Steppe in Style: adventures in Eastern Europe and Central Asia

Almaty’s unfinished underground system is known as the “golden metro” because of all the money sunk into the project. It’s been under construction since Soviet times, with work starting back in 1988. While this money lined a lot of officials’ pockets, there was no end in sight to construction of the Almaty metro … until…

We arrived in Naryn in mist, sleet and driving winds. Out of the mist loomed the mostly Soviet-built city, but the low clouds obscured the mountains towering over it.  Set high among the Tian-Shan, Naryn is the only major town in the region of the same name, which is the highest in the country —…

It was a 350km road trip from the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek up to the high mountain of the Naryn region.  We stated the day leaving early from Bishkek, heading east along the main road though the Chui valley, skirting close to the Kazakh border.  The modern day road from Bishkek to Naryn follows the path…

I don’t know anyone in Almaty who’s been to Taldykorgan, the administrative centre of the Almaty, region but I decided to visit when we had a long weekend for Victory Day.  Victory Day, by the way, is celebrated on 9 May and it marks the anniversary of Allied forces’ victory over Nazi Germany in 1945. …

I arrived in Pavlodar on a snowy afternoon in February. With the temperature below freezing for the last couple of months, the sides of the Irtysh river, which the bus crossed entering the city, were frozen and covered in snow, with water flowing only in the broad central channel. Areas of the city that hadn’t…

The name Ekibastuz translates from the Kazakh as ‘two heads of salt’, yet it’s not salt but coal that this north Kazakhstan town is known for.  It’s famous for being the site of the world’s biggest open-cast coal mine, and there are an estimated 74mn tonnes of coal per square kilometre in the area or…

Seeing buildings emerge from a howling blizzard gives a different impression from viewing them on a clear, sunny day. One of the Oskemen (also known by its Russian name Ust-Kamenogorsk) landmarks that made the biggest impression on me was the Muhamadi Mosque which — as the photos show — looks very like a Disney castle…

My trip to Balkhash was my first long bus journey in Kazakhstan, a 10-hour overnight trip.  On the way to the bus station, I get talking to my taxi driver, a sweet old Kazakh man, who introduces himself as Nulet.  When I told him where I was going he immediately warned me that it was…

I’m the second passenger on the minibus from Dushanbe to Hissar, which means I get my choice of seat, but the downside is there could be a long wait until it fills up and we can finally leave.  For the driver — who’s wearing a traditional felt hat and colourful coat — and one lady…

Two days into my stay in Dushanbe I was invited to visit Garm, a small city in the semi-lawless Rasht valley, to interview some potato farmers. So of course I said why not.  One of the nice expats I met in Segafredo told me about a project to help farmers diversify funded by the Organisation…