Postcard from Bishkek

When the news broke on social media about the Mercer  Quality of Life survey and Index … and how Bishkek had fared badly, being ranked in 210th place out of 230 cities – or as it appeared in some reports in “The 29 Worst cities in the world”, (as I wrote about in yesterday’s postcard), one bright spark commented […]

Tuesday started as a normal Spring day … we should have known it wouldn’t last! It is often said that, in Kyrgyzstan it is possible to experienced all four seasons in the space of twenty four hours … and although we didn’t really experience anything resembling Summer during that particular 24 hours, we came pretty […]

The Kyrgyz in China, are known as Kirkkezi zu and they form one of the 56 ethnic groups that are officially recognized in the People’s Republic of China. China and Kyrgyzstan are, after all,  neighbouring countries sharing a border … and there is a long history of population movement over the border … in both directions.

The Kashgar Circular is a special itinerary for a group to visit Kashgar and return to Bishkek, including a visit to the famous Sunday market. NOTE: This excursion was originally designed for ex-pats living in the region – although others may take advantage of it.  (However, for those for whom a visa is required, it does […]

The enclave of Shahimardan, (the name means King of Men),  is 90 square kilometers of Uzbek territory and is located in a gorge in the Alai Mountains, 55 kilometres south of the Uzbek city of Ferghana at an altitude of 1500m. above sea level. The Alai mountains, with its precipitous cliffs and mountain streams descending from the towering […]

I know it’s not in Kyrgyzstan but, as today is China’s National Day, I thought I would mention an unusual and little known geological feature which is found just over the border, not far from Kashgar: Shipton’s Arch – “a curious arch so unique that it has been called one of the world’s top 20 natural […]

When we set up the tour company, back in 1997, we featured one itinerary as our Premier Tour … a tour along the Karakoram Highway. That was a play on words … not only was it a “highlight tour”, it was, actually, our first tour. We left Bishkek and drove up to Naryn, then – […]

In my first visit to Bishkek I actually had to fly in to Almaty in Kazakhstan … which lies two hundred and fifty kilometers from Bishkek and it used to serve as the main gateway to Kyrgyzstan as there were more international flights connecting with its newly refurbished airport than used Manas airport. However, with the […]

Kyrgyzstan lies in a seismically active zone … that is, it experiences a number of earthquakes. The frequency and severity of the earthquakes can vary considerably … as can the consequences. Some are relatively mild and pass almost unnoticed, whereas others can be strong and create serious damage. When they occur in built up, more […]

Back in 1995, when I had landed at Almaty airport – in those days there weren’t really any flights to Bishkek from Western Europe … that was to come later … and Almaty in Kazakhstan was the gateway that most Westerners used when coming to Kyrgyzstan.  After passing through Immigration and Customs I was met […]