House hunting in Bulgaria
When ‘the virus’ exploded across the world stage, we were house hunting in Bulgaria. A bit random you might think, but we’ve had this idea for a while – or more of a ‘wish’ really […]
Travel
From the Black Sea to Bignall End
In my last post – Good times in Georgia, we’d just crossed the Black Sea by cargo ferry and arrived in the Bulgarian port of Burgas. The sea wasn’t black at all in Bulgaria but […]
Good times in Georgia
Georgia is a breath of fresh air. We seem to have been crossing the hot dry desert for ages and ages. Now that we’re in the green mountains, it feels like coming home. At last […]
Oil, fire and pomegranates
We were rudely awoken from our cabin on the Caspian Sea ferry and unceremoniously dumped in Azerbaijan at 4am. I was still asleep on arrival and would have really liked to just curl up in […]
The wonders of Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva
There is no straightforward overland route from Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan to Tashkent in Uzbekistan. You have to go the long way ‘round – either all the way back down to Osh in the south and […]
The Circumnavigation of Issyk-Kul
Kyrgyzstan is just a little bit scruffy. Not in a sad, rundown, slummy, dirty kind of way but in an offhand, cool and slightly messy, ‘don’t care what the neighbours think’ kind of way. It’s […]
In Xinjiang
Even though it was only a few hours from Gansu on the fast train, Turpan feels like we’ve been transported to the Middle East. The Islamic influence is obvious – in the bread and food, […]
First steps on the old silk road
It was an adventurer called Zhang Qian, between 100-200 BC, who is said to have started off the old silk road trade route, from China to the west. He keeps appearing in lots of different […]
From culture shock to panda bears
Arriving in China felt like we’d landed on an entirely different planet. One where we didn’t know the customs, how things worked or how to behave, where we couldn’t even communicate or manage the basics […]
Into the wilds of Nam Ha
Even though we paid more than double the going price for tickets on the one-whole-seat-per-person fancy van, somehow we still ended up sitting in the aisle on the public bus to Oudomxay in northern Laos. […]
Adventurous Hermit 