Sophie Ibbotson and Max Lovell-Hoare first arrived in central Asia in 2008 when their two auto-rickshaws (tuk-tuks) got snowed in en route from Darjeeling, India, to London. Forced to overwinter, they fell in love with the region and became excited by the opportunities it offered, opening the Kyrgyz office of their investment promotion company, Maximum Exposure Productions (MEP), the following year. Sophie now runs Maximum Exposure Ltd, providing tourism and culture consultancy and PR services, and is the co-founder and managing editor of Panorama: The Journal of Intelligent Travel. She is also a member of council of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs (www.rsaa.org.uk). This edition has been updated by Tim Burford, who has spent almost 30 years writing guidebooks, many in the post-Soviet sphere - Romania, Poland and Ukraine, Georgia and Armenia, Dresden and Bratislava. Uzbekistan, therefore, felt familiar from the outset. He says: 'I really don't speak Russian (or Uzbek) and I don't eat meat, so there are challenges, but it's all good fun! The Uzbeks are wonderful people, and in the main Silk Road cities such as Samarkand and Bukhara many younger people now speak English. The infrastructure is also improving fast, especially with new railway lines and high-speed trains, and the political and social systems are becoming much less restrictive. There's lots of scope for outdoor adventure, so that's something I hope we see more of in the future.' Tim studied languages at Oxford and has now written nine guides for Bradt.
