It was Christmas morning (2019) and the weather was unusually warm for winter. Our second road trip, in Uzbekistan, would take us from Bukhara to Samarkand. Most tours skip Shakrisabz — cutting down the travel time by a couple of hours. Shakrisabz is a hidden gem and definitely worth a visit. Chor Minor Madrassah We…
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Taipei is a bustling city with a heady mix of natural beauty, spiritualism, and national monuments. The local gastronomy is diverse and famous for its unique ‘Q’ texture. It’s the best entry point to start any trip in Taiwan and proves to be a good base for day trips. We visited Taiwan in the month…
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Goodbye Khiva It was the fourth day of our guided tour of Uzbekistan. We had explored Itchan Kala on the earlier day and had spent the night within the fortress walls. A, our guide, gave us a couple of minutes to walk around and soak in the sights of the old city — before we…
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Getting In We took the early morning flight from Tashkent Domestic Airport to Urgench International Airport. Many international travellers choose Urgench (instead of Tashkent) to begin their multi-city tour of Uzbekistan. After surviving snow flurries and sub-zero temperatures before boarding, we saw the sun rise and bathe the arid land (below) with golden light. It…
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Practical Information Ever since Uzbekistan opened its borders to international tourism, it’s much easier to get a tourist e-visa. The site is relatively easy to figure, even if it has a few problems with speed and functionality. Our middle names didn’t show up on our e-visa, but that didn’t create any problems. However, the Uzbekistan…
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In & Around Suzhou Suzhou is a 30 minute train ride away from Shanghai and I can’t believe that we missed it on our earlier trip to China. Last December, we spent two days in Hangzhou before taking the train to Suzhou. Suzhou is about an hour and half away from Hangzhou. We took the…
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Getting In Hangzhou’s proximity to Shanghai makes it an excellent choice for a weekend trip. High speed trains connect Shanghai to Hangzhou and the total journey is under an hour. We had made online reservations (trip.com) before arriving in China. The great internet wall can be quite challenging without a VPN and it’s wiser to…
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In & Around Sereoksan National Park Getting there Seoraksan National Park is located in Gangwon Province and the easiest way to access the park is from Sokcho City. We took an intercity bus from Dong Seoul Bus Terminal (in Seoul) to Sokcho. Under ideal conditions, the journey should take around 2 and half hours, however,…
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Sunrise at Manseong-ri Coast It was the sixth day of our summer trip around the southern coast of Korea. We woke up early and were lucky to watch sunrise from the bedroom of our pension house. It was the perfect way to kickstart our road trip. We were staying next to the coast of Manseong-ri…
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After our trip, I noticed that my phone pictures were matched with locations on Google Maps. I don’t know whether I should be worried by how fast AI is evolving, or be happy — because my work gets so much easier. This is a screenshot of our route from my phone. Towards Light After exploring…
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