Song Kol

            From all accounts, Kyrgyzstan can be considered as the emerald of Central Asia. It possesses that mesmerising combination of glistening expanses of water and tumbling rivers under a sky opening up to a vista of snowy and rocky mountains and green hills either forested or segmented into grassy jailoos. Song [...]

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Osh – Arslanabob

            Whilst Osh is nothing special, Arslanabob seems to project itself out of the stuff of legend. I travelled to Osh with three other foreigners by share taxi – Remi, a Belgian, Karol, a Slovakian, and David, a Canadian. It was a long squirmish ride, although a share taxi ride in [...]

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Karakol – Karakol Valley – Alajkol – Altyn Arashan – Karakol – Tamga – Bishkek

            I had never seen roses like the ones I saw in Sergei’s yard in the Yak Tours guesthouse in Karakol. Brilliant velvet red blooms and pale roses with petals edged in pink cascaded over doorways and roofs, filling garden beds and exuding the most delicate relaxing odour. I had pitched my tent late, and [...]

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Bishkek

            There was Little Old Laos, and now there’s Beautiful Bishkek. For some Bishkek was the hell that Urumqi became for me. But Bishkek was bliss for my soul after the nightmare and intensity of China, and I contend a much lesser hell than being stuck on the other side of the border.
            The [...]

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Urumqi – Tian Chi II – Urumqi

            The rough track turned onto the concrete path that circuited the lake. They paused in the shade for Will to catch his breath. It had been six days of chronic diarrhoea, the first two coupled with intense nausea and vomiting. He had managed a few bread rolls and two bowls of rice in that [...]

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Turpan

            Turpan is not China. China wants it to be China, but Turpan is Uighurstan. There is a dialectic between the image of a Han Chinese, scampering from the heat and punishing sun to the confines of a concrete block of apartments, and the image of the Uighur man, clothed in loose linen shirt and [...]

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Tian Chi

            It’s called Tian Chi (Heavenly Lake), and it is situated in the Tian Shan (Heavenly Mountains), and the ‘Heavenly’ superlative is by no means an exaggeration – Tian Chi was paradise. A small alpine lake nestled into a valley at 2000m, it’s emerald waters shone against a backdrop of green slopes and snow-capped mountains. [...]

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Urumqi – Kanas Lake – Urumqi

            As I strolled back from a feed of shashylik, spiced bread and beer, and carrying my wedge of watermelon for desert, I spied a group of teenagers sporting identical t-shirts with big I <heart> China slogans branded in red across the oversized white garments. I admire the country, but I could not agree with [...]

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Xining – Yushu – Xining

            Yushu was another Vieng Poukha – one of those experiences that impregnates itself into your memory. Moments flash past in my mind: looking down bustling Uighur streets into a sea of white caps interspersed with donkeys and the occasional scooter, cycle-utility or car trying to squeeze through the throng; the flash of fire from [...]

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Songpan

            Songpan involved many firsts. It was the first time I had been to such an altitude. It was the first time I had ridden a horse for such a length of time. It was also the first time that peculiar aspects of the Chinese nature first began to itch my sensibilities.
            The greatest memory [...]

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