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    Audrey Scott and Daniel Noll serve up a scatter plot of observations from rapidly changing countries on their journey around the world. Tune into Uncornered Market for human stories, engaging travel photography, street food reportage, and insights into personal growth. Read more…

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    Buy From Amazon and Support Us The Art of Worldly Wisdom

    The Art of Worldly Wisdom
     Author: Baltasar Gracian
    Beautifully translated, this collection of timeless, universal chunks of insight into human nature easily transcends run-of-the-mill personal and professional management wisdom.

    Shantaram: A Novel

    Shantaram: A Novel
     Author: Gregory David Roberts
    Administering first aid in a Bombay slum, selling fake passports and running guns to the Mujahideen in Afghanistan. Technically a novel, but closely linked to the Author's own experiences. Fantastic read.

    Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, New Edition

    Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, New Edition
     Author: Jared Diamond
    An admirable crack at explaining why the world is the way it is by way of an anthropological macro-history. This book probably comes up the most in conversation as we travel.

Category Archive: Tajikistan

Sex and the Central Asian Visa


I just want to go home. I’m tired of all this visa stuff.

– A distressed traveler at the Kazakh embassy in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

So what does sex have to do with Central Asian visas? Simple, really. Thinking about, planning around, and procuring visas for Central Asian countries begins to dominate one’s time and mindspace — almost to the point of obsession. We’ll leave it to you to do the rest of the comparison. Continue Reading »

 Filed Under:  Travel, Turkmenistan, Central Asia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
16 Comments  |  6 February 2008

Peak Experiences in the Pamir Mountains

A Beautiful Defense Our visit to the Pamir Mountains of Tajikistan introduced us to some the most spectacular scenery we’ve taken in on our journey thus far. Other mountainous areas, hyped in guidebooks and on travel websites, have only paled in comparison. The Pamir region not only stands out for the severity and beauty of its landscape, but it shines most of all for the colorful, hospitable and fascinating Pamiri people who live there. Continue Reading »

 Filed Under:  Central Asia, Tajikistan by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
1 Comment  |  5 January 2008

Tajikistan: Images from the Roof of the World

I Need a DentistWelcome to the last installment of our photos from Central Asia. Yes, the umbilical cord with the former Soviet Union has finally been cut. We have exchanged Cyrillic letters for Mandarin characters and statues of Lenin for Mao. But before we get ahead of ourselves, we leave you with images from Tajikistan. Continue Reading »

 Filed Under:  Photography, Central Asia, Tajikistan by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
12 Comments  |  11 November 2007

Liv Tyler and Chinese Wine

Typical Tasting BoothHaving 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 »

 Filed Under:  Food and Markets, Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan, China, Tajikistan by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
8 Comments  |  6 November 2007

Badakhshani Express: Scraping the Pamir Mountains with Tajik Air

Not a Toy...but Tajik Air As the end of our Tajik visas rapidly approached (overstaying one’s visa in Tajikistan comes highly unrecommended), circumstances forced us to take a puddle-jumping lunch box with wings from Khorog, the main town in Tajikistan’s Pamir Mountains, to the country’s capital Dushanbe.

The following is a two minute video from the flight. The first 30 seconds are from the taxi and takeoff of the previous day’s flight. The next 90 seconds are mid-air. Keep in mind that the camera was not on zoom. Continue Reading »

 Filed Under:  Videos, Central Asia, Tajikistan by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
9 Comments  |  29 October 2007

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