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Tag Archives: Asia
Disaster by design: the death and partial rebirth of the Aral Sea (Part 2).
I’d seen Serik a long time before we met in the parking lot outside the Altair hotel; in fact, I first read about him on Al Jazeera. Dubbed “Aralsk’s only tour guide”, he’d accepted to be my guide for the … Continue reading
Posted in Asia, Kazakhstan
Tagged Aqespe, Aral, Aral Sea, Aral sea ships, Aralsk, Asia, Beached boats, Boat, Camel, Cotton, Desertification, Disappearance of Aral sea, Ecological disaster, Ecology, Impact on health, Kazakhstan, Lenin, Moscow, North Aral Sea, Salinisation, Ship Graveyard, Ships, Soviet Union, Travel, USSR, Uzbekistan, White Gold, World Bank, Zhalanash
19 Comments
Disaster by design: the death and partial rebirth of the Aral Sea (Part 1).
The aurora was a promise of yet another scorcher of a day, as it’d been yesterday and tomorrow was bound to be, but right now it was fresh and cool as I sat on my pack on the first of … Continue reading
Posted in Asia, Kazakhstan
Tagged Aral, Aral Sea, Aralsk, Asia, Cotton, Desertification, Disappearance of Aral sea, Ecological disaster, Ecology, Impact on health, Kazakhstan, Lenin, Moscow, North Aral Sea, Salinisation, Soviet Union, USSR, Uzbekistan, White Gold, World Bank
14 Comments
“I’ve once been to Kyzyl-Orda, but never to New York”.
I recently attended a training course which, as corporate events normally do, started with an ice-breaker. Every attendee had to stand up, one by one, and declare to the roomful of colleagues something quirky, or unusual, about himself. When it … Continue reading
Posted in Asia, Central Asia, Kazakhstan
Tagged Aktobe, Aktyubinsk, Asia, Astana, Burger King, Central Asia, Communism, Ice breaker, Kazakhstan, Kyzyl Orda, Kyzylorda, Mosque, Murale, Russia, Russian, Soviet, Soviet Union, Steppe, Train, Train travel
14 Comments
The “Frontier School of Character”: Travels along the Pamir Highway Part IV.
To Khorog. “Recent years have struck a final crippling blow to the roadlessness of Kirgiziia […]. Instead of isolated districts there is now one connected and unified economic whole.” M.M. Slavinskii, 1935 A minute man waited for us in the … Continue reading
Posted in Asia, Tajikistan
Tagged Adidas, Asia, Great Game, Ionov, Khorog, Kirgizia, Mountain, Pamir, Pamir Gap, Pamir Highway, Panj, Queen Victoria, Snow, Tajikistan, Tsar, USSR, Younghusband
18 Comments
The “Frontier School of Character”: Travels along the Pamir Highway Part III
Murghab. “’Tis said to be the highest place in the world” Marco Polo Looking back, the handful of hours we spent on the road between Karakul and the Tajik town of Murghab were my favourite of the entire journey. It … Continue reading
Posted in Asia, Tajikistan
Tagged Akbaital pass, Asia, Central Asia, China, Francis Younghusband, Gordon, Great Game, Ionov, Khorog, Kyrgyzstan, Lenin, Murghab, Nicholas II, Pamir, Pamir Gap, Pamir Highway, People watching, Photography, Tsar, USSR
11 Comments
A samosa wrapper.
There are street food sellers on Nuwara Eliya’s main street. If one is to walk outside the market, where the porticoed sidewalk shrinks to the width of a catflap, he’d see how a food cart has been parked in the … Continue reading
Posted in Asia, Sri Lanka
Tagged Asia, Ceylon, Notebook, Nuwara Eliya, Pakora, Samosa, School, Sri Lanka, Street food, Wrapper
12 Comments
Rummaging through Sir David’s bin: Outtakes from “Planet Earth II”.
In the year of our Lord 2016, BBC’s Natural History Unit decided to embark on a mammoth project, filming what would’ve become the four, splendid episodes of “Planet Earth II”. Under the watchful eye of Sir David Attenborough crews were dispatched to … Continue reading
Posted in Asia, Sri Lanka
Tagged Asia, Asian elephant, Attenborough, BBC, Birds, Ceylon, Eagle, Forest, Kingfisher, National park, nature, Photography, Planet Earth, Safari, Serpent Eagle, Sri Lanka, Stork, Udawalawe
8 Comments
After the daytrippers have gone.
It never ceases to amaze me how much a place can change depending on the weather. Take, for instance, Nuwara Eliya: I arrive under a glorious sunshine and an air so gleaming with light that you’d be excused for trying … Continue reading
Posted in Asia, Sri Lanka
Tagged Asia, Britain, Buddhism, Ceylon, Colonialism, Glorious dead, Hill country, Horse, Nuwara Eliya, Poverty, Sri Lanka, Tea, Tea Plantation
10 Comments
Where kites fly above the fort.
I often think that I’d have been a Portuguese explorer. This isn’t because of an unquenchable thirst for boot, a penchant for ending up chewed by unfriendly natives, or an interest in being consumed by hideous tropical diseases; rather, it’s … Continue reading
Posted in Asia, Sri Lanka
Tagged Asia, Astronomy, Buddha, Buddhist, Cargo, Ceylon, Dutch, Dutch Hospital, Galle, Galle Fort, Galle Railway station, Holland, Indian Ocean, Islam, Kite, Lloyd's, Madrasah, Muslim, Netherlands, Rampart Street, Robert Louis Stevenson, Shipping, Sri Lanka, Sunset, Tropics, Twilight, Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, VOC
18 Comments
Sri Lankan trains.
To travel by train is to see nature and human beings, towns and churches and rivers – In fact, to see life Agatha Christie There’s something special about the very act of boarding a train. For starters, it’s a lot … Continue reading
Posted in Asia, Sri Lanka
Tagged 2004 tsunami, Asia, Britain, Colombo, Colombo Fort, Ella, Galle, Galle Fort, Hill country, India, Nanu Oya, Rail, Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan railways, Tea, Tea Plantation, Train, Train travel
13 Comments
