🇬🇧 Travel, trust, change: some strangers who taught me to trust the world
Don’t talk to strangers. It’s one of the first rules we’re taught as children. It’s one of those phrases spoken to protect us, to keep us safe from the world. Unfortunately, it’s a rule that was taught to me as well or at least, they tried. The people I’m about to talk about were strangers, and, in a way, they still are. In the summer of 2024 I was in Central Asia , traveling across the former Soviet republics. I was in Uzbekistan , on a train taking me from Samarkand to Tashkent . My plan was to reach the Uzbek Capital and then cross the border into Kazakhstan , just a few kilometers away. On that train, I met a young man. I can’t remember his name today, but I recall that he lives in Tokyo , where he runs an Uzbek Restaurant. The restaurant's Instagram handle is: @samarkand_terrace . I asked him how to reach the border with Kazakhstan. I had hoped to cross it in one day, but it was too late. On top of that I was tired, exhausted and extremely hungry. It was he who suggested I...
