Tag Archives: Uzbekistan

Turn Left at Lenin’s Statue: Travels in Central Asia.

Posted on 03/08/2020 by awtytravels

It’s taken three years, five revisions and a list of rejections as long as Donald Trump’s comb over, but at long last Turn Left at Lenin’s Statue is here – or, rather, on Amazon. Here’s a little bit of a … Continue reading →

Posted in The Book | Tagged Amazon, Amazon self publish, Asia, Book, Central Asia, China, Ebook, Kazakhstan, Kindle, Kyrgyzstan, Lenin's statue, Literature, Pamir, PRC, Russia, Self Publish, Tajikistan, Travel, Travel writing, Turn Left, Uzbekistan, Xinjiang | 44 Comments

Monochrome Kashgar.

Posted on 04/09/2019 by awtytravels

I had plans for more stories from Xinjiang; however, the more I try to put pen to paper the more I realise I don’t want to add words to what I’ve already said. What I do have are some photos. … Continue reading →

Posted in Asia, China, Xinjiang | 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 | 15 Comments

Nobody speak. A Xinjiang journal.

Posted on 17/08/2019 by awtytravels

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, Xinjiang | Tagged Army, Arrests, Asia, Border, Border patrol, Brainwashing, CCTV, Central Asia, Chairman, Chen, Chen Quanguo, China, China Cables, Concentrated Education and Training, 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 | 44 Comments

Uzbek football, Korean streets and the Games. A 2018 wrap-up.

Posted on 01/01/2019 by awtytravels

The last trip of the year ended today. I crossed the crucial threshold somewhere between the Brazilian rainforest and the Atlantic, blissfully unaware of it as I slept in my airplane seat wrapped in one of those duvets that are … Continue reading →

Posted in Asia, Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan, South Korea, Uzbekistan | Tagged 2018, 2018 retrospective, 2018 World Nomad Games, Beirut, Bukhara, Buxoro, Cholpon Ata, End of year, Football, Incheon, Korea, Kyrchyn, Kyrchyn Jailoo, Kyrgyzstan, Night, Seoul, South Korea, Sport, Uzbekistan, World Nomad Games | 15 Comments

To the last city.

Posted on 23/05/2018 by awtytravels

No, that’s a misnomer. Tashkent was, if anything, Uzbekistan’s first city, at least in the modern sense of the term. First one to be occupied by the Russians, first one to be reached by a railroad, first to host all … Continue reading →

Posted in Central Asia, Uzbekistan | Tagged Asia, Central Asia, Christianity, City, Cityscape, Cycling, Earthquake, Food, G55 AMG, Hotel Uzbekistan, Islam, Islam Karimov, Karimov, Kazakhstan, Korean, Kosmonavtlar, Lenin, Marx, Mercedes, Mirobod, Soviet, Soviet Union, Street photography, Urban photography, USSR, Uzbek Koreans, Uzbekistan | 11 Comments

Looking up in Uzbekistan.

Posted on 18/05/2018 by awtytravels

Remember shoegazing, that 1980s genre? Well, had any of those musicians been in Ulug Beg Madrasa, in Samarkand, they’d have missed this. Sometimes it’s useful to be walking with one eye to the heavens and one to the floor. Especially … Continue reading →

Posted in Central Asia, Uzbekistan | Tagged Amulet Hotel, Bazaar, Bibi Khanum, Bukhara, Chasma Ayub, Chorsu, Chorsu Bazaar, Cupola, dOMES, GoPro, Hero, Islam, Job, Madrasa, Madrasah, Mausoleum, Religion, Samarkand, Tamerlane, Tashkent, Ulug Beg, Uzbekistan | 18 Comments

Buxoro PFC home: an excursion into Uzbekistan’s Premier League.

Posted on 15/05/2018 by awtytravels

It is normally the case, at least for me, to be stumbling upon great finds almost entirely by chance, and today was exactly one such case. We were sitting on a topchan at the hotel, yet again cheered by endless … Continue reading →

Posted in Central Asia, Uzbekistan | Tagged Bukhara, Buxoro, Central Asia, Fans, Football, Goal, Pakhtakor, Paxtakor, Premier League, Soccer, Super League, Tashkent, Ultras, Uzbekistan | 12 Comments

A sunset over Po-i-Kalyon

Posted on 04/05/2018 by awtytravels

Showcasing Bukhara must be the easiest job ever, or so I thought with the clarity that suddenly comes when you’re into your third pint-sized bottle of Portland beer (the fact that an Uzbek brew had the picture of a clipper … Continue reading →

Posted in Central Asia, Uzbekistan | Tagged Afghanistan, Bokhara, Bukhara, Central Asia, Chor Minor, Dushanbe, Eastern Approaches, Fire cult, Fitzroy Maclean, Genghis Khan, Iran, Isfahan, Islam, Madrasah, Madrassa, Mausoleum, Minaret, Mir-i-Arab, Muslim, Nadir Divan-Beg, Po-i-Kalyon, Portland beer, Siddikyon, Somoni, Tajikistan, Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Zoroastrianism | 16 Comments

And then I was invited to tea.

Posted on 28/04/2018 by awtytravels

Bukhara the holy, Bukhara the saint, Bukhara the erudite, Bukhara the city where light floods from the ground up and not from the heavens down. Or perhaps the Bukhara, in the words of traveller and linguist Ármin Vámbéry, ”whose whole … Continue reading →

Posted in Asia, Central Asia, Uzbekistan | Tagged Abdul Aziz Madrassah, As salaam alaikum, Asia, Backgammon, Bokhara, Bukhara, Buxoro, Central Asia, Chai, Children, Chor Minor, Doors, Madrassah, Masjid, Mosaic, Mosque, Mud walls, Old town, People, Po-i-Kalyon, Registan, Samarkand ko'chasi, Stork, Stork next, Street photography, Tea, Topchan, Urban decay, Urban exploration, Urban tourism, Uzbekistan | 22 Comments

The whistling man of Registan.

Posted on 15/04/2018 by awtytravels

Denying it would be pointless, and I won’t: I am an unabashed Morricone fan and – the two go hand in hand, really – an Alessandroni devotee. Whilst I appreciate that Morricone’s fame is somehow a given, I’m aware that … Continue reading →