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In January 2026, a nearly 30 year marriage ended. Together we had visited 20 European countries, a good bit of North America, the Caribbean, India, China, and Singapore. When asked where I would go – just me – I had a crazy idea. What if I could sit on the floor of a yurt with local old ladies who did not speak English? There they would teach me to do their crafts. That would be my trip. Completely uninteresting to my former spouse. “Look it up!” my girlfriend told me. “Someone is doing it.” And that, my friends, is how I found the intrepid Christine Pearson and Intentionally Different Travel from Canberra, Australia.
The not-so-sure part was that the trip would be 28 days. Given I am not in my retirement years, could I swing it? I told my boss I’d like to take the trip, but it could be next year or the year after or… “Do it now” she told me. Three weeks is her normal limit to ask coworkers for coverage, but she would make an exception. This is a real gift.
So here is my blog. Sharing stories, advice, and most of all images from the other side of the globe. The brand new paved roads, rail links, and expanding airports will open the four stans to tourism in the blink of an eye. Here is what it looked like when “the national bird was the [construction] crane.”
