T'riffic Tashkent

Hi all

a short extract from my latest ebook - Short Journeys: Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

I have been talking lately a bit about Kyrgyzstan, so here is a bit of information straight from the book about Tashkent, the Uzbek capital.

The book is available now for Kindle, and is only $1.39. Please support independent epublishing!

Short Journeys: Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan (US Kindle Store)

Short Journeys: Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan (UK Kindle Store)

Tashkent

The Sleeping

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Gulnara Bed & Breakfast. Single room, shared bathroom, breakfast. $20 (February 2014)

This is the place to stay for the budget traveller in Tashkent. They have all manner of rooms in buildings set around a nice courtyard, including dorms. It’s very popular and was full of people waiting for onward visas and the like when I was there. The room I had was really nice despite no private bathroom. Despite no air conditioning it was cool, quiet and had a comfortable bed. The place had simple cooking facilities and the people who stayed there were friendly and a good crowd.

It’s cheap, registration was simple, good family running the place, spacious. Ok, I don’t need to go on, a great place to stay, as were all my guesthouses in Uzbekistan.

On top of that, my first night in Uzbekistan and Tashkent I was taken in by a man I met on the taxi rides from Kazakhstan to Tashkent. He was really friendly and when I discovered the above guesthouse booked out for that night, he very kindly offered me a place to stay even though I had decided to go to a different hotel. He had a very well appointed apartment, but I will always remember the generosity.

Tashkent the city and the seeing

Tashkent is a much bigger city than Bishkek. More grandiose and wider than Almaty, it didn’t appear to be overpopulated, but it did appear to take up a fair amount of land. It was cooler than the other parts of the country that I visited thankfully, and has a selection of museums and again plenty of parks to keep the visitor amused for a couple of days at least.

Getting around it by taxi isn’t too expensive, and there is also a bristling metro which doesn’t yet cover the whole city, but if there’s a station close to where you want to go it’s the best deal around and well run. Be prepared to have your bags searched at metro stations coming in, Tashkent is pretty security conscious. The Metro in 2011 was 600 som for a trip.

History Museum of the Timurids (Entrance 3000 som)

You may not have heard of Timur, but for today’s Uzbekistan, he is the most important historical figure. The somewhat eccentric President of Uzbekistan, Karimov, has moulded modern Uzbekistan on the back invoking the memory of this Uzbek warrior, who lived 600 years ago and seems to be the Uzbek answer to Genghis Khan. Like Kazakhstan, since the breakup of the Soviet Union there were some dark years followed by a resources’ boom which has delivered financial stability to the country.

Timur has since become a symbol of pride for the Uzbek people, and Karimov has used his image to inspire the Uzbek people and increase national pride. So, they built a museum to Timur housed in an interesting domed building. The ceiling of the dome is particularly beautiful, and the circular building itself is impressive. A very fancy chandelier hangs from the centre of the dome, and the visitor is treated to all manner of images of Amir Timur.

The building is more interesting, sadly, than the contents of the museum which doesn’t have much in the way of English and is telling the story of Timur. You will find a quote there from President Islam Karimov –

‘Anyone who wants to understand who the Uzbeks are, if somebody wants to comprehend the power, might, justice and unlimited abilities of the Uzbek people, their contribution to global development, their belief in future, he should recall the image of Amir Timur.’ Yes, it probably doesn’t make a lot of sense. But there’s some passion there for you.

If you’re done with the museum but not done with Amir Timur, then opposite the museum is a huge square that is called the ‘Amir Timur Maydoni’, which I’d say means ‘Amir Timur Square’. Roads and paths seem to stretch out from it in most directions and the Hotel Uzbekistan stands very tall to one side. But in the centre you will find a very fine, tall statue of Timur himself taking his place in modern Tashkent. What more could you ask for?

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For the record Timur lived somewhere between 600 and 700 years ago and was a bit of a blood thirsty tyrant. Still, using his image to shape modern Uzbekistan has appeared to be successful, you would have to say Karimov’s ideas for motivation have been a big hit.

The History Museum of the People of Uzbekistan (entrance – 4000 som)

If you’re looking for a more traditional museum with more interesting contents, then this one fits the bill. For historians and archaeologists there’s a lot here from different periods of history and regions, and if you like your pottery old and broken bowls, you’ll be well catered for too. I must confess I was more taken by the staff using the wide screen televisions which I presumed were meant to be showing informative videos to watch Turkish soaps. Not such a great look… But amusing nonetheless!

The third floor has more about modern Uzbekistan, future projects and of course parts devoted to the President, Karimov. One thing the region is not short of is leaders with healthy egos. Do note that strictly speaking you are supposed to pay extra to use a camera in the museums in Tashkent, and often in other places in Central Asia too. In fact a camera can often cost twice the regular ticket. Don’t be surprised about it. Museums are not always the best place for photos anyways.

