2-3 Although I live most of my life in Asia, Central Asia is as remote to me as any other continent. I flew into Almaty from Kuala Lumpur. Pardon my ignorance, but I had never heard of Almaty before now,…
4 After a brief stay in Almaty, I was looking forward to seeing more of Kazakhstan. I took an MPV taxi heading west to Taraz with a few other fellow passengers. The car was loaded to the hilt for the…
6-8 From Shymkent in Kazakhstan, I took a taxi to go west toward Tashkent, Uzbekistan. An hour later, the taxi dropped me at the border. I then walked into Uzbekistan and straight into Tashkent, which is conveniently just next to…
8-9 After two days in Tashkent, I was on the evening train bound for Samarkand. When I got on the train, I walked into a carriage packed with locals piercing me with their curious eyes. I felt out of place,…
10-11 From Samarkand, I then took the train to Bukhara, just three hours away. As soon as I disembarked, a ball of fire engulfed me. It sure was hot as hell. I hastened to the nearest air-conditioned burger joint; I…
12-14/5/2018, I shared a taxi with a young Spanish doctor, each of us paying USD 20, to drive to Khiva, which was 400 kilometers away and would take about seven hours. The car often drove into the oncoming lane to…