Themes

Air travel

We flew with an EU blacklisted airline from Bishkek to Tashkent

Military action in Afghanistan delayed our return to Bishkek’s Manas airport 

Beaches

Why I love beach resorts out of season 

8 fun city beaches along the Adriatic and Ionian coasts

Beauty tips

4 painful and humiliating things that happened to me in Central Asian beauty salons  

Personal grooming in Central Asia (if it’s hairy, wax it)

Bucket list

My Eastern Europe and Central Asia bucket list 

Bus travel

Uzbekistan by bus 

Ekibastuz, the frozen heart of Kazakhstan’s coal basin 

Industrial Balkhash and a disappearing lake

Capsule wardrobes

My 12 item capsule wardrobe for Corfu and Saranda 

My 14-item travel capsule wardrobe for Slovenia 

Spring travel capsule for 10 days on the Adriatic riviera  

Coffee

101 places to get coffee in Central Asia 

A coffee addict in Central Asia

Drinking coffee 110 metres up in the air at the Tashkent TV tower 

OVERLAND TO TAJIKISTAN 4: Osh (too many men, not enough coffee)

Food

How to get fresh food in Astana 

Mystery produce at Osh Bazaar

Home and decor

The mysterious balcony directive  

Moving house in Astana — again!

How I turned my Astana rental into a cosy home

How to rent an apartment in Kazakhstan

Industrial

Ekibastuz, the frozen heart of Kazakhstan’s coal basin 

Industrial Balkhash and a disappearing lake

Mishaps

It took all day to get cash in Tashkent 

Lost in Central Asia

I tried to be a tourist in Kyrgyzstan and totally failed  

Money

It took all day to get cash in Tashkent 

The tenge devalued and people are angry 

Nature

We took a trip to Twelve Chimneys in dangerously bad weather

Sexual tension in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan  

Nightlife

Tequila Blues nightclub opens in an abandoned bomb shelter  

My first taste of Bishkek nightlife involves vodka, hitchhiking and a panzer tank chieftain  

Packing

My 12 item capsule wardrobe for Corfu and Saranda 

My 14-item travel capsule wardrobe for Slovenia 

Spring travel capsule for 10 days on the Adriatic riviera  

Shopping

Dordoi, Central Asia’s largest bazaar  

My massive Bucharest thrift haul

Hanging out at the malls in Astana 

The adorable Christmas market in Romania’s ‘Little Venice’ Timisoara 

Calea Victoriei, Bucharest’s most fashionable street

Socialising

How to make friends when you’re living abroad

Sexual tension in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan  

Why the words ‘let’s call each other’ fill me with dread 

7 ways for women to network in Central Asia (that don’t involve being harassed in bars)

Social issues

Kyrgyzstan’s bride stealing tradition destroys dreams and ruins lives 

Talking sex before marriage, stolen brides and how to slaughter a sheep

“A woman is not a horse”: writing about Kazakhstan’s pensions protests  

Kazakhstan is a darker place after Zhanaozen

Zhanaozen after the massacre

A visit to this hospital in Kyrgyzstan shocked me

Soviet Central Asia

In search of Bishkek’s Soviet past

I witnessed Bishkek’s main Lenin statue being torn down  

Soviet nostalgia lives on  

A prison camp the size of France

I got behind the controls of a Soviet space rocket at the Baikonur Cosmodrome

Style

This how women dressed in 19th century Bukhara  

I learned to sew my own clothes in Kazakhstan

How I went from terrible packer to travel capsule wardrobe expert

I cut my closet in half after an international move: here’s how I did it 

How I rescued my boring travel capsule wardrobe for Tirana 

I learned to sew my own clothes in Kazakhstan 

Toilets

What toilets in Central Asia are really like (TMI alert!)

My first press conference in Central Asia was all about poo  

Travel with kids

When travel with kids goes wrong: 11 lessons learned 

My top 5 picks for Zagreb with kids

Writing

A trip to dodgy downtown Bucharest gave me this feature story inspiration  

I wanted to write a travel blog before travel blogs existed 

Where journalists get ideas for articles 

My first press conference in Central Asia was all about poo 

The only western journalist in Astana