Chorsu Bazaar

Next to the Chorsu Metro stop and not far from Gulnara B & B, the Chorsu Bazaar is housed under some impressive domes and has all manner of vegetables, fruit and meat that you’d expect to find in a bustling bazaar. Not only that, but outside the central bazaar are shops for jewellery, postcards and other sorts of souvenirs and the prices are pretty reasonable so if you are looking to do some shopping, then this might just be the place for you.

Holy Assumption Cathedral

This Orthodox Cathedral is proof that there are still a few Russians living in Uzbekistan. When I visited I found it a bit out of the way, so I had to take a taxi, the metro didn’t come close to the area. The taxis in Tashkent generally only cost $3-5 for a ride, so it’s not a huge strain on the wallet. They were in the middle of some renovations, and some sections had scaffolding, but it’s big and serene inside. It has lovely dome with a candle chandelier hanging from it. It also has numerous gold domes not just on the church but over the entrance gate as well. It was built in 1871 and was apparently the first Orthodox cathedral in Central Asia.

Navoi Park

Of all the parks in Central Asia, this simply was the finest. And the biggest, it seemed to go one for acres. In fact it very probably did. And still does. And you know the best thing about parks; they are almost always completely free.

There is a man-made lake in the park which was set up as a sort of makeshift beach, and in the sun and heat it was a hit. You can walk around for hours and relax. There were plenty of pools and fountains with kids escaping the heat without their parents having to pay for them to go into the ‘beach’ area. There were also amusement rides, restaurants and ice cream carts. Easy place to lose yourself in for an afternoon.

Kulkedash Medressa

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Not far from the Chorsu Bazaar is the Kulkedash Medressa, well worth a visit. Although it has been restored many times (thanks to earthquakes) the medressa dates back to the 16^th century. This would make it one of the older buildings (or at least the site) in Tashkent. It’s really beautiful and was abuzz with activity when I visited; it is still very much a place of learning. Inside the outer walls the courtyard is a well appointed garden, a little bit of paradise away from the outside hustle and bustle of Tashkent.

One last class – what would you teach?

So, this week sees me in the home stretch of teaching in Japan. I’ve been teaching here for two years now and I’ve done lessons on all sorts of topics from favourite foods (and favourite this and that!) to ‘virtual water’, do google that if you’re interested. Once you start reading, you won’t be. So for my last lot of lessons I wanted to do something special to me and interesting to the students. Well I try to make every lesson interesting for the students. I have done a range of lessons on different travel-related topics which often involve an English grammar point, but this week I was given the topic of ‘your favourite character’ to make a lesson for the first years.

So yes, my friends will know where I went for that topic! I finally got to do a lesson about Doctor Who! Well, it’s not my first, I have used Doctor Who here and there in a couple of lessons, but never as the central theme of a lesson. And so I spent the weekend creating a short video about Doctor Who (none of my students have heard of Doctor Who except through me of course) introducing the character of the Doctor and choosing some choice bits. I wanted to explain why he is my favourite character – so I talked about his ability to change his face, about facing danger, being brave, funny and caring for his friends.

I kept the message simple – a must for all lesson plans here, not always the easiest though with some of the topics I get thrown (see ‘virtual water’). I included some scenes from Doctor Who featuring the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and ninth Doctors (unfortunately Adobe couldn’t handle the files from the tenth and eleventh because I had some moments in mind) and it was interesting to watch their reactions. Not a lot of dialogue of course. They laughed at Patrick Troughton posing for the camera as soldiers stormed past him, and went ‘awwwww’ in amazement as Tom Baker turned into Peter Davison. The Orgons they found particularly funny in ‘Day of the Daleks’ and then the video asked them – ‘who is YOUR favourite character?’ (well, it said favorite as we are using Ameriglish here).

Mickey Mouse has proved popular, I was expect a lot of Doraemon, according to the net the most popular character in Japan. Not one from the first class! Actually, in contrast to many of the typical ‘favourite’ exercises I’ve given my first graders, I had a surprisingly wide variety of answers. And no, none of the students can borrow my ‘Terror of the Zygons’ DVD. But I do hope one or two look ‘Doctor Who’ up on the net after that.

The white board awaits the students!

Imagine it’s your last class, what topic would you like to bring to your students that is important to you and who you are?

