With little advertising, our last eight
Threads in the Sand' tours sold out quickly. We enjoy taking this tour and
because of the level of interest will take another excursion through the
lands of silk in 2013. This page gives the
flavour of our Silk Road experience. Our
2012 tour is closed.
Our next Silk Road tour is in 2013.
If you want to put your name
down for this tour or enquire further please email
your request.
You may wonder about the need to reserve a tour, years in advance. Well...we
run only a few tours each year. They are specialised, personally conducted
and, indeed - very different. If you want to know how special, please ask
and we shall provide you with contacts who have taken this tour. It is indeed
- special and 2013 will come around sooner than expected!
n
1997 I chanced upon
an exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. It remains
the most visually stunning exhibition I have seen.
I was entranced by the vibrant colours and bold designs of
ikat silk from Central Asia and intrigued by the possibility
that these gorgeous textiles might still be produced in ancient
lands of the Silk Road.
[Note: Ikat
is a technique of creating a woven patterned-cloth by tie-dying
the warp (long) threads. Successive tie-dying allows the introduction
of several colours. It is intricate and demanding work which,
in the hands of gifted craftsmen, creates textiles of striking
design and subtle colouration. In Central Asia it is known
as abyr or adras.]
I was fascinated by the bold
use of these textiles for personal clothing. It was apparent
that individuals, both men and women, would compete in wearing
the most stunning designs and at times would wear several
charpans (silk coats) at once! Inside their homes large
ikat-silk and embroidered panels were hung as decoration.
On a quest to
see more of this, Diane and I visited Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
We discovered surviving remnants of the craft and journeyed
to the origins of the silk industry in China. This tour is
a compilation of what we found then and during several subsequent
visits. It is a response our initial, and persisting, enthusiasm
and a celebration of the marvellous history and crafts of
China and Central Asia. It is a chance for you to share in
the history and glories of the Silk Road.
'You can
extract the essence of a place once you know how.
If you just get as still as a needle you'll be there...'
Spirit of Place: Lawrence Durrell
The
General Plan
he
idea is to start our tourist activity in China at Xian, the
ancient capital of successive Chinese empires and to journey
west from there along the route established more than two
thousand years ago: 'the Silk Road'. Our 'furthest-west' point
will be Khiva, once a major stageing post. We fly into Xian
via Bangkok and return to Bangkok from Tashkent in Uzbekistan.
From
Xian in the east to Khiva in the most western deserts of Uzbekistan
it takes us more than six weeks to journey thousands of kilometres.
A distance that would have taken years in former times. We
have researched and travelled this region thoroughly so that
all the major sites, and many often overlooked minor ones,
are included in our wanderings. When travelling, we either
have our own air-conditioned bus; fly in modern aircraft;
or (for one night only in China) lie back aboard a sleeper
train. Our accommodation will be comfortable 2-4 star hotels
in China; home-stays and comfortable 2-4 star hotels in Kyrgyzstan;
with homestays and 4 star hotels in Uzbekistan. In each case
we have chosen the hotels to offer the best combination of
price, comfort and location.
We
visit museums and crafts people, temples and tombs. There
are highly-staged cultural shows and quite impromptu performers.
We dine at what we think are the most interesting restaurants
and have sufficient flexibility to enjoy chance encounters.
It's intelligent, exciting, stimulating: and fun!
From
the 'Buried Warriors' of China's first emperor near Xian,
and the tombs of Imperial-royals and the buried treasures
of the Tang we head by road to the cave temples of Maji Shan
with their graceful sculptures; then take a boat up the Yellow
River to the red cliffs and statues of Bingling Si. 
We fly along the Gansu corridor,
squeezed between the Gobi desert to the north and the icy
ramparts of the Tibetan plateau to the south, to the southern
edge of the Gobi desert and the painted caves of Dunhuang.
