Tearing up the Silk Road is an irreverent travelogue that details a journey along the ancient trade routes from China to Istanbul, through Central Asia, Iran and the Caucasus. As Tom Coote struggles through the often arbitrary borders and bureaucracies of China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Armenia, Georgia and Turkey, it becomes apparent that the next generation will see themselves in a very different light to their predecessors. New forms of identity are emerging, founded ...

Turkmenbashi's Land of Fairy Tales is a $50,000,000 amusement park in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. It was meant to be Central Asia's answer to Disney Land but fell somewhat short of expectations.

This article details a short trip to Tripoli and Leptis Magna in Libya, during the first days of the Arab Spring. Libya appeared to be making its first tentative steps towards opening up to mass tourism but then everything changed.

This article details a short trip to Annaba, Constantine and El-Oued in Algeria at the end of April 2009.Algeria has effectively been out of bounds for independent travel for over two decades but it is now beginning to open up again.

Heart of Darkness is a complex exploration of the beliefs people hold on what constitutes a barbarian versus a civilized society and the stance on colonialism and racism that was part and parcel of European imperialism. Originally published as a three-part serial story, in Blackwood's Magazine, the novella Heart of Darkness has been variously published and translated into many languages. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Heart of Darkness as the sixty-seventh of the hundred best novels in...

"THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS" - Popular Classic Novels included Free AudioBook Links, NEW illustrations, Clickable Table of Contents for both the list of included books and their respective chapters.The text and chapters are perfectly set up to match the layout and feel of a physical copy, rather than being haphazardly thrown together for a quick release.The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757 (1826) is a historical novel by Jam...

Jeremy Kroeker is a Mennonite with a motorcycle. He doesn’t have a funny beard and he’s never even driven a buggy, but his family hails from the same Mennonite community that Miriam Toews fictionalized in A Complicated Kindness. From childhood through college, Kroeker attended Christian schools where he learned to think critically back to predetermined conclusions.Years later, when his faith begins to unravel, Kroeker stops short of tossing it all aside, choosing instead t...

“Remarkable: a book about borders that makes the reader feel sumptuously free.” —Peter PomerantsevIn this extraordinary work of narrative reportage, Kapka Kassabova returns to Bulgaria, from where she emigrated as a girl twenty-five years previously, to explore the border it shares with Turkey and Greece. When she was a child, the border zone was rumored to be an easier crossing point into the West than the Berlin Wall, and it swarmed with soldiers and spies. On ho...

An intelligent, humorous travel tale that is also the story of a tender father-son relationship from ABC Local Radio's legendary broadcaster Jon Faine.'Somehow, I convinced myself it was a good idea. Somehow, I convinced myself that it was do-able. Now I shake my head... We drove through the Gobi desert in Mongolia in a snowstorm, avoided an Iranian sedan doing cartwheels on the freeway near tehran, wove around the shores of the Caspian Sea and navigated the desert in turkmenistan.W...

Our illustrated travel guide will take you to Istanbul. Istanbul is Turkey's most populous city, and its cultural and financial center. Located on both sides of the Bosphorus, the narrow strait between the Black Sea and the Marmara Sea, Istanbul bridges Asia and Europe both physically and culturally. Istanbul's population is estimated to be between 12 and 19 million people, making it also one of the largest in Europe and the world. Istanbul was one of three European Capitals of Culture in ...

This is the official Holiday FM Guide to Dubai. This handy bitesize guide gives you everything you might want for the ideal trip to the big city. Background information about the history of the City will hopefully give you a better understanding of its origins and make your visit more enjoyable. Get local information about the must see sightseeing places to visit to help make your trip amazing and memorable. The guide also covers tips on where to eat and drink and what to expect the weath...

For Westerners, the modern state of Azerbaijan may be hard to pinpoint. This small, oil-rich country in the southern Caucasus, on the southwestern shore of the Caspian Sea, only made its way on to the contemporary world map after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. As the world shrinks and competition for precious resources intensifies, the direction this strategically and economically important country takes will affect us all. The historically tolerant and pluralist Azeri people...