My final worksheet

Andrew is a travel blogger and the writer of the ebook series ‘Short Journeys’. Check out his travel writings at:

World Journeys

Introducing Short Journeys: Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan

Central Asia. It's bloody brilliant. Seriously. In 2011 I visited Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, all brilliant places. My only regret is that I didn't work in Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. Oh and I should have spent longer in all three countries. For travelling, they were simply brilliant. As a backpacker, kind of perfect. The transport is rough and ready, but cheap and adventuresome. The accommodation was always decent, if a little pricey in Kazakhstan, but not for the other two places. 

I met wonderful friendly people at every turn. I saw nature, history, and simply some of the most stunning architecture I could imagine from the Islamic World. I saw part of the Silk Road, immortalised by the travels of Marco Polo, by which silk and other goods made its way from China to Europe. There was culture, opera, ballet, there were mountains and stunning scenery. One day I shall go back, yes I shall go back. I am already dreaming of the next opportunity to head to the region.

Meanwhile, I have been working tirelessly on the next book in the Short Journeys range, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Two countries rolled into the longest and most-packed Short Journeys yet. It is now available for Kindle. Here:

Short Journeys: Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan (Amazon US)

Short Journeys: Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan (Amazon UK)

Blurb for the book:

Take a journey on the road less travelled to two neighbouring countries in Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. The former is blessed with mountains and natural beauty, the latter with some of the world’s most stunning Islamic architecture. Both feature warm locals, adventure and a brilliant travelling experience for the traveller.

This book is the perfect introduction to the two countries. Chock full of experiences and tips, places to stay, money, transport and more. Although not a guidebook, this book is written with the goal of whetting the appetite for two countries which gave the author nothing but a great time. I visit Biskek, Karakol, Altyn Arashan, Tashkent, Samarkand and Bukhara. This book also includes a detailed account of travelling from Bishkek to Tashkent in one day, via Kazakhstan, a challenging exercise full of adventure.

Featuring over 45 photos of the region taken by the author, this book is full of love for a brilliant part of the world, the fifth book in the ‘Short Journeys’ range.

‘Short Journeys’ is a series of stories about my travels to different countries. Whilst they are not intended as a guide book, I have endeavoured to include information about where I stayed, what I ate, what I saw and how to go about it if you were to visit the countries in question. My previous writings – the ‘Dhaka to Dakar’ books, were simply travel experiences. This time I wanted to go a little further for the reader.

I wanted to include any stories and experiences I thought were interesting, important or amusing whilst I was travelling. I want to encourage you the reader to read, think about, and then perhaps go there yourself. You will find information on the places I stayed and visited, and how I got there and around. 

Also Available:

Short Journeys: Kazakhstan (Amazon US)

Short Journeys: Kazakhstan (Amazon UK)

The Return

From this:

to this:

The date is fast approaching now, in May I will be returning to Australia to live with my wife. The final, main piece in the puzzle has been put into place now - my wife's partner visa came through yesterday ending months of stress and worry about it all. We are very thankful. We worried a bit, probably unnecessarily, but we didn't really have any contact from the embassy (in Seoul as the Tokyo consulate does not process visas) apart from responses to emails sent telling us to wait. There were just two of them.
It took about six months in total, and considering they quoted us about 9-12 months, that's not bad at all. And now we face the big move. I haven't lived permanently in Australia since I left in 2011 on my big trip, that resulted in marriage and two years living in Japan.
From one winter to another, at least the Melbourne winter can't rival the Iwate winter for cold and misery! It feels like this winter started years ago. The car park is still covered in ice and snow, though today we've some sunshine even if it's not so warm (about 3 degrees).
And all the things that need to be taken care of now, despite the fact that they've been on my mind for months, come into sharper focus - work, car, moving etc. Settling back into life. Having a TV! I havent had a TV for three years now!
Don't worry - the blog will continue. Both here and on Word Press, for the moment at least, and I will still be writing. Tomorrow will see the release of the latest Short Journeys - Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. This is the cover I have chosen -

And of course, if you're looking for my writings in ebook form, each ebook has a page devoted to it at my Word Press site -

World Journeys

Do visit it!
And thanks for following, a new chapter begins...

Confessions of an Ebook Writer

I’ve been wanting to write about my experiences publishing online for a long while now, but have been looking for the right moment to sit down and bash out a page or two on the ol’ keyboard. I thought it might be interesting for those who know me, or those looking to have a go at epublishing themselves whatever the topic they might be writing. So, I hope it is!

How did it all come about, that I started this epublishing thing? Well, when I travel, ever since my first trip in 1999 I have kept a diary. I wasn’t so crash hot at keeping it up to date in 1999, but I did get in the habit of writing long entries. Anyone who’s read the blog knows I have a penchant for waffling on!

