Table of Contents
Introduction XIII
The Silk Road 1
1 Opening for a Meditative Drum Circle in Almaty (Kazakhstan) 3
2 Crossing a Land Border from Kazakhstan to Kyrgyzstan 18
3 Riding a Horse in the Mountains of Kyrgyzstan 30
4 The Most Terrifying flight on Earth (Tajikistan) 53
5 A Ten-Day Road Trip Through Tajikistan 70
6 Touring the Black Markets in Uzbekistan 97
7 Trains, Tombs, and Ovaries (Uzbekistan) 128
8 An Invitation to a Stranger's Wedding (Uzbekistan) 141
9 A Visit to a Secret Museum (Uzbekistan) 155
10 Camping Beside the Door to Hell (Turkmenistan) 167
11 Taken in Turkmenistan 181
12 How to Get out of Turkmenistan When You're out of Cash 196
13 Clubbing with Strangers from a Convenience Store in Kazakhstan 207
Eastern Europe 210
14 An Afternoon in Chernobyl (Ukraine) 221
15 Halloween in Your Lover's Homeland (Belarus) 250
16 Couchsurf the Baltics (Lithuania) 274
17 All Trains Lead to Russia 281
The Trans-Siberian Railway 313
18 Trans-Siberian Prelude: A Brief Stopover in China 315
19 A Month on the Trans-Siberian 320
20 Open Mic Night In Moscow 384
Acknowledgments 393