If Kyrgyzstan was being pitched as a film script, it would be described as Heidi meets Genghis Khan; high mountains, flowery meadows and lots of men on horses. The scenery is stunning, and it's an excellent place to enjoy an outdoor holiday (we've been very lucky with the weather). The country itself is relatively poor (probably on a par with Georgia) and we've seen lots of derelict buildings and streets without man-hole covers for the first time since Tbili...

Hello. This is an opportunistic postcard, having just found an internet connection. I'm now in a little town called Kara Kol which is at the foot of the Tien Shan mountains in Kyrgystan. The range used to form the border between the Soviet Union and China. Since the last postcard I've mostly been camping at various places high in the mountains; counting marmots, building yurts and drinking bloody marys* - sometimes simultansously. Tonight is a...