Postcard from Bishkek

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 […]

Sunday was a rare “day off”. Tatiana, my accountant, has a friend, Anna, staying from Russia, and suggested going into the mountains so we decided to make a day of it. The obvious choice for a day trip from Bishkek is to go to one of the valleys in the Kyrgyz Krebet, just South of […]

In the post about Izhkak Razzakov, I mentioned that after his death in 1979, his body was buried in the Kuntsevskom Cemetery in Moscow, but that in 2000 his remains were returned to his native Kyrgyzstan and interred in the Ala Archa cemetery in Bishkek. Somebody wrote me an email saying that they were confused – as […]

To help preserve the priceless, pristine, virgin, natural resources that it possesses, Kyrgyzstan has a total of 83 Specially Protected Natural Territories, (SPNT), with a total area of about 800,000 hectares, which is 4% of Kyrgyzstan’s total land area. Perhaps, the most famous of these specially protected regions is Ala Archa – just outside Bishkek. […]

Traveling from Bishkek to Lake Issyk Kul, after 112km, the road enters “Boom Gorge”, which lies at the eastern end of the Kyrgyz Range and provides the only corridor between the two.  Converging together through this narrow canyon are a highway, a railway, and the Chu River.

It’s amazing what you come across when surfing the internet.  I was caught by surprise one day this week when I cam across a blog entry that a simple question. Lake Issyk Kul in North Eastern Kyrgyzstan is the world’s second largest mountain lake and stands at an altitude of 1600 meters above sea level.  […]

The Suusamyr valley is a high steppe plateau – 2200 meters a.s.l. – that although only some 160 kilometres from Bishkek is also one of the more remote and rarely visited regions of Kyrgyzstan.  Although it is on the other side of the massive Kyrgyz Range from Bishkek and the Chui valley, it is part […]

The Kekemeren River runs through a striking narrow valley South from Suusamyr plain, past the village of Aral (in Naryn oblast – 1400 m. a.s.l.), until eventually it flows into the Naryn River. 108 kilometers long, the river is popular for white-water rafting, at first the river is relatively calm, but gradually, more and more […]

Everyone seems to have their favourite places in Kyrgyzstan … and this is also true when it comes to the valleys of the Kyrgyz Krebet.  Everyone seems to have their own preferences.  Ala Archa is, perhaps, top of the list for most people – with its alpine landscapes and variety of trekking routes.  For some […]

The Ala Archa National Park contains several places of interest. Perhaps the most poignant is to be found on the path which leads to the right of the gate of the base camp.  After climbing up a fairly steep slope the path leads though a wooded area where there is a cemetery with nine graves and memorials to […]