Uzbekistan
The Silk Road is Ridden with Potholes
Tashkent, Uzbekistan There was a chicken in the baggage compartment. Just as I had placed my backpack in the baggage hold underneath the bus I noticed it. There was a chicken silently standing there in the midst of all of the luggage, one leg tied down with a red...
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The Tell-Tale Signs of Dementia
Samarkand, Uzbekistan Since Russian is so commonly spoken and understood in all of these countries, its far more practical to learn a few words of the colonisers than of the indigenous. But the guidebook says that a smattering of Uzbek can be a useful bargaining aid....
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Smokestacks and Minarets
Khiva, Uzbekistan There can be nothing as sorry as an amusement park in a country as poor as Uzbekistan. It's Sunday afternoon and extended families are strolling through in roving clusters of sisters, cousins, grandparents, and nephews. A tiny little pool lies empty...
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Subversive Art and Chemical Weapons
Nukus, Uzbekistan Nukus is the capital of the Republic of Karakalpaksten, Uzbekistan's largest but most ecnomically depressed province. The province is named after the Karakalpak people who live here, a formerly nomadic tribe whom Stalin pushed into cities while...
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