Taking the 'northern route',
we train around the edge of another, and more ominous desert,
the Taklamakan which in Uigher means 'if you go in, you won't
come out!' We are heading for the modern capital of Xinjiang,
Urumchi, which has a museum crammed with wonders rescued from
the desert sands. Then on by road to nearby Turpan, whose
summer sands would grill an unprotected foot. This super-dry
climate has protected the ancient cities of Jaiohe and Gaochang
as well as the painted caves of Bezeklik. We track on through
the great gorge of the Toksun where the road is squeezed alternately
by cliffs and by sand dunes to Korla. Here, a small museum
contains stunning treasures. From Korla we drive via the famous
ancient city of Kuqa into the Tien Shan (Heavenly) mountains.
We are here to visit a very different China: clear rivers,
tree draped hills and ice-capped mountains!
After
visiting the ancient Buddhist cave site of Kizil we drive
directly across the desert: four hundred and fifty kilometres
of unrelenting sand is sufficient evidence of difficult travel
in these regions until very recent times. We join the 'southern
route' of the Silk Road near the ancient site of Niya. It
was the site made famous by Aurel Stein in the early 1900's
and by more recent explorers. The city of Khotan was always
the source of China's finest jade and the first city-state
outside the Empire to steal the secrets of silk-culture. Today,
the production of colourful hand-loomed silk is thriving,
and fossicking in the Khotan river often reveals scraps of
jade. In the oases of this southern region life for the local
Uigher people has changed little. Donkey carts are the main
form of transport, the men sport jaunty Astrakhan hats and
the women, colourful skirts and scarves. Its very pictureseque.
At
Kashgar's justly-famed market, goods from all the countries
of Central Asia are on show. You can bargain yourself a fine
carpet, select an embroidered jacket from amongst myriads
or design-yourself a selection of gold jewellery! South from
Kashgar, we drive high into the Pamirs to visit the fabled
lake of Kara Kul, rimmed by glaciers. Around its shores graze
herds of placid double-humped Bactrian camels - deliciously
photogenic!
Crossing into Kyrgyzstan via
the Torugart Pass we enter a scenic, highland grassy plateau.
Snow capped peaks rim a land empty of all but occasional herds
of horses and sheep with their attendant human guards. For
one night we experience nomad life by staying in yurts near
the six hundred year old monument, Tash Rabat. The high lake
of Song Kul has groups of nomadic Kyrgyz living for summer
months in felted yurts. At Kochkorka we have a taste of family
life in comfortable home-stays and will see their use of shyrdak,
the Kyrgyz traditional decorated felt. Bishkek, the capital,
is a lovely city of parks, pastel wooden houses and grand
buildings of Imperial Russian times. After almost a month
in China, the restaurants are refreshingly European, with
wine readily available and cheap!
Tashkent
has some of the best museums of the tour and a pleasant relaxed
atmosphere. Our hotel is centrally located, allowing easy
strolling to cafes, restaurants or the magnificent opera house.
Fergana has a gigantic cotton industry and a thriving revival
of handloomed ikat silk as well as distinctive pottery.
We fly to the old city of Khiva. Over centuries it became
rich by trading conventional silk-road-goods as well as slaves
captured from Russia or Persia. Not much trade these days,
conventional or otherwise, but the bluish-green tiled mosques
and towers of those times remain to make it one of the most
picturesque in Central Asia.
Isolated on all sides by the
harsh Kara-kum desert, Bukhara was always one of the great
trading centres of the Silk Road. It was, and is, the holiest
city of the region. The blue domes of its mosques and madressas
(religious schools) have towered above its brick-lined
streets for six hundred years. In recent times the crafts
of metal-work, puppets, painting and gold-thread embroidery
have flourished. Formerly it was the major centre for ikat
production and the exquisite hand-embroided cloth known
as suzani; no longer produced, many examples are available
in the numerous bazaars.
At
Shakrisabz and Samarkand, Timur-i-leng (Tamerlane) allowed
his considerable ego full reign creating what are arguably
the greatest buildings in all Central Asia. They are certainly
the biggest and most grand! In Samarkand, the ruins of Afrosiab
with its fine frescoes speak of more forgiving and luxuriant
non-Islamic times ; and the remains of Ulug Bek's observatory
of a period when Islamic science was both accepted and inspired.
