Note: This entry was written soon after my journey through Artsakh in 2018. Since then, Azerbaijan has launched attacks on Artsakh, capturing territories mentioned here (e.g. Shushi) that was previously free for us to visit when it was under Armenia. Two weeks ago, I didn’t know anything about Armenia, let alone Nagorno-Karabakh or “Artsakh” as…
Sheki, Azerbaijan
A 7-hour bus ride from Baku brought me to Sheki. The guidebook said it was a pretty place and it was somewhat on my way to Ganja.
Baku, Azerbaijan
I will say this though – the Carpet Museum of Baku was one of the most interesting museums I’ve ever visited in the entire world! You may ask why I’d be interested in carpets of all things. But have you seen carpet-weaving art? It’s stunning and very intricate!
The Food of Uzbekistan
I am a lover of food and I ate a lot of Uzbek food while traveling around the country. Hands down, my favorite is PLOV but the rest, I also enjoyed very much and I did not have a bad meal! I had a lot of other food not posted here but I didn’t get…
Samarkand, Uzbekistan
A train ride took me from Bukhara to Samarkand – from the train station, a taxi ride to my hostel where my roommate was a jolly Aussie guy who spoke fluent Russian due to family heritage. (Was definitely great to be out and about with him as he chatted up the Russian-speaking elderly Uzbek taxi…
Bukhara, Uzbekistan
I think the main attraction for me in Bukhara was checking out “The Ark”, a fortress apparently occupied from the 5th century until about 1920 when it was bombed by the Soviets. The wooden pillars that held a lot of the place up together showed its age, in comparison with say, a lot of the…
Going back in time…
It’s Jan 15, 2023. I am looking back at my last entry that I worked on and now that even more time has passed, I find it even more difficult to recall specifics of past memories and experiences from my time traveling through Central Asia. But I want to try – by re-reading about the…
Nukus and Khiva, Uzbekistan
An early 2-hour flight from Tashkent, across desert, took me to the capital of the Karakalpakstan region, Nukus. I knew there wasn’t much to do here – it was desert-hot and dry – but every desert sometimes has a rose and the Igor Savitsky museum of art would be that rose. Although I am not…
“What will your verse be?”
A poem by Walt Whitman, first heard on one of my favorite movies, “Dead Poets Society”. Oh me! Oh life! of the questions of these recurring,Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish,Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)Of eyes that vainly…
Tashkent, Uzbekistan
I used the capital, Tashkent, as a launching point for my travel in Uzbekistan – it’d have to be where I enter and where I exit the country – as there are no other international airports that’d take me to my next planned destinations. When faced with one entry+exit point in the past, I’ve been…