Central Asia, Borat and Co - Travel Ideas

By Tom Thumb, Posted Dec 11, 2006

Kirgistan - Land of the brave

For most travelers, Uzbekistan is as unknown as Kyrgyzstan or Turkmenistan, so we’ve decided to treat the area in one breath, even though there are striking differences between them.

Still, the corruption, isolation and confused ethnic mixes of these countries provide a common thread and they cover some of the most expansive and beautiful mountainous regions in the world. Nomads still live the ancient ways and the general population is still in the shock of the collapsed USSR. They’re all also being bled dry by the worst politicians in the world, which is really saying something.

Borat may have put Kazakhstan on the map with its recent social advances in allowing women to travel inside buses and homosexuals no longer having to wear blue hats, but the area is pretty wild and wooly and there’s enormous potential for adventure here.

Visas can be a bitch but remember, if you need an invitation in order to secure one, see if you can get make friends with someone there via hospitalityclub.org.

You can read roadjunky’s Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan travel guides.


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Passing through England, France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and finally arriving in Goa where I slept on the beach all season and wrote the book.


Buy it on the Kindle or on the Nook

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Tales of a Road Junky covers the last 12 years of my journeys around the world. telling the tale of coming of age in the Goa trance scene, rescuing foreign prisoners in Delhi, selling fake Rolex watches in the street in Tokyo, getting into trouble with the medicine mafia in Brazil and delving deep into the heart of Israelity in the Promised Land.


Buy it on the Kindle or on the Nook

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All hope for our world lies in the hands of a 9 year old boy and a foolish Bloon…


Buy on the Kindle

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