Two-thirds of our world is made up of water, which is why travel operators are starting to integrate underwater attractions into travel. It’s the next frontier in the travel industry, as the area underneath our oceans has largely yet to…
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I recently made a detour from Bishkek to visit the fantastic Yasawi Mausoleum in the southern Kazkh town of Turkestan. Even for history and architecture buffs visiting Central Asia, this 14th-century structure hasn’t always been on the travel itinerary. The mausoleum sits 300 kilometers north of…
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What’s the worst thing you could lose while traveling? For instance, would you rather lose your smart phone or your bank card? Your passport or your journal? I recently lost my iPhone, and for the next couple days found myself…
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A lot of travelers circle Kyrgyzstan’s Issyk Kul lake without seeing much beyond the Karakol region (we almost did). But there’s a lot of great stops, and the north and south shores offer dramatically different landscapes. We checked out Tamga–at the…
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Song Kol Lake is staple tourist destination in Kyrgyzstan, but in this country that isn’t incompatible with a quiet and peaceful getaway. We recently rang in the summer tourist season by spending three nights with a Kyrgyz family on the southeast corner of…
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Remember when people went on holiday with a suitcase, travel documents folder, guidebook, maps, brochures and camera? Then Google came along. It claims that its latest apps function as a personal “butler”, ridding travellers of the need to carry around…
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Go backpacking for a year and you’re bound to get a lot of questions afterward. Among them, there are five questions that come up again and again. Moreover, as travelers we often react as though the answers are obvious. I thought…
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There are two roads from China to Kyrgyzstan, and I took the one via Tash Rabat and the Torugurt Pass. Both roads offer really pretty landscapes, but the Torugart route is somewhat less used because it’s more complicatedly bureaucratically. But it offers the…
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Have some time on your hands? Eat your way through Bishkek. I recently spent six nights in the Kyrgyzstani capital (waiting for my Uzbekistan visa and relaxing), during which I ate and drank my way through the city. Bishkek isn’t quite…
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We’ve all done it. You wake up at 8 a.m. to see the main tourist attractions with the rest of the world and by the time the clock hits 8 p.m., you’re knackered and have to give up on the…
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