The city also boasts the best hand-knotted silk carpet factory
in the world!
| In
summary: Threads in the Sand 2013 |
|
| a
48 day tour ex New Zealand |
all
fares Auckland |
| 2
nights Bangkok |
|
| 25 nights
in China |
including
4 in Kashgar |
| 6
nights in Kyrgyzstan |
including
3 in Bishkek |
|
13 nights in Uzbekistan
including
|
4
nights Tashkent
1 night Fergana
2 nights Khiva
3 nights Bukhara
3 nights Samarkand |
It sounds fantastic. And so it is. But.......this epic tour
involves more than six weeks of rigorous travel from China
to Central Asia. Twice, we researched this trip on the ground
from one end to the other before conducting six other groups.
After each trip we have slightly revised our timetable. We
beleive that what we offer provides the best possible experience.
However, there are hardships related to this region's socialist
heritage and their relatively recent introduction to tourism.
For the most part, the countries traversed
are without a recent culture of service, and with a cavalier
approach to the environment. We will do our best to minimise
these negatives but please be conscious that travel in these
regions requires a high level of tolerance to difficulties
both human and environmental.
a
Brief History
istorically,
of course, it was never a single road, but a network of routes
fanning out from China to India, Central Asia, Russia, Byzantium
and the West. In addition to silk, the route carried many
other precious commodities. Caravans heading towards China
carried gold and other precious metals, ivory, precious stones,
cotton, exotic animals, spices and glass. In the opposite
direction furs, ceramics, jade, bronze objects, lacquer and
iron were carried. Many of these goods were bartered for others
along the way, and objects often changed hands several times.
When the world beyond the Middle Kingdom
discovered the lush beauty of Chinese silk they emptied their
treasuries to acquire this new and sensuous fabric. Thus was
established the most famous of all trade routes; a branching
skein of links from China to Europe.
Offically, it began in 138 BCE:
by this time the Han dynasty had stabilised northern China
around the fertile plains of the Yellow river. In fact, trade
from China into Persia and the Central Asian region had been
established centuries before. The great Han emperor WuDi disturbed
by constant harassment from northern 'barbarians' and to protect
existing trade routes, sent envoys westward. They were in
search of horses and allies to defend themselves against these
mounted marauders. These ambassadors returned with news of
empires further to the west. Persia, Parthia, India and Rome.
Trade in goods flourished and with it came great wealth. For
more than a thousand years the Han capital Chang-an (eternal
peace) was to be the glory of a variably-unified China. Modern-day
Xian stands on the site of old Chang-an. It is here that we
start our travels through the history and cultures of the
Silk Road.
As people moved back and forth
along the route they brought not only goods but ideas. The
Tang dynasties welcomed other cultures and other people. New
styles of fashion, of dance and of music entertained the glitterati
of the Chinese court and Chinese methods of weaving, of agriculture
and technology were adopted in the west. Around the 8th century,
the capital of the Tang was the biggest, wealthiest, and most
advanced city the world. While London was a market town of
a few thousand people, Ch'ang-an and its suburbs was home
to some two million people.
It was religious philosophy,
however which had the most lasting impact. From India, the
gentle faith of Buddhism spread gradually to merge with Daoist
beliefs of harmony with nature. Well established by the 3rd
century, Buddhism's message of personal responsibility and
relief from suffering were enthusiastically adopted both by
community and the court. Monasteries and pagodas constructed
to celebrate the new faith, were lavishly decorated with sculptures,
paintings and the greatest treasures of the craftsman. The
Indian tradition of painted cave temples, was extensively
developed especially around the great deserts of the Gobi
and Taklamakan. In celebration of the Buddha, they crafted
some of the most sublime religous art the world has seen which
is still preserved in museums and sites such as Maji Shan,
Dunhuang and Bingling Si.
