Postcard from Bishkek

Bishkek may be a capital city, but the city center can sometimes be full of surprises. The other day I was walking from my office down to the hotel, (it takes about 10 minutes), and I had just crossed Prospect Chui, (which is the main road through the city), and suddenly was brought to a […]

Yesterday, 31st July, was Harry Potter’s Birthday … so I thought I would mark the occasion by paying attention to a character from the stories: Hedwig … his pet owl. There are something like 400 different species of birds found in Kyrgyzstan … including ten of the order Stigiformes - that is … Owls. For the record: there […]

In May, 1939, one of my childhood heroes made his first appearance … Batman in Detective Comics No. 27 – which is so iconic that it is one of the world’s most expensive comic books whenever a copy comes up in auction. For the record: Detective Comics No. 27 had “64 pages of action”, (although […]

It’s amazing what you can learn from the internet.  Apparently, “There are now more deer in the UK than at any time since the last Ice Age. The population is currently estimated at around 1.5 million.” That took me by surprise when I saw it.  It raised lots of questions in my mind.   I […]

Last year I went on a trip to a Kumyz Lechebniye Lager  in Suusamyr, where they specialize in treating a variety of illnesses with Kumyz; fermented mare’s milk. It was an interesting experience, the complex is high in the mountains on the Suusamyr plain and the accommodation is made out of converted shipping containers.  That […]

It’s not an official holiday, but in Japan 22nd February is commemorated as Cat Day., and so it seemed an appropriate occasion to look at felis Kyrgyzstanus.  (I suppose that I had better own up and admit that I made that up … there is no such breed.) I am well known for my cats - typical […]

Today happens to be the Chinese New Year, and this year it is the turn of the Year of the Snake! I have encountered snakes three times here in Kyrgyzstan – each occasion was on the other side of the Kyrgyz range of mountains. I was so surprised the first time, partly because it is […]

I was intrigued to see news reports recently about some workmen who were renovating a house in Britain and came across a pigeon in the chimney … not just any old pigeon, but a messenger pigeon with a coded message written on thin rice paper and  attached to its leg.  It seems that the bird […]

Although I knew that there was a Gazelle listed in the Red Data Book of Kyrgyzstan, (which lists the endangered species that are found in the country), I was still surprised when I came across an article about it, because I have always associated Gazelles with the Thompson variety that bound across the African plains. […]

An Arab poet once said, “The West was still covered in ice when, in the East, they were already producing music”. It was also in the East that horses first domesticated and historical sources suggest that Central Asia was an ancient centre for horse-breeding. The horse played a very big role in the life of […]