With just under a month to go until departure, I thought I’d answer a few questions I’ve been getting from some of you about my trip.
How will you be getting around?
It might be better to ask how I’m not getting around. Basically, every mode of transportation that exists will probably come into play at some point. Altogether, this trip is going to include 8 flights, 3 overnight trains, and an assortment of taxis, vans, buses, metros, walking, cycling, and possibly a camel ride.
No hovercraft that I know of, but then, anything could happen.
What’s the time difference?
China officially has only one time zone, which is 12 hours ahead of Montreal. (Some parts of Xinjiang province unofficially use their own time zone — more on that later.) Kyrgyzstan is 10 hours ahead of Montreal and Uzbekistan is 9 hours ahead.
What languages do they speak?
Officially, Mandarin Chinese in China, Kyrgyz in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbek in Uzbekistan. In the northwestern Chinese province of Xinjiang, the Turkic language of Uyghur is most common. Russian is also an official language in Kyrgyzstan, and is widely spoken in Uzbekistan (and indeed, across the ‘stans). There are also other local languages and dialects in various places.
And no, I don’t speak any of these languages, nor do I expect to find many English-speakers in any of the places I plan to visit. But that’s okay. It’s more fun that way.
Where are all these ‘stan countries anyway?
There are five countries that Westerners usually lump together as the ‘stans: Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, which I’ll be visiting on this trip, and Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, which I will not. Here’s a handy intro guide from Conde Nast, for anyone who’s curious about what these countries have to offer.
(There are also Afghanistan and Pakistan, but those tend to somehow not get included in the same category, probably because they, unlike the aforementioned five, were not part of the Soviet Union.)
“Stan”, by the way, simply means “land”. So Uzbekistan just means land of the Uzbeks, just like Finland means land of the Finns.
What are you packing?
Most of my packing list will be similar to previous trips. I’m packing for hot weather, pretty much. I’ll throw in one warmer set of clothing in case of cold nights in the mountains. I’m taking a scarf for more conservative regions or mosques, but I’m told that there’s no need to go ultra-conservative with the clothing in any of the places I’ll be.
I’m also adding in a few extra items that I don’t typically take with me on other trips. My usual philosophy of “just buy it there” might not work so well, given the remote regions I’ll be in, so I’m taking extra precautions with things like my first aid kit and my personal effects. I’m also planning to pack a handful of protein and breakfast bars for overnight trains or for those days when vegetarianism is just an impossible concept to explain.
Of course, I’ll be trying to keep my bag as light as possible. How well will I do? I’ll let you know.
What about visas?
Ah, good question. The short answer is that yes, I need visas, and they’re complicated. The long answer probably merits its own blog post, so stay tuned.
Will you be blogging?
Yes and no.
Obviously, you’re reading this, so you can see I’ve launched my blog and intend to chronicle this journey, just as I have with most of my previous travels.
But I’m also likely to have quite a few stretches without so much as electricity, let alone WiFi. What’s more, both China and Uzbekistan heavily censor or outright restrict access to many parts of the internet, and while I have some pretty good workarounds for those, there are no guarantees that they’ll always work. There are certain things I might feel safer waiting to post until I’ve left each country, particularly Uzbekistan. Besides, the whirlwind pace of the tour might not leave a lot of time for blogging or for uploading photos.
So I’m going old school: I’ll be taking with a dead-tree notebook to scrawl down my thoughts and observations, and I’ll transfer those to digital format when I get the chance.
The bottom line is, stay tuned to this blog. But don’t be surprised if the posts show up on something of a delay.