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Samarkand Part 2 – Mosques and Mausoleums
Bibi Khanym, Timur’s senior wife, wanted to build a gift for her dear husband while he was off expanding the empire into India. Built between 1399 to 1404, she had grand plans, commissioning what would become the worlds largest mosque. And without doubt, this thing is both equally huge and impressive in it’s beauty. Unfortunately…
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Samarkand Part 1 – A Place of Epic Learning
For the new high speed trains, initially just from Tashkent to Samarkand in the south, then recently extending the line further west to Bukhara, Uzbekistan went ahead and build a whole new train station to help showcase the feat of Spanish engineering. Yep, the Spanish are credited for building these trains. Looking at the time,…
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Fergana and Kokand – Silk and a Palace
I was told my the manager at the hotel in Tashkent that you need to book train tickets early, at least a week in advance as places get bought up quickly. The new fast trains in particular are difficult to find seats if left too late. Therefore dutifully I signed up the Uzbekistan Railway website,…
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Tashkent – A bit of Soviet in my Uzbek
On day one, after a fairly early evening of sleep in an extremely comfy bed and far too many giant fluffy pillows, I ventured out to see what Tashkent – and my first proper mingling with the Uzbek people – would reveal. I was truly curious to see what Uzbek culture and the people themselves…
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Back in the Air
Finally, after 5 years (thanks Covid!), it was time to dust off the backpack and jump back into to world traveling; this time causing misadventure in a Central Asian country along the route of the Silk Road – Uzbekistan. I hadn’t flown Singapore Airlines in a long time, but I do remember it being good…
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Galle – Cobbled Streets, Souvenir Shops, and a Goodbye
It was finally that time to make the end journey to the final destination of Galle. From Tangalle Mishee and I caught a tuk tuk along the old road, rather than the newer highway that takes have the time. The reason being highways are boring, and using the old road we could stop off at…
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Tissamaharama to Tangalle – Tissa to the syllable challenged, and Welcome to the South Coast
Rewarding myself for making it the 7 hours on the train from Kandy, I ditched the originally planned bus ride and splashed out for a taxi from Ella to Tissamaharama (Tissa). It took about 2 hours and honestly I was warming to the idea of paying for a relatively cheap air conditioned taxi instead of…
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Kandy to Ella – Buddha Lost a Tooth and Tourist Ground Zero
Hailing the mini van in Dambulla and jumping aboard, it was quickly obvious this was not the same as the last van I caught. It was packed, all the auxiliary seating was deployed and at first I didn’t think I even had a seat. Mishee was on a mini ironing board fold out middle seat,…
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Sigiriya – A Big Rock, Caves, Elephants, and an Ancient City
I was immediately suspicious of the “Lodge” that I had booked for Sigiriya, when I saw that the reviews all ended in 2017, and not a single review for 2018 was listed. Despite this I still went ahead and clicked the Book button and made my way to the bus station. The ride to Dambulla…
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Anuradhapura Part 2 – When Buddhism Came to Sri Lanka and the First Capitol
I had mentally putting of visiting the Scared City of Anuradhapura. Something in me knew I was leading up for some kind of disappointment. In my head I was imagining either a large archaeological park like at the Angkor Wat, Cambodia. Or temples strewn across town were you can get your Indiana Jones on, like…
The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page