Kyrgyzstan

We reached the checkpoint in the Barskoon valley on the way to the gold mine about 3 pm and were told its not a good idea to climb the pass … Read more

After five nights on the road, we opted for some luxury at the lovely and incredibly cheap hotel of our friend, Gapur Karimov. We went to the TsUM department store … Read more

Ensconced in our very nice and reasonably-priced hotel in Bishkek, we can now get a good phone signal which means that the mifi works and I can upload the Tibet … Read more

Setting off to see the Barskoon waterfalls, we inexplicably missed them and carried on up the road which, although unmetalled, was of reasonably good quality. We came to a checkpoint … Read more

We wasted a morning following various people’s leads about a computer shop where I could get the charger repaired. Karakol is probably heaving with tourists in summer, and there is … Read more

After visiting numerous Beeline offices in Georgia on the way out where a succession of young ladies struggled to make the mifi work, we finally discovered from yet another young … Read more

Lake Issyk-Kul is a huge lake in eastern Kyrgyzstan and its western end is about 105 miles east of Bishkek. I had to give a £5 bribe at the ugly … Read more

Arriving in Bishkek we made for the Albatross Hotel, only to be told that our good friend Gapur Karimov had moved to another hotel, the Premier. After spending three hours … Read more

Day 150, 24th October., Sosnovka Getting the Russian visas before the section of the Chinese trip from Mohan to Irkeshtam was finalised, I had assumed we would be in China … Read more