Not so long time ago, when there was no pandemic, I used to travel round the clock and the globe, with the aim - as any serious traveller those days, of seeing all the countries in the world at least once. Now, after spending the longest time in my life - literally - without leaving my town - of Berlin, Germany - I still hope that this aim will be reached one day. High on that list - called the bucket list - the former communist/Soviet countries, particularly those included in the so called ´Central Asia´. Therefore, until I am fit and safe to be back on the road again, I nurture my travel lust with books set in those places I wish to visit or travel books based there.
Published in 2003, the account of the French historian and poet Bernard Chambaz Petit Voyage d´Alma-Ata à Achkhabad - read in the original French language - travels from Kazakhstan to Tadjikistan, Kyrkyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and even the small republic 1,8 million-inhabitant republic of Karakalpastan (small but they have an university, a soccer club and according to Chambaz´s even a big museum). The travels were made at the end of the 1990s, when Lonely Planet guides were the main reference and not Google, and travellers were more free to just explore their environment without following in a hurry the ´must see´ listicles.
The statues of Lenin, as well as the golden covered ones of Marx and Engels, are still everywhere, there are media references about Putin - not yet the tsar - and the dictators with their strange tastes in public architecture are everywhere. Chambaz rather observes his environment, - for instance, the Tashkent subway is not like the one in NYC, is more ´clean and fresh´ - meets various writers and officials of French institutions and diplomats, moves on to the next country. It is not like he does not have an eye for things or that he doesn´t like what he sees but he is just too busy to exchange money or find the best cab - or transportation mean - until his next destination in order to bury us in details about the places and the people.
For someone who´ve heard about those countries for the first time, reading this book may make them curious to search more about and even travel there one day. However, those who are expecting some interesting stories and local experiences, it´s not really too inspiring. Even the food references, one of the easiest way to go to the soul of a culture, are rather sparse - water melons in Uzbekistan, so nice, but still, there is no real connection made through those experiences and so goes to book on and on for a bit short of 200 pages.
Rating: 2 stars
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