I started to really enjoy writing after a while, especially when I travelled the next time at the end of 2000-01, and I began to keep up much better. I would set aside time for writing each day when possible so I didn’t fall too far behind and had a clear recollection of what I was recounting. When in India 1999 I saw someone else sticking in postcards and tickets and the like into their diary, and I thought that looked like a great idea too, so I did it as well. As a result my diaries were getting longer and longer and heavier and heavier. When I left a country I would stick in money – coins and notes. Not of high value of course. The coins really weighed the diary down but I was really enjoying it and I haven’t stopped.

So after a while I had a lot of diaries, information and thoughts about the travel I had done, I started the blog in 2006, and I always wanted to try writing. My 2004 trip ‘Dhaka to Dakar’ became three trips finishing finally in 2007, and I thought this was a good topic to attempt for my first book. Looking at options, I decided to give Amazon Kindle a try. I had written drafts a few years earlier of the whole thing, but in 2011 I decided to put my head down and get them out there.

Except I was travelling. But in the second half of the year I was stopping a bit and had my laptop with me, so I took to editing in earnest. I’ve recently re-released Dhaka to Dakar Book One on Payhip and Lulu, and re-edited the whole thing adding a lot more photos and certainly felt a bit embarrassed by the book, especially the first chapter. So many errors I couldn’t believe I missed, and I’m sure I must have missed a lot more again. C’est La Vie. The first chapter was very clunky and I did my best to neaten it up, but it’s still not as I would like it.

With the first volume on Amazon not doing much, I didn’t have a lot of motivation to get the next two volumes up. I did eventually, but decided to release them one chapter at a time to make it more palatable. It seemed to work to some extent – I’d hardly had any sales, like less than 2 a month for the first six months, but the individual chapters were specifically about one country. They seemed to have a target. Eventually I released them as entire books and also the first book as chapters. The chapters on their own have been far more successful than the three books.

Last year I saw the sales improve somewhat, although I hadn’t seen a single cent from Amazon I knew it was a only a matter of time. Except that getting paid for an Australian is really difficult from Amazon. To accrue 100 dollars in sales to get a cheque could take five years to be honest. I see 35 cents from a sale of a chapter – the rate is 35% unless your book is over $2.99, then you can get 70% for anything sold from the US Amazon store.

And there’s another issue – the Amazon stores. There is a store in the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Mexico, Canada, Japan, India, Brazil and now Australia. Your sales only accrue from the individual stores. So you need to earn $100 or thereabouts from each store to get a cheque sent to you in Australia.

Well, that’s pretty darned frustrating. Amazon opened up a Kindle store for Australia with payments into Australian bank accounts. Only problem is – it’s only from the AUSTRALIAN store, so the other options are cheque – takes forever to accrue and costs to bank, maybe $25, and ‘wire’ transfer into your account, again accruing maybe $15 in bank fees. That will go through automatically every month in theory, but as I am presently earning around $10 a month, well, I can’t possibly see any of that money.

Having said that, here in Japan I can get a direct EFT deposit into my account and I am seeing something every month. It took 3 months of being stuffed around to happen, a comma was out of place or something I still don’t understand was preventing the transfer and it took three months of emails back and forth to sort out the issue. The bigger issue is that soon I return to Australia and how will I get paid? $10 a month is not much but it means something to me.

Amazon have told me they are working on other payment options but for now they can’t tell me what they are or when they will be ready to go. Last year I started ‘Short Journeys’ -  a series of books to talk about my experiences in other countries and give a little bit of travel information to the interested backpacker. So far I have four of those up for Kindle, Ethiopia (which has outsold everything else thus far), Kazakhstan, Laos (doing quite well) and Cameroon. I realise I may have done better to start with places more often travelled, but such is life. This weekend will see ‘Short Journeys: Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan’ released.

I have developed new skills and learnt some valuable lessons. I had dreadful covers for the three Dhaka to Dakar books originally featuring a myriad of photos on each. In October 2013 I scrapped them in favour of better, clearer one-photo covers. I do believe that’s made a bit of a difference. I have been working on social media, trying to use it better.

All the literature out there about how to market your ebooks tells you in no uncertain terms to get on social media and plug plug plug! And so those following me on facebook will know that’s what I’ve started to do in the last twelve months, trying to tread a fine line between letting people know what I’ve written and annoying everyone with what constitutes as advertising! It seemed that in the end I had to start twitter as well, and so far I have managed to garner 42 followers in about four weeks. If you do want to follow me, you can @WorldJourneys75

On top of that is the World Journeys Website, with links to the blog and each of the titles I have published including information and more. This is the third version of the website. Amazon provides an author page, but it doesn’t allow me to organise it or set it out the way I would like and hence it’s quite a jumbled mess.

