I love Central Asia. I love hiking. I particularly enjoy the people of Tajikistan, whose hospitality and warmth to outsiders I’d rank amongst any other culture in the world. It should be no surprise, then, that many of my favorite experiences of 6 months in Central Asia involved multi-day hikes […]
Tag: Hospitality
Sheki Karavansaray
Lonely Planet would have you believe that Sheki is the crown jewel of traveling in Azerbaijan, reason enough in and of itself to visit the country. This is not entirely true, but only because there are cooler places in the nation. Indeed thinking back on Azerbaijan, I think we met […]
Homestays in Afghanistan on the Tajik Frontier
Part of the reason Afghanistan was such a great travel experience was that people were so amazingly helpful and friendly and willing to sort out three random foreigners who showed up for a look around. What could have been a rather disorganized and uncomfortable experience was made amazing through the […]
Xinaliq Azerbaijan :The Little Hilltop Village that Saved my Opinion of the Country
After a ton of bad experiences and disappointments in the rest of Azerbaijan, it took one final destination to restore any semblance of pleasure to my time in the country. I liked almost everything about Xinaliq, and spent more than twice the time there than any other place in Azerbaijan. […]
Tajik Pamir Hospitality
How many times does it take being invited in for tea in Central Asia before it gets old? I’ve had a lot of these experiences, so far, and I’m still going strong. We originally met this kid at the neighborhood water pump, hauling home about 8 gallons of water. What […]
Lahic Azerbaijan Guesthouse Dance Party
One of the nights I spent in Lahic, the family who owned the guesthouse Jason and I were staying at had their cousins in from out of town to celebrate… Something. After a long hard day of hiking in Lahic, they were kind enough to invite Jason and I to […]
Hey there! I'm Stephen, this is my travel blog, and that's me in the poofy hat.
I'm a photographer / writer traveling since 2008, and I've been doing my best to visit amazing places.
My current focus is Central Asia, because for a hiking and camping enthusiast it's as good as it gets.