Soles of a Nomad

Bishkek isn’t a city you plan your trip around—but it’s one you’re glad you didn’t skip. With leafy streets, Soviet-era landmarks, and an easygoing rhythm, it’s a perfect place to pause, reset, and recharge before heading deeper into Central Asia.

For centuries, travelers arriving in Osh could count on one thing: the bazaar would be there. Empires rose and fell, but the market endured. So naturally, I managed to show up during the brief, perfectly timed moment in its long history when it wasn’t. Because travel, it turns out, has impeccable comedic timing.

A landslide blocks the road. Flies swarm a mountain village. A museum curator hands me a thousand-year-old jar and tells me to pretend to drink milk from it. These are just a few moments from our nine-day journey along the Pamir Highway, one of the world’s most remote and unforgettable road trips across the mountains of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

Dushanbe surprised me. I expected a quiet Central Asian capital. Instead I found enormous monuments, glowing fountains, and neon-lit buildings that make the city look like a blinking Christmas display at night. We only had one day before heading onto the Pamir Highway, but a walk through Rudaki Park offered a fascinating glimpse into Tajikistan’s strange, grand, and intriguing capital.

Getting from Samarkand to Dushanbe overland isn’t the most obvious travel route in Central Asia—but it turns out to be surprisingly doable. Here’s exactly how we made the journey: Yandex ride to the border, money exchange chaos, an unexpectedly fair-priced driver, a mildly stressful border crossing, and a beautiful mountain drive into Tajikistan.

Sulfur burps. Endless diarrhea. The sinking realization that this is not, in fact, “just something you ate.” After getting giardia three times on the road (Wyoming, India, and most recently Central Asia), I finally learned how to recognize it, treat it properly, and stop suffering longer than necessary. This post combines an embarrassing travel story with practical, field-tested advice for identifying and treating giardia while traveling.

Shah-i-Zinda in Samarkand is a narrow, blue-tiled street of tombs where architecture, history, and light work together to create something quietly extraordinary. Walking the necropolis at dusk—when the sun fades and the tile begins to glow—reveals a place that rewards slowness, attention, and reflection more than spectacle.

The Registan is more than a famous landmark—it’s a place that overwhelms with scale, beauty, and history the moment you step into it. This post explores Samarkand’s great square as both architecture and lived space, from its monumental madrassas and symbolic tilework to the quiet awe of standing there alone at dawn or watching it glow during the nightly light show.

Samarkand is one of the most extraordinary cities I’ve ever visited—layered with history, monumental architecture, and moments of quiet beauty if you know when and where to look. This practical guide covers everything you need to plan your visit, from weather and transportation to where to stay, eat, and how much time to spend, so you can experience Samarkand at its best without rushing past what makes it special.

Bukhara is a city where history isn’t confined to monuments—it spills into courtyards, markets, and quiet side streets. From the shadow of the Kalon Minaret to shaded bazaars and centuries-old mosques, this guide covers how to get there, where to stay, what to eat, and how much time to spend, with practical tips for travelers who prefer to move slowly and let a place reveal itself.

Khiva is one of the most intact Silk Road cities in Central Asia, a place where massive mudbrick walls still enclose a living old town. This nuts-and-bolts guide covers when to go, how to get there, where to stay, what to eat, and how much time to spend—so you can slow down, wander the Itchan Kala, and experience Khiva at its best.

Everything you need to know about taking the overnight train from Tashkent to Khiva: comfort, cabins, sleep, and whether it’s worth it.