We’ve been spoiled with some beautiful mountain drives on this trip. Just when we thought it couldn’t get any better after the Touragat pass from Kyrgyzstan to China, we hired a minibus and local driver to take us up the Karakoram Highway. This is the traditional Silk Road highway that connects Kashgar in China to Pakistan. Gorgeous snow mountains through passes at over 4000 metres elevation, how boring. One of the highlights was when we stopped at Karakol lake with Mushitage Shan (mountain summit at 7546 metres) and its huge glacier overlooking the lake. We spent the night in the town of Tashkurgan (only 60km from the Pakistan border) and went back to Kashgar the next day. There is supposed to be a speed limit through the pass (presumably to prevent accidents on the winding roads) ... read more

What can we say? This has been one of the trip highlights for sure. The pass on the way to Son-Kul lake is at an elevation of 3450 meters, the lake itself is at approximately 3000 meters and it is Kyrgyzstan's second largest lake. Pretty much as soon as we arrived it started raining and then eventually it turned to snow. We opted to stay in a cozy Yurt that slept six. In case anybody is interested, the yurts are heated with a coal burning stove. Most of the afternoon was spent hiding inside the Yurt playing cards with a few of the others from the group. We woke up early the next morning to a beautiful sunrise and clearing skies. Since the rain/snow had finally stopped, it was really our first chance to have a ... read more

Today we had the pleasure of watching a falcon hunting demonstration and a game of Kok-boru or Ulak Tartysh (goat polo) which is a national sport of Kyrgyzstan. The falcon hunting was interesting, but it was more or less feeding a bunny to a falcon rather than actual hunting. Tough for the bunny, but I guess it's really no different than feeding animals in a zoo. The goat polo was really a sight to be seen. Basically, they kill a goat, remove the head and hooves, then use the goat's carcass for the game. The teams battle for posession of the goat carcass like rugby on horseback. The object of the game is to toss the goat onto the opposing team's goal (a ring of tires). It sounds brutal, and it is. But, the goat is ... read more

Samarkand is a nice city. The first day we were there, we participated in the city walking tour that was offered as part of the dragoman trip. Needless to say it was quite long, although fairly informative, it was tough to pay attention once it got to about lunch time and there was still about 3 hours left on the tour. We survived (barely) and finished the tour, it felt like quite the accomplishment really. The rest of our time in Samarkand was fairly relaxing. We caught up on some internet, went for walks, and enjoyed the best pizza we've had in Central Asia at Venezia restaurant...twice. It's already been 2 months since we finished working and we've been on the road now for 7 weeks. So far we seem to be spending to our budget, ... read more

Khiva was the first city that we came to in Uzbekistan. The old city still had the walls around it. It’s quite a charming place as it’s the best preserved old city in Uzbekistan. We enjoyed wondering the streets and watching people. When we arrived in Khiva we were surprised to find that the country is quite well set up for tourism and there are large amounts of French tourists traveling around Uzbekistan. It seems that this is a big destination for older French tourists. Many of the vendors speak to us in French; as do the kids (bonbon, etc.) The currency in Uzbekistan is fun to deal with. The largest note is valued at approximately $0.50 US. So when we go out for the day we each have a thick stack of notes in our ... read more