The next move (watch this space) will be to start a podcast. Everyone else is doing podcasts, right, and a travel podcast I think would be really interesting. I will be interviewing people about their travel experiences, different kinds of travel, favourite places and countries. Initially whilst I am still in Japan I want to do a couple of podcasts to kick it all off about life as a foreigner in Japan. I am hoping the podcast will be up and running in April or more likely May.

So anyway – The issues with Amazon are becoming more significant as I will be returning to Australia in a few months. Hence I decided it was time to spread my wings and publish on more platforms. I went for Lulu and Payhip. Payhip is basically just a platform that allows you a page for your book where it can be paid for by credit card or paypal. The payment goes direct to your paypal, so there is no waiting for payments. It’s a good system in its way, the books are pdf format there, however authors don’t have the advantage of the publicity of Amazon.

Lulu publishes on their own website but also publishes your book to the Apple Ibookstore and Nook which distributes through Barnes and Noble. They offer a better percentage of the sales than Amazon, however they take the first 99 cents so depending on your book price you can be better or worse off. They do pay direct to paypal as well. The advantage of this is that I will have access to my earnings easily in Australia, whereas with Amazon that simply is not the case. On the flip side of that, so far after two weeks with two books for sale on both Payhip and Lulu I am yet to achieve a single sale.

Amazon does help out with some publicity, although a lot is left to the writer to push his product. I get frequent emails suggesting I check out my own books and usually they are at the top of the list. (I get emails periodically suggesting I check out a list of titles) Still, Kindle is the most popular of ebook formats. Amazon also lets you promote your books for free if you’re part of their KDP programme, although despite the number of free promotions (I put the book on for free for a period of 1-5 days) and a number of people taking the free offers up, I haven’t managed to garner more than 3 reviews for all my works in total.

Using Payhip and Lulu has meant that I have to create two other formats for my books. Payhip is using PDF whereas for Lulu I use Epub, albeit with their epub creating tool which formats my word document. I need to use certain heading types and do a bit of reformatting to make that work, as I do need to make a couple of changes to get it to work better in PDF.

As it stands, I am just getting started with Lulu and Payhip, and will have to see how they fare over six months or a year. It took longer than that to get consistent sales on Amazon. Today I usually have 20 sales or more on Amazon, netting me around $10 every month. It’s far from a raging success and I have to work, blog, write, promote to keep the sales at that figure but it is something.

And so here I am, a few years in with still so much to learn, but getting better. Any other independent epublishers out there with experiences to share? Please comment!

Some of my ebooks:

Short Journeys: Ethiopia

Follow my route around Northern Ethiopia where I visit Addis Ababa, Lalibela, the Simien Mountains, Gondar and Bahir Dar. Full of tips and experiences.

Available here on Amazon.com

Available here on Amazon.co.uk

Short Journeys: Cameroon

The latest in the Short Journeys range covers a country in Africa not so visited, but with a wonderful vibe, vibrant, colourful, interesting and friendly. I visit Douala, Kribi, Limbe, Bamenda and the Ring Road and Yaounde. I take a boat ride into the jungle, see gorillas and other primates up close and explore one of the less-visited countries in Africa.

Available here on Amazon.com

Available here on Amazon.co.uk

Dhaka to Dakar: Through Asia (Second Edition)

The first of three books about my epic journey from Dhaka in Bangladesh to Dakar in Senegal. ‘Through Asia’ takes me through seven Asian countries including India, Pakistan and Iran and a wealth of experiences. The second edition features many more photos and the text has been re-worked. Second Editions of Books 2 and 3 are due out March and early April. On Payhpip (PDF) this book is only $1.39!!

Available here on Payhip - only $1.39

Available here on Lulu - with link to Ibookstore

Backpacking Basics

I have combined my experiences of travelling to 69 countries (and I haven’t finished yet!) into a short cheap read for the first time or inexperienced backpacker keen to learn tricks of the trade and tips and hints of how to organise a budget, what to bring, and how to prepare for a backpacking adventure.

 Available here onPayhip - only 99 cents

Available here on Lulu also with link to Ibookstore

Available here on Amazon.com

Available here on Amazon.co.uk

Coming Soon: Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan

Hey everyone a quick update, I have just about finished editing my latest Short Journeys: Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, and so stay tuned because it's due for release on Amazon (Kindle) this weekend. Here's the cover to tide you over :)

One Night in Central Asia...

When travelling, you experience many things. Highs and Lows, adventure, challenges, places and situations that you planned, hoped to make, and then sometimes, there's that experience where you wonder just exactly how you managed to get there. And you consider maybe it's just a weird sort of dream.

The shack.

I've been working on and am now editing the next 'Short Journeys' - this one is a double feature on Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, and I came to writing about the absolutely stunningly beautiful Altyn Arashan in North-Western Kyrgyzstan. Sure, maybe you're going to find that a hard one to find on a map, it's really just a little valley amongst some mountains with a few shacks and yurts, a river and hot springs and not much else. Heck, there's no electricity. However, it's a pretty special place. And the afternoon and evening I spent there was memorable.

