As we set a 7am alarm at midnight after a very long day of international travelling we wondered if we were being a bit too optimistic, but we really wanted to make the 8:30am train to Kandy. It turned out no alarm was needed, our bodies were tired but too confused to sleep properly and so we’d woken every hour and by 6am were wide awake, albeit not inclined to move. Marie’s colleague had recommended a place he stayed at when he extended a work trip at his own cost. A simple but really nice tidy room with great bathroom, good wifi and in a quiet area. We were stoked to have it booked for our return to Colombo. While not our main destination Sri Lanka was somewhere we both wanted to go, and it fit ... read more

Marie got a ride to the airport with a colleague and set 'camp' up a corner with a precious power socket. A cancelled meeting enabled Emma to catch a slightly earlier flight. After a quick change and some trading of packing, we bought water and headed out of the building, with the sign Emma had made saying 'South' We'd had a brief discussion about what to say to people that were kind enough to give us a lift. Maybe not everyone would appreciate giving us a ride if they knew we'd turned down a paid flight home (Marie) and in fact paid to fly up in order to hitchhike back (Emma) and that actually we were just seeking an adventure. It was tempting to invent a story, a whole new exciting fictional life. But that doesn't ... read more

Click here to watch a vlog from us both covering highlights, challenges and surprises of our trip through Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.... read more

Our original idea was to take a night train from Almaty to Astana, but just before we left NZ we read more about Turkistan and changed our plans. From the 16th to 18th centuries Turkistan was the capital of the Kazakh khans. It is home to the mausoleum of Turkic Muslim holy man, Kozha Akhmed Yasaui, and was built by Timur in the late 14th century. It is Kazakhstan’s greatest architectural monument and most important pilgrimage site. The guidebook claims that it rivals Timor's creations in Uzbekistan such as the Registran in Samarkand, and says it has no rivals in Kazakhstan for man-made beauty. We figured that it would likely be the last chance (and only time on this trip) that we get to see the stunning blue tile work so quintessentially Central Asia. At only ... read more

As transport leaves when full we'd been told to leave our Bishkek hostel at 8am for the Almaty (Kazakhstan) minibus to ensure we got seats and that it would likely go by 9:30. We didn't quite buy into that so went a little later. The station was a much more civilised affair this time. We were early enough to watch 3 cases of scotch get hidden in a hole underneath the seats. By 9am we were on the road. By 10am we were in Kazakhstan. Marie held up the Kyrgyzstan exit queue when the immigration officer couldn't find her entry stamp (it is in there we made sure to check we'd been stamped as we entered) he processed her exit on the basis of Emma's entry stamp and then Emma's processing was delayed for some unknown ... read more