Central Asia

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» How Dengue saved my life
Sitting on a bus bound for Kandahar did not put me in the best of moods. I wasn't looking forward to sleeping on an overcrowded floor in Kandahar and I wasn't done with Herat yet. Had I been healthy and strong there I would have seen and done more , but I

» A tale of two cities: Bukhara and Samarkand
Within five minutes of our arrival in Bukhara, we were drinking vodka with the jovial, large-bellied owner of our guesthouse – straight, and in a bowel, as is the custom here. Even in the most Muslim and least Russian of the three Central Asian Republ

» The long road to Khiva
Almost eight years ago, in a hostel in Rome, I met the best-travelled person I have ever come across, still as true today as it was in 2001. He had been to 164 countries, a number that boggles me even more now than it did then, given that after all the tr

» The pilgrimage to Beket-Ata
The main reason we travelled across the length of Kazakhstan to begin with was to join Muslim pilgrims in their journey to the tomb of Beket-Ata in the desert near Aktau. Thankfully, given the time and effort expended, it was quite extraordinary – not

» Across the Kazakh Steppe to the Caspian Sea
Since leaving Turkistan, we’ve travelled 2500km in two separate train journeys to the far west of Kazakhstan, so far that according to guide book speak we’re almost in Europe (as though once you cross the Ural Mountains it's all cobble-stone streets

» Southern Kazakhstan: Holy Tombs and Ramadan
The devastating Soviet oppression of Islam in Central Asia has led – even nearly two decades after the collapse of the USSR and subsequent independence of the five Central Asian republics – to a religious apathy I’ve never before seen in predomina

» Switching 'Stans
It’s been almost a week since we left Kyrgyzstan, and although we once again didn’t do a great deal in our final week in Bishkek as Wendy prepared for her interview and then spent a whirlwind 60 hours going to Geneva and back, I feel as though I s

» Changing plans in Bishkek
The weather has more or less returned to its summer state since my last post (last night’s thunderstorm notwithstanding), although we haven’t really been able to enjoy it; rather, all the change in the weather has meant for us is that we’ve been abl

» Central Kyrgyzstan: Lakes and Hail
We didn’t realise at the time how fortunate we were to have enjoyed glorious mid-summer weather for all but the last day of our six-day Karakol Valley trek. Ever since then, it has felt like the South Asian monsoon packed up and left India, headed north

» Trekking, Sliding, Bathing and Fording
One of the main reasons we picked Central Asia as a destination in the first place was to go trekking in the mountains to enjoy the region’s beautiful scenery and work off some of the extra kilos gained from many Chinese banquets (OK, and a few times

» Stumbling onto the Soviet Union. Almost.
Kyrgyzstan – it’s difficult to know where to start. It’s a puzzling but friendly place. One minute you feel as though you really are in the Soviet Union, seeing European faces and statues of Lenin and speaking Russian (well, Wendy anyway); the nex

» The Next Chapter Begins
For the past two-and-a-half months, we've been shuttling ourselves back and forth from Guangzhou to various points around China, done three separate visa runs to Hong Kong or Macau, spent more than 30 nights at the IT World Hotel in Guangzhou, seen plac

» Band-e Amir
Band-e Amir is excellent! This is just what we all needed, we've spent far too much time in Peshawar, and then a couple of days in Kabul after that. This is the perfect getaway! The day before we left Bamiyan, a middle aged Aussie guy (peter) moved

» The Kashgar Experience, circa 2004
Well into the 30's, Kashgar was exotica. It was beyond the back of beyond. It took five months to get here from Beijing in the ...

» Karakol to Kashgar, Part Three
All along the way, apparently from Sary Tash onwards, there were trucks hauling scrap metal - rusty scrap metal to be precise - from Kyrgyzstan ...