Nestorian Christianity, Zoroastrianism,
Judaism and Manichaeism all made a less obvious impression
on the Middle Kingdom. It was Islam, sweeping from the Middle
East in the 7th century that had a chilling impact on the
more forgiving cultures of China's western kingdoms. At the
battle of Talas in 751 Chinese armies were defeated by advancing
Muslim Turks. The Chinese lost political control of the Tarim
basin and Islam replaced Buddhism as the dominant belief system
throughout the countries of Central Asia. Islamic abhorrance
of representations of the human form led to wholesale defacement
of statues and paintings. Fortunately many Buddhist sites
were preserved by the shifting sands of the desert to be uncovered
by explorers in the last century. In turn, the Muslims built
stunning mosques and giant towers, whose blue tiles match
that of the heavens above. The great cities of Khiva, Samarkand
and Bukhara are their legacy.
The secrets of silk production
escaped from China around 500CE but Chinese dominance in production
of the finest silk textiles was to last for several centuries.
Hazards of the overland route began gradually to reduce both
profit and pilgrimage. By the 8th century development of sea
routes from China to the Middle East were well established
and successive periods of instability along the Silk Route
in Central Asia and Persia hastened the decline of trade.
With the advent of an inward-looking Qing dynasty in the 16th
century China withdrew from the world and and the once-great
cities and monuments of the Silk road were covered by desert
sands. Throughout Central Asia successive Khans established
local rule but the attention of world powers was elsewhere.
During the latter 19th century
the great empires of Russian and British India jockeyed for
influence in the region. At that time the region and its history
was a blank. The 'Great Game' allowed explorers like Hedin,
and scholars like Stein and Le Coq to uncover the secrets.
And what great secrets they were! The Greek influence on Buddhist
art; the buried cities of the Taklamakan; and all their former
glories, were completely unknown in the west. More recent
scholars have revealed the European ancestry of the remarkably
preserved mummies of the Taklamakan and their astonishing
weaving skills.
In the 1980's huge petroleum
resources were found beneath the sands of China's western
desert and the steppes of Central Asia. Once again the Silk
Road has become a road of riches. A more liberal travel regime
in China and the opening of the republics of Central Asia
to tourism has made these ancient and modern wonders accessible
to the modern explorer.
We pay special heed on our Footprints
tour to the history of this great commercial road. Its a history
of remarkable tales and extraordinary characters that make
a very common bond across the shadows of the centuries.
TEXTILES
and CRAFTS and CONCERTS
Ikat
Silk: Delight, was my emotion on first seeing the
ikat silks of Bukhara. That delight has not diminished.
The finest of these gorgeous textiles are one hundred years
old. We shall visit museums to see them en masse as well as
workshops where the tradition of hand looming has revived.
You will be able to see for yourselves the intricate techiques
involved in their production and buy samples to take home.
Ancient
textiles: The brocade silks
from the sand-tombs of the Taklamakan are more than fifteen
hundred years old. These ancient relics are astonishing! Well
preserved because of the extreme aridity of their original
resting place, they spring into our times with vivid colours
and complex weaving designs. As we skirt around the vast desert
of the Taklamakan we shall visit museums where examples are
on display. These have been taken from sites discovered by
Stein and others. Astana, Niya, Loulan, Endere, Sampula and
Dandan Oilik are a litany from the past. Buried cities from
which have been rescued the most amazing treasures. Not only
textiles, but well preserved mummies, statues, paintings and
writings in forgotten tongues. None who visit can come away
unimpressed at the richness of these peoples lives!
Silk
Culture: Sericulture or silk production has a long and
colorful history unknown to many. For more than two thousand
years the Chinese kept the secret of silk altogether to themselves.
To protect their commercial advantage, it was the most zealously
guarded secret in history. At the borders of China all travellers
were searched. If found to be carrying silk worm eggs or the
seeds of the mulberry they were beheaded on the spot. For
centuries the West knew very little about silk and the people
who made it. Pliny, the Roman historian,
wrote in his Natural History in 70 BCE
"Silk was obtained by removing the down from the leaves
with the help of water…". In Khotan and
Fergana we shall discover its real origins and see in detail
the delicate and lengthy processes involved in the production
of this entrancing fabric.
