Going to a far-flung destination and want to connect with the people and see something special? One easy way is through local and national holidays. These are often unique to a particular country and provide insights into its culture and history. But it can often be hard to ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
Azerbaijan
Happy birthday King Wangchuck and other national holidays
Going to a far-flung destination and want to connect with the people and see something special? One easy way is through local and national holidays. These are often unique to a particular country and provide insights into its culture and history. But it can often be hard to ...New York cigarettes to cost 9 dollars a pack. In Kazkhstan, the price increases to 32 cents.
Smokers in New York already face some of the highest prices for cigarettes in the country. But last Wednesday, the New York legislature approved a $1.25 tax hike on cigarettes, meaning that taxes alone on a pack in New York are a whopping $4.25, not including a roughly 8% ...Help Gadling buy this woman a cow
If you've ever traveled to a third world country and fell in love with its people, you know that feeling of guilt that inevitably arises when you realize just how difficult life can be for those less privileged than you.
Most travelers caught up in this epiphany often ...Moscow's best outdoor markets
There is nothing quite like a Russian outdoor market.
Imagine a place where produce and goods from the largest country in the world come together in a bounty of pleasure. Throw in tastiness from the former soviet republics in Central Asia and the Caucuses, and you've got a ...New train route to connect Turkey with Georgia and Azerbaijan
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I always get excited when new rail routes open up.
In my opinion, there is no better way to travel than by train. And when countries that are normally difficult to traverse by other means suddenly open up a new rail route, it makes travel and exploration all that much ...Kazakhstan Replacing Cyrillic Alphabet with Latin One
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One of the biggest challenges of traveling through the former Soviet Union is tying to decipher the Cyrillic alphabet. The unnerving thing is that it shares many letters with the Latin alphabet, yet they are pronounced very differently. Like a "B" having a "V" sound, for ...Top 10 "Worst Polluted Places" of 2007
The Blacksmith Institute yesterday released a new list of the "Worst Polluted Places" in the world. This year the places spread out over 7 countries and effect over 12-million people. In Vapi, India, for instance, "Local produce has been found to contain up to 60 times more ...Go Now before They're Gone: Conde Nast Traveler's 20 Most Threatened Places
Travel, on occasion, takes on apocalyptic proportions.
This is a fragile world we live in, after all, and it is no secret that marvelous destinations which beckon our travel spirit simply may not be around for much longer. Or, at the very least, will be so damaged by ...Nagorno-Karabakh: A War Zone worth Visiting?
It's not so often that one hears about travel to Nagorno-Karabakh. After all, this was hell on earth during the 1990s when regional conflict ripped it apart as Armenia and Azerbaijan fought for control of this parcel of land--a predominantly Armenian enclave located in ...Word for the Travel Wise (11/27/06)
Well it's been months since I've tossed out an Azeri word and my lack of doing so is a result of few online English to Azeri resources. Not wanting to fail you or anyone out there with a remote interest in this far out foreign lang, I went back to Azeri.org where I managed ...Nine Million Refugee Children
I've been experiencing the worst case of "heal the world" syndrome lately and it seems there is always more I can do, but never enough; money, time, hands, etc. Habitat for Humanity has always been an organization I've reached down into my pockets blindly and given what I ...Word for the Travel Wise (07/03/06)
One of the best sites to experience while in Azerbaijan is undoubtedly the Atesgah Fire Temple. I've never been, but from the sound of this Lonely Planet guide description it seems phenomenal. The temple is built over a natural gas vent and is so saturated with gas and oil ...Photo of the Day (5/11/06)
This photo really sums up so much of the former Soviet Empire for me. No matter where I traveled, even within big cities like Moscow, I'd inevitably come across some poor farmer's Volga or Niva stuff to the brim with onions, melons, potatoes, or in this case, cabbage. ...A Look at Travel Guides
A very interesting piece in Publisher's Weekly about the history and current business of travel guides. Read this one. The piece takes a look at how travel guides have evolved due to changes in the marketplace and a morphing of people's travel habits. It discusses how the ...Armenia Dispatch: 9 Bambir
Well, it's after 2 am and I am beat. These nights blaze by. I ended up tonight with a large group of local Armenians and some Diasporans at a restaurant high above the city in an area called the Cascade. The Cascade is this monstrous Soviet-looking cement staircase that goes ...Armenia Dispatch: 4 A Bit of a Primer
So I left off saying that Armenia is a country that is only beginning to recognize its promise as a travel destination. My guess is that many people don't even know where Armenia is, and so I figured I'd talk a little bit about the country. Well, the fact is that Armenia ...Let's Learn Azeri
Salam! Raise your hands if you are heading to Azerbaijan soon. Okay, not so many folks headed that way. However, a friend of mine who works for BP out in Trinidad is actually heading to Azerbaijan in a couple months for business purposes. I asked him if had been practicing ...
