Traveler, Adventurer, Entrepreneur
This article is the fifth and final installation in the Pamir Highway series. Despite the howling wind and frigid temperatures, Detti and I slept like logs, having just reached the highest elevation that either of us had ever been to—with fully loaded bikes. Enjoying a leisurely 11am start, the road, Continue Reading
Day 7. With a drawn-out yawn and an extensive stretch, my eyelids slowly peeled apart to reveal the bowed wooden skeleton and intricately embroidered canvas surface of a yurt. Plopped in the front yard of Pamir Hotel, the five cots lining the yurt’s circular floor provided a comfortable nighttime refuge Continue Reading
I cycled several kilometers out of Dushanbe and held out my thumb. Almost immediately, a Hyundai Porter—something halfway between a pickup truck and a flatbed, very common in Central Asia—pulled over, tossed my bike in the bed, and we set off. For the next hour and a half, the driver Continue Reading
Unfortunately, Dushanbe was not my last experience with the Tajik cops. As I stayed in Dushanbe to deal with some stolen items and recover from an extra gnarly bout of diarrhea, Detti continued onward by bicycle alone. I planned to hitchhike to catch up with her in Kulob in a Continue Reading
Tajikistan’s police are rumored to be corrupt bribe-mongers, but my experience was different. They were ridiculously, over-the-top helpful, in the most inefficient way possible. Rumor has it that a couple years ago, some Romanian motorbikers posted a video on YouTube of Tajik cops extorting a bribe from them. The video Continue Reading
After a month in the hot flat deserts of Uzbekistan, crossing the border into the Panjikent region of Tajikistan felt magical. Ahead of us lay a perfect asphalt road winding up a mountain valley with the snow-capped peaks of the Fann Mountains in the distance. This was the place that Continue Reading
We left Karakalpakstan on the road from Nukus to Khiva, entering into the non-autonomous regions of Uzbekistan. The road paralleled the Amu Darya river, surrounded by agriculture on both sides and desert beyond the river basin. The river once led to the Aral Sea, but has since been redirected for Continue Reading
In the western part of Uzbekistan, there is pretty much nothing. For a very very long flat distance. This place is called Karakalpakstan. Karakalpakstan was once a flourishing region with a thriving agriculture and fishing industry supported by the mighty Amu Darya River and the Aral Sea. Thanks to the Continue Reading
Azerbaijan is a strange country. The center of the capital city, Baku, is like any oil-rich capital city: clean, modern, expensive, offering all of the comforts of the developed world. Cranes dot the skyline as shiny new skyscrapers are constantly being built, and a brand new boulevard along the waterfront Continue Reading
A month ago, I went to a used bike market in Tbilisi and left with a pretty decent looking $180 bicycle. A couple days later I boarded a train to Baku with my new bike and all of my most important belongings. Baku would be the starting point for a Continue Reading