Travels with Kathryn

After a somewhat wasted day-1 (according to my Intrepid itinerary), which I spent sleeping and little else. We are now onto the actual touristing = whoop!

I am not completely sure as to what I expected from Bishkek (the capital of Kyrgyzstan), but it was not the tree lined boulevards, pretty gardens and fountains that I have seen. I did expect the rather communist looking buildings and a certain air of emptiness/more of a work in progress perhaps, and this is also somewhat true.

In the way of Intrepid, you do not start until the evening of day 1 (more details on this below) so having been well rested, I was on my own for my first exploration a I headed into the centre of Bishkek (which took 30 minutes to walk as its not a big place) and went to the State History Museum (a starred guidebook attraction after all) which is situated at Ala-Too Square which is the central focal point for Bishkek.

An excellent museum, and excitingly, I have now seen my first bit of silk that actually travelled along the Silk Road. This museum was formerly the Lenin Museum, and the top floor has some interesting labelling on the soviet years, eg, WW2 is the Great Patriot War, and people weren’t imprisoned they they were merely repressed.

Something you cannot fail to notice in Bishkek is that there do not seem to many people around, I walked through a lovely sunny park which includes a funfair and ferris wheel and there was no one around on a sunny Friday afteroon… When you do find people, they are generally a group of Asian looking ladies with lots of children around which is actually (no, really) quite nice as apparently I am fascinating to said children.

The Group

That evening, I met most of my travelling companions.

• 2 Australians – a couple, Christine and Tony
• 1 Canadian – Calvin
• 1 Danish – Trine
• 2 Germans- a couple, Mikeal and Silke
• 1 New Zealander – Margaret
• 2 Brits – Diane and me

I am noticeablely the youngest, but everyone looks robust, and most of us seem to be very well travelled and have had this trip planned for years, so I have hopeful expectations that it’ll be a good group.

The Real Day 1 Begins

It was an early start this morning, patricularly for the 4 members of my group who were beset with travel problems and only arrived at 5am before a 9am start. I was very sympathetic as this is usually me!

We began with a walking tour around Bishkek, pointing out the various buildings I had simply not realised where important yesterday (including the parliament building which was somewhat embarassing!). I’ll be honest, I am slightly information overloaded as well as being a bit hot, but suffice to say Bishkek has really grown on me, and I will be a bit sad to leave tomorrow.

And now onto Osh Market where in the Meat hall (not a vegetarian’s paradise) a lady is making horse sausage, which is a big thing here. To be considered a gracious host, it’s important that the sausage is mainly fat i.e using the meat on the right. I preferred the look of the meat on the left.

Below are just some of the things available: butter, dried cheese, breads (all called naan), dried fruit and sweets.

A stowaway

In other news, I unpacked my bag and found this:

I blame YOU: Mum & and Guillaume, as I was adamant I did not need a travelling companion!!

To the uninitiated, you may be unaware of my Mum (and to a lesser extent, Keith, my brother and big nephew)’s obsession with the monkey. Not monkeys generally (although my brother is more of a gorilla fan), but specifically, the PG Tips Monkey.

For now, the monkey is attached to my daypack, but we shall have to see how long he survives….

Day 2 Awaits

Tomorrow, we are off to Lake Issy-Kul (possibly the second largest alpine lake in the world) and in the meantime if you have any questions or would like more information on anything you have read, please feel free to comment below. I am also seeking feedback on how the photos/galleries are looking as I can’t see them in published form, e.g, do you prefer a gallery or single photos?