Postcard from Bishkek

Kara-Balta is one of the youngest cities in Kyrgyzstan, formerly established in  just 1975. The name Kara Balta means “Black Axe” in Kyrgyz. The town is just over 60 kilometres to the West of Bishkek, at the junction of two main roads : The main Bishkek–Taraz (Djambul)–Tashkent road and Kyrgyzstan’s main North-South highway, the Bishkek-Osh highway which […]

Situated 10 km to the South of Tokmok – stands the Burana tower.  It’s a favourite spot for day trips from Bishkek and we often visit it on tours on the way between Bishkek and Issyk Kul or Naryn.  To be honest, it’s quite a while since I have been there myself, (over a year), […]

One hundred and fifty kilometres from Bishkek lies the Chon Kemin valley. This long valley itself lies at altitudes of between 1400 m and 2800 m above sea level and reaches over 80 km deep into the mountains between the Kingly Ala Too and Zanily ranges, parallel to the Kazakh border.  It has verdant pastures, woodland (of […]

  This year saw the Independence Day celebrations marking the day, 20 years ago when the Supreme Soviet of the Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republic decided to break away from the “permanent and everlasting” Union of Soviet Socialist Republics … to strike out and forge it’s own path in the world. In many respects it was […]

On Sunday we drove back to Bishkek from Naryn and had to call into the city of Tokmok to deliver some wedding gifts for the daughter of one of our staff. Now, to be honest, it is some time since I have stopped off in Tokmok … we normally just pass through it on the […]

Saturday saw one of my rare, unfortunately all too rare, trips out of the office into the mountains. Having taken some of the family up to Issyk Kul, (warm lake), we decided to give the others, especially the youngest (Edic and Alicia), a day out.  This time we didn’t go far, just eighty kilometres outside […]

I am not sure where it came from, but the other day I saw a tweet on Twitter between two twitterers “that the greatest Chinese poet Li Bo (Li Bai) was born near Tokmok in Kyrgyzstan?” Li Bo is also known as Li Po or Li Bai – in fact, there are several other variations, […]

About eight kilometres East of the city of Kant in Northern Kyrgyzstan lies the modern village of Krasnaya Rechka, (“Red River”).  This is the site of the ancient towns of Suyab and Nevkat (“New City”), a Silk Road city that flourished between the 6th and 12th centuries.  The identification is based on manuscripts found at the […]

Last week I wrote about Cemeteries and mentioned the Burana Tower, which is situated 10 km to the South of Tokmok. There is a legend that tells of a powerful khan who had a beautiful daughter, Monara, whom he loved very much and wanted to protect against the affections of local djigits – young men.  […]

They say that you can experience all four seasons in one day in Kyrgyzstan.  I have come across this myself in the past.  The mountainous nature of the terrain creates plenty of scope for microclimates in different valleys, varying with altitude, aspect, (North, South East or West facing), different soils creating habitats for differing types […]