Fromoverhere

Teens: In a shared taxi to Chimbulak, Kazakhstan  Having just waited for two hours without success at the number 6 bus-stop, I shared a taxi up the mountain with a couple of 19-year-old Kazakh boys.  We had tried chatting when waiting at the bus stop, but found that I was probably better at Russian than [...]

Dress material shopping in Turkmenistan Part of having fun traveling as a woman, is seeing how women in other cultures dress, beautify themselves, the rituals they follow and what they consider attractive. With that in mind, here are some insights on beauty do’s and don’ts in Central Asia. Don’t think you need to cover up. [...]

One of my favourite modes of transport are marshrutkas and shared taxis – they’re a great opportunity to meet people, zip around and between towns, and you rarely need to bargain because they have fixed prices.  Marshrutkas, which you find everywhere in central Asia – and Africa – under different names, are mini-buses that will [...]

Sometimes your whole perspective of a place is entirely shaped -  somewhat unfairly – by what happens when you are there.  This is despite the fact that what has happened has nothing to do with the location.  In this case, my perspective of Shymkent in Kazakhstan is farcical, unbearably hot and frustrating.  I am maligning [...]

Having got our two Kyrgyz visas in record time (two rather frantic hours from start to finish, involving three taxis, four stop-offs around town and a lot of pleading), Chris and I left Almaty to spend the weekend in Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan.  The journey involved some spectacular views during a three-hour drive, through the [...]