Silk
embrodieries (suzanis): One of the most beautiful
products of Turkestan culture are the large silk embroideries
known as suzanis. These formed an important part of
a bride's dowry and were intended as decorations for the interior
of houses. Their area of distribution corresponds to modern
Uzbekistan and northern Tajikistan. Until modern times, young
girls would commence sewing their dowries as soon as they
were able. Assisted by her mother and female relatives a relatively
well to do young woman would produce about ten large suzani
in time for her wedding. The bold designs and subtle colours
of natural dyes make suzani attractive decorations.
Numerous old ones are available for purchase in the bazaars
of Bukhara and Samarkand and we shall see many fine examples
in museums.
Felted
wool (shyrdak):Turkoman
nomads who live in the highlands use wool in many decorative
ways. Their gurs (yurts) are covered with felted wool
blankets to keep them warm and to exclude rain and snow. On
the inside this same felting techique is adapted to make colourful
bags, hangings and winding-bands suitable for a nomadic life.
In the high grasslands of Kyrgyzstan we shall visit nomad
camps as well as craftswomen who have make attractive shyrdak
for the tourist market.
Jewellery:
Turkoman tribal groups produce some of the most attractive
jewellery we shall see. Beaded necklets, silver and silk hair
tassles, amulets of silver and turquoise and chunky silver
bracelets studded with carnelian are all available. If that's
not your style a 'bridal diadem' of gold, turquoise, pearl
and amythest should be just the thing for your next formal
outing! If your taste runs more to gold, there should be something
to suit in one of the 300 shops along 'goldsmith lane' in
Kashgar.
Carpets:
Hand knotted woolen carpets have long been a feature of
the region. Some are produced in Khotan but the highest quality
and most variety come from peripheral countries that we do
not visit. We shall not see their manufacture, but thousand
of new and antique wool carpets are available in the Kashgar
market.
Superb hand knotted silk and wool carpets are made by the
Badghissi family factory in Samarkand. Refugees from Afghanistan,
they provide a wonderfully entertaining tour of their enterprise.
Pottery:
At Riston, in the Fergana valley
of Uzbekistan, there is a long tradition of hand-crafted pottery.
Some modern designers have adapted their style to produce
highly attractive wares. On each visit to the pottery of Rustam
Usimov almost everyone has bought - and, they have got their
purchase home safely!
Metalwork
and knives: Finely engraved or enamelled
metalware is a feature of Kashgar, Bukhara and Samarkand.
And if you fancy an elaborate knife to hang on your belt,
Kashgar's the place.
Painting: In
all the tourist shops throughout China
we shall see 'peasant art'. This is a colourful primitive
style depicting scenes of rural life. Many paintings are repetitious,
without flair: but every now and then there is a picture full
of life, originality and vitality. It pays to look! The style
in Central Asia is more delicate, with finely drawn ink sketches
and delicate portraits and watercolours. The best examples
are in Bukhara and Samarkand.
Puppets: Puppet
performances are a traditional Tadjik entertainment. There
is an especially inspired puppet maker selling his 'children'
in the lanes of Khiva. They make ideal gifts.
Concerts:
We attend a dinner-dance show in
Xian that is our introduction to the stage world of China.
Drummers, diaphonous dancers, tumblers and musicians... it's
a great show!
Further west, the Muslim Turkoman peoples have a great love
of music and dance. We shall attend several concerts. Plenty
of time to develop your tambourine style!
A great gift from Imperial Russia to their southern colonies
was a taste for classical music, opera and ballet. The Czarists
built elegant opera houses in Bishkek,
Tashkent and Samarkand which were maintained by the Soviets
and to this day. Nowadays there are quality orchestras and
ballet troupes, the likes of which would grace any international
concert hall. We shall be there!
Spontaneous
musical performances can be great fun. Chance encounters,
mostly in restaurants, have enabled us to enjoy singers from
Sichuan, a violinist from Azerbaijan and musicians from Khorazhem.
It just happens.. great!
