AGUSTINUS Wibowo’s travels into Afghanistan brought him to the banks of the Amu Darya River in the north of that country. Riding a donkey along a rocky and very steep track, he noticed cars going back and forth along an asphalted road on the other side of the river.

That sight aroused Agus’s interest about what life was like in the offshoot nations of the former Soviet Union across the river. Agus, who lives in Beijing, could actually have e