Caravanistan

Self-driving in China: 2025 experience report

Steven Hermans — Mon, 26 May 2025 19:08:45 +0000

This is a guest post by Lucy Flynn from Huskies Overland Asia. You can check out the full video series documenting their overland journey in China on their Youtube channel. Many travelers include Central Asia in a longer overland tour, and those heading east often continue their journey into China. China is opaque when it […]

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Predictions for Silk Road travel in 2023

Steven Hermans — Mon, 09 Jan 2023 07:19:44 +0000

Another year, another round of Silk Road travel predictions. Last year, I got 3 out of 3: Turkmenistan did not open up The Pamir Highway remained difficult to access The Silk Road stayed quiet, with Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan bucking the trend So what do I think about 2023? Well, since several people asked, I jotted […]

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Predictions for Silk Road Travel in 2022

Steven Hermans — Thu, 30 Dec 2021 08:49:08 +0000

I wrote a post in January 2021 with some predictions and observations for the year ahead. We said that Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan would remain open, but that overland travel would be very onerous, with closed land borders and PCR hurdles. We got that right, so let’s try another round of predictions as we enter the […]

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Changing lives in rural Tajikistan

Steven Hermans — Sat, 25 Sep 2021 12:12:31 +0000

A small but dynamic non-profit organisation called Sadoqat is bringing big changes to people’s lives in rural Tajikistan. If you are planning to visit this beautiful country, why not drop by and see its projects, and even do some voluntary work as you pass through? Imagine a child going to school and having nowhere to […]

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Silk Road travel in 2021 and beyond

Steven Hermans — Fri, 15 Jan 2021 10:09:28 +0000

We all agree the future is unknowable, but really, we can’t help ourselves. It used to be oracles and astrologers, now it’s artificial intelligence and economic forecasts. All with a roughly equal chance of success. So here is my take. Let’s start with what we know. Coronavirus in Central Asia Ever since the end of […]

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What we did in 2020

Steven Hermans — Wed, 13 Jan 2021 08:33:04 +0000

Someone recently e-mailed me asking what we have been up to in the past year. And what were my predictions for travel in Central Asia in 2021, and beyond? I will give my predictions in another blog post next week. This week, let me tell you what we did in 2020. Perhaps it is of […]

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Si-e Tir Street

Steven Hermans — Sun, 31 Mar 2019 17:43:30 +0000

A walk down Si-e Tir street will break your religious stereotypes about what we call the Islamic Republic of Iran these days: a synagogue, a mosque, 2 Christian churches and a Zoroastrian fire temple sit together on this cobblestone street. Also, the National Museum of Iran and the Museum of Glassware and Ceramics are located […]

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Mashq Square (National Garden) and Imam Khomeini Street

Steven Hermans — Sun, 31 Mar 2019 17:42:02 +0000

Situated at the historical heart of Tehran, the area formerly known as Mashq Square is a Tehran must-see. You can easily spend a day visiting its different museums. That’s not enough for us, though. We like to see Mashq Square as just one piece of a bigger picture: Imam Khomeini Street. Named after the turbaned […]

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Laleh-Zar Street: Tehran’s faded cinematic glory

Juli Xiang — Sun, 31 Mar 2019 17:32:23 +0000

Laleh-Zar, “the tulip fields“, was once known as the Champs-Elysées of Tehran. It was constructed in the 1880s on the order of Nasser al-Din Shah Qajar, who was dazzled by European architecture during his first trip to Europe in 1873. The first modern boulevard in Tehran was a luxury shopping street, and later became home […]

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The end of a journey

Steven Hermans — Thu, 14 Mar 2019 10:03:29 +0000

The news arrived via a phone call. Simone had died. I was standing in a courtyard in Thakek, Laos, waiting for my Couchsurfing host to finish his lunch. Right across from me was a shovel, left to rest on the wall. When that unknown, but always very well expected, feeling of loss started mounting inside of […]

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