| Lonely Planet says... | country |
|---|
| The world’s last great forbidden kingdom, an emblem of everything most inexplicable to the West. For centuries xxxx was closed to outsiders, penetrable only to the brave | |
| Concentrating on the good, if there was a Hall of Fame for Central Asian cities, xxxx would own the top-three entries, whose names practically epitomize the region | |
| With a long coastline (well, actually, two coastlines) and jungle-topped islands anchored in azure waters, xxxx is a tropical getaway for the hedonist and the hermit | |
| Lamborghini showrooms and Maglev trains are just eye-catching gift-wrapping. Let's face it: the world's oldest civilisation is bound to pull an artefact or two out of its hat | |
| The American War is over, and yet its impact endures – you’ll find reminders of that cataclysmic conflict everywhere you travel. That said, the country was never broken... | |
| A sultry kaleidoscope...of so many cultures, peoples, animals, customs, plants, features, artworks and foods that it is like 100 countries melded into one (or is it 200?) | |
| trek around the earth’s second-largest alpine lake with a trained eagle to hunt rabbit or cheer wildly during a game of kok boru, a ferocious battle over a headless goat | |
| For the visitor, it’s a world away from backpacking in Thailand or island-hopping in Greece. It’s a country recovering from nearly three decades of war | |
| roots in ancient Sogdiana and Bactria,xxxx is a fragile patchwork of clans,languages and identities, forged together by Soviet nation-building and hopes for a peaceful future | |
| defined by its emerald rice fields, teeming megacities, graffiti-splashed jeepneys, smouldering volcanoes, bug- eyed tarsiers, fuzzy water buffalo and happy-go-lucky people | |
| Ditch the image of xxxx as a sterile Utopia. Sure,the graffiti-free trains run on time,and everyone looks clean-cut and wholesome,but who needs pollution, poverty and chaos? | |
| xxxx is two countries in one, cleaved in half by the South China Sea, with an impressive variety of microcosms ranging from space-age high-rises to smiling longhouse villages | |
| xxxx is defined by its relationship with water. Take the country’s name: ‘Two Seas’ in Arabic, the focus is not its minimal landmass, but the water that laps its shores | |
| Endless beaches, timeless ruins, welcoming people, oodles of elephants, killer surf, cheap prices, fun trains, famous tea, flavourful food – need we go on? | |
| Wedged between the high wall of the Himalaya and the steamy jungles of the plains, xxxx is a land of snow peaks and Sherpas, yaks and yetis, monasteries and mantras. | |
| | Lonely Planet says... | country |
|---|
| from the Greek meaning 'between two rivers', it was here that human beings began to cultivate land, where writing was invented making xxxx the centre of the ancient world | |
| a country where buying cigarettes is illegal, where the rice is red and chillies aren’t just a seasoning but the whole dish.The Land of the Thunder Dragon is no ordinary place | |
| Noah knew it as the land of milk and honey,Gilgamesh came for the secret of eternal life, wise men gathered myrrh from its mountains and a woman known as Sheba called it home | |
| ‘This is xxxx’, wrote Rudyard Kipling. ‘It is quite unlike any place you know about.’ How right he was: more than a century later xxxx remains a world apart | |
| mountainous with skiing to boot, it's laid-back, liberal and fun, fast becoming the region's party place, xxxx is working hard to recapture its crown as Paris of the Orient | |
| Yin and yang: the blue and red circle at the heart of the flag neatly symbolises not only the divided peninsula but also the fluid mix of ancient and modern aspects of xxxx | |
| ...see the brook where Jesus was baptised, the fortress where Herod beheaded John the Baptist, and the mountain top where Moses cast eyes on the Promised Land | |
| Territorial disputes led to violence, which in turn made for some epic accounts in the Bible, not terribly dissimilar to what is playing out on the news where you are today | |
| Nothing is easy about xxxx and that’s both its blessing and its curse.Recent history shows why you can’t just declare yourself a new country and expect things to be hunkydory | |
| Though the outside world is gradually becoming aware of xxxx, thanks to its oil and the antics of Borat Sagdiyev, few have really explored this country of varied attractions | |
| Off the beaten path seems too slight a term for a nation that admits fewer than 2000 Westerners a year, and whose overwhelming attraction is its isolation and backwardness | |
| herders chatting on mobiles, Manhattan-style cocktail bars, eco-yurts and vegetarian cafés. The Humvees plying Peace Ave would have Chinggis Khaan turning green with envy | |
| everything one imagined of Arabia is there in all its sanitised glory. Those who knew the xxxx of hawk souqs and dust storms may suspect that this country is turning Disney | |
| xxxx is a contradictory destination, an Islamic state where the DJs’ turntables stop spinning just before the muezzins’ morning call to prayer | |
| Bamboozling. There’s simply no other word that captures the enigma that is xxxx. With an ability to inspire, frustrate, thrill and confound all at once... | |
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