July 2020: A Flashback to 2009
Like most of us, the pandemic has kept us at home. As retirees, we’ve had time to catch up on much needed sorting and tidying. We’ve done wonders to house and garden, and we’ve also sorted accumulated media, much it records of our travels. This has prompted reminiscencing.
Chris has reviewed all the video clips we took during our 11 month long trip across Central Asia. He has added those that he feels have some merit to the Flickr photo sets of our journey. For those who have the time or desire to peruse these, we link them here.
Thailand
Golden clock tower in Chiang Rai (a domestic tourist attraction)
China-Sichuan
Tibetan dancing (For Tibetan community in Danba)
Tibetan Buddhist call to prayer (North of Danba, sound is from temples in the valley)
China-Chengdu
(Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding)
Adult panda eating
Babies bottle feeding
Red panda moving slowly
Young adult eating very lazily
Teenaged pandas on a jungle gym
More pandas slowly eating
China-Shaanxi
Light show on the water in Fengxian (a domestic tourist attraction)
China-Gansu
Donkeys ploughing on loess plateau (Loess is wind deposited soil parent material)
Ploughing with an ox (Integrated seeder)
Ploughing with a horse (Husband ploughs, wife seeds)
Bleak stony desert (getting further west)
Windy 360 degree view
Chris on straight road
China-Xinjiang
Musical street cleaner in Hami (Is the song familiar?)
Dust devil crosses the highway (Don’t ride through it!)
Making noodles (Wheat noodles have replaced rice as we travel west)
Making flatbread in a Uyghur oven (The deaf mute baker explained well with his hands)
Margo and Leon pursue camels (Trying to photograph them)
Kazakhstan
Dancing in Saryozek (Victory Day celebration, Russian commemoration of end of WW2)
Steppe (East of Almaty)
Herd of horses grazing (Dominant stallion fends off would-be interloper)
Kyrgyzstan
Horses herded along road (Moving to high pasture in spring – mares are milked)
Cattle herded along road (Moving to high pasture in spring)
Tajikistan
First campsite (Just after entering Tajikistan)
Near Lake Karakul (Formed by meteorite hitting the Pamir Plateau)
Woman spinning yak wool (Young mother in herding family who took us in when we were cold and wet.)
Top of Ak Baital pass 4655m (World’s second highest “paved” pass, just lower than Khunherjab pass on Karakoram highway, China-Pakistan)
Mamazir homestay (Building could not be warmed adequately so we were invited in to family house)
Pamir Highway (Between Mamazir and Alichur)
Blowing sand, Wakhan Corridor (Afghan border along Pyanj River)
Women finishing felt rug (the final stage involves squeezing water out)
Uzbekistan
Samarkand (Silk road monuments restored by Soviets)
Turkey–Cappadocia
Fairy chimneys (Tuff volcanic rock. Our room was inside one)
Turkey-Coast
Tortoises mating or fighting (Naturalists: which do you think is happening?)
Croatia
Dubrovnik (City state vying with Venice for control of the Mediterranean)
Switzerland
Grazing cattle (Late autumn)
France
Traditional Dancing (At a festivale du foie gras in Alsace)
C&M
Thanks for posting these! I haven’t looked at them all yet, but those I’ve seen capture a nice sense of being present. I remember fondly following that epic journey of yours back in 2009.