Postcard from Bishkek

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.

In a recent postcard, I referred  to the fact that as a student I had a job working in a poster shop.  It was there that I came across many artists and works of art for the first time … learning about the different schools and genres … and also learning to know what I […]

Today happens to be International Children’s Day. This day is commemorated around the world – but there is some confusion because many countries have similar occasions on different dates.  Since 1950, for example, the United Nations has also recognized the Universal Children’s Day on November 20th.  However, almost fifty countries officially recognize today as the […]