June 2nd, 2017 Chisinau, Moldova to Minsk, Belarus

4AM I took a shower and went downstairs to look for my cab. It wasn't here so I looked for another one. One guy agreed to take me for 70 MDL and 1 USD. I then realized it was 4:30AM rather than 5:30AM. I was an hour early because my clock didn't automatically change.

9PM I arrived at Minsk. Passport control wanted insurance because my insurance card didn't say it had global coverage. I paid since the guy behind me said he would give me a ride to Minsk, which was 30 minutes away. I bought it for 2 USD.

We talked about Ukraine and Russia. He is pro-Russia. He dropped me off at the National Library and I took a taxi for 4 USD to Andrew Loft Guest House. The girl at the desk is very cute.

10PM I went out to Nemiga Street to drink.

June 1st, 2017 Tbilisi, Georgia and Chisinau, Moldova

1AM I arrived after a 30 minute flight and took the bus for 0.5GEL to get to the hostel I just booked. It was very cheap, 7 GEL. I slept from 1 to 8AM. It was great after 4 days without a bed.

8:30AM I took the metro to a transit area and another minibus to Mtsketa. I got there in 30 minutes altogether. It was kind of boring and the town nearby is completely reconstructed.

9:30AM I took the minibus and then another metro to Liberty Square, which was walking distance to Old Tbilisi. It was pleasant but not too different from other old towns.








12PM I walked to Sagli, which one person said is better than Machekhela. However, I found that they don't serve dumplings. They referred to Bernard next door which he said was even better. The dumplings are good! My lunch was 17.2 GEL.

1PM I took a bus to the hostel to pick up my suitcase before I took bus #37 back to the airport.

4PM My flight was delayed 40 minutes. I went to the Prime Class Lounge and their desk several times. They offloaded me because they didn't find me so I barely caught the flight. They wrote my seat number on a piece of paper. The flight was so delayed and because I only had a 1 hour and 20 minute connection, I had to run with several people to the plane to Moldova.




10PM We landed and shared a taxi with a couple of Germans. We overpaid at 150 MDL and should have tried to get it at 100 MDL. I paid them 2 EUR.

11PM I got to Suisse Hostel and walked around a little bit. Fortunately, I lived right across from their central park. It is boring just like Chris said. There was a concert that just ended when I got there. The girls here are above average. I got a yogurt smoothie and a cake with spinach for 82 MDL. The cake was fairly good. I did visa exchange with a couple to get 80 MDL to get to the flight tomorrow.

May 31st, 2017 Tatev, Geghard and Garni, Armenia

1AM Enterprise rental car didn't have an office at the airport. I asked the information office call for me. They actually had a guy there waiting for me with a sign. I started driving at 1:30AM to Tatev.

2:00AM I couldn't drive anymore and slept for 2 hours on the road. I started driving again at 4AM for 1 hour before falling asleep again for an hour. I started again at sunrise. I almost hit a huge white dog.

9:30AM I drove through so much curved and unpaved road here. I'm finally here. The place wasn't that impressive for 6 hours of driving especially when compared to Geghard, which I went to later. I stayed for half an hour and saw a photography tour group. There is also the longest reversible cable car here which goes for 15 minutes each way.

10AM I started driving back. I was supposed to be there at 3PM. I was running out of gas so I looked for help. There were a couple of Indian guys there who showed me to a bank and I changed 50 USD for 24020 AMD. I used 11020 AMD to fill up 3/8 tank (the employee added 11029). I then sleep on the road 2 more times, 1 hour each time, which delayed me getting to Geghard until 5PM.



5PM I arrived. The cave monastery was pretty impressive. There is even a hole in the upper cave you can see through to the bottom main chamber.





5:45PM I headed toward Garni, which was simply 15 minutes away. This was pretty lame an do had to pay 1200 AMD to get in to spend 10 minutes there. I asked the nearby hostel to call Enterprise for me to meet at train station. 

7PM It took an hour to get there but there was no train to Georgia so I looked for a plane. I got lucky and booked one right away for 148.07 USD to Tbilisi, Georgia. The Enterprise employee was actually texting me to meet. I asked two strangers to help me and finally meet him across the station, where I had parked. He examined the vehicle already and offered to drive to the airport. I used the rest of the cash 11,045 AMD and 3000 AMD by visa to fill up the tank. It was nice he drove the whole way and helped me with the timing to get gas.

