Archive: October, 2009
This is to tell you about a new Website That We, at the Celestial Mountains Tour Company, Have Launched: www.gk.kg – Good Cause Kyrgyzstan.
“How’s Business?” That may be an innocent question … but it is one that has taken on more sinister overtones this year. For several years the number of tourists visiting Kyrgyzstan have maintained an upward trend, but what effect has the Global Financial Crisis had on tourism in Kyrgyzstan? That’s not an easy question to [...]
Numbers play an important part in mankind’s history and culture. However, many people in the world view numbers with distrust and suspicion (the British Prime Minister, Disraeli, is said to have uttered “There are lies, damn lies and statistics” when presented with ever increasing figures for the cost of building Babbage’s Analytical Engine – the [...]
Charles Dodgson was a Mathematics Don at Christchurch College in Oxford, but he is better known by his alter ego, Lewis Carroll and for the Alice stories (Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass) which he made up to while away the hours on Summer afternoons and entertain the young Alice Liddell as [...]
In the former Soviet Union there was a network of state run Circuses – and the Khirghiz SSR was no exception, although it was established only in 1962, when a troupe was formed called “Molodaya Kyrgizia” – “Young Kyrgyzia”.
You can imagine my surprise when, one day in 1999, I sat at my computer and downloaded the latest episode of Alistair Cooke’s letter from America and read the opening sentence: “The name Bishkek does not come trippingly off the tongue … “
I returned home last night after another surreal evening playing Petanque and settled down with a cup of coffee to watch BBC World before dropping off to sleep. To my amazement, there was an announcement that the next programme would be “The Sky at Night”, presented by Sir Patrick Moore.
One evening during the summer, I went into a restaurant in Bishkek to meet a group of tourists who had just arrived. I was somewhat taken aback because I was greeted by a somewhat unusual question: “Does the name Ashmole mean anything to you?”
Now, although golf is not exactly a traditional Kyrgyz sport, the country does have a golf course which is available for members and non-members alike, which hosts a number of tournaments, competitions and charity events. The Maple Leaf Golf and Country Club was opened in 2001, and although most of the members are ex-pats working in [...]
Alistair Cooke, my hero, was keen on two particular sports, and almost every year he would feature these in one, (but just one each year), of his “Letter from America” broadcasts. These two sports were: Tennis and Golf. Although I am not aficionado of either sport, I knew enough to make sense of whatever he [...]
