I'm curious since you call it the most western of the eastern countries - about what percentage of the population speaks at least some English? How hard would it be to just show up as a foreigner with no knowledge of the language and do stuff like get directions, book a hotel/apartment, etc?
I have no idea of the percentage of English speakers, but I didn't have a problem. This Quora answer [1] mentions that younger people are more likely to speak English, and I saw that but the interactions with middle-aged people was OK too. There's usually a way to get by. With the professional class there, their conversational English was excellent.
