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Tag Archives: Uzbekistan
Turn Left at Lenin’s Statue: Travels in Central Asia.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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
Posted in Asia, Central Asia, Uzbekistan
Tagged Architecture, Art, Asia, Bibi Khanum, Central Asia, Control, Freeloaders, Islam, Madrassah, Millyi Gvardiya, People watching, Police, Registan, Registon, Religion, Samarkand, Samarqand, Selfies, Shir Dor, Tamerlane, Tillya Kari, Timur, Tourism, Ulug Beg, Uzbekistan
21 Comments