Countries that no longer exist - are you as intrigued by that as I am? The melancholic atmosphere of a land forever gone; somewhere ephemeral, glimpsed through a translucent curtain that is the past, just out of our grasp. DDR, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union; [...]
Mohammed Rakhim Khan MadrassahIn the last post, I told you about our journey to see the environmental tragedy that is the disappearing Aral Sea. Time to move on. We leave Muynak and the autonomous Republic of Karakalpakstan and head south into the Khorezm region and [...]
What does dark tourism mean to you? Do you think of Auschwitz? The fields of Flanders or Cambodia's killing fields? Chernobyl? Robben Island? Pompeii? The Berlin Wall? Places where barbaric acts of terrorism have taken place? A walk in the footsteps of Jack the Ripper [...]
Hello hello, good people, and welcome to another episode of wild and wacky Turkmen tales. We can't travel at the moment, but we can reminisce, and invite you along for the ride here in Sophie's World. Why yes, that IS a burning gas crater behind us. [...]
It was oddly difficult to decide how to headline this post. The 11 things you'll love-series: a tried and trusted format. Transfixed in Turkmenistan: so fitting. As usual when I can't decide, I choose both. Always works out, somehow. But enough of that; let's get [...]
Thinking of driving the Pamir Highway? It's one of the world's epic road trips (possibly the most epic), through the wild landscape of the Pamir Mountains, and along the equally wild Panj, the river that forms the border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan. You'll drive across [...]
Considering a visit to Dushanbe and wondering where to stay? Dush-where, you ask? Well, Dush is where it's at. Skopje, Pristina, Astana, Pyongyang, Vaduz, Chisinau - you may remember I'm forever intrigued by the quirky and often lesser-known national capitals of the world. A city of 800 [...]
