Postcard from Bishkek

There are lots of jokes about the spelling of Kyrgyzstan … about Scrabble scores and alphabet soup … but there are other words in Russian that caused me problems … and still do. Take, for example, the Russian word for Hello – Zdravstvuyte – with the strange letter combinations that it is difficult for English speakers to […]

We got a pleasant surprise during the week, when it was reported that National Geographic Traveler Magazine had named Issyk Kul as one of the “top ten destinations” in the CIS: “From Peter to Kamchatka“. For the record: “Peter” is the affectionate nickname given by Russians to St. Petersburg – in the same way as […]

Today marks the anniversary of the death of the Russian explorer Pyotr ‘Tianshansky’ Semenov in 1914. In all he made six forays into the Tien Shan and I have already written postcards describing his first and second forays into the Issyk Kul basin in 1856, and the start of his journey into the heart of the range the following […]

About a year ago I was invited by Victor Kadyrov, the General Director of the Rarity Book Shop in Dom Druzhba – Friendship House – at the side of the main Ala Too Square to visit the shop. I think it’s the largest bookshop on Bishkek, (I don’t know the actual figures), but it could […]

One of the places that often top of the list that tourists want included on their itinerary is Karakol in the Issyk Kul oblast. One reason for this is that it is the natural starting off point for treks into the Terskey Ala Too Mountains to the south of Lake Issyk Kul – with the […]

On one occasion about ten years ago I was traveling up from Bishkek up to Lake Issyk Kul.  As we drove along the Northern shore towards Chalpon Ata I was busy taking in the view to out right, of the sky blue waters of the lake when one of my companions told me took to […]

Although the territory that we now know as Kyrgyzstan has a long and colourful history, unfortunately, there are not that many places where it is visibly evident.  The great Silk Road cities have virtually disappeared and all that remains are archaeological excavations.

Kadji Sai is a village on the southern shore of Lake Issyk Kul, about 20 kilometers East of Bokonbaeva, , surrounded by low, cabyons carved by the action of wind and water. The village itself actually lies a few kilometers from the shore. There is a bus stop on the main road between Balykchy and […]

At the Eastern end of Lake Issyk Kul, at San Tash, there is what is thought to be a haunting “monument” to the fallen of a war fought long ago between the armies of Tamerlane and the Chinese Empire. Legend has it that Tamerlane ordered his soldiers to each pick up a stone from the […]

The Issyk Kul Basin is ringed by mountains, (the Kungei Ala Too to the North and Terskey Ala Too to the South – the Sunny and Shady Mountains respectively).  The Eastern and Western approaches to the Basin are formed by the Karkara Valley (Black Crane) and Boom Gorge (Shoestring Gorge). The generally held opinion is […]