En route to the Aral Sea –

this is what one former Uzbek PCV wrote:

“There was no impulse I distrusted or admired more than that of exile. Distrust because of exile’s narcissism, its modal insistence that, above all, location forged the content of one’s conscience. Admired because of exile’s bravery, its intransigence, the embrace hidden in its denunciation.”

– Tom Bissell, Chasing the Sea,

being a narrative of a journey through Uzbekistan, including Descriptions of Life Therein, culminating with an Arrival at the Aral Sea, the World’s Worst Man-Made Ecological Catastrophe.