Our last day in Myanmar – Exploring Yangon
We only had half a day to explore Yangon. We did some sight-seeing on skateboards and enjoyed the culinary treats of Myanmar one last time.
backpacking
Mandalay – markets, veggie food and kidney stones
Some travelers want to escape the big South-East Asian metropoles as soon as they can, but we always feel at home in them. Oh, how we had already missed the busy markets and the little plastic chairs in front of street restaurants. Despite being busy and somewhat chaotic, we really enjoyed being in Mandalay. A …
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Skardu – Little Tibet of Pakistan
Gilgit-Baltistan is the area where we have mostly traveled in Pakistan so far and Skardu is the capital of Baltistan. During the painful nine-hour ride to Skardu, we thought that the place must be prettttty amazing to compensate the trouble getting there. Luckily it was. The Little Tibet of Pakistan We learned quickly that the …
Irkeshtam Pass: Crossing the border from Kyrgyzstan to China
At the moment, the political situation in China‘s Xinjiang is tense, and the Chinese authorities are not exactly looking forward to have tourists wandering around there. Therefore, crossing Irkeshtam Pass, the border between Kyrgyzstan and China, was not too easy. The border procedures took us around 7 hours, with numerous amount of checkpoints and controls. …
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Arslanbop and the world’s biggest walnut forest
The village of Arslanbop in Kyrgyzstan lies 180 kilometers from Osh, so it made a good stop for us on the way from Bishkek to Osh. The mountain village itself is small, but it’s known for its walnut forest which is the biggest one in the world. Our timing for visiting Arslanbop couldn’t have been …
Bishkek – Back to city life
After spending a lot of time in the nature and small places lately, we didn’t get too excited about staying in Kyrgyzstan’s capital, Bishkek. We still enjoyed the things that a big city can offer – or at least we tried to. Getting to Bishkek In Bokonbayevo we went to the bazar where all the …
Karakol – Hot springs and cold soup
Karakol is a small city in Kyrgyzstan. It’s located at over 1700 metres, next to the Tian Shan mountains and the Issyk-Kul Lake. Our stay in this cozy city was all about hot springs and Ashlan-Fu (which is not a form of martial arts, btw). It’s autumn now, also in Kyrgyzstan. When we woke up …
Way to the Kyrgyz border pt. 2 – more surprises, more people
After packing our camp and saying thanks and goodbye to the funny people of yesterday’s party, we started our way out of the canyon and towards the Karkara border between Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan and further to the city of Karakol. The landscape we were driving through was just as amazing as it had been the …
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Way to the Kyrgyz border pt. 1 – Canyon adventures and surprises
Our plan for the next two days was to get from Almaty, Kazakhstan, to Karakol, Kyrgyzstan through the remote Karkara border and to have an overnight stop at the famous Charyn Canyon on the way. This was not the easiest way to get to Kyrgyzstan as most parts of this route wouldn’t be covered by …
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Nur-Sultan – impressive but confusing capital in the middle of the steppe
It’s not a wonder if you’ve never heard of the city of Nur-Sultan, as it got its new name just less than a half a year ago. Until that it was known as Astana and it’s been the capital of Kazakhstan only for 11 years. Nur-Sultan is a surreal, artificial city with skyscrapers in the …
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