This gallery contains 60 photos.
We were about 100 miles from Afghanistan, when the president of the USA talked about bombing that country. Up until now we believed that China was the safest place to be in the days following 9/11. The Beijing hotel where we stayed that fateful day, had given all the Americans letters of condolence. As we traveled westward towards Kashgar, the news reports were all in Mandarin, but the images were unmistakable. Continue reading
This gallery contains 21 photos.
The immense golden statues of the Turkmenbashi could be seen all over the city of Ashkabat, and, in every hotel and public building, his portrait. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Saparmurat Niyazov declared himself President for Life. He did a lot for the people of Turkmenistan, but, as with most dictators, not all of his actions were beneficial. Continue reading
This gallery contains 32 photos.
We left the fabled blue-tiled city of Samarkand, following the Silk Road through the Kara Kum desert, on our way to the holy city of Bukhara, and Khiva, the city of a thousand and one domes. Samarkand, one of the oldest cities of the world, the legendary capital of the Sogdians, the seat of Tamerlane’s empire, the city that Alexander the Great called the most beautiful he had ever seen. Continue reading
This gallery contains 12 photos.
Gazing out across the icy waters of the Lake of Heaven, at the snow-capped Bogda Shan Mountain, I was not concerned that I had become separated from my group. Sure, I was 100 km. from Urumqi, the most inland place on earth (farthest from any ocean), but as a seasoned traveler, I knew that eventually I’d find my way. I simply couldn’t pass up a boat trip across Tianchi Lake, after all, that was one of the reasons I was in Xinjiang. Continue reading
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