8:40PM I arrived and waited at the check-in desk. A Englishman was there and we talked about geopolitics in the region. Well, when I mentioned I have been to 110+ countries, he said I have been to all of them. I gave him a high five. He is Chris, a 46 year old Englishman who sells bathrooms. He accomplished 195 about 5 years ago.  Hr travels throughout the year. He likes to blame America for everything and blamed me jokingly to have delayed his flight 45 minutes.

May 30th, 2017 Kiev, Ukraine

1AM I arrived at Istanbul and they escorted me to the Turkish Airline office. But first, even when I got off the plane, they put me in the passenger seat of the bus so I couldn't leave. I showed them the ticket I purchased to Armenia through Ukraine. They let me go without hassle after 10 minutes.

2AM I got through transfer and then went to the comfort lounge to take a shower. I didn't sleep because I didn't feel like it.



6:05AM I boarded for Kiev. The plane was super old. I guess that is why it is so cheap.





7AM Kiev wasn't far. I arrived and got through immigration without issue. The only thing was the the agent didn't seem to know that US citizens didn't need visa. There was no problem though. I was getting an Uber and waited around until I saw a Chinese guy who looked like he was coming for work. I asked to share a ride and his business partner was okay with it. 

9AM We arrived at the train station, where they stored their bags. Since we didn't go to Pechersk Lavra, they paid. They had some downtime before so we decide to go to Pechersk Lavra together. The caves were pretty interesting. 



12PM We had lunch at  a traditional Ukrainian restaurant. I ordered the most expensive item out of the three of us. The Ukrainian paid by his company.

1PM I walked around a bit until St. Sophia Cathedral. It is from 1200 AD and was expanded and now was made smaller.

3PM I walked back to the Independence Square and then searched for internet to order an Uber. I finally found a juice place and ordered one for 324 UAH. I left for the airport at 5PM and arrived 30 minutes later. There always seems to traffic at Kiev.

8PM My flight left for Yerevan, Armenia.

May 29th, 2017 Out of Azerbaijan

9AM We arrived at Istanbul.
Big problem, I failed to realize that Azerbaijan required an evisa unless one was flying directly from New York City, in which case visa on arrival is possible. I applied right away on my fixed phone and it said it should take anywhere within 3 days.

11AM I arrived at Baku. Immigration would not let me through with just the confirmation email since it didn't contain the actual visa. My options are either to wait for the email or get on a flight out of Azerbaijan in the next 24 hours. I had the impression that they would let me roam around the airport.  They locked me away without letting me go anywhere by myself. I tricked them to let me to the lounge so I could grab some food. They wouldn't let me stay an extra minute and no one answered the phone either on the visa hotline or the Azerbaijan Embassy in New York. I had no options and I called one of the agencies who do visas. They said it'd be impossible to get the visa in a few hours and even if I do, it would be starting 3 days from the day that I apply. They were also not working since Monday is some kind of a holiday. The next 10 hours was very, very boring. I went to the bathroom a few times. At least there was stable internet so I spoke to Steven Ovadia for around an hour. Imagine house arrest with no internet. That is what I experienced.

I decided to buy a cheap ticket to Armenia through Kiev at 166 USD. I chose this over the one to Georgia directly because this is cheaper, saves lodging for tonight since Turkish Airline would fly me to Istanbul and my flight picks up from there after a 1AM to 6AM layover.

10PM The immigration officer picked me up and gave the passport to the steward. I didn't even have possession of my passport on the plane to Istanbul.

May 28th, 2017 Samarkand, Uzbekistan

5:25AM I have a headache that changes with position now. I have no idea what it is except to think I'm still dehydrated. I left around 5:40AM since it was super bright already.

6AM I got to Registan. The security guards wanted 20 USD to go up the tower and I refused. I was making great progress and went through Bibi Khanum Mosque, the bazaar, Hazrat Khizr Mosque at 7AM. I arrived at Shah-i-Zinda but didn't go in and instead took a taxi to the observatory. It didn't look like a good place to pay to go into either. The taxi driver was funny and said he doesn't speak English and could teach me English. He didn't understand anything else though.

I tried to get to Afrosiab but was misdirected back to Shah-i-Zinda. They let me in for free to walk though the cemetery area. But Shah-i-Zinda was a gem here.



