Aday pottering round the city; visiting colourful bazaars, relaxing parks and the highlight of the day: the Tashkent circus!
Day 43 – Tashkent walks
Day 42 – Tashkent with Jamie
As part of the ‘I am Brand New China’ series we met up with Jamie in Tashkent. Originally from Lanzhou, Gansu in China he has been teaching Chinese all over the world and stations himself at the moment for a period of three years in Tashkent.
Day 41 – Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Tashkent, the largest city in all of Central Asia and after yesterday’s experiences, a relief to be at! Smiling faces, curious people and much more ‘Middle-Eastern’ than we experienced in the past 40 days. We are looking forward seeing more of this already interesting country.
Day 40 – 1 km in 9 hours: from Kazakhstan to Uzbekistan
We knew the Kazakhstan to Uzbekistan border crossing was going to be a difficult: Two countries that share a very long common border but only two major places to cross. It makes us put Europe in a different perspective, where the free flow of people and goods across borders are as common as driving from Amsterdam to Rotterdam. Not here!
Day 39 – Shymkent, Kazakhstan
Our last full day in this country that we really embrace! Local food, markets and surprising parks in the city of Shymkent. Kazakhstan, we will be back one day because we love you!
Episode 3: Dashboard diaries into the Desert
Long overdue, but not to be missed: video Episode 3 – Dashboard diaries into the Desert. Watch it on Youtube or Youku and let us know what you think!
In this episode, we’re heading into the desert. Trading our car for 2 camels and climbing sand dunes in Dunhuang. And just as we thought to have left every tourist behind us, we run into a German camper van…
Day 38 – Aksu Nature Reserve
We said goodbye to the wonderful family where we spent the night at their excellent homestay. We really felt at home as we were guests in their house and they cooked us delicious food that came straight out of the garden. Including home-made naan bread! This was all arranged through the excellent NGO of Wild Nature and the truly inspiring Svetlana and her husband Vladimir.
Day 37 – Taraz to Aksu Nature Reserve
We arrived in the village of Zhabagyly which is the hop-off point into the Aksu Nature Reserve. The diversity of life in this area, where mountains meet steppe, is fascinating with even brown bears and snow leopards! In Zhabagyly we walked for a few hundred meters into the grasslands and enjoyed the amazing weather and scenery.
Day 36 – Almaty to Taraz
Day 35 – How I got my passport stolen, and got it back, in Kazakhstan
Despite all the kind words I’ve written about the city of Almaty, this weekend Almaty decided to be less kind to me. We where having some drinks in a bar downtown when I met a friendly young couple from Kazakhstan. They joined our table and we chatted away. After a visit to the toilet I lost sight of them, but also of my bag that I stupidly left on the couch we where sitting on. Worst thing; my passport was in my bag… I just got my passport stolen in Kazakhstan.