I think this is a fascinating read: https://a.co/d/8kMCuEk
It's more of a personal story, it's fascinating. The writer was a Peace Corps volunteer for Uzbekistan for 3 months before he got culture shock and pleaded to go home, and then some years later, he decided to go back and visit the friends he made. The book is half history and half a travel blog. If you enjoy the travel blogs from mattlakeman.org then this book is a much more in-depth version of those blogs.
Chasing the Sea
In 1996, Tom Bissell went to Uzbekistan as a na•ve Peace Corps volunteer. Though he lasted only a few months before illness and personal crisis forced him home, Bissell found himself entranced by this remote land. Five years later he returned to explore the shrinking Aral Sea, destroyed by Soviet...
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