We are in the eastern corner of Kyrgyzstan where the country narrows and the mountain ranges  create a natural border with Kazakhstan and China. From entering the border (which took no more than 15 minutes,) we drove straight to Karakol: a large town that sits on the eastern edge of Lake Issik Kol. The town […]
Author Archives: barkertrax
Observations on Kazakhstan
#1 Almaty is the city of apples #2 Same as in Eastern Russia and Mongolia; most of the older generation have full-on gold teeth #3 The traditional countryside houses look very similar to their Russian and Mongolian counterparts but are painted white with blue window surrounds #4 Nobody has beards or moustaches #5 Many of […]
Self portrait
Not usually ones for ‘selfies’, we took this a few days back in the middle of nowhere in Kazakhstan 😉
The Great Road Cake Off
Icing the perfect cake….. Equipment: One long and thin rectangular sponge cake Portion of soft icing of your choice Icing knife Teaspoon Sugar granules Edible silver baubles Black food colouring Icing sugar Liquor
Goodnight and Sweet Dreams
“The Night is Dark and Full of Terrors” –Â Melissandra – Game of Thrones A heinous man, not four feet tall, approaches the car. His long pointed noise, crooked and bent, sniffs the cool night air like a hungry wolf. Greasy long blond hair lies in knotted strands down his hunched back. Black beady eyes peer […]
Kazakhstan Route: Stage 2
Yesterday we left Kazakhstan and entered Kyrgyzstan. Here’s the route we took during the second half of our stay. [For all you stat fans: We travelled 1464km and smashed our previous height record by hitting 3297m]
“And your top three highlights are…..”
Now that we have been travelling for nearly three months we thought we’d both have a think about each of our three highlights so far. We didn’t confer on these and left the brief open. Interesting, I think, that most of these aren’t ‘tourist attractions’ or actual places we have visited but more a general […]