9AM I then walked to Afrosiab museum, which like I thought was a complete waste of time. I walked for another mile to find a taxi to Amir Timur.  I didn't go in because a local girl thought the Registan was the best of the three places- Registan, Bibi Khanum and Amir Timur I thought was good to go into.

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9:30AM I took 15 minutes to walk to Registan and basically go through from the side without paying. There was a line on the other side also.  I tour the three buildings and walked to the hotel with some help from a lady who called the hotel.




10:05 I got my stuff and took the first taxi to the train station. He wouldn't do it for 7,000 UZS so I got off and took another for 5,000 UZS. He tried to give me a hard time for a second but left. The road was not paved going back and we got there at 10:35AM. I couldn't find a business class ticket and the VIP ticket was over 150,000 UZS. I just took the economy one for 48,000 UZS. I got to the other side of the tracks and ran back to get a 1 liter coke and ran back but the train wasn't even there.






11:06AM Thinking about it, it took a lot of effort to get all this done. Now the next challenge is to buy the tickets off someone's phone or hope that mine would work at the airport. We will see in 3 hours instead of 2 since this was not the fast train I expected.




3PM Actually, the train is not 3 hours. It is 4. I got to Tashkent and took the taxi directly there for 5000 UZS.


4PM Well, there was no ticket through Moscow to Dushanbe. In fact, there was no seat on any flights to Moscow today. I couldn't really find it on any search engines since it would not actually show me tickets so I believe it wasn't really updated.

6PM I bought a ticket to the next destination, Azerbaijan. It goes through Turkey and is at 2:40AM. An Uzbekistan man who spoke Chinese told me about the direct flight to Baku, Azerbaijan. However, only business class seats were available for more than 600 USD.

6:50PM I took another taxi to Hastimon for 5000 UZS. It was not impressive at all when compared to Samarkand and Bukhara. I then took another taxi to Kukeldash, which was even less impressive. Chorsu, on the other hand, is just an area. I ate at Milliy Taom Rayhon and met the owner there. They let me try about 6 dishes. Uzbekistan definitely jumped a couple of places after that.  I had a couple of dishes and asked someone else to try their horse dish. I asked to try some dumpling and other Beshbarmak. They were pretty good and reminds me of a mixture of Turkish and Asian cuisine. A few young 20 some year olds drove me to the airport.

I finally left at 2AM.

May 27th, 2017 Bukhara, Uzbekistan

5AM I woke to take an taxi to the train station. These trains are very similar to the ones in China. I booked a business class ticket for 135000 UZS. I was stupid to change 100 USD for 420000 UZT and found out later the black market rate is actually 8000 UZT per USD as opposed to 4000 UZT at the bank.




11AM We left at 7:30AM. The train was nice and I arrived at Bukhara. I asked to leave my luggage at Hotel Amelia. The boy working there explained things very well.  I started walking around with just my camera.

4PM The place was very impressive, very much reminiscent of Morocco. I had some pilaf there, which is just like fried rice.  I deliberately stayed a little longer finished around 4:30PM. A teacher helped me with the taxi to a taxi station. She convinced me not to go to Khiva because it was so much smaller and 6 plus hours away. Samarkand apparently was even bigger than Bukhara. I listened to her and took a taxi to to Samarkand. I didn't want to sit in the back so I took another car for 50,000 instead of 45,000 UZT. It didn't even have air conditioning but at least I had some thoracic and plastic surgeons from Bukhara as company.

9:30PM We arrived at Samarkand but he would just drop me off on one of the main streets. One of the guys in the car said there is a train to Tajikistan. I took the chance and went for the trains station to find more information. He was somewhat right but mostly wrong. Let me explain: there is a train today in one hour to the border city of Sarasi, which takes approximately 10-15 hours. This runs today and every other day, which would be impossible for me since my visa expires 2 days from now. I wouldn't come to Samarkand to leave now without seeing anything. The alternative is to take another train to Termez, approximately 10-15 hours from here and change to another train to go to Sariasiya, taking another 2 hours just to the border. It would take another 1 to 2 hours to Dushanbe. I confirmed this with two Japanese tourists here. I was lucky to have them give me the hostel information because my phone has only been able to get on the Internet once since two days ago at the Tashkent airport.

