Journalist Douglas Whitehead, of the Daily Telegraph, is biking from the UK to New Dehli, passing through Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan on the way. I wonder if the stories are being uploaded live. We might hear something about the border crossing troubles, that is. From the story, it seems that only Uzbekistan is closing its border, mostly to Kyrgyzstani citizens hoping to come into Uzbekistan. Kyrgyzstan has reportedly increased border surveillance, but are not responding in kind by refusing entrance to Uzbekstani citizens.
Then again, Mr. Whitehead is quite open in only being able to communicate with the countryside through hand signs and pen drawings. Something as subtle as Kyrgyz/Uzbek relations and problems for Kyrgyzstanis coming to Uzbekistan might escape his field of vision.
Not to nitpick, because I am openly jealous of wanderlust-following-journalists, but there are numerous little misunderstandings in his narrative thus far, like calling the Hunger Steppe the “Hungry” Steppe. Reminds me of the excellent Long Way Round series, with scenes of comical misunderstanding. I remember Ewan McGreggor staring intently at a Russian man asking him for a drink. You could see Ewan was visibly forcing his mind to suddenly learn the language, only to come back with, “You… want us to stay at your hotel?” The man apparently caught the cognate [otel'] and just started laughing.
In any event, it’s an interesting little series of stories. I don’t think the journalist is trying to sell himself as a person “really understanding” the people of the communities he’s bicycling through. It’s just a great way to spend a couple months and get paid for it. Hope he doesn’t do a Kaplan and come away with opinions on all those “pre-Byzantine Turks.”
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