Uzbekistan was the final country on my journey through the "stans". The Pamir and Fan mountains, so stunning yet so problematic for travel, were replaced as we drove West in a taxi out of the Tajik capital Dushanbe by a flat and featureless plain, dusty, dry and pretty devoid of life, although it was liberally adorned with billboards of the president in various poses. A last reminder of the dictator before encountering another, I thought - perhaps a not-so-subtle...

1. Kyrgyzstan: A Beacon of Hope in Central Asia? A trip to Central Asia is a trip which, just over twenty years ago, was nigh-on impossible; out of reach and unknown in one of the most obscure areas beyond the Iron Curtain, the area was surrounded by mystery and very little-known. Then in December 1991, five new countries appeared on the map, much to the world's surprise, with the break-up of the Soviet Union: Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzst...

Novogrudok is an unassuming town between Minsk and Grodno which, with the freezing sleet and slush in which we arrived, did not look particularly appealing. It's the sort of place you'd pass through on the bus without so much as a glance if you were on the way somewhere else. We were as it happened - we had spent a long day travelling to the castle of Mir from Polotsk, but decided to stop off anyway to break the journey. The town's claim to fame though is as the ...

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Traversing Belarus from west to east and back again in the middle of winter is a curious choice of holiday it must be said, and aside from the coldness and greyness, we had to deal with a largely featureless landscape on our long train and bus journeys. When you think about a thousand ...

After a couple of pleasant if uneventful days spent wondering around Brest's provincial streets we moved to the capital, Minsk. Temperatures had risen and there was a thaw in the air, slush underfoot, which was making getting around a soggy affair. The train network in Belarus is extensive and inexpensive - the three hundred kilometre journey took four hours and cost $5, though queuing up and buying tickets proved a challenge with all signs in Cyrillic, no Eng...