The legendary Valentine

The man who owns and runs 'Yak Tours' is a Russian gentleman (and yes I think he is) called Valentine. He organised a jeep up to Altyn Arashan and I would hike back to the nearest town Karakol the next day. The jeep ride itself was an adventure as we had to stop to refill the radiator and then a hill was too slippery for the jeep so I and a the other two passengers had to push it up the hill.

Helping out with some wood chopping.

I stayed in the 'Yak Tours' shack. A two story ramshackle house that had seen better days and was the largest structure up in the valley. A car battery provided very minimal lighting and the toilet was... outside. Wherever you could find a spot. The shower was... the river. But heck, it was grand!

Then some friends of Valentine's arrived. A whole group in a sort of army truck thing and they took over the place. I joined in as best I could with my two words of Russian and none of Kyrgyz. The food was shashliks. Lots of them. Very popular in the region along with plov, a rice dish. And vodka. Lots and lots of vodka. And toasts as well, the toasting didn't stop. Even I made a toast, none of which I can remember. There were a few kids there, one 11 year old boy was the only one bar Valentine who spoke English.








Later in the evening one guy brought out proper army-grade night vision goggles! That was something too. Eventually the night came to a close. It was a remarkable 12 hours or so. I'm still not sure how I got there, I do remember the hike back to Karakol the next day wasn't so easy though, it was around 20km but I accepted a lift with 2-3km to go...





Have you ever had a similar experience? This is the sort of thing that happens in ex-USSR countries sometimes. Great hospitality - I was the only foreigner at the shack. They took me happily under their wings. The ebook is coming soon before the end of February. Stay tuned!

The morning after inside the shack.

Top Ten Countries Number One - Iran

10 – Slovakia

9 – Romania

8 – Mali

7 – The United Kingdom

6 – Japan

5 - Central Asia

4 – Laos

3 – Ethiopia

2 – India

1 - Iran

Eman Khomeini Square, Esfahan.

‘What? Your number one favourite destination is Iran Andrew? That’s the axis of evil! That’s where all the terrorists come from!’

Well, throw away all your preconceptions about Iran because for me it was the ultimate backpacking experience. I spent a month there nearly ten years ago now and it hasn’t changed as my favourite backpacking experience. I doubt it ever will. Why? Because it is a simply wonderful country to visit as a backpacker. Disregard what you think you know about the place and the people. There is not a country I have visited (and I’ve visited 69) with friendlier people. No, I’m not talking about the government or the theocracy, but the real people who are nothing but genuine, warm, hospitable folk prepared to open their doors to you at the drop of a hat.

The family I was 'kidnapped' by in Kerman.

People joke about being ‘kidnapped’ in Iran, about a family taking you in and it becomes impossible to leave not just because they don’t want you to, but principally because you are taken care of so well that you lose the urge to move on in your trip! It happened to me after crossing the Pakistan border. Met a guy as we crossed, stayed with his family in Kerman and was there for ten days. I don’t even impose of relatives for that long! Usually…

It’s good value for money Iran, and no mistake. The buses are comfortable, there are a plethora of historically important or just stunningly beautiful sites across the country, a month was not long enough for me there. You get decent hotels for little money, hospitality, kindness, adventure… the only catch is it’s pretty hard to get in if you’re from the UK and close to impossible if you’re from the US.

Karanagh

Yazd is a wonderful city, lots of mudbrick buildings and alleyways and lanes to explore. Not too far from Yazd is the site of a Zoroastrian temple, at the small village of Chak Chak, in the middle of a desert built into the side of a hill. It’s really beautiful and I did it on a day trip which took me also to the abandoned village of Karanagh. A really special little village of mud-brick houses. There was a lot more to the tour as well, including Camel kebab for lunch.

Persepolis

Shiraz is another great place. It’s the spot to reach Persepolis from, an ancient ruined Roman city in the desert. Another day tour combined with a couple of lesser sites. One of those sites was Naqsh-e Rostam, four tombs carved into cliffs that were reminiscent of the ancient city of Petra in Jordan. Lesser sites? If it was a lesser site, it was only just!

Naqsh-e Rostam

Shiraz has a great market, good for buying carpets if you so desire, some ruins of its own and a couple of shrines dedicated to poets – poets are very popular in Iran.

Esfahan or Isfahan if you prefer, is regarded as something like the ‘jewel’ of Iran, and it’s not hard to see why.