DESERT
and MOUNTAIN and GRASSLAND
This
tour skirts the great Gobi, crosses the formidable Taklamakan
and runs a goodly length of the Kara Kum. Each different and
in their own way extraordinarly appealing:
the curve of a dune, the scatterings of blowing sand and the
intense colours of their native rocks. At their heart, the
silence and the absence of life are unsettling and at the
same time paradoxically restful.
'As time
went on the charm of wide plains, the sweep of distant horizons,
the austerity of silence and solitude, increasingly attracted
me. Long uneventful stages were not now something to be endured
as a necessary means of reaching a goal beyond the tedious
waste, but were desirable in themselves, and I ceased to crave
for rapid transit which would obliterate the spaces by mechanical
means, for these very spaces now meant so much to me that
I valued them intensely for their own sake.'
The Gobi Desert: Cable, M & French, F.: Hodder & Stoughton
1942
The vast distance induces respect for those
travellers who walked these ways in pre-mechanical times.
Even more perhaps for the Ms Cable and French who travelled
by bullock cart! Although we obliterate some space by 'mechanical
means' you can guarantee that if you didn't know an oasis
from a karez before this trip you certainly will at
the end!
'Those who
imagine that such a journey, its vast solitude and desolation
is tedious and trying are mistaken. No spectacle can be more
sublime. Every day’s march, every league brings discoveries
of unimagined beauty.'
Sven Hedin 
We make excursions into the Pamirs
and the Tien Shan. Amongst those same heavenly peaks we traverse
the vast grasslands of Bayinbulak and Kyrgzystan. From the
harsh light and dusts of the desert, these mountain glaciers,
clear skies and greenery provide a welcome contrast.
Monuments to two great faiths, Buddhism and
Islam, season this tour. My personal favourite is Maji
Shan. In caves cut into high cliffs of 'haystack mountain'
are scores of angular, inclined, and sublime, statues of the
Wei dynasty of sixteen hundred years ago.
At
Bingling Si the canvas is much more grand. Isolated
in a remote side valley of the Yellow river the caves are
nestled into red sandstone cliffs of organ-pipe grandeur.
A massive Maitreya (the Buddha who is next to come) looks
out across a narrow canyon.
The caves of Mao gao near Dunhuang stand at the eastern
end of the Taklamakan. It is the diamond-point of Chinese
Buddhist art. Stretched along two kilometres of cliffside
are hundreds of caves, cut and painted by travellers thankful
to have survived the desert or more apprehensively, by those
about to enter. Continually extended for over a thousand years,
their long history; their state of preservation; and the thousands
of contemporary documents discovered within make this a site
of international historical and artistic importance. It is
quite, quite magnificent.
'We were
on our way to see something that was very ancient, a place
where men of one age make contact with those of another. A
thousand years and more lay between them and their work and
us and ours. It was fitting that a few hours of silence and
solitude should be imposed on us, for to pass, without transition,
from any restless or noisy life to this reliquary would be
to offer it an insult.'
Mildred Cable on the desert approach to Dunhung
The Gobi Desert: Cable, M & French, F.: Hodder & Stoughton
1942
Representational art is anathema
to conventional Islam so further west there are no statues
or paintings to delight the eye. Instead, creative energy
was directed to the construction of imposing buildings with
a covering of turquoise tiles.
According to Lord Curzon, the Madonna-blue domes surrounding
the Registan square in Samarkand made this place '..the
noblest public square in the world.'
Just
nearby, is Shah-i-Zinda, a winding lane between six hundred
year old blue-glazed tombs. If has been justly described as
a tour de fource of ceramic art, where... 'Long
faience panels are sculpted with stylized flowers, calligraphy
and pure, abstract designs borderd by bands of mosaic and
terracotta....with every shade of blue and every visual motif
.'
At Khiva, quite a
different style of colour and design prevails. A translucent
blue-green tiling merges easily into clear blue sky in the
Islam Khodja minaret.
'The true
importance of our discovery was all in the mind, for we had
reached one of those rare sacred places where myth and reality
meet, where the dream world and the true world become one.'
