21 Day The Five Stans Tour — TOUR CODE: CA3 21 Day The Five Stans Tour
TOUR CODE: CA3
Ken Powell a seasoned globe-trotter and experienced photographer (powellphotography.ca), blogs (powellponderings.com) about his journey with Adventures Abroad’s 21 Day Five Stans Tour, which covers Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. His insights, images, and expertise offer a wonderful glimpse into this extraordinary tour. In this vignette, he recounts a border crossing episode.
We had borders of five Stans to navigate, and one of them twice. While they all had their idiosyncrasies, there was one that we knew would be a challenge – the Uzbekistan into Turkmenistan crossing.
Journey Around the 5 Stans: The Silk Road
21 Day The Five Stans Tour — TOUR CODE: CA3 21 Day The Five Stans Tour
TOUR CODE: CA3
Ken Powell a seasoned globe-trotter and experienced photographer (powellphotography.ca), blogs (powellponderings.com) about his journey with Adventures Abroad’s 21 Day Five Stans Tour, which covers Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. His insights, images, and expertise offer a wonderful glimpse into this extraordinary tour.
The well-known travel writer Colin Thubron said it well: “To follow the Silk Road is to follow a ghost. It flows through the heart of Asia, but it has officially vanished, leaving behind it the pattern of its restlessness.”
One can’t talk about the “Five Stans” without reference to the Silk Road. Scorching deserts, high mountain passes and caravan towns defined the route (or as it was then, routes) transporting silk and various other goods from western China to eastern Europe from as early as the second century BC until the mid-15th century when the Ottoman Empire closed off trade with the West. Nearly 6,500 kilometres long, it connected the Eastern and Western worlds.
Journey Around the 5 Stans: The Setting
21 Day The Five Stans Tour — TOUR CODE: CA3 21 Day The Five Stans Tour
TOUR CODE: CA3
Ken Powell, a seasoned globe-trotter and experienced photographer (powellphotography.ca), blogs (powellponderings.com) about his journey with Adventures Abroad’s 21 Day Five Stans Tour, which covers Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. His insights, images, and expertise offer a wonderful glimpse into this extraordinary tour.
A brief synopsis of the physical and cultural landscapes of these regions will help give you a deeper appreciation of the diversity and history I will encounter on this tour. And the blog entries that follow will be instead of a day-by-day diary account of the delights and challenges of exploring the five Central Asian "Stans", I have chosen a number of memorable vignettes and experiences to tell the story another way. So let's start!
Moais of Rapa Nui
21 Day Chile Tour — TOUR CODE: CL1 21 Day Chile Tour
TOUR CODE: CL1
In his latest blog post, Dale Dunlop, The Maritime Explorer, describes the his Chile Tour as "one of the best Adventures Abroad tours we have ever been on" and ends it with a stunning exploration of the Moais of Rapa Nui. If you are interested in what Adventures Abroad has to offer, please check out our Small Group Tours to Chile.
In the last post from this unparalleled trip to Adventures Abroad 21 Day Chile Tour our group reached our final destination, Rapa Nui, aka Easter Island. In that post I wrote about everything on the island except the main reason we were there, to see the giant statues known as moais that are unique to Rapa Nui. In this post we'll see and discuss more moais than you probably ever want to see, but trust me, these figures are so entrancing that you will not get tired of visiting them. In short, is it worth the time and expense to come to the remotest place on earth to see them – damn right it is and here's why.
Rapa Nui - Here at Last
21 Day Chile Tour — TOUR CODE: CL1 21 Day Chile Tour
TOUR CODE: CL1
In his latest blog post, Dale Dunlop, The Maritime Explorer, checks off a bucket list item by visiting Rapa Nui - Here at Last. If you are interested in what Adventures Abroad has to offer, please check out our Small Group Tours to Chile.
Alison and I originally signed up for Adventures Abroad's 21 Day Chile tour before Covid and when trips to Chile resumed after Covid there was no guarantee that the Rapa Nui would be included so we decided to wait. That was hard – Rapa Nui has been right up there with the Pyramids, Angkor Wat and only a few other places I had to visit before I died. The pyramids, Egyptian, Aztec and Mayan have been seen in person as has most recently, Angkor Wat. Rapa Nui was finally guaranteed on the March 2024 departure and now at last I'm about to board a plane in Santiago for the almost six hour flight to this most exotic of all locations. Hop on board to find out why this place has such an allure for the sixteen AA patrons about to make the trip.
Atacama Desert - Chile's Arid Wonderland
21 Day Chile Tour — TOUR CODE: CL1 21 Day Chile Tour
TOUR CODE: CL1
In his latest blog post, Dale Dunlop, The Maritime Explorer, endures one of the driest places on earth and treks through Atacama Desert - Chile's Arid Wonderland. If you are interested in what Adventures Abroad has to offer, please check out our Small Group Tours to Chile.
In my introductory post on the Adventures Abroad 21 Chile tour, I emphasized what I called the big three – Torres del Paine, the Atacama Desert and Easter Island as being the quintessence of this amazing country. Well, Torres del Paine certainly lived up to its star billing and in this and the next post, we'll be putting the Atacama Desert to the test. Join our intrepid group as we explore the many landscapes of the second driest place on earth.