Esfahan

In the centre is one of the most impressive squares on the planet – the Eman Khomeini Square. It is named after the first Ayatollah, father to today’s Iran and be warned – it’s not the only place named after him in Iran. It’s not the only Square named after him in Iran. The square boasts an amazing Mosque at one end, a market, space, life, it’s where it’s at in Esfahan. Esfahan has a lot more to see though, beautiful gardens, a bird sanctuary and the river is awesome. Some of the bridges over the river have little tea houses built into them. It’s really charming and picturesque and the sort of place you could happily lose yourself in for days.

Tabriz, in the north towards the Turkish border, is another pleasant city with some nice parks and shrines to poets. It feels like a university-town. An easy day trip takes the visitor to Kandovan where people live in houses formed naturally by volcanic rock centuries or more ago. If you’re lucky you might get to go inside a house and see how it’s set up, it is truly a special little place. The spring water flows near the river at the base of the Kandovan cliffs. It’s highly prized and apparently has remarkable healing qualities. People come from far and wide to bottle some of this water and take it with themselves.

Kandovan

And then there’s Tehran. It’s not the monstrous of capital cities and it has a stunning mountain-backdrop, but I wouldn’t have it on top of your places to visit list. Simply, it’s a big city. It’s busy and even the Iranian hospitality is not quite what it is in other places. Mashhadd, a city in the north-east, which I didn’t visit as it was a long way from any of the places I did, sounds like a great place to visit, so if you’re headed to Iran, do consider this place.

Perhaps an odd choice for number one, for me it was an easy choice. If you’d like to know more about my time in Iran, it features as part of Dhaka to Dakar: Book One – Through Asia. The individual chapter is also available for kindle separately.

Dhaka to Dakar: Book One – Through Asia (Second Edition,Payhip)

Dhaka to Dakar: Book One – Chapter Five: Iran (Firstedition, Amazon)

And with that, my top ten countdown, began in November, is finally done. Do you agree? What countries am I missing which you think deserve to be in a top ten? Please do comment below. The blog will continue. I am going to do a series of blogs on top sleeps of various kinds and various regions, plus I want to write a little about the epublishing experiences I’ve had so far, and of course I am having experiences regularly to blog and post photos about. So – WATCH THIS SPACE!

Backpacking Basics

Hi Folks,

Well I have been thinking about epublishing, frustrated at lack of sales and all that, and I thought I would try my hand at a book about the basics of backpacking. A sort 'how to' guide for the first-time or inexperienced backpacker. And today I have published 'Backpacking Basics' on both Lulu and Payhip. On payhip you'll find it for 0.99 cents which is a bargain, Lulu won't give me anything until it's OVER 99 cents so it's $1.49. It will also be available tomorrow (Wednesday) on Amazon.

If you are looking for an ebook for yourself or someone else who is about to go backpacking, maybe for the first time, and trying to work out budgets and packing is proving a pain, or you want the lowdown into the hosteling experience, then THIS is the ebook for you!!!

LINKS:

Backpacking Basics (Payhip Link)

Backpacking Basics (Lulu Link)

The Blurb:

Backpacking expert Andrew Boland has backpacked in some 69 countries, but still remembers what it was like preparing for his first backpacking adventure fifteen years ago. In this book Andrew write about preparing and planning for the trip of a life time. He talks about how to plan your budget for a backpacking adventure, how to keep costs down and talks about some of the costs you may not have thought of before leaving.

Andrew also talks in some detail about the hostelling experience, with tips for surviving hostels and the pros and cons of staying in one.

This is essential reading for the inexperienced or first-time back packer. It will give you an idea of how to start planning, and how to organise your budget so you don’t get left short in the wallet in a foreign country. With 69 countries of experience, Andrew talks about his greatest passion – backpacking.

Thanks as usual. Next time, for SURE, Number One in my Top Ten Countdown! 

Snow good!

Hey folks. Just thought I'd give a quick blog with some photos. This is the most snow I have seen in Ichinoseki since I arrived. Last night we must have had more than two feet, it was quite something. I basically needed a shovel to get out of my car park, although I managed somehow anyways!
Coming soon - The final of my Top Ten Destinations, probably Tuesday or Wednesday. Until then, keep warm!

Expanding Horizons...

Hello all.
Well, last night I stayed up awfully late working on the latest book that I published. The SECOND Edition of my Dhaka to Dakar: Book 1 - Through Asia.

