Monthly Archives: April 2013

Central Asia here we come

April 23, 2013 – 8:12 am
Map of Central Asia

Map of Central Asia

April 23, 2013

Dear Friends,

Mark and I are about to go adventuring again.   This time we are headed for Central Asia, which is that area of the globe between the Caspian Sea on the west, China on the east, Russia to the north and Iran and Afghanistan on the south.   More specifically we are talking about 5 of the 7 Stan’s–Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan.  These countries were part of the Soviet Union and are now independent.   We leave home today, April 23rd, and return on May 31, 2013 – 39 days.

Several of you have asked that I provide an itinerary at the beginning of the trip to make reading about our movements easier to follow, so I am including a very brief skeleton of our route here.

We begin in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan after long flights on Lufthansa from SFO to Frankfurt, then on to Ashgabat.  Following a few days there, we fly to Mary and Merv and return back to Ashghabat the same way.

Map of Turkmenistan

Map of Turkmenistan

From there we fly to Tashkent, Uzbekistan.  We visit Tashkent and then drive to Samarkand and to Bukhara.  We have extra time in Bukhara and then make the very long drives to Khiva and Nukus, where we visit a famous museum.  From Nukus we fly back to Tashkent.

Map of Uzbekistan

Map of Uzbekistan

Next we drive from Tashkent to Dushanbe in Tajikistan and spend some time  in and around that city.

Map of Tajikistan

Map of Tajikistan

Map of Kyrgyzstan

Map of Kyrgyzstan

From Dushanbe we fly to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and spend nine days there including circumnavigating Lake Issyk-Kul.

Back in Bishkek, we have a day of rest before driving to Almaty, aka Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan.  We visit Almaty and spend some days hiking in the area.  Then we fly to Astana in the north central part of the country for our last two days before flying home on Lufthansa, with an overnight layover in Frankfurt, arriving back in SanFrancisco on May 31 at 12:20pm.  Finally, there is the three hour drive home from SFO trying to keep ourselves awake in the middle of the day.

Map of Kazakhstan

Map of Kazakhstan

In addition to a Central Asia Map I have included maps of each individual country  so you can find the places we are visiting.We will be traveling by ourselves for the entire journey accompanied only by a guide, a driver and a private car, which will all change as we move from one country to another.  Stacey Sullivan of GeoEx in San Francisco has worked tirelessly to put the program together and make all the arrangements.  Her energy and excitement about the adventure we have created is infectious, causing us to look forward to the experience with a lot of enthusiasm.

I hope to be sending posts whenever we are in a place that has WiFi.  If the signals are strong enough, I will try to send a few photos.  Please do not be disappointed if I am unable to do so.

As we prepare to close the house and drive away, we do not yet have our passports back from the visa service.  We are told that the passports are at the Tajikistan Embassy in Washington DC and that the visa service will collect them today and FedEx them to our travel agent in San Francisco.  She is supposed to receive them tomorrow morning and then deliver them to us before we go to the airport at noon tomorrow.  We are trusting that all will go well, but it is a bit close for comfort.  We hope this is not a harbinger of things to come on this trip.  The adventure has already begun.

It is a good thing that we planned a night in the City, to attend a memorial concert for a flying friend at Davies Symphony Hall, before our flight out on the 24th.

Until we connect again in June, we are your intrepid travelers,

Julia and Mark

By adventureswithjulia | Posted in 2013 May: Turkmenistan / Tajikistan / Uzbekistan / Kyrgyzstan / Kazakhstan | Comments (6)

Happenings in Northern Burma since our visit

April 8, 2013 – 9:15 pm

April 9, 2013

Dear Friends,

You may remember that Mark and I met some people in Putao in northern Burma who were trying to help their neighbors by bringing in rice to help feed the hungriest souls.  We exchanged email addresses and have kept up correspondence with a man called Simon.  Turns out Simon is a Burmese Christian missionary who helps people all over Burma where there is significant hunger and disease, but especially in the area around Putao area in the far north and in the Setwee area in the far west.

We eventually learned that he is affiliated with a Christian organization in Ohio and communicated with them several times to determine if they were legitimate and trustworthy.  We wanted to help the people in Putao, but wanted to make sure, as much as possible, that our largesse would be put to the use we wanted and not squandered.   Eventually we were satisfied about the organization and about Simon’s willingness and ability to follow through.  So in late November, we sent a sizeable check to Ohio and watched the money flow from there to a bank in south-western Thailand, on the border with Burma.  There, Simon picked up the money and moved it to a bank in Yangon.  We had instructed him to buy a tri-cycle to be used as an ambulance and mosquito-treated bed nets to help people avoid malaria.  The bed nets were purchased in Yangon and shipped by train to Myitkyina, the largest town in the north.  In Myitkyina, one of his helpers purchased a new tricycle, modified it for better seating and medical purposes and painted it white.  Some of the nets traveled by air to Putao, but most were held in Myitkyina along with the tricycle due to the fighting between the Burmese government and the frontier people who want autonomy.

Simon at Yangon train station with bed nets

Simon at train station with bed nets

Brand New Tricycle, Lifan C

New Tricycle that will be converted into an ambulance for villages in the far north of Burma

Finally, according to Simon, in early March the tricycle and nets were placed in a truck and began the 288 kilometer long journey under police escort with a large contingent of other vehicles.  The trip took over two weeks, but at last the nets and tricycle are in Putao and being distributed by Simon’s many helpers to the most needy people in the far flung villages of the north.  Simon sent photos of the tricycle and nets when he acquired them.  Two of them are here for you to see.  Now we are waiting for photos of the delivered goods.  Hopefully they will come soon.  I will send another post when we have more details.

We feel very good about being able to help change the lives of as least some impoverished people in a mostly unknown place in the world.  We have learned that money alone, however, is not the solution.  There needs to be a team of people to help carry out the project.  Simon and his fellow Burmese Christian missionaries are that team.  The process of delivering bed nets is a case in point.  Not only do the nets need to be taken to the people in the far flung villages where they live, but they need to be instructed in their purpose and use.  So buying a lot of nets was not going to be helpful without transportation to get the nets and the educators to the villages.  We ended up buying fewer nets so the tricycle could be purchased for that purpose.  Hopefully, long after the nets are distributed, the ambulance will continue to assist people in need.

I wonder who put Simon in our path?  It has been quite an Easter experience.

Meanwhile, we wish you a happy, colorful spring,

Julia and Mark

By adventureswithjulia | Posted in 2012 Oct: Laos & Myanmar | Comments (5)