Amidst the sound of waves coming ashore, a sea gull screeches as it glides above the Atlantic. Sitting on a make-shift bench fashioned by pieces of plank-wood likely used to repair homes in this part of country susceptible to hurricanes (Dorian likely paid a visit a few weeks ago), I take a moment from reading…
The Oasis of Architecture
After saying goodbye to Nuri from the hostel, I caught a bus to the airport to catch my 1.5 hour flight to the capital of Kazakhstan, Astana. Note: I literally just found this out while typing this but as of March 2019, Astana is now renamed to “Nur-Sultan”, after its long-time President/Dictator, Nursultan Nazarbayev. I personally think…
The (original?) Big Apple
I follow the MoskvaDown to Gorky ParkListening to the wind of change… Although I did not follow the Moskva like the Scorpions, I did end up in Gorky Park but only in the former capital of Kazakhstan, Almaty, a city name whose name essentially means “apple”, due to it being the area of origin for certain varieties of…
The Eye of Immortality
I’ve been reading Yuval Noah Harari’s book, “Homo Deus – A Brief History of Tomorrow”. In it, Harari talks about how famine, disease, and wars were the limiting factors in the lives of humans until the last few decades and in the next few, he believes mankind will pursue immortality, or at least, realistically, living…
Crossing the Kyrgyz-Kazakh border
After returning from Cholpon-Ata and staying in Bishkek for the night, I made my way across the Kyrgyz-Kazakh border and toward Almaty. I had a little scare crossing the border because I thought I lost my marshrutka group and my ride. This is how a border crossing works in a lot of Asia; your shared ride arrives…
Lake Issyk-Kul
Boarding a marshrutka from Bishkek, I took the 6 hour journey to check out Lake Issyk-Kul. While many people choose to make a clockwise or counter-clockwise journey around the massive lake, checking out different perspectives from different towns (with the aim of passing through Karakol, east of the lake, a favorite launching-off point for hikes in the beautiful…
Bishkek
Naz Gul called a taxi for me to take me back to Bazar-Korgon where I was supposed to find a connecting ride (in the form of a shared minivan ride, or as they’re known in Russian, “marshrutka”) to Bishkek, an 8+ hour journey. Due to a misunderstanding, I found out I had to pay for…
Arslanbob
After a series of marshrutka rides taking me from Osh to Jalal-Abad to Bazar-Korgon, I entered the Chatkal mountain range and into a region famous for its expansive surrounding walnut forest, one of the largest in the world. My destination was a small, rural village called Arslanbob. After getting dropped off in the village center, I went…
The conversation in the Lada
“Ya ne ponimayu.” No matter how many times I repeated that phrase (and with a smile), the guys in the Lada kept speaking Russian to me. “Guys, I don’t understand!” I guess they believed that with enough persistence, I would finally give in, admit I do speak fluent Russian, and have a conversation with them….
Osh – and where we all said goodbye
Back in 2010 when I first set off to travel the world, I met some guys in a hostel in Turkey who had cycled all the way from Germany. Back then when I first knew that people could ride that far, and even now, after meeting many others who’ve done long-distance bicycle journeys, I am…