week 325

Mon: Female kazakh reporter, with a highly westernized appearance, gives Tashkent the usual tour.

Tue: A russian couple rents a car for two weeks in Tashkent, go around the tourist caravan route, plus the Ugam-Chatkal national park and Fergana valley to conclude with the lapidary of having to pay only once a police bribe.

Wed: After a maddening five years of COVID pandemic followed by a national economic collapse, the young British born Sri-Lankan adopted veterinarian still managed to expand her pet clinic with a mobile unit truck.

Thu: Uzbek reporter Manzil, with no more than a cell phone plus a selfie-stick, travels through the Gissarak mountains portraying the people of Darbant, Boysun and Sangardak villages.

Fri: And finally, Manzil jumps from the Katta Lyangar mosque, to the Badai-Tugai nature reserve and the Sentyob village in the Naruatu mountains.

week 324

Mon: Khiva Zoroastrian past receives a well deserved review by Kazakh TV.

Tue: Sogdians frescoes, from Panjakent to Turfan, show the merchants of the ancient Silk road.

Wed: Dashing, from Baku to Tashkent, via Aktau and Nukus, puts the grumpy father&son team from last to first in the race for Singapore.

Thu: A tiny island on the Norwegian artic circle gives shelter to rehabilitated youngsters thanks to an Everest mountaineer childless grandma.

Fri: After all, it had to be in Tashkurgan, where Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Xinjiang meet, that the intrepid journalist finally found the east-west nexus.

week 323

Mon: The last emir of Bukhara, partly educated in St. Petersburg, negotiated an impossible when trying to combine east & west lifestyles.

Tue: Inheritance from the Soviet Union, the solar facility north of Tashkent needs revamping to current standards.

Wed: Definitely, the eastern express train is not the fastest way to cross Anatolia while on a race to reach Baku, via Tblisi.

Thu: The reporter, back in 2016, feels the transition from oppressive Fergana in Uzbekistan to chaotic Osh in Kirghizstan.

Fri: With a little help form the EU, an “smart village” in Corsica tries to keep its youth around rather than letting them join the coastal tourist industry.

week 322

Mon: Samarkand gets a very sufi oriented review by a Kazakh TV reporter.

Tue: Speleology of Timur’s cave in Gissar national reserve requires a true 4WD.

Wed: From London to Singapore by land on a shoestring budget looks more than grim to many of the couples sponsored by BBC, yet they reach Delphi almost at the same time.

Thu: Northeast Honduras hold vestiges of an unknown pre-columbian people in contact with the Mayans well before 1502 Columbus arrival.

week 321

Mon: The Chorsu bazaar dome and the facade mosaics in many of the building blocks of post-earthquake Tashkent show the unmistakable mark of the Soviet period.

Tue: Tushetia economic gamble on eco-tourism depends on the feebleness of the western Europe espresso filled city dwellers.

Wed: Driving from Isfahan to Samarkand during Nowruz brings to the forth the long lasting mark of the Zoroastrian rites in the region at large.

Thu: A “return to the wild” episode where the guests have changed a tiny island off the coast of Cambodia for a patch of Thai jungle highlights the power of the in-laws.

Fri: The Fergana valley corridor connecting China with their Turk/Iranian neighbors since time immemorial can be guessed from people’s faces.

week 320

Mon: To get a kilometer long silk thread out of a single cocoon is a done deal in Margilan ancient workshops.

Tue: Confronting Santarem mono-culture expansion in their vicinity, native amerindians have to consult their Tapajos upriver fellows to implement ancient agricultural practices.

Wed: The Pamir highway along the Wakhan corridor permits to compare Tajik and Afghan peasant well being on each river bank.

Thu: The coast of Chile, south of Santiago, gives an anglo-chilean couple, who met while working for the Australian mining industry, temporary refuge .

Fri: Our westerner reporter, lost in Samarkand allure, compares Genghis Khan and Attila with amir Temur while forgetting to add Alexander to the mix…

week 319

Mon: Driving from Kolkata to Peshawar via Varanasi, Delhi and Lahore, exposes the traveler to the absurdities of the Attari border crossing.

Tue: The white settlers reliance on far away recruited native police for colonizing West Australia shows the dictum “divide and conquer” at work.

Wed: Well traveled Joanna Lumley gets a high out the architectural treasures of Samarkand Registan square.

Thu: Semi-nomad Mbendjele BaYaka people of the republic of Congo deserve the preservation of the tropical forest they have called home for centuries.

Fri: Shady chaikhanas on Lyabi Khauz square frequented by locals give a flavour of an unhurried lifestyle at the silk road trade oasis of Bukhara.

week 318

Mon: Ellik-kala (50 fortresses) village in Karakalpakstan gives entrance to the sand dunes landscape all the way to the Aral sea.

Tue: Having to care for 30+ acres of land in the hinterlands of Portugal when your 40s are behind seems an unsustainable physical stretch.

Wed: The still standing entrance portico to Timur’s palace in Shahrisabz hardly represents the magnificence of the ancient site.

Thu: Tasmania ethnic cleansing of the aboriginal people to Flinders island in the 1830s, although characteristic of the time, calls for remembrance.

Fri: To pass former Moynak port and reach the actual current shore of the remnants of the Aral sea in Kantubek pulls the traveller far away from the tourist caravan.

week 317

Mon: Andijan’s wahhabists, at the heart of Fergana valley, seem to have left town.

Tue: Sri Lanka rugged interior can heal the wounds of London’s rat race.

Wed: Sufi Bahouddin Naqshband mausoleum, identifiable by the horsehair flag on the outskirts of Bukhara away from the tourist caravan, is where Uzbeks are found.

Thu: Like any other settler colonialism, Australian society coerced the aboriginals from day first.

Fri: In Khujand, close to Alexandria Eschate ruins, tajik markets overflow with colorful fruits and fragrant spices.

week 316

Mon: Khiva wood carving tradition is best displayed at the ancient madrasas courtyards.

Tue: Just focusing in Moynaq ecological disaster misrepresents the many other marvels of Karakalpakstan.

Wed: Van living in Lincolnshire highlights how unaffordable regular housing has become.

Thu: Saint Christopher island in the Caribbean still runs an old sugarcane train remodeled for cruise tourists.

Fri: A Tajik wedding in the mountainous village of Artuch can mean only lots of guests and meat on the plate.