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 […]

Every year, various groups of the Kyrgyz Community Based Tourism Association , (KCBTA), organizes a series of festivals around the country. Although it is basically a Tourism association, and these events are obviously intended for visitors to the country – to give them an opportunity to experience some of the features of the traditional nomadic lifestyle […]

The Terskey Ala Too mountain range skirts the southern shore of Lake Issyk Kul, and offers many opportunities for getting away from the crowds and trekking in picturesque gorges and canyons, valleys and rivers, mountains and lakes! Landscape and Nature may be the main focus, but there is also the opportunity to meet many nomads that live […]

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 […]

There are a number of tour itineraries that can be considered to be pretty “standard”.  In some cases the terrain and time scales dictate an itinerary … In terms of geography, for example, following the Silk Road involves using one of only two border crossing points: Torugart or Irkeshtam. The time scale will help dictate […]

Onm the wall in my office I have a map of Kyrgyzstan with coloured pins atuck in it.  Visitors often ask what it represents … and I have to reply that it shows the places in Kyrgyzstan where I have been in my twenty years here. The different colours don’t have any particular significance, although […]

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 […]

I am sometimes asked for a breakdown of who are our typical clients are: where are they from?; what age are they?; what gender?; what do they want to do here in Kyrgyzstan? … and so on. My answer is usually that … there is no “typical” client. Back in 1997, there were three of […]

  Skiing and snowboarding have been getting a lot of attention here in recent years … or, perhaps, I ought to say “extra attention” because there has always been a fair bit of skiing in the country. The Swiss journalist Ella Maillart, for example, tells how she skied down a mountain on her trip through […]

There are several ways of getting to Bishkek, but the most common is to fly into Manas Airport. One of the problems with this timetable is that most long haul flights arrive in the early hours of the morning, after an overnight flight.  In the summer, when the sun rises that much earlier in the […]