I cut my losses and skipped both options. I thought the best option would be to leave for Tashkent at 11AM tomorrow morning and arrive around 1PM. The plane ticket to Dushanbe through Moscow is 400+ USD but I would arrive the next morning at 5AM. I left the train station at 11PM and the driver took forever and asked another guy at a hotel who spoke English who was no help. I gave him the number to the hotel in the beginning. He didn't use it until I asked him. We arrived at 11:30PM and he didn't want the 2000 UZS we agreed on.  I paid him 5000 UZS which I paid the next day going back. It was fair.

There was no dormitory but at least they gave me the room for 60000 UZS instead of the 120000 UZS they started with.  I tried to organize as quickly as I can but still spent a lot of time getting on the internet until 12:45PM due to my cell phone issue.

May 26th, 2017 Almaty, Kazakhstan

8:30AM I got up to get to the airport at 9. They told me to wait until 3PM to get the visa.

10AM I walked to the Ascension Cathedral and the park, which is pretty boring. I just sat in the pizza place for a Cappuccino ice cream and a real cup of Cappuccino until noon.

12PM A girl tried to help me find the bus. I got tired and asked for a taxi since it was cheap here. I paid 430 KZT and a lady helped me with 100 KZT since the guy wanted 100 KZT for not knowing where the place was and wasting time.

1PM I had horse beshbarmak, their national dish. It was not bad at all. The camel milk, on the other hand, is just as sour as horse milk. I stayed a little longer until a little closer to 3PM, when I started on my way to Hello Hostel. I took an Uber to the Uzbekistan Embassy again.

3:30PM This was rather difficult.  I spent 3 hours waiting for the approval from Tashkent. I would have saved myself 200 USD (it went from 55 USD to 240 USD) had I made it to the bank before they closed at 6PM. I was 2 minutes late and a gentleman who has factories in the US, asked his friend to drive me around for find branches of the central bank that was open. We drove around for an hour and found nothing.

7:30PM We got back. The consulate general talked to that factory guy for 30 minutes. I waited patiently and said nothing. The guy said he would help me and instead just told me to come back after 2 days. I had already booked the flight from one travel who told me there was a 50 USD penalty if I canceled. The consulate general told me since it was late, I can go change about 250 USD worth of local money. I couldn't find any so I returned in 20 minutes empty-handed. They already prepared everything so they were somewhat forced to give it to me for 240 USD and 2000 KZT.

9:00PM I got done and thank goodness, my phone was able to get to Uber at the last moment. It was with a Jewish guy who spoke some English. He drove me to the hostel to pick up my luggage and waited for a few minutes before stepping on the gas for the airport. I told him not to change the trip and Uber would recalculate the fare. I was glad to find that it only costed 2000 KZT for the entire trip.

9:35PM I got there in the nick of time and bought an ice cream and soda there. The plane left on time and arrived a little over an hour later.

10:40PM We arrived and there was an hour time difference. I tried to figure things out on my phone after exiting customs. I didn't really do that much and slept on the chair for maybe 2 to 3 bad hours. I was impressed by how someone was able to slip through the arm rest.

May 25th, 2017 Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan to Almaty, Kazakhstan

6:40AM I woke up to catch the 7AM bus to the airport. My flight to Bishkek wasn't boarding until 9AM so I bought a walnut shake and sat in the Tom N Tom cafe until then.

11AM I left for Bishkek. Turkish Airline wasn't bad. I watched the Passenger and Death Note in the mean time. I arrived around 2:30PM. They didn't charge for visa on arrival.

3PM I took a taxi to town for 50 CNY and negotiated for 30 CNY for the return trip. The driver gave me 10 KGS as souvenir. I walked around the main square, which just a ex-Soviet square and some park area. Many young people were graduating today and partying in the park.

5:45PM The driver came back for me and we took off for the airport. I made him buy me a 1 liter coke. We became friends so he didn't make any trouble when I gave him 30 KGS later. I stayed in the lounge for 30 minutes prior to boarding. There wasn't real food there but I took the 1.5 liter sparkling water.

8PM Our plane left for Almaty. The guy next to me is an expat who has been here for the last 7 years.  He has some experience in the region and we talked for a while. The plane landed in 45 minutes.

10PM The guy gave me a ride to Hello Hostel and changed 20 USD for me.  I arrived and took a shower. There was only one other person in the 12 person room staying there besides me.

11PM The other guy is Argentinian and he has been to Iran, this area and China. He told me there is transit visit through Turkmenistan for 5 or more days but it is impossible for me because an Iranian visa is required. I went to bed around 12AM.

