Wandering The Navoi Central Market

Time to shop Navoi. The big, main market in town is classic Uzbek. It's a sprawling complex of stalls, shops, carts, food, dry goods, cheap hardware. Big box retail before the chains.

Grand entrance.

See the laughing woman at stall 238 for good non bread. Then, go grab some traditional carrot salad by the cupful.

The center of the covered complex. Lonely cart.

Onions are in. All of them. "Psst. We give them piles of these things and only get scratch back. Strike!"

Portrait of a butcher with an axe. Pose however you wish.

Seeing The Writers On The Wall At The Literature Museum

Writing is not a visual medium. If you open a museum dedicated to local literature, what do you do once you've crammed every case with open books? Fill the wall space with portraits of the greats. At the Literature Museum in Tashkent, get to know your moody writers.

Traditional wardrobe and props are good features to have in your portrait. Here's Xayrulloh Xo'Qandiy, all decked out in his chapan robe, sitting on a tapchan, having tea.

Looking all stately with your medals and big desk is a good look, Sadriddin Ayni. A different take, the writer as relaxed, causal man. Enjoy that book, Turob To'la.

Women are not represented in the same numbers as the men. Oydin gets the formal treatment, fancy in her red suit in front of the rich tapestry.

Writer Shukrullo strikes the pensive, it's so hard to write, pose. Here's Oynek. Did someone just burn his toast?

For Mirtemir, writing is a reclining, casual sport.

Picturing Alisher Navoi At The Literature Museum

Alisher Navoi is one of the most famous figures in Uzbekistan, a Silk Road era poet, author, linguist, politician, mystic and gardener. OK, not sure about his gardening prowess. Seems possible.

Tashkent has a nice museum with a literature theme, most of it devoted to Navoi. Big props to the gentleman known as the father of Turkic literature. The museum is rooms and rooms with cases of books - about what one would expect in a place devoted to literature. What else to display?

Portraits of the esteemed Alisher Navoi. A lot of them. Here's a small selection, every pose, age imaginable.

Details Of Namangan

Random things from a walk around the Fergana Valley city of Namangan in Uzbekistan.

At the market, things for the home. Maybe you're picking up a sponge, some thread and a giant rat trap.

Blooms in the park, looking a little like the movie Blue Velvet. Car repair, definitely DIY.

The dead fountain.

The flour shop, a bounty of branded bags. The gown shop, a little fantasy on the street.

The playing boys stop for a portrait. Mostly.

Finding Fabric In Kuala Lumpur

If you need to get a color and pattern fix, head to old downtown Kuala Lumpur and pop into the many fabric stalls. The stores are packed with so much sensory overload, it's almost impossible to make a decision. One wants it all.

Typical store, typical merchant, ready to help.

On to the samples, whether Indian or Malay in style. Rich.

Young shopkeeper.

Rhinestone encrusted headscarves, hijabs. So much fabric, some of it still bound in bundles with no room for display.

Another store, another person ready to offer guidance.

Portraits In Surabaya

Great faces can be found all over the world and Surabaya in Indonesia is no exception. Especially around the old part of the city, filled with hard working merchants and workers.

Rice seller.

Rice hauler. The boss, about to get on his scooter.

Young man, about to pray at the Sunan Ampel mosque.

Banana print girl. Merchant selling chicken brand named peanuts.

The seafood seller.

Details Of Kuching

Oh, small town of Kuching, show us what makes you unique. Or just give us some freaky good things.

The fisherman with his small bag of eggs.

Construction and cell tower. Back to fishing, the ice man cometh and delivereth. Bags get emptied onto a chute that sends ice down into a boat's hold. Pure analogue and muscle.

Waiting room at a medical clinic.

Laundry business, scale front and center, ready to receive. Smelly durian, best sold out of the back of a van in a parking lot. Fruit, on the down low.

At the butcher, a bin of chicken feet.