Hiking in Xinaliq
Tag: Rural Life
Hiking in Lahic
As beautiful as the Old Town of Lahic looks, my favorite selling point of the city was the ample opportunity for hiking around the village. Give me a beautiful old village with an interesting local twist to traditional culture surrounded by accessible nature, though, and I’m sold pretty much anywhere […]
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. […]
Katta Langar Mausoleum in Uzbekistan
After so much time spent in dusty deserts and historic old towns of Uzbekistan, I often feel the pull to get out and find some green spaces. While reading through an old Uzbekistan Airways in-flight mag that someone had stolen and left in my guesthouse in Khiva, I saw an […]
Portraits of Afghanistan
Much more than landscapes or bazaars or food, Afghanistan was about the people we met along the way. People who generally expressed a genuine interest in us, were very willing to engage, and just seemed so… normal I guess? So, here, I want you to meet some of them. These […]
Afghanistan Tourism: An Introduction
Of all the Central Asian Republics, the easiest by far to get a tourist visa for is (surprisingly?) Afghanistan. I’d never planned to visit Afghanistan on this round of Central Asia (and indeed remember assurring several people that I wouldn’t… sorry guys), but after visiting the Wakhan Valley’s border market […]