So,Elizabeth has fulfilled one of her childhood ambitions of sleeping in a yurt. What is a yurt you ask? Why it is that funny looking shelter in the picture above. Traditionally the nomadic Kyrgyz people would live in these and move them to high ground in the summers and back down to the warmer valleys [...]
Entries from May 2009
May 28, 2009
Altyn Arashan
A couple of days ago we hiked out of the alpine town of Karakol to Altyn Arashan, joined by Christine from the US who we met in town (and who gave us some awesome travel tips for China where she has been living for the last four years – thanks Christine!).
Given the elevation of the [...]
May 23, 2009
We’ll be coming through the mountain…
GUEST POST – BY ELIZABETH DAWSON
Our first stop across the border into Kyrgyzstan was a town called Osh. Nice place, worth a visit, only it was at least a ten hour drive north across two mountain ranges to our next stop – the capital city Bishkek.
We had sorted out our shared taxi through our hostel [...]
May 20, 2009
Observations from Uzbekistan
So in the tradition of the recent Turkey post, here are some of my top observations from our time in Uzbekistan. It should be said loudly and clearly that these observations should be taken with quite a few grains of salt. I don’t speak Uzbek or Russian, which no doubt would have altered the experience [...]
May 12, 2009
Mosques, mausoleums and medressas – the marvels of Uzbekistan
The amazing Registan in Samarkand is a complex of medrasses (Islamic academy/seminary) and a large mosque
When we flew into Tashkent from Istanbul a little bleary eyed at 4am we were already a tad hot under the collar. From what we had heard of the Uzbek immigration/customs process we thought it was going to be [...]
May 5, 2009
Ten observations about Turkey
Atatürk
Well people, the masthead at the top of this page needs changing as today is our last day in Turkey. We fly for Uzbekistan tonight and then will be travelling overland for the next few months through Central Asia and China.
Turkey has been an amazing and fascinating. It is my first visit to the [...]
May 4, 2009
From the coast to Cappadocia
Elizabeth enjoying her last swim before Thailand
Sorry for the dearth of updates, but posts repeating the fact that yet another day has been spent lounging around, drinking Efes Pilsener and going for the occasional dip in the Med was not likely to go down well. Especially for our London based readers. Though take heart [...]
