Postcard from Bishkek

One of the saddest pieces of news last week is that, so far this year, some 80 people have drowned Kyrgyzstan’s canals, rivers and lakes – including some 21 children – about 25%. Unfortunately there was no information about the equivalent figures for previous years so it is not possible to put that statistic into […]

There were a couple of very sad items in the news last week … and one of them led me to a shock discovery and a “moral dilemma”. It concerned the death of a fifteen year old boy.  Tragically sad in itself, the article was even more poignant because it went on to report that […]

The MChS, (Em-Che-Es), is the Ministry for Emergency Situations.  I wrote a short postcard about them back in January after they issued a Severe Weather Warning … well, apparently they are back in the news again – this time as a result of a series of mudflows. One led to the city of Osh having […]

Tourism is a global industry and tourists have a wide choice of possible destinations and there are many factors which affect their choices, for example: the location; landscape; activities; facilities timescale, and, (as an intensively competitive industry), the price. Among the main factors that they will consider are the issues of safety and security. Globally, […]

Over the weekend there was an “Avalanche Warning” issued by the Ministry of Emergency Situations, in connection with the forecast of more snow due in the next few days. The Ministry of Emergency Situations, (MChS), was established just before Kyrgyzstan declared Independence from the Soviet Union. In December 1990, The Council of Ministers in Moscow adopted […]

Some dates on the calendar “will go down in infamy” to misquote FDR … (his phrase in the speech to Congress following the bombing of Pearl Harbour was that December 7th was “a date which will live in  infamy“) … and, following the events in New York 2001, September 11th is surely another one of […]

Earlier this week I came across a link to news item which looked as if it might be interesting: Top 10 Weird Travel Stories By Paloma Migone: Everyone has a crazy story about their adventures overseas. Cows on a plane? A kidnapping before your eyes? A naked receptionist? Yes, apparently, these did happen.  I clicked […]

Today marks the anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake: a magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck 70km east off the coast of the Tohoku region in northeast Honshu, Japan’s largest island, followed by tsunami waves up to 40m high. Soon after, explosions and radioactive leaks rocked the nearby Fukushima Daiichi and Fukushima Daini nuclear power plants, […]

A short while ago, having seen a couple of news items about how many British tourists travel without taking out insurance cover, I wrote a couple of postcards about what happens when something goes wrong.  One concentrated on the need for travel insurance and the other looked at the sort of things than can happen […]

 Some time ago, I wrote a postcard about “What happens if something goes wrong”  and the need for travel insurance.  It was not the first time I have written a postcard about the need for travel insurance and I have written others which have included examples where people have encountered problems, for example, when they lose […]