Regional Summaries
Regional Summaries · 02 April 2020
I don’t know why, but it feels weird for me to dislike a place. Maybe it is the optimistic side of me that leads me to try to find the enjoyment of where ever I am, that each place offers something unique. Having traveled more than my fair share in my life I have enjoyed almost every place for its character. All that being said I am nervous to write this regional summary as I feel a strong disdain for western Kazakhstan. Even when I talk about not liking it I call it one of my least favorite...
Regional Summaries · 08 February 2020
A recurring theme of this trip has been the ebb and flow between civilization and the natural world. Walking from Bukhara to Nukus really solidified this theme. In this section, we left the ancient city Bukhara to slowly immerse ourselves into the Qizil-Kum—Red Sands—and, reemerging on the other side, found yet another ancient and thriving city, Khiva. This section finished just north of Khiva in the industrial city of Nukus, and although this section was mainly desert, we found many oases...
Regional Summaries · 11 January 2020
After a short time in Tajikistan we returned to Uzbekistan. During this stretch we walked to the most famous cities of the Silk Road, Samarkand and Bukhara.
Regional Summaries · 19 November 2019
Entering Tajikistan was a lot easier than we expected. Or maybe I should say Uzbekistan was a lot easier to exit. The border security on the Uzbek side was slow and didn’t look at our registration slips, which is something that we frequently worry about. There are stories online and even from our friends who have visited who say that they had been stopped/detained at the border for hours. Sometimes missing their flight and sometimes being forced to pay fines that cost more than a flight out...
Regional Summaries · 12 November 2019
It had turned into two weeks at the border of Uzbekistan in the city of Osh as we waited for our visas. Timb’s and Pat’s visas only took a week to receive but for me, it was two because of mistaken dates. The process itself was frustrating as the website Uzbekistan has set up for e-visas is riddled with bugs. After multiple days of trying to resize photos, refreshing web pages, calling the Uzbek helpline, and entering our information in a million times, eventually, the website accepted our...
Regional Summaries · 29 October 2019
The year 2019 has been full of surprises and new discoveries for me. I have spent my time traveling Poland, where I come from, as well as the US, Iceland, and most importantly, Uzbekistan, where I joined the Silk Walk expedition and walked about 100 Km from Fergana to Kokand. And to be honest, it has been quite an adventure. After having traveled the world a bit, I can say that I come from a country that is currently somewhere between what we culturally and politically consider the West and the...
Regional Summaries · 06 October 2019
This regional summary covers our journey from the heart of Kyrgyzstan, in the regional capital of Naryn, as we made our way west to the city of Osh, home of Central Asia's largest bazaar and the border of the next country in our path. Like the northern parts of Kyrgyzstan we walked through, this area did not lack in mountainous terrain, majestic beauty, enveloping dust, generous hospitality, disjunct travel plans, and the constant, albeit slight, changes of each new ridge as we watched the...
Regional Summaries · 18 October 2018
It had been a week of waiting for our mail to come, we were getting restless and angsty to get walking again. It just couldn’t come fast enough. We had done everything there was to do in the small town of Khorgas, which wasn’t much, and had spent the last couple days waiting for the package locked up in our room like hermits, playing computer games, watching movies, and talking on the phone with people back home. The room smelt like butt and fart, but we didn’t mind.
Regional Summaries · 24 August 2018
Our final section of China brought us from Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, to the massively vital trade hub of Khorgos, the port between China and Kazakhstan. When I say, “brought us from Urumqi to Khorgos,” it’s not that much of a stretch considering the number of times we were detained by police. This section of our walk has had a very distinct wash, rinse, repeat feel to it; we’d walk, the police would stop us, they’d drive us to the next town and force us to stay in an expensive...