video « a second glance

rolf harris

I dug this up from Glastonbury last year. Rolf Harris’s encore, including stairway to heaven. It was taken on my Lumix, not the Nikon, so the picture quality is poor, but the sound is just magic.

As background, there are about 70,000 people and it’s reached about 25 degrees by 11a.m. on Sunday. The place is [...]

stalin's last stand

Things have never quite returned to pushing the condemned from the top of minarets, but where Mohamed meets Marx, the Soviet regime of terror favoured by Stalin lives on.

The world is largely ignorant of this mumblistan, the seventh most corrupt country in the world, whose government holds so many thousands of innocents in jail [...]

the hiker's ode to kyrgyzstan

Wedged between China and Stans three,
Lies the carved Kyrgyz land of turning tree
From Russki Bishkek we travelled t’orient,
A land of potatoes and local inhabitants…

I’ve much more respect for song lyricists after penning this video verse of a Kyrgyz hike:

The Hiker’s Ode to Kyrgyzstan from Tim Way on Vimeo.

merry christmas

season’s greetings to one and all back home, from the beach in Penang

Merry Christmas Everyone! from Tim Way on Vimeo.

as weird as it gets

Turkmenistan is a flat desert with some of the world’s largest gas reserves underneath.

Above ground, a real mix of religions combine to provide a country which is almost more weird where the egomaniac Turkmenbashi hasn’t put his print. Canyons that would be at home in SW USA attract no tourists, holes in the desert are [...]

the kyrgyz riviera

From the Italian Riviera to the shores of Lake Issyk Kul, enjoy the short journey along the southern edge of Kyrgyzstan’s trophy alpine lake, to the soundtrack of the tune then top of the charts, Portofino:

The Kyrgyz Riviera from Tim Way on Vimeo.

the eurasian bridge

Turkey’s a funny cookie. Where does it fit?

European in outlook, Ankara and Istanbul are quite apart from the rural honesty of the vast majority of this enormous country, criss-crossed by railway lines taking the scenic route around the mountainous interior. Well on the way to European integration (French veto permitting), despite having recently outlawed [...]

to the roof of the world: episode three - the roof of the world

The high Pamir: a country-sized slab of nothingness. The most beautiful of desert nothingness. Victimised since independence, punished in the UN civil war settlement, a people already without anything and kept alive by the Aga Khan for may years eek a life when none should feasibly be possible.

Deep blue glacial lakes, sheep with horns [...]

to the roof of the world: episode two - the aga khan's people

A ramp to the roof of the world leads up the Wakhan Valley, great game vortex. NGOs outnumber tourists, potatoes provide entire meals, Afghanistan is just there and beauty in nature, both human and physical, is all encompassing:

to the roof of the world: episode two – the aga khan’s people from Tim Way on Vimeo.

A [...]

to the roof of the world: episode one - the road to monday

Western Tajikistan would extend far further to encompass Samarkand and Bokhara, had Stalin not gerrymandered to prevent ethnic unity in the Soviet Union. Today, it goes as far as Penjakent, the hopping off point for the Fan Mountains – home to isolated communities of sheep and grain farmers in a landscape straight out of a [...]

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