May 24th, 2017 Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

2AM I went to bed.

6:45AM I woke up and the driver was late by 15 minutes.

7:30AM We took off for Hustai National Park and stopped around 11:30AM. We played some games and had beef for lunch.

12PM We negotiated for a ticket into the Hustai Park for 3000 MNT.

3PM We climbed up the hill to see wild horses. I flanked them from the left by they happened to be domestic. We saw several and then had some rice tea before leaving at 5PM.

7PM We arrived. The traffic at Ulaanbaator took an hour so it took 2 and half hours total. I went on to get dinner. First I had to stop by BD's Mongolian barbeque, which looks similar to the one at Michigan. I then went to Modern Nomad to get Khorkhog. They first told me they only served those for two but after some maneuvering and calling, they gave it to me for just 11,000 MNT.

11PM I went to the lounge at Blue Sky and then went back to sleep.

May 23rd, 2017 Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

11:30AM I arrived at Ulaanbaatar and skipped the taxi. The bus is only 500 MNT. A local helped me and I didn't pay until I got to the city center.

2PM I decided to go on 2 trips since the one I will get tomorrow will be a shared one. The Gengis Khan statue is a new one but you can take the elevator up near the top. It is the tallest statue for a statue on a horse but otherwise unimpressive. We arrived at Terelj National Park after 2 hours of driving. I visited a ger and rode a horse for 30 minutes. I was falling asleep probably tired from the day before.








9PM We came back after sunset at 8PM. I walked around a bit looking for a cafe. One of them moved so I had to find one in the tourist district. I found Cafe Bene and bought mango coconut milk drink and a mousse cake. It closed at 11PM. I walked to the hostel and walked inside the Irish pub, which only had locals inside. I didn't find it interesting enough so I went back to the hostel. I didn't really get anywhere with negotiations and agreed to pay 20 USD tomorrow.

May 22nd, 2017 Chengdu, China

2AM My plane left for Chengdu and I got the hotel to pick me up for free. I went to bed.

7AM I woke up to go rent a car from Hertz. I had to take the hotel shuttle because they wouldn't pick me up and I had to be sent to their location off site to the airport. I wasted an hour with them trying to get the car because they claimed not receiving the email reservation even when I showed them my email. They agreed to do it separate from Hertz but then said they needed time to verify my passport. After one of the manager waived this requirement, she wanted a Chinese license, which I never had anyway.

9:30AM I cut my losses. 神舟 was nice enough to send me back to 川港. One of the receptionist helped me order a Didi since I couldn't get it to work without a Chinese credit card. It worked out to be just 110 CNY for 1 and half hour of driving to 都江堰 panda base. 钟婵娟 was there to pick me up. I didn't have to pay to hug the one and half year old panda.



11:30AM I asked to be same driver to drive me to 青城山 for 40 CNY. The student ticket is 45 CNY. I hiked up the mountain and reached the peak in an hour and half. I took a boat across the small lake half way which may have save me only 2 minutes. I took the cable car up and down for 60 CNY. I met a young man on the cable car and he bought me a cucumber for 3 CNY. We walked pretty fast and made summit.



1:30PM A 38 year old woman overheard our conversation to go to 都江堰. We then all shared a car to it by calling a friend of the driver this morning. He was waiting down there for 30 minutes. We paid him 50 CNY.



2PM We reached 都江堰. To be honest, it was quite boring. It had a couple of old bridges and that was about it. We got out at about 3:30PM. By this time, the driver was back and he drove us to 犀浦 for 120 CNY total, including the 10 CNY highway toll.



3:30PM We arrived at 犀浦 and then took the subway to 宽窄巷子 after one transfer. It was three renovated streets, not very different from those you see everywhere else. I had my ears picked for 60 CNY and had a fish tofu before heading to 大龙火锅. It was not that spicy.

7PM I had to go at this point but couldn't find any taxis. Instead, I took the subway to 太平原, which was the closest stop to the airport. I heard their airport subway will open next year. I then took the taxi to 川港 to pick up my luggage. The driver waived the extra tax to the region since I was just picking up my luggage. There is no such a tax if you were going directly to the airport.

8:02PM I arrived 45 minutes prior to departure. The lounge here are pretty terrible. I didn't even show them my Priority Pass. I took a couple of snacks and boarded for Shanghai.