Bangladesh
Great stay in Dhaka and Cox’s Bazaar (Longest beach in the world). Was invited to 3 weddings on first night went to them all. Pics of me at end there to show how many people insisted I have a photo with them (this is a summary). Wonderfully friendly place and great history to learn. Note – first trip using a camera so these are not the modern artistic level.
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Guyana
Situated in the north coast of South America.
There is a little strip from the east coast of Venezuala through to the north Coast of Brazil.
It was Dutch for a while but eventually the Brits and French carved pieces off – Guyana was British, Suriname in the middle speaks Dutch, and French Guiana is not independent. (reminds me of Djibouti, Somaliland, Somalia)
The purpose of these places was plantations and trading with the empire – as such in spite of being on the South American continent they are considered Caribbean for all intents and purposes. There are basically no useable roads even joining each other. (similar to west africa with no trade useable roads between neighbours).
Guyana is most known in the west for Jim Jones and his cult who committed mass suicide 30+ years ago. While the phrase ‘drink the Kool aid’ is common it is possible it was an alternative brand of ‘flavour aid’ that was used.
Sadly the place is becoming another victim of America’s war on drugs. Locals I spoke to said the level of violence had massively increased last 10/15 years since other drug smuggling options closed up and Guyana became a viable route.
Not a big tourist destination, most famous thing is a waterfall and a lighthouse.
There were some small museums about history and independence which were really good and I highly recommend.
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Mongolia
Gobi desert, Flaming cliffs, largest sand dune in the world for a sunset (well earned after climbing) the vast steppes, camerls, Ghengis Khan Gold, Dalazadgad, and UB.
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DPRK (North Korea)
had a VERY basic camera and lens and knew practically nothing about photography – however wanted to condense down to 30 photos to cover architecture, artwork, people, places and funny signs.
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China - Beijing and the Wall
Superb weather for the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square.
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Uzbekistan
Capital of Tashkent was great – museums about Soviets and Timor – who ruled more of the world than Ghengis Kahn but with less PR, were fantastic – free english speaking guides swooped in and seemed surprised when I tipped them, english captions too.
The three UNESCO world heritage town of Samarkand, Bukhara, and Khiva also delivered. The Soviets fixed up the ruins in the 70s and as a result Uzbekistan has a tourist industry. Still tricky on the visas but improving rapidly. Spectacular Islamic architecture, tourist friendly folks, good prices on everything.
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Turkmenistan
This place is sometimes referred to as North Korea with money. No facebook (or Tinder!). Huge oil wealth so the capital is the city of white marble. Totally perfect, no pedestrians, shop fronts, ugly carparks, just perfect streets and incredible buildings. The previous pres had a monument (pictured) with a gold statue of him that turned to face the sun. The people are kept happy with 20 cent per litre petrol. There are 3 UNESCO sites – ancient capitals of the Parthians and Persians. Highlight is Darveza – a pit that was leaking methane so the Soviets lit it to burn it off, in the 1970s.. now a tourist attraction in the middle of nowhere. Very touching how kind my first driver was – he and his brother drove me 11 hours, then they were driving back 9 hours on their own – for $125.. (I did tip on top as that was just ridiculous to accept it). They never rushed me and called next day to make sure I was well. Very sad that good people work for so little money in a country where there is plenty to go around. One of the hardest countries in the world to visit – it is one of 3 (with North Korea and Bhutan) where it is mandatory to have a set tour (which is expensive) unless you can get a transit visa (which I did) and that is tricky. That said, if you can you should go. The Museum was great – no photos allowed – it had a whole floor for the pres – they photoshopped him doing everything from milking cows to reading xrays and even performing surgery . They didn’t even try hard to make head proportional most the time it was literally just plonked on someone elses body.
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