Urumqi is China’s western-most trading post – the city being dotted with thousands of small shops making the most of limited display space to push …



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What can you expect from a day’s snowboarding in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region? With well-below freezing weather, the snow maintains a decent texture; as a …
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Walking the final few meters towards the Uzbekistan side of the border I was pulled aside by a weathered Tajikistan criminal detective and questioned. His …
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Stop for tea at a road-side restaurant – the sugar is about 9 times the volume of a ‘regular’ lump. The driver takes two, enough …
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Whilst taking breakfast in a roadside hut encounter a situation strangely reminiscent of this – where a local kid takes my phone, switches on Bluetooth …
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Stop for tea at a road-side restaurant – the sugar is about 9 times the volume of a ‘regular’ lump. The driver takes two, enough …
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The restaurant owner is welcoming and her eyes to the only remaining empty table in a room that has few. In front of me three generations …
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Slice of baguette, margarine and ikura served up in the domestic departure lounge. Breakfast by any other name.
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Make it through immigration with communication reduced to a nod of the head and a surly smile. The first words directed at me after disembarking …
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He nods at the chair and, I’m going to attempt phonetic accuracy here, intones me to “sitt a huwhyle”. When you’re a new guest in another …
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