Sometime over a year ago, my parents and I decided that we wanted to do some additional travel when they came to visit me. Thus was born our plan to travel across Uzbekistan. Well, we actually had come up with the idea in 2013, but it wasn’t until now that we finally managed to get visas and hop on a plane into the capital, Tashkent to start our adventure. Continue reading “Uzbekistan: A Silk Road Adventure”
Hey friends! In case you hadn’t already noticed on Instagram, Facebook, or by my talking about it in some of my other recent posts, I had the incredible fortune to compete earlier this month in the 2016 World Nomad Games representing the United States. It was, to say the least, probably one of the coolest things I’ve ever done in my entire life. As the announcer in the opening ceremony said, “If Ghengis Khan were alive, he would want to be here.” Continue reading “My Week At The 2016 World Nomad Games”
Beyond things like unique politics and the -stan suffix, Central Asia is known for its headgear, and probably in no place is this more visible and famous than in Kyrgyzstan. I think it’s safe to say that just about every culture has a traditional headgear of some sort, whether it’s a hairstyle, hat, helmet, scarf, or some combination thereof, but here takes it to a whole new level.
In America, we’ve got the baseball hat (although a slouchy beanie might be taking over in a lot of urban settings). In France it’s the beret (even if I’ve seen more berets living in Kyrgyzstan than I ever saw living in France). But in Kyrgyzstan, there’s a whole selection of headgear for men and women that forms an external representation of several aspects of one’s identity. Here’s an (almost) exhaustive guide to headgear that you’ll probably encounter here in Kyrgyzstan. Continue reading “Hang On To Your Hats: An Exhaustive Guide to Central Asian Headgear”
Get ready, because this week, we’re going to learn how to make one of my all-time favorite Central Asian dishes: Plov!
Continue reading “My Kyrgyz, Uzbek, and Tajik Kitchen: Plov”
Song Kul reminds me of a Microsoft wallpaper. Its grasslands rise from the water’s edge across rolling hills and up to mountains, with the fields broken only by the occasional yurt, cow, or horse. Tucked away in a high mountain basin, there is no electricity or cell coverage within two hours by car. It’s about as peaceful a place as I’ve ever managed to find outside of Alaska.
Song Kul is a summer retreat for many of the semi-nomadic people of Kyrgyzstan. While it has a thriving tourism industry, most of the yurts around the lake belong to ordinary Kyrgyz people who, every summer, bring their herds and flocks from towns and villages to the lake to graze and to relax in the clean crisp cool mountain air. When it is over 100 degrees in Osh during the day, it can be as cool as 40 degrees at night at Song Kul. Even though less than 100km away, people are sweating bullets in Bishkek, in Song Kul, it is necessary to wear sweaters, vests, and fur-lined boots. It’s a contrast in so many ways to many places in Kyrgyzstan, and yet it manages to remain so distinctively Kyrgyz in a most beautiful way. Continue reading “Road Trip Part 2: The Road To Song Kul”
There are a few things that most people, upon first glance at their Central Asia Lonely Planet, will remember most vividly about Kyrgyzstan: yurts and horse games. Most people who come to Kyrgyzstan get to see or stay in a yurt and drink kymyz to their heart’s content. But not very many get to see the traditional Kyrgyz horseback games. And yet this past weekend, I and several other volunteers found ourselves high in the passes of the Alay region south of Osh at the Nomad Horse Games Festival, one of the first of its kind in the world, organized by the Community Based Tourism organization here (If you’re planning a trip to Kyrgyzstan, CBT is one of the best ways to go).
