https://stonepioneer.com/ Three Central Asian destinations an edition: the Silk Road cities, the steppe, and the mountains — across Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. en https://stonepioneer.com/posts/tashkent-the-city-moscow-rebuilt-from-scratch-09-22/ https://stonepioneer.com/posts/tashkent-the-city-moscow-rebuilt-from-scratch-09-22/ Tashkent's Soviet modernism and ornate metro reward three days on foot — but the 1966 rebuild left a centre with little pre-Soviet fabric. Tue, 22 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT city-break https://stonepioneer.com/posts/karakol-a-garrison-town-under-the-peaks-09-21/ https://stonepioneer.com/posts/karakol-a-garrison-town-under-the-peaks-09-21/ A Russian-built grid town below the Tian Shan, with a nail-free mosque and a Sunday market that still runs on livestock, not souvenirs. Mon, 21 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT city-break https://stonepioneer.com/posts/charyn-canyon-kazakhstan-s-red-rock-three-hours-from-the-cit-09-20/ https://stonepioneer.com/posts/charyn-canyon-kazakhstan-s-red-rock-three-hours-from-the-cit-09-20/ A red sandstone canyon three hours from Almaty, with a valley floor you can walk into and camp on overnight. Sun, 20 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT outdoors https://stonepioneer.com/posts/khiva-the-walled-city-small-enough-to-actually-see-09-19/ https://stonepioneer.com/posts/khiva-the-walled-city-small-enough-to-actually-see-09-19/ Itchan Kala is a walled inner city you can walk in an hour — stay past the day buses and it becomes a different place. Sat, 19 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT top-pick https://stonepioneer.com/posts/samarkand-registan/ https://stonepioneer.com/posts/samarkand-registan/ A river, a defensible terrace, and the only practical gap between two mountain systems. Wed, 16 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT top-pick https://stonepioneer.com/posts/bukhara-two-days/ https://stonepioneer.com/posts/bukhara-two-days/ The old city is small enough to cross in twenty minutes. The mistake is trying to see everything on the first day. Sun, 06 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT city-break https://stonepioneer.com/posts/song-kol-kyrgyzstan/ https://stonepioneer.com/posts/song-kol-kyrgyzstan/ Three thousand metres up in Kyrgyzstan, reachable for about four months a year, and worth arranging a trip around. Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT outdoors https://stonepioneer.com/posts/almaty-kazakhstan/ https://stonepioneer.com/posts/almaty-kazakhstan/ A green city under three-thousand-metre mountains, with a metro, good coffee and a gondola out of the centre. Tue, 18 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT city-break