8. 2 August to 11 August 2011 - Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and the Drive Towards China We met up with our China travelling companions back in Bishkek - Clive and Ann from England, Richard from England and Maggie from Ireland. We camped together in the grounds of the Silk Road Lodge Hotel for four nights while we applied for our Chinese visas, which we managed to secure within a day. The Chinese Embassy in Bishkek is a huge compound right on the edge of the city an...

7. 19 July to 1 August 2011 - Beautiful Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan has just over 90% of its territory above 1500 metres and water plummets constantly from its glaciers into a myriad of crystal clear streams. A third of the country is permanently under snow, and it has 1.923 lakes. How can it be anything but stunningly beautiful? All of this makes it easy to ignore much of the chaos and disorder of the cities and towns where half-finished or abandoned dwellin...