Postcard from Bishkek

There have been some interesting reports in the press over the last couple of weeks, coming out of Kochkor. It all began with a report that a special commission had been set up to investigate reports about the appearance of an animal that had started attacking and killing livestock in the region.  The creature has […]

On Sunday, at the 38th session of the  Intergovernmental Committee of UNESCO, held in Doha, it was decided to accept a number of historical and cultural sites from around the world into the UNESCO World Heritage List. Among the nominations that were approved was one relating to the Silk Road, making special mention of the […]

I think it was back in 2001 when I first came across a “Stateless Person” … We had been asked by one of our partners abroad to arrange a visit to Kyrgyzstan for one of their clients, and the passport details that they sent us in order to arrange the Visa and OVIR  registration said: […]

There is a story of a journalist interviewing Kim Philby in Moscow.  Philby, of course, was the original Third Man, one of the Cambridge undergraduates recruited by the KGB to work for Soviet Intelligence, who went on to follow a brilliant Career in MI6, rising through the ranks to a senior position and was even […]

Sunday marked two Professional Holidays here in Kyrgyzstan: Fire Services Day and Water Resources Day. Water Resources Day is celebrated annually on the third Sunday in June – and has been since 1995.  It replaced a Soviet “holiday”, the Day of the Meliorator, which had first been established in 1981.  It’s an occasion when attention […]

Money … makes the world go around  Although the situation is changing, over the years the Kyrgyz economy has been, and basically still is, a “cash based” economy. As a result, visitors to Kyrgyzstan need to give plenty of thought to the questions …

A few years ago, the CBT guidebook to Kyrgyzstan stated: “If Kyrgyzstan feels like the far side of the world, the end of the line, then At Bashy feels like the last stop“. According to official statistics, parts of the At Bashi region are the “remotest” in Kyrgyzstan.  This conclusion is drawn from an index which […]

It was on 10th June, 2008, that Kyrgyzstan lost one of its favourite sons and cultural icon, Chingiz Aitmatov. He was a man of many of many talents.  Born in 1928 in the the village of Sheker in the Talas region of Kyrgyzstan, near the border with Uzbekistan, he began working at the age of […]

Some time ago I was invited to an event in one of Bishkek’s many Universities, the one named in honour of Ishenaly Arabaev. It is one of the oldest and most prestigious Universities in the country – based on six sites located in the city center – the main one being adjacent to the main […]

On June 4th, 1983, a new Bazaar opened in Bishkek. It was to be the main Town Bazaar, replacing the one that was demolished to make way for Park Pobeda To the East of the City Center.