2004:

2006:

2008:

I got back from Central Asia yesterday – after three weeks of road-tripping with Gareth, Christoph, Ollie and Sascha. We managed to cover quite some distance: Starting in Almaty, we made a 36-hour excursion to Astana (…), then back by overnight train to Almaty, from there by car to Karakol, then a four-day tour along the southern shore of lake Issyk-Kul, after which we stayed in Bishkek for two days; then by An-24 to Osh and directly off to the Alai (afoot the Pamirs) with old driver friend Hadji. After a 40km walk across a big pass, we went back to Osh, Bishkek and finally Almaty. Phew.

There are a few things I’d like to write about in the coming weeks (fingers crossed). First, I definitely found Astana very strange and want to have the post go along with pictures fellow traveler Christoph took. Second, another entry on Sary Moghul is definitely in the pipeline, hopefully I’ll be able to quote Peter’s piece once it’s up on the wires. Again, Christoph made beautiful photos there, so I hope they’ll go along with it. The third one I’m not 100% sure about yet is a more general piece on my impressions this time. As I had the benefit to visit most places for the second or third time over four years, I thought of writing a personal report here. Let’s see how far this gets.