I've been working on it for a while now, and investigating other platforms to publish with other than Kindle/Amazon.
I have decided to try Payhip. It's a platform that will require myself to push the book, to put it out there (one reason I started twitter), and one that gives me a greater percentage of each sale. Not only that, I get paid directly to paypal. Getting paid with Amazon, sadly, has been an excruciatingly difficult and painful process. It has involved back and forths via email, and it's hard to know exactly what you earnings are. Anyway, an upcoming blog on the pros and cons of epublishing with Amazon is coming.
Today, the second edition is out and available for purchase of

'Dhaka to Dakar: Book One - Through Asia'.  (click HERE)

There are dozens more photos, it's been substantially neatened up, I've added a route map and there's a new introduction and after thought. The BEST thing is now it is available as a PDF. So you no longer need a Kindle or Kindle-enabled device to read the book. It's also $1.69, which for a 180+ page book is a damned good deal. What follows is dome information on the book including the introduction, cover and route. :)

Here's the new cover:

And if you're wondering, this is the route that the journey took:

Introduction from the book:

In 2011, I released the first edition of this book on Kindle. Two and a half years have passed, and it was time to re-release the three volumes of my Dhaka to Dakar adventure that spanned three trips, four years and more than twenty countries. More photos, a little more information as well.

In early 2004 I set out to go from Dhaka to Dakar, mostly by land. Spoilers – I didn’t make it. Not in 2004. In 2006 I set out to complete the journey, only to be struck down by malaria and return home with the last two countries on the list unvisited. 2007, I made it finally to Dakar.

Life is about setting goals and realising them. At least according to some people! Getting to Dakar was a goal I set myself. It took much longer than I hoped, but in the end I got there. On the way I saw some special places and met some special people. The sum total of someone’s life may well come down to their experiences, if you aren’t one of the few who leaves a mark on history.

Marco Polo adventure up and down the silk road, my route was far more southerly to Europe, my impact and legacy incredibly insignificant in comparison. However, I wanted some sort of record of my adventures, the highs and the lows, and so that record sits in Ebook form.

If you want to know about my experiences, my story, what impacted me, or if you’re considering a sort of adventure that I did, then maybe this book is for you. 

Ten Thousand Strong - Eight Years of Memories

Hi folks
I was going to do a short retrospective blog a couple of weeks back when this blog passed 10,000 page views, but other stuff seemed more important at the time. But today, it's time to look back a little.
I started this blog at the end of 2005, in fact I had one post in December 2005, not long before I took off on my ill fated 2006 journey to West Africa. 10,000 hits since then isn't really so many, I know, it took just over eight years. So what's that? 3 views a day? Well that's pretty sucky screw you guys, I'm...

:P

Ok know I am incredibly grateful for the support of everyone over the years who has followed my blog.

Since my first post, I have visited -

Ghana, Togo, Benin, Niger, Burkina Faso, Jordan, the UAE, Ethiopia, Russia, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Finland, the UK, Mali, Senegal, France, Germany, Vietnam, China, Laos, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Luxembourg, Cameroon, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Indonesia, Uzbekistan and Japan. Whew. I think that's all of them. Nope - Georgia! How could I forget Georgia? That's 31 countries! And I've blogged about and probably from each one.

The 2006 trip didn't go to plan. I got malaria and then disappeared from the blog under the misapprehension that no-one was reading it and subsequently freaked people out. I am still sorry about that one. This is my 273rd post. Recently I've noticed a lot of readers from the US have been tuning into the blog - so hello! And now a quick rundown of my travels since I started the blog.

January 2006 - My first trip to West Africa started in Ghana. I did not cope well.

February 2006 - I moved through to Burkina Faso. Just as I was feeling on top of travelling again, I got malaria.

October 2007 - It was time to travel again, I started with the Baltic countries - this is Tallinn, beautiful Tallinn.

November 2007 - Mali, with friends, an amazing experience back in West Africa. I had to returned first to Burkina Faso to cross to Mali by land because the main airport in Mali was closed for runway repairs. 

November 2007 - I made it to Dakar, Senegal, a place that was to finish my dream of going from Dhaka, Bangladesh, to Dakar, Senegal.

October 2009, Dubai, UAE. Yes it's 40 plus outside, but inside a mall you can go to the snow!

A challenge met and conquered - trekking the Simien Mountains in Ethiopia, November 2009

Big trip time again, and not long after March 11, I landed in Japan in 2011 as part of the trip where I was mesmerised by lights, karaoke, warm toilet seats and cosplay!

June 2011 - the sun beat down on me in Uzbekistan, but I was still taken by the beauty of this place as I explored Central Asia.

July 2011 - The UK. I got my geek on and met some of the legends of Doctor Who.

 September - December 2011 - I lived and worked in Georgia, teaching English and falling in love with a wonderful country. This is the capital, Tbilisi. 

January 2013 - Sri Lanka. I climbed a big rock and had my wallet stolen. 

And that's where I am today. Well, I'm in Japan actually. But things can change, and the journeying continues. Stay tuned to this blog for more! and Thank you all!