Tag Archives: Asia
Nobody speak. A Xinjiang journal.
Why coming here? I loathe the term dark tourism. Yet why am I here? I’m not an activist, a journalist, somebody with a higher sense of purpose. My only answer is because it’s there. Because I want to see it with my own eyes. … Continue reading
Posted in Asia, Central Asia, China, Kyrgyzstan
Tagged Army, Arrests, Asia, Border, Border patrol, Brainwashing, CCTV, Central Asia, Chairman, Chen, Chen Quanguo, China, Concentration camps, Foreigners, Id Kah, Irkeshtam, Irkeshtam border, Islam, Islamist, Jiefang, Kashgar, Kashgar old town, Kyrgyzstan, Kyrgyzstan - Xinjiang, Land crossing, Mao, Mosque, Mountains, Music, People, Peter Robb, Photography, Police, Qomuz, Re-education camps, Religion, Repression, Soldiers, Street photography, Surveillance, Terrorism, Tourism, Travel, Truck, Turkestan, Turkic, Urban photography, Urumqi, Uyghur, Uzbekistan, Xinjiang, Zedong
20 Comments
From dusk till dawn. Life in the Pamirs.
In my teens and early twenties this place would’ve been hell. Life in a tiny village where farm animals outnumber men by a wide margin. Where the main past-time is to sit down and watch the clouds move around Pyk … Continue reading
Posted in Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan
Tagged Alpine, Asia, Central Asia, Children, Clouds, Cow, Cube, Goat, Grass, Hitchhike, Hitchhiker, Hitchhiking, Huckleberry, Izba, Kids, Kyrgyz, Kyrgyzstan, M41, Mountain pass, Pamir, Pamir Highway, Pamirextreme, Pass, People, Photography, Sary Tash, Snow, Summer, Switchback, Travel, USSR, Village
16 Comments
A Huck Finn state of mind.
What does it feel like to be floating on the mighty Mississippi with no worries but where to moor for the night? How does it feel to be absolutely unconstrained by timescales, worries or need-to? In a nutshell, what does it … Continue reading
Posted in Asia, Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan
Tagged Aeroflot, Airplane graveyard, Airport, Alpine, Antonov, Asia, Basmachi, Breakdown, Central Asia, Clouds, Container, Cube, Daewoo, Finn, Fuel, Gagarin, Gulcha, Hitchhike, Hitchhiker, Hitchhiking, Huck Finn, Huckleberry, Ilyushin, Kamaz, Kyrgyz, Kyrgyzstan, M41, Mark Twain, Marshrutka, Matiz, Mountain, Mountain pass, Osh, Osh airplane cemetery, Osh airport, Osh Bazaar, Pamir, Pamir Highway, Pass, People, Photography, Rubik's, Sary Tash, Shared Taxi, Statue, Summer, Switchback, Taldok, Taxi, Travel, Truck, USSR, Village
24 Comments
Vapur abstraction.
There’s a concept I sometimes hear from my software engineer chums: abstraction, or the process of removing all sorts of attributes – be them physical, spatial, temporal – to get to the root of something (usually a system, since we’re … Continue reading
Posted in Europe, Turkey
Tagged Asia, Atatürk, çay, Balat, Bosporus, Conscript, Crow, Eminönü, Europe, Eyup, Fener, Ferry, Golden Horn, Istanbul, Karaköy, People, People watching, Platoon, Sea, seagull, Sehir Hatlari, Soldiers, St Mary of the Mongols, tespih, Turkey, Turyol, Vapur, Water, Yusufpaşa
13 Comments
Six Photos in Search of a Story.
A picture is worth a thousand words, they say. Never let photos in the way of a good story, I say. Ask anyone who’d read Thubron or Robb, writers of books without as much as a picture, and ask them … Continue reading
Posted in Asia, South Korea
Tagged Admonition, Asia, Beer, Bukchon, Bukchon photographer, Calvino, Dress, Food, Hanok, Hanok village, Incheon, Incheon Free Economic Zone, Italo, Korea, Old men, Pensioners, People, People watching, Photography, Pirandello, Rain, Republic of Korea, ROK, Seoul, Silence, Six photos, South Korea, Street photography, Sun, Tourism, Travel, Urban photography
33 Comments
Live fish and fried shrimp. Searching for dinner in Noryangjin.
The sun was setting over Yeongdeungpo. The sun was setting; lights on a legion of buildings were turning on and I couldn’t pronounce the name of the neighbourhood not even if it helped to save my bacon. Speaking of bacon, … Continue reading
Posted in Asia, South Korea
Tagged 7-11, Asia, City, city life, Crab, Dusk, Fish, Fish Market, Food, Fried, Korean cuisine, Live fish, Lotte, Lotteria, Molluscs, Night, Noryangjin, Noryangjin fish market, Overpass, Prostitutes, Prugio, Restaurant, Seoul, Shrimp, Snow crab, South Korea, Street food, Tsuijiki, Urban, Yeongdeungpo
21 Comments
Sleepless in Seoul.
The idea for this post’s title has been respectfully pinched from this lovely Instagram account. The idea of jet-lag was so new to me that it took me an inordinate amount of time to come to the conclusion that what was … Continue reading
Posted in Asia, South Korea
Tagged Asia, Central Park, city life, Composite mode, Composite photography, DJ Krush, Downtempo, Incheon, Incheon Free Economic Zone, Jet Lag, Korea, LEED, Lights, Mu getsu, Multiple exposure, Night photography, Northeast Asia Trade Tower, Olympus, Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark III, Posco Tower-Songdo, Republic of Korea, ROK, Seoul, Skyscraper, Songdo International Business District, Songdo International City, South Korea
22 Comments
The devil’s horsemen.
For the Parthians shot as they fled, being, indeed, more adept at this than anyone except the Scythians, and it is certainly a very clever manoeuvre – to fight and to look after one’s own safety at the same time. … Continue reading
Posted in Asia, Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan
Tagged Ammianus, Asia, Carrhae, Central Asia, Cholpon Ata, Crassus, Genghis, Giovanni da pian del carmine, Hungary, Issyk Kul, Jailoo, Kazakhstan, Kyrchyn, Kyrgyzstan, Magyar, Marcellinus, Mongol, Nomad, Parthians, Photography, Plutarch, Res Gestae, Scythians, Travel, WNG, World Nomad Games, Ystoria
14 Comments
Be Right Back.
I’ve been in a place where Hungarians dress up like they used to do a millenium ago, speed to a full gallop and then throw arrows into a padded target, whilst Kyrgyz flags flutter in the wind, yurts are everywhere … Continue reading
Posted in Asia, Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan
Tagged Archery, Asia, Central Asia, Cholpon Ata, Issyk Kul, Kyrchyn, Kyrchyn Jailoo, Kyrgyzstan, World Nomad Games
12 Comments
