Postcard from Bishkek

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 […]

The first time I saw the Orto Tokoi Reservoir, we were driving from Balykchy at the Western end of Lake Issyk Kul towards Naryn.  It was a gentle climb through what appeared to be a barren semi desert landscape – sand and rocky outcrops with multi-coloured slopes on the distant hills and just the occasional […]

Today happens to be Stay out of the Sun Day – I wish I had remembered that last weekend when we took our regular trip up to Naryn, This time we made a number of Photo stops so that Maxim could snap away some more of his artistic creations – including one at the Lenin […]

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 […]

A recent report in the Daily Telegraph caught my eye … apparently the residents of a small rural town in southern England were surprised to discover that their housing estate, built back in the 1960’s, is shaped like a swastika. Nobody seems to have noticed the resemblance before – until, that is, it was spotted in […]

About a year ago I got a frantic phone call from a friend of mine … a local, – that is, although he is not Kyrgyz, he was born and grew up here … asking me if I could tell him how to get to Kol Suu, (pronounced Kol Suu, but it is sometime written […]

On the road from Naryn to Djalal Abad, in the the last main town/village before reaching the oblast border is Baetovo, This remote village lies next to the Naryn river on an outwash plain in the mountains.  As well as the main Naryn-Kazarman road, there is another that goes south over a 3,268m pass to […]

Sometimes you see references to Kyrgyzstan as a Muslim country but, technically, according to the constitution, it is a secular state and it is probably better to describe the country as “predominantly Muslim”. The majority of the population – possibly as much as 80% – probably consider themselves as Muslim but for many people it […]

Place names can be very picturesque and convey an image, rightly of wrongly, of the place in question. In Britain, for example, we have Oxford and the city;s coat of arms depict a Ox walking over water – fording a river.  (It’s true that the full crest also has a Black Elephant, a green beaver […]

Most of the visitors to Naryn are simply in Transit, as it sits on the main road road from Bishkek and the Chinese border crossing at Torugart.  Arriving in the evening, and then leaving the next morning to continue on their journey along the Great Silk Road. I often think that’s a pity because for […]