Hello travellers!

It’s been a busy one this month! It started with Songkran, bringing in the Thai New Year.

The three day festival is celebrated with, what is essentially, a water fight all over the country. Where I was in Chiang Mai, cars drive around the moat and old city walls with kids in the back firing water guns at each other. No one is getting out dry!

In the evenings were stages in different parts of the city with music, sprinklers and even more water guns making it one of the most fun festivals I’ve ever been to.

The entire city had a good mood about it for three days and I highly recommend you visit Thailand for Songkran at least once!

I also took a trip to Kuala Lumpur, one of my favourite cities in the region. I had a friend from London visit, so I flew down to Malaysia’s capital for the weekend to have yet another photo in front the Petronas Towers, eat some incredible food and have some drinks in the Bukit Bintang area.

But now onto the one of the lesser visited regions in Asia….

Last year, I spent just over 2 months exploring Central Asia.

It is a region that is often skipped over and only explored by the travellers that really like getting off the beaten path.

But it is a relatively easy region to get around with good transport links, friendly people and an ever increasingly easy visa requirements.

There are five countries that constitute Central Asia.

Lets dig into the highlights of each:

The 9th largest country in the world, this place is huge!

I only had the opportunity to see Almaty, the largest but most modern city. If you dropped me here and told me I was in central or eastern Europe, I would have believed you. But a short drive away, through the famous Kazakh steppe, lies Charyn Canyon, Kolsai Lake and Kandy Lake.

Each one epic in its own right.

This is true travelling.

A place where only the adventurous go.

There are still parts of the country that are unexplored and mountain peaks that have never been scaled by humans.

Marshrutkas criss cross the country with amazing views at every turn taking you to small towns or nomadic people that still live in yurts and ride on horseback.

If the stunning natural wonders of places like Ala Archa and Skazka Canyon aren’t for you, head out to the Burana Tower, a 9th Century minaret in the middle of nowhere, or enjoy the fascinating architecture of the capital Bishkek.

Here’s what you should know about Kyrgyzstan before you go there.

Probably the most visited country in Central Asia thanks to Samarkand and it’s history with the Silk Road, Uzbekistan feels slightly more modern that the other countries in the region.

But only in places.

Khiva was hands down my favourite city. It felt like I was stepping back in time to the era of the Silk Road and Caravanesis.

At the other end of the country, the Fergana Valley felt like a place that hadn’t been modified at all. And a place where I barely saw another foreigner in my time there.

It is easy to get around Uzbekistan as trains criss cross the country and are surprisingly comfortable.

This is where the easy visa requirements stopped being easy. For me at least with a British passport.

But it just means I’ll have to go back another time to explore the Pamir highway, one of the highest roads in the world and the 7 Lakes in the Fann Mountains near Panjakent.

OK, I fully take back the easy visa requirements.

The only way to get into Turkmenistan is with a tour.

Known as “the North Korea of Central Asia”, I would have loved to have seen the quirky capital city of Ashgabat and then headed out to the burning Gates of Hell at the Darvaza Gas Crater.

Looks like I’m saving that for my next trip…

Other articles on Central Asia:

I took these three books on my Central Asian trip.

I love reading blogs and getting ideas from the internet, but I still prefer to pick up a book and flick through the pages, picking up new information each time.

I’m a big fan of Lonely Planet for the inserts and additional information they give you.

Want to know about a Kyrgyz poet? It’s in there!

The history of Silk Road in the region? There’s a section on that as well!

Since I went, Lonely Planet have now brought out a new edition of the book that is fully up to date.

Even if you don’t plan on going to the region right away, it is still a good read to tickle your tastebuds.

Keep travelling and I look forward to next month when I’ll be talking about a country I was lucky enough to live in for three years.

Safe travels,

Dan