Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan is a small, mountainous country to the south of Kazakhstan. The Kazakh and Kyrgyz peoples are very similar. In fact, they were first really distinguished from one another during the Soviet times for political reasons. Perhaps the only significant historical difference is that, rather than being nomads of the steppe, the Kyrgyz are mountain nomads.

The road between Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan has been repaved since Chris traveled it as a youth, but it is still a rather frightening drive. Why, you ask? Because of these Central Asian drivers! They like to make three lanes out of two, while driving roughly 60 mph, around curves and other road obstacles.

Once you get past the high-speed driving at oncoming vehicles, the three-hour drive to the capital, Bishkek, is really quite beautiful. Unfortunately, I had a lot of difficulty capturing that beauty in pictures.

We passed a number of little villages and saw a few different styles for small mosques as we drove. This is one:
On the side of the road we also saw lots of vendors. These vendors sold homemade kvas, kumis, and other Central Asian specialty drinks.

Pictured below is the "end" of the Almaty Tien Shan mountain range as we headed further West to Bishkek. Behind the clouds in the distance are more, snow-topped, mountains. These mountains are rather small in comparison to the mountains we saw as we first left the bus station in Almaty (which I was unable to photograph).
Addie "talking" on dad's cell phone in the back seat of our taxi. She "talks" on our cell phones, house phone, and imaginary phones a lot--which is funny because we really don't use our phones much at all.
This little girl's dream come true--two phones.
Once we arrived in Bishkek and got everything settled in our rented apartment (often, the economical route in Central Asia is to rent an apartment for a few days rather than stay in a hotel), we took a walk through one of the main parks and then checked out a museum.

Chris posing on the steps of the national history museum in front of the main square in Bishkek.
You were probably so distracted by checking out that handsome man that you didn't notice the beautiful mountains in the background, so here's a slightly closer look:
There are fountains on the side and in front of the museum in the main square, and it was a lot of fun to watch them being used for play! It's probably not very hygienic, but it is a pretty practical use of that water on a hot day (and it was certainly hot!).
After our cultural exposure we headed to TsUM for some shopping. Although Chris was the only one to make a purchase (he found the dvd section, 90% of which were less than $5 and none more than $7), I enjoyed browsing the low low prices for souvenirs. We stopped for dinner on our way back to our apartment and had one of the slowest meals of my life. Restaurant service in Bishkek left something to be desired for, that first night our entrees took over two hours to get to us. It was past Addie's bedtime when the salad came around, so we had quite the dining experience. The food was good, but not that good.

As we walked home we passed through main square and found quite the celebration with a mass of people gathering around the dancing fountain, as well as various military divisions standing at attention on the main street of the square. We weren't sure what was going on and couldn't think of a holiday they might have been celebrating, so Chris asked a woman standing near us. Apparently the party at the fountains (complete with music, popcorn, cotton candy, balloon, and toy vendors) is a held each evening 9-11 p.m. The military was present for a flag raising ceremony--the main flag pole on the square had some repairs done and the flag was being returned to it's place of honor.
We were a little unclear on why the flag-raising ceremony was being done after 9 p.m., but decided to miss the climactic moment of the raising of the flag, and headed home. We passed by the pole the next two days and never saw a flag on it, so I'm not sure what happened...
On Friday we went to the Osh Bazaar in Bishkek for souvenir shopping. Because the cultures are so similar, nearly all "Kazakh" souvenirs are imported from Kyrgyzstan, then tripled in price.

Before ending their mission in Central Asia, we were able to talk with the Vincents and learn that the worst day of Elder Vincent's mission had been spent at this bazaar going back and forth between booths as the group of women he was with attempted to find material at a competitive price. He literally spent the whole day going back and forth with this group. While Chris and Addie may have some similar feelings about their experience at the bazaar, our trip was just three hours. Chris was a champ and huge help as he kept Addie amused and used his Russian skills (language and experience) to do some bartering for me.

Later that afternoon we were able to make it back to... TsUM! Chris found another dvd and searched through the music sections again while I continued to browse the souvenirs. The TsUM building is six stories high, so we rode up a lot of escalators. This picture is very blurry, but captures one of Addie's frequent stroller positions, which I like to call "maxin' and relaxin'"
We again stopped for dinner on our way home, and although I didn't think it was possible, had even slower service than the night before. It took over two and a half hours to get a pizza. Addie fell asleep in her stroller on our walk home.

The next day Chris finished some last-minute study and then went to the U.S. embassy and took the Foreign Service Officer Test for the State Department. While Chris was off stretching his brain, Addie and I went to... (drumroll please)... TsUM! Needless to say, we had at least an extra suitcase worth of souvenirs by the time our stay in Bishkek ended.

Addie and I took an indirect path back to our apartment, stopping by this statue of the Soviet Woman:
I took this picture to try and show how huge this tree trunk was. It was nearly as wide as three strollers!


We saw a lot of roses in Bishkek, there were two huge plots of just roses in this area. My mom loves roses, so whenever I see them I think of her.
The museum with child-less fountains.I took Addie out at the next park we passed and let her walk around.



On our way back to Almaty we had a long wait after going through customs. People manage to go through customs a little more quickly than cars, so we sat waiting and watching for our taxi to come through.A donkey and its passengers wanted to come to Kazakhstan too.