Top Ten electricity substations of Central Asia

With the sheer vastness of the travel blogging world it seems incredible that there remains a subject yet to be celebrated for all the richness it truly deserves. Thus I hereby right the wrong of that criminally neglected, artistic treasure that is the electricity substation. I can only hope that others take up the baton in promoting the profoundly inspiring, cultural genius represented in these creations from other parts of the world. 10. Azerbaijan The lush patina of rust off…

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The splendour falls an apartment walls and Soviet concrete old in story

We have an image of the Soviet city as an unremittingly dull, social wasteland of stained concrete and cheerless vistas but this is further from reality than you might imagine, certainly in Central Asia. For a start they often have far more trees than many European capitals and once the green of spring has arrived they do a lot to mask those architectural sins that do exist. The West was hardly short on post-war, faceless concrete monstrosities, so it would…

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Kyrgyzstan: What! No dictatorship?

As a seasoned connoisseur of dictatorships, Kyrgyzstan was always going to be something of a disappointment in a region characterized by kleptocratic despots. Sure, they can rustle up some electoral irregularities and even some human rights abuses when pushed but gone is the all-pervasive security presence or the anticipation at customs posts of a potential, full cavity search. The eloquent, almost poetic “thwap” of stretched rubber glove against the wrist, as the officer gleefully prepares for the  intimate intrusion into…

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