Travel Tips

You can fly, under 120 metres and at least 8 kilometres from any border. With four land neighbours, that rules out a…

A driver is not a guide, horses are priced per head per day, and return days are paid. The unwritten conventions of…

You will pass checkpoints and may be asked for your passport. What to carry, how encounters go, what to do if money…

Past the bridge, second turning after the blue gate, ask for Gulnara. That is an address here. How navigation actually works and…

One time zone, no daylight saving, offices shut for lunch and bazaars finished by midday. The rhythms that decide whether your day…

Arm out, palm down, and a car stops within minutes. It is not hitchhiking as you know it: you pay, modestly, and…

One road connects north and south, over two passes above 3,000 metres. What it is made of, what goes wrong with it,…

A warm surface layer over much colder water, at 1,600 metres, with almost no lifeguards. Issyk-Kul is swimmable and it is not…

The English-language literature on Kyrgyzstan is thin and scattered. The dozen things genuinely worth reading, what each is good for, and what…