If you keep up with the news, it’s hard not to notice that Thailand and Kyrgyzstan have been in the midst of political turmoil and violent protests this past week. In an effort to offer a foil to images of bloodied protesters in Bishkek, I posted a link to a series of photo essays from our visit to Kyrgyzstan in 2007. Some friends thanked us, while another also voiced what I imagine is a prevailing perception: “Great pics but isn’t it crazy how fast a country/society can turn?” Continue Reading »

Known as the most visa-friendly country in Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan’s visa was a piece of cake – no Letters of Invitation (LOIs), no questioning. Just fill out an application, pay the fee in the morning and return in the afternoon for the visa. We did this in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

If you are flying into Bishkek, don’t bother to get your visa in advance. Visas on arrival are cheaper at the airport. Continue Reading »

Article Series - Central Asian Visas and Letters of Invitation (LOI)

1. Sex and the Central Asian Visa
2. Turkmenistan Visas and Letters of Invitation (LOI)
3. Uzbekistan Visas and Letters of Invitation (LOI)
4. Kazakhstan Visas and Letters of Invitation (LOI)
5. Kyrgyzstan Visas
6. Tajikistan Visas and GBAO Permits

When times were difficult during the years following independence, the men felt sorry for themselves and the women carried on with the business of providing for the family.

- a Georgian friend explaining the situation there during the early 1990s. Continue Reading »

We are often asked “What were your best experiences? What are your favorite places?”

“All-time favorite places” is a difficult one to answer without writing a book, but if we limit the question to 2007 (as we did in our personal growth exercise last night), the answer becomes manageable and something worth sharing with our readers. Continue Reading »

When we travel, we aim to maximize our depth of understanding of a place relative to the limited amount of time we have to spend there. We try to plan our visit to each location around the people we know, the recommendations they make and a list of sights that we’ve developed independently through our own research. Planning our visit to Kyrgyzstan was no exception. However, the wide cross-section of people, sights and activities to which we had access provided us the opportunity to dig more deeply than usual.

Opportunities to question one’s assumptions and to view oneself and one’s environment from a different perspective defines the intersection of travel and personal growth. As we learned more about Kyrgyz culture and life in Kyrgyzstan, we found ourselves at that crossroads examining our definitions of family and community. Continue Reading »

In late September, we headed into the mountains of eastern Kyrgyzstan with a stash of US dollars tucked away in our money belts for emergencies. When we emerged a week later, that same stash was worth about 5% less. No surprise that the dollar was trading lower. This has been the pattern for some time now, particularly since we began our travels one year ago. Continue Reading »

Having just uncorked our first bottle of Chinese wine, we began to reminisce about the small, lovely and affordable French wine collection we’d built in Prague (then quickly quaffed), thanks to the Salon de Vignerons Independants (French Independent Vintners Festival) that we attended in February 2005 and February 2006 in Strasbourg, France.

In addition to tasting over 300 different wines at those two events, we returned home with a small cache of 100 bottles. The taste and quality of the bottles we purchased belied the fact that most of them cost well under 10 Euros. We could continue our little daydream here, but we’ll leave you to read this article that we wrote about the Salon earlier this year.

Now, back to our current reality… Continue Reading »

So we went a little nuts with photos in Kyrgyzstan. But we have an excuse. We were there for over a month – tracking down militsia (OVIR, to those familiar) to renew our visas, getting stuck in snowstorms, meeting old friends and collecting new ones, freezing to bits while taking in stunning scenery and enjoying some unbelievably kind hospitality.

Here’s our latest installment of photo essays: Continue Reading »

While in Bishkek, we visited Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Kyrgyzstan bureau where they report and broadcast under the name Radio Azattyk. During our visit, we were asked for an interview regarding our travels, why we are taking this journey, and more specifically our observations thus far of Central Asia. Continue Reading »

Our travels in Kyrgyzstan overlapped with Ramadan this year (13 September – 12 October). For Muslims around the world, Ramadan is a month of fasting, reflection and renewal. While the majority of Kyrgyzstan’s Muslims do not appear to strictly adhere to the fasting requirements of the holiday, it still plays an important role in the country’s social and cultural landscape. The timing of our visit there offered us a unique window of insight into Kyrgyz culture…and a few challenging moments of discomfort.

A Sacrifice
We had just completed a beautiful two day journey on horseback and arrived on the shores of Song Kul Lake. Within 15 minutes of dismounting our horses, our horse trekking guide quickly switched gears. In what appeared to be an honor for him as a newly arrived guest, he was given the task of gutting a goat for the evening feast. Continue Reading »