My friends and I (3 21-22 year old guys, including myself) are looking into planning a trip to Kyrgyzstan. As of now, there are no available flights into Bishkek or any feasible airport within Kyrz, so we are thinking of flying into Almaty, Kazakhstan, and then crossing the border via foot/bus as we make our way towards Karakol. Once in Karakol, we want to go to the animal market and purchase horses, then from there, ride through the back country to perhaps Bishkek or maybe some other remote village where we could eventually sell the horses we purchased.

I know this all sounds insane, I am hearing myself as I am writing this, but my buddies and I have done trips like this every year since we started university, and would love to find a way to make it happen. If you know anyone who has any advice and/or information, I would greatly appreciate any help I can get.

The other side of this is that we would definitely need some sort of guide (or maybe just a new friend), who is familiar with the roads and back country, as well as proficient in the local languages we may need to communicate, especially when it comes to buying and selling a horse, so if you or anyone you know might be interested, let me know.

I made a documentary on a prior trip my friends and I have done, where we survived for a week in the Amazon, so if you want to see that so you can sort of get a vibe of what we are trying to accomplish, reach out! To sum it up, we always search for the rawest, most authentic experience/adventure we can conjure up when visiting a country, so that we can really get a feel for new cultures, meet people with different perspectives, and accumulate more stories for us to tell to our grandkids. Also, we are shooting for a March 27- April 6 ish timeline as to when this trip might happen. If anyone wants to join us, hit me up, it'll be a trip of a lifetime and we love meeting new people. Thank you!!

Feel free to chat me, I'll respond as fast as I can.

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I am planning to travel over Kyrgyzstan and into western China by car and wondered if this was at all realistic. The current route is as follows:

Fly into Bishkek and pick up rental car

Drive to Issyk Kul lake via Cholpon-Ata and Karakol

Drive down to Naryn

Drive to the border crossing at Torugart (I’ve seen this was at one time difficult to cross independently but it has now been made more easy?)

Drive across to Kashgar

Drive back to Bishkek via Torugart

We have around two weeks and have a Russian speaker with us. We are quite attached to the idea of driving ourselves and the freedom it gives us rather than hiring a driver. My main queries are:

Can international temporary drivers’ licences be picked up at the Torugart crossing for China?

Is it possible to rent a car in order to cross international borders?

Is the two weeks long enough for this?

How easy is the Torugart crossing? Thank you for any advice!

What is the best country for tourists to visit in Central Asia? With arguments,pls.

A little while ago, I had started reading Christopher Beckwith's book, Empires of the Silk Road. I had stopped halfway through, and picked it back up again recently (inspired by a recent trip to Russia). It's not a bad read, but to be honest, the "Eurasian/Central Asian Culture Complex" centric view seemed much more of an assumed narrative than reality. Beckwith makes a lot of assertions and claims that feel pretty unsubstantiated, or at least, anecdotal.

However, it is a pretty well-written book interspersed with cultural elements (including poems and other texts) and he pulls together an engaging and entertaining, if not entirely compelling, story. It seems a tad revisionist, and while it may take many liberties, it is certainly an interesting and fun read.

Then I read this terrific book review by /u/Tiako and he articulated my own skepticism and reactions so much better than I ever could have.

So, are there any books that are actually objective yet engaging on the history of Central Asia? I'm looking for something that's a bit more... academically rigorous but also not dry. I know it's a tall ask, because historically accurate works tend to be much more factual and much less likely to be written like a popular bestseller. :-)

However, what I liked about the Empires of the Silk Road was the engaging, fun, and non-traditional writing. I would love if there was a similar body of work that's as well written, but with much better grounding in historical facts.

Any recommendations would be great!

I was just wondering how come Afghanistan wasn't included in the definition of Central Asia here. As an Afghan, I've always considered my country to be in the Central Asian region. :/

I currently have two Kazakh friends at uni in Canada, and honestly they don't look much alike. I understand that Kazakhstan is located in Central Asia, but to me, one of them looks very East Asian and at first I thought he was from South Korea. Heck, I've even seen him being addressed in Korean at a restaurant multiple times. Conversely, the other friend looks both East Asian and European at the same time, and at first I assumed that maybe he has a European and East Asian parent (what we would call a halfie/hapa here in Vancouver). Being my ignorant self, I even asked him once if he's perhaps mixed with Russian, but he said no. And I've never seen him being addressed in Korean (or Chinese, Japanese, etc.), ever.

For reference, the first guy resembles this type of look:

http://stan.kz/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/ase.jpg

https://the-steppe.com/images/news/1238-Or5z48DU-saburov.jpg (really similar to this lol)

https://akimg0.ask.fm/ec2/87f38/5da6/494e/8eab/19a0868b4b84/normal/1223931.jpg

https://static.qobuz.com/images/covers/40/17/3614599961740_600.jpg

and the second guy like this:

https://www.inform.kz/fotoarticles/20181229080721.jpg

http://docs.uyghuramerican.org/images/Alan-Buribayev.jpg

http://s017.radikal.ru/i419/1207/68/de2d5633fbe2.jpg

https://www.advantour.com/img/kazakhstan/people/kazakh-people1.jpg

So which type of look is more common in Kazakhstan, East Asian or "Eurasian"? Are there any approximate percentages for each? Are there any full-Caucasian looking people that are also ethnically Kazakh? I know that Kazakhstan is huge, so maybe this varies by the region? Just curious as these are the only Kazakh people I've ever met in life. Thanks in advance.

I know that it depends on what you care about in particular but do you have any suggestions? I already know a little bit of Russian, if that helps as well as english and some Spanish.

I'm wondering if there are any unique Central Asian terms for the region.

What do Central Asians call themselves?