we're driving across the Turkmen border on Wednesday morning. Should be a great trip. Unfortunately we won't have time for the ferry across the caspian, so we're flying, but at least that'll give us more time in Ashgabat, Baku and most importantly, the giant, flaming, gas crater (I will send out photos).