Marcel Peissel, The Last Babarians, 1997
ITINERARIES
and PRICES: Threads in the Sand 2013
LAND ONLY group: 2013
hose who wish to travel elsewhere in Asia
or travel on to Europe may prefer this option.
Note: this option starts in Shanghai and ends in Tashkent.
Threads in the Sand 2013
| Land Only
| join in Shanghai 29 April leave
in Tashkent 12 June 2013 |
|
45 day trip |
|
24 days on tour in central & western
China |
|
7 days on tour in Kyrgyzstan |
|
14 days on tour in Uzbekistan |
|
all breakfasts, most lunches and many
dinners |
|
all admissions and permits |
|
land & air transportation to Tashkent |
|
US$ 9604was the final price
for 2010
final price for Threads 2013 will be advised later. |
Please note: These prices when
published are final but I reserve the right to make changes
should major movements occur in currency or airfares.
N.B. If you choose the land-only option please organise
your air travel early. Flights to and from Asia are very heavily
booked. I am happy to help with suggestions and flight bookings
if you wish.
'What
shall we tell you? Tales, marvellous tales, Of ships and
stars and isles where good men rest, Where nevermore the
rose of sunset pales, And winds and shadows fall toward
the west.'
James Elroy Flecker: The Story of Hassan of Baghdad,
and how he took The Golden Journey to Samarkand: 1922
Main
group: 2013
Threads in the Sand 2013
| Main Group ex NZ
| 28 April - 14 June 2013 |
|
48 day trip |
|
25 days on tour in central & western
China |
|
7 days on tour in Kyrgyzstan |
|
14 days on tour in Uzbekistan |
|
2 nights in Bangkok |
|
all breakfasts, most lunches and many
dinners |
|
all admissions and permits |
|
land & air transportation throughout |
|
2010 Airfare was: NZ$2,343
- airfare only
2010 tour: US$9,788
- tour only
the final price for 2013 will be advised later. It is very dependent on the NZ$ exchange
rate to the US$
|
|
ex Auckland |
|
[extra charge applies from,
Wellington or Christchurch] |
|
|
|
|
Please note:
Prices, when published, are final but I reserve the right
to make changes should major movements occur in currency or
airfares.
What do you get?
An informative,
highly personalised introduction to some new places and interesting
people with me! Return economy airfare from Christchurch,
Wellington or Auckland to Bangkok and Shanghai · Twin-share
accommodation in all cities · Breakfasts everyday · All Lunches
and many dinners · A celebratory group dinner in ...I'm not
sure, but somewhere nice!· Airport transfers and departure
taxes throughout · all admission fees to museums and monuments.
What you don't get:
Visa fees for the countries visited [you will
be sent information about this]. NZ departure tax · dinner,
unless specified [most are provided]· personal insurance and
medical expenses · excess baggage charges and items of a personal
nature.
Is
it worth it?
his is a unique exploration of one famed
silk route from China to Central Asia. It has been researched
on the ground from start to finish, with the tour constructed
to take the best advantage of the regions history and attractions.
There is a particular emphasis on textiles, on crafts and
the history of the region. It is delibrately not rushed.
Please
compare this trip with others. I am sure we are not the cheapest,
but we strive to be the most personalised and the best: with
the hope that we may all journey through these lands like
Freya Stark...
'A good traveller does
not much mind the uninteresting places. He is there inside
them, as a thread is inside the necklace it strings…..
To find this unity makes me happy: its discovery comes unexpectedly
upon me, not only with people, but with animals, or trees
or rocks, or days and nights in their mere progress. A sudden
childish delight envelops me and the frontiers of myself
disappear.'
Freya Stark: Alexander’s Path John Murray 1958
'.....if
this one day in the lifetime of a hundred years is lost,
will you ever get your hands on it again?'
Is this a good trip?
Why don't you find out?
What
other information do you send? 
fter registration I shall send pre-trek information including;
a daily tour itinerary; detailed information about what you
need to prepare and bring for this tour; a suggested reading
list; information relating to health issues and vaccinations.
If you want to register your
interest in our Threads in the Sand
tour, please
email us
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Last updated: 30jan11
