22nd September

“Atrocity has no excuses, no mitigating argument. Atrocity never balances or rectifies the past.” Dune

There is a relevance to this post, somewhat tenuous, but still, the point was not to depress you!

With the reading I am doing, both about the history of Islam, and for my Islamic Art course, my desire to explore the Islamic world is growing greatly. This coupled with plenty of free time in the evenings (there is nothing to do apart from read), I have planned my escape trip! It is epic, and for those who knew me in Japan, know I like planning epic trips (although most never see the light of day alas).

This one however, takes in at least 10 countries:
Starting from my house, its only a few hours to the Chinese border, so head across to Urumchi, the capital city of the Uigur region of Western China. From there, head towards Kashgar, the famous ancient city, before heading through the mountains north into Kyrgyzstan. In the summer, this country is amazing for hiking and horse trekking apparently, so that sounds great. From Kyrgyzstan, head south into Tajikistan and experience the mountains there, before briefly passing through northern Afghanistan, mainly in an excuse to visit Herat. From there, head north into Turkmenistan for a brief (the transit visas are only 3 days) stop in Merv, before dropping down into Iran. Skirting the Caspian Sea would take me up to Azerbaijan and then into Georgia and Armenia, before taking me to Turkey, the only country on this list so far that I have already visited. That’s 10 countries so far!

Now, if I have the time, I would love to then visit Syria, Jordan, then Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, before going up through Spain and Portugal, then France and home.

The last part I fear is only a dream. While I think the countries will be safe enough to visit in 2 years, my plan is to start University in September, and with May being the end date of my time here in Kazakhstan, that gives a fixed period of 3 months. And 20 countries in 3 months might just be too much. Although my current record is 8 countries in 5 weeks, so its not unheard of.

Money won’t be a problem, which is always a nice situation to be in, especially when I think about all the Visas I will need to buy. I get $7500 at completion of my Peace Corps time, and that will cover this nicely, and I have enough money saved from Japan to pay for a Masters. The biggest problem with this is probably loneliness. Not only do I not imagine anyone would want to come with me on this trip, there is also the fact that this part of the world is not visited by many tourists in general. Oh well, I guess I will continue to read a lot then. There is no fear of my running out of books at least. I still many thousands to read on the Kindle. And in case I haven’t mentioned it before, that e-book really is an amazing useful bit of plastic - Space for 3000 books, in something smaller and lighter (and slightly more water resistant) than a normal book, and free internet. It makes entertainment on a trip such as this much easier.

Ah right, the link to atrocities was to do with some of the countries I plan on visiting. Afghanistan and Iran (and Turkey) are not known as the friendliest of countries, although I guess most countries have committed their fair share of terrible crimes. That was it, I told you it was rather tenuous.

Right, sorry for sharing that with you. Especially as it will change throughout the next two years, and you will probably have to read about those changes as well. But a man can dream cant he?!