Rangkul, Tajikistan

Deep in the Far Eastern reaches of Tajikistan's Pamir Plateau, just kilometres away from China's Xinjiang and several hours drive from then nearest town, lies Rangkul, a village of just over 1000 ethnic-Kyrgyz. At an altitude of 4000m, with long, frigid winters and short, sweltering summers, and a lack of arable land - life here is difficult.

Nevertheless, the village provides enough for people to stay. After all, Murghob, the high-Pamir capital with a population of more than 4000 people, is only 2-4 bumpy hours away, depending on your choice of Soviet-Era Lada or early 2000s Japanese 4x4.

For certain species of birds, however, the landscape surrounding Rankgul is a paradise; in fact it's a protected reserve, as the two brackish lakes, the like-named Rangkul and Shorkul, attract more than 20 rare breeds of birds, some from